Business Credit Card

[steve L]

is it true that applying for business credit cards dont hurt your credit score? and the same idea if you churn business credit cards( starwood) would it hurt your score? does the business card get reported to the credit company? thanks

[Yoel]

Applying for a business card does have an impact on your credit score, as they check your credit report, however carrying a balance does not have any impact I believe.

[Yellow]

So if i'm not mistaken, this would mean that technically, if someone wanted, they can open a business card from starwood, citi advantage, capital one, coninental, etc etc with all the carriers, receive the bonus, close down the CC and then never have to worry about your Credit Score??
That would be so cool 

[Daniel]

I can't believe I never noticed this. Just checked me credit report and I don't see any record of the 4-5 business CC's I have open now. The inquiries are there, but if I were to close them, I'm sure nothing would happen- so cool! So I guess it's best to churn Business cards, in light of the difficulty in consolidating credit lines and having to close cards instead.

[steve L]

what do you u mean i n light of credit lines and closing down credit cards?

[Daniel]

what do you u mean i n light of credit lines and closing down credit cards?

I mean in light of the fact that it has been increasingly hard to transfer the credit line from the card you want to close on to another newer card or an old card without an annual fee. This used to be the regular practice of churners. But now that it has become difficult, I was suggesting focusing churning efforts on business cards that you can close out without any effect on your credit, albeit you won't have the benefit of more unused credit and you will have the slight ding to your credit due to the inquiry.

[Dan]

As long as you still have a lot of credit out there, I've found the effect of churning to be negligible.
For example if you'll still have 50,000 in total credit between your other cards and you only use a few thousand a month then you shouldn't worry about the effect of closing other cards down.

[Daniel]

As long as you still have a lot of credit out there, I've found the effect of churning to be negligible.
For example if you'll still have 50,000 in total credit between your other cards and you only use a few thousand a month then you shouldn't worry about the effect of closing other cards down.

If you have 50,000 in total credit and close a card with a 1-5k limit, it's no big deal. But when Chase gives you a new CL of 20k for the United card, I can't just close that down without hurting my credit. I guess it's good to be given low CL's with cards you plan on closing anyways, unless there is a spending bonus that you want to get.

[gozalim]

If you have 50,000 in total credit and close a card with a 1-5k limit, it's no big deal. But when Chase gives you a new CL of 20k for the United card, I can't just close that down without hurting my credit. I guess it's good to be given low CL's with cards you plan on closing anyways, unless there is a spending bonus that you want to get.

why not just do a product change/downgrade (at years end) to a fee-free chase card?

[Daniel]

why not just do a product change/downgrade (at years end) to a fee-free chase card?

I mentioned that, but you can only have so many of those....

[txtmax4]

A few points here:

1) The ONLY thing that affects your credit with a BIZ card is the initial credit inquiry.

2) Besides for the debt/credit ratio, another thing that can affect your credit when you close down (personal) cards is lowering your average credit age. Closing down Citi AA cards will not affect your debt/credit ratio as they don't report your credit limit, it shows up at $0

3) One way to avoid closing (some of the) cards is requesting that they convert the account into a "no annual fee" type, which might give you (for instance) half a point per dollar spent or something like that (hey, but at least you get to keep the account open!)

[Yordai Dooma]

A few points here:

1) The ONLY thing that affects your credit with a BIZ card is the initial credit inquiry.

2) Besides for the debt/credit ratio, another thing that can affect your credit when you close down (personal) cards is lowering your average credit age. Closing down Citi AA cards will not affect your debt/credit ratio as they don't report your credit limit, it shows up at $0

3) One way to avoid closing (some of the) cards is requesting that they convert the account into a "no annual fee" type, which might give you (for instance) half a point per dollar spent or something like that (hey, but at least you get to keep the account open!)

Thanks for summarizing the above 9 posts. In point #2 you mentioned the personal card. I think we "were" (as in 3 months ago) discussing business cards...

[Chaikel]

Closing down Citi AA cards will not affect your debt/credit ratio as they don't report your credit limit, it shows up at $0

Incidentally, before I knew that, I contested the $0 limit with the actual one. It was changed on my report. Has it's pluses and minuses

[txtmax4]

Thanks for summarizing the above 9 posts. In point #2 you mentioned the personal card. I think we "were" (as in 3 months ago) discussing business cards...

Actually... Daniel's and Dan's posts refer to personal cards if you look into it...

[Yordai Dooma]

Actually... Daniel's and Dan's posts refer to personal cards if you look into it...

Oh. Thanks. I'm looking into it. lol.

Thats why there is the quote feature so we can know who you are responding to. But thanks again for the summary

[deals]

if i open a business credit card do they ask any proof of the business or i could just make up a business

[txtmax4]

You can make up.
Best is, just fill in your name in the "business name" field.
And use your SSN as your Tax-ID #.

[Yordai Dooma]

You can make up.
Best is, just fill in your name in the "business name" field.
And use your SSN as your Tax-ID #.

I just leave the Fed ID field blank every time, If im ever asked about my business, i just say i sell things on ebay etc...

[Saver2000]

You can make up.
Best is, just fill in your name in the "business name" field.
And use your SSN as your Tax-ID #.

If they only have your sss # and not your tax id/ein, it still wont show up on your personal cr?

[DovidR]

I applied for a Citi business card and told them my business is "Great Tutoring". They sent me an email asking me to call them. They want proof of address of the business, such as a utility bill or a bank statement with my business name on it. I told them it's a sole proprietorship and my business and personal is all mixed. They still want to see something.

What's the fastest, cheapest, and easiest thing I can set up and give them?