American Express Membership Rewards - MR for business charges on personal card

I am thinking of paying for a high business charge with my personal card (I am comfortable with the stability of my business).

Is there anything that would prevent earning MR points on business charges on a personal card? Anything else I should look out for?

Shouldn't be a problem at all! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif Unless, of course, the amount is a lot higher than what you normally charge--in which case you might have the standard approval problems.

The MR people don't really care what you're charging....and many corporate cards are eligible for MR points anyway.

Cheers....

I do it all the time, never had a problem with purchases up to 25k

Once upon a time, I charged a business purchase of $98,000 to my Platinum for some equipment I was reselling. My spending history did NOT support that kind of activity at all so I called AMEX for instructions on how I could go about the transaction.

When I said it was for a business purchase the rep said "I didn't just hear you say that." I said "Excuse me?" She told me that the MR points wouldn't apply unless the purchase was for me specifically. So I changed my story and said I was buying a WHOLE bunch of Dell equipment for me. She said, "That's much better...".

It ended up that I had to wire them the money (had to make the transaction quickly and couldn't wait for a check to post) and once that cleared they authorized the charge. So basically one could put ANYTHING on an AMEX, just pre-arrange it and watch what you tell them.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by kanebear:
She told me that the MR points wouldn't apply unless the purchase was for me specifically.</font>

So by that logic is it also not okay for me to charge something for a friend and have her write me a check for it? How about gift purchases?

Not quaking in my booties as I can't imagine how they'd enforce it.

I checked on the Amex website for any such restriction and I could not find it.

I could see Amex wanting to save on the points, however, if the general public found out about this it would not be good for them.

I routinely charge airfares, restaurants, etc. on my charge card for my company. I am sure than this is more the rule than the exception in the business community. I am also sure that if Amex thinks about it, this is good for them--there are always other credit cards.

AAaLot,

I have my Corporate Card linked to my MR account and I get points for all my business charges.

Clearly the easiest way to go about this is to get the AMEX Corporate Small Business Card and link it to your personal AMEX card which will be listed as the primarily card. That way you get the seperate billing, do not need to worry about re-imbursements to yourself, and get your MR for purchases on both cards dumped into one account. It is a great program.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by mch710:
So by that logic is it also not okay for me to charge something for a friend and have her write me a check for it? How about gift purchases?

Not quaking in my booties as I can't imagine how they'd enforce it.

</font>

There's no way for them to enforce it at all, unless you're a bonehead (like me) and actually TELL them what you're doing. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

This sounds bogus to me. I have seen many commericals including one with the "chef" buying his food,etc with his american express and getting MR points. Plus I think the corporate MR (or small business) gives you some discounts (ie Kinkos 10%)..etc...

So sounds weird to me.. maybe get the Small Business card if you are worried.