One AMEX card only

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I am the person Irish mentioned who was coming ntacted by Amex Open. The rep encouraged me to get the BGR for the 75k bonus he offered me by saying I could use personal expenses to meet the bonus. I must have asked him four or five times if he was sure it was ok. He repeatedly assured me it was fine.

Since my conversation and getting approved for the BGR 75k bonus, I have asked five other Amex employees through the phone or chat if personal spend on business cards was fine. Every single one assured me it was totally fine.

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Thank you for responding and my apologies for not remembering your user name.  Very good information.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
"Contacted by Amex Open". Not sure how to edit. Sorry

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To edit a post, open the post and use the drop down menu under 'options' on upper right.  If you're on mobile, this can be difficult.

[MrDisco99]

Sorry I know I'm continuing an off-topic tangent, but it is sort of relevant...

This conversation is exactly why I feel like there's an awful big grey area around individuals opening business credit cards and why I haven't pursued it.  I have a full-time job at a corporation and don't have any side income.  I don't report anything on my taxes besides what I get from my job.  That would seem to exclude me from the business credit market.

Even so, along with that, I also hear about what a low bar it seems to be to claim to have a side business, i.e. fixing people's computer problems or selling stuff on eBay seems to qualify as having a business.  I do both of those things.  It's not a steady income, though, and certainly not enough to have made me even consider calling it a side business.  Is it ethical to call it a business just so I can get a high bonus credit card?

It seems there's no firm line on that, expecially when banks seem perfectly fine with expenses crossing over between account types.  I guess they have no reason to care as long as they're getting revenue and we're the ones on the hook if we're on the wrong side of tax rules.  I guess I'm going to get pretty varied opinions on it since a firm ruling doesn't seem to exist.  I'll have to figure out for myself where to land on that.

So yeah... BBP is a really great card, and probably better than the ED... if you fall on the right side of the ethical line to get one.


Also, on a completely unrelated note, I work at TSYS, and my multiple posts per day to a site owned by FICO got me in hot water with our InfoSec department, so when I'm at work I only access the site via my phone.  Please fix the mobile site so we can edit and quote things.  Thanks.

[longtimelurker]

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@MrDisco99 wrote:

Also, on a completely unrelated note, I work at TSYS, and my multiple posts per day to a site owned by FICO got me in hot water with our InfoSec department, so when I'm at work I only access the site via my phone.  Please fix the mobile site so we can edit and quote things.  Thanks.

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I like this on a thread that has become somewhat ethics focussed!  

[Anonymous]

Disco,

If you're going to claim your income from those things then you definitely qualify as a sole proprietorship business. I'm an attorney and it's a long story but my wife got me into splitting firewood and I started getting people who wanted to buy me. There's a big demand for it in my area.

I got the Business green just to keep my expenses separate for tax purposes just trying to do things the right way. That's when I got that call from Alex open encouraging me to get the gold card and encouraging personal spend on the cards.

It also made me feel better applying over the phone. I was totally honest with them about projected income etc. and I asked them tons of questions as well. I probably asked them more questions than they asked me actually.

I say give them a call. After talking with them all those times I'm just starting to relax and enjoy the benefits/points of having those new business cards. It does still feel weird having them in my wallet though.

[digitek]

I have that Lowe's Business Amex card.

The User Agreement does read slightly different.  The one for my Lowe's card does specifically mention a difference between business/personal spend.

"Other things you should know about this program

You may forfeit some or all of the points for items that are not purchased for use or consumption by the Company in its ordinary course of business.

...

Each Cardmember acknowledges and agrees that cards are intended to be used for the Company's commercial or business purposes."

I just read the whole agreement (a first for me, was actually kind of interesting) and those are the only two mentions of anything like what you all are talking about.  Of note there is a defined section called "Declined Transactions" and it mentions that they could decline a transaction for fraud or if you they question your creditworthiness, but that section does not include any mention of personal expense (but they might consider that "fraud", who knows?).

As for my Lowe's Business card, I spend money on it to fix broken stuff in my duplex house, and I rent the bottom floor.  Have a registered business, but it's not tied to renting, and it doesn't do much.  The card is 3% back on phone bill, restaurants, and 2% at Lowe's as points which you can redeem for $25 gift cards when you get 2500 points (some gift cards like Lowe's and Cabela's are 1:1, straight cash gift card is 5:4 I think).  And it gives 5% off purchase price at Lowe's straight up.  No good financing stuff I think like the Synchrony Lowe's card, though.

In my personal case only, not speaking for anyone else, I am comfortable with the card.  I put very low spend on it, maybe a grand or two a year.

[UpperNwGuy]

In the city in which I live, you cannot have a business of any kind without a business license.  The city is quite aggresive in tracking down businesses without licenses.  The way they do it is by sharing income tax information between the city's tax office and the licensing office. So if you claim income from a business on your Federal tax return, that ripples into your state tax return, and the state tax return is shared with the city's licensing office.  Because of this interlocking set of legal requirements, I don't have a business, and I won't apply for any business credit cards.  By the way, the business license costs $400.

[Anonymous]

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@iced wrote:

The argument that others do it and/or the banks don't care is like saying it's ok to speed, run red lights, and double park because others do it and don't usually get ticketed by the police.

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People speed all the time, in fact, most drivers do it... People turn right on "no turn on red" signs too. 

The worst that can happen is that AMEX shuts your cards down. There's no fine, imminent life danger, or any major consequence to using a business card to make personal purchases. Usually you'll get a warning before they shut down your account anyways, like with Chase earlier this year. 

After all, we're talking about a piece of plastic here, not endangering someone's life by breaking a law. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I didn't down play anything.  Now you're sounding ridiculous.  I stated facts, period. There is nothing illegal abut using a business credit card to purchase personal items.  It's not even against the terms of Amex's business card agreements. I didn't tell anyone to do so, just that Amex doesn't seem to care.  A fact.

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A good point, and one that I was trying to point out to everyone. 

[Anonymous]

Trying to say something is /is not business from the cc point is hard.  We have a staff meeting Thursday afternoons. DW either cooks or buys food. In either case she pays for it with usually our Chase biz card.    We reward employees for a great job done.  For one employee she buys with our biz card doggie toys as reward for the employee.  That dog and dw have bonded.    Dog thinks sometimes she belongs to my dw.