kngspook

It's a nice perk, but I don't think you'll get a huge competitive advantage from it. My company paid my cellphone bill and other things (maybe 3K and 5K annual benefits respectively), but that didn't stop me from leaving when upward movement was non-existent.

The Centurion alone isn't going to win over a key hire; no one says "I'm being paid 5% under market, but this Centurion company card makes up for that.".

It's like Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs -- you have to nail the fundamentals first, and then offer a good set of basic perks, and _then_ you can do something fancy to put you over the top versus your competitors.

ForeignDude

Hi all,
I've been applying for cards for the last year or so (in a "marathon not sprint" way ) and am looking to open a business card. I applied last year for the Chase IB when my business was really just starting (or not really started at all) and was denied even after repeated HUCAs.

I have now been buying and selling items the past year (with a fairly small revenue- around $1500), and am looking to try to get my first business card again.

I wanted to know if people feel that it is easier to get approved for Amex business cards than Chase business cards (I didn't see others relating to this in the past). I don't yet have any Amex personal cards (was denied for the one I applied for), and I'm assuming this should make a difference.

TIA!

mia

1. What was the stated reason for the denial?

2. How recently did this occur?

"Business" cards are essentially personal accounts for business purposes. They are based on your personal creditworthiness, the business financials are a secondary consideration. (This is true at all major USA card issuers: American Express, Bank of America, Chase, Citi, etc) If you were not approved for a personal account you would likely not be approved for a business account, unless your circumstances have changed.

ForeignDude

1. The letter lists four reasons:
a) Length of time accounts have been established.
b) Number of accounts with delinquency (a late Target payment that I've since had removed from my report).
c) Lack of recent installment loan information.
d) Too many inquiries last 12 months.

2. This was at the end of March (six months ago), and since then I haven't applied for any cards.

If I am looking to get my first Amex card, is it more likely to be approved for a personal vs. business card? The denial was for the PRG card (creditmatch showed me a 50k offer)- am I more likely to be approved for a less "prestigious" card?

Thanks again

ddallas

Well your accounts are now six months older, you got the delinquency removed, and you likely will have fewer inquiries in the last 12 months time period than you did last time they pulled a report if you have not applied for anything in the last 6 months. I think the personal PRG is one of their easiest cards to get. You might want to try for it again. Usually the personal charge cards are their easiest cards to get. Do you have any idea what your credit score is on Experian? That's the report that AMEX looks at. You might want to look at your Experian report to make sure it is clean. You might want to look in the creditpulls section on creditboards.com to see what kind of scores get approved for the various AMEX cards.

godsquare

IMO, AMEX Business CC is far easier in approval compare to Chase Business CC.

yOyOYoo

This has been my experience as well. Good luck with your application!

ForeignDude

Hi all,
I applied for (and was denied) a 50k PRG offer 6 months ago with the main reasons being too many recent credit applications (and I now haven't applied for anything in the last 6 months) and a delayed payment (since removed from my CR).

I'd like to apply for an Amex card now, and am currently in the following situation:

1. I spend the vast majority of my time overseas (so will not use cards with FTF fees often, and will not receive supermarket/gas bonuses).
2. I have a side business of buying/selling things that has brought in about $1500 this year (I think too low to apply for a biz card, CMIIW).
3. I do not currently receive any targeted offers from Amex (I have no cards from them), but would like to (wouldn't everyone?).

Due to the 1 bonus a lifetime rule, I was thinking about going one of two tracks for my first card:

1. Applying for the regular EveryDay card (I don't think I'd value the extra 5k points for the Preferred card enough to justify the $95 fee- I usually travel coach).
2. Applying for a cash back card (while I'm really more interested in MR cards).

My hope with either of these tracks is to establish a relationship with Amex in order to increase my chances for approval in the future as well as increase the potential for receiving a higher targeted offer for the more prestigious/lucrative cards.

I would appreciate any help offered (especially with regards to flawed logic in the decision process).

TIA!

mia

How do you intend to redeem Membership Rewards points?

ForeignDude

I was planning on using them on an airline partner that flies from North America to the Middle East (BA, iberia, El Al when there's a deal)

mia

I would research how many miles, and what type of co-payments, are required by these programs, and estimate a value per point in order to compare Membership Rewards to cashback and other rewards programs. Many programs collect co-payments, also called "YQ" or "fuel surcharges" on award flights. If you redeem for economy class tickets you may find that fuel cost makes up such a high proportion of the ticket value that it doesn't pay to redeem for an award ticket.

ForeignDude

Thanks!
I would be able to book tickets without high YQ for the routes I'm interested in (TLV-EWR, for example) on Iberia, or using BA Avios for Air Berlin.
Would you be able to provide more direction in terms of the choice of Amex card?

mia

You still need to compare the money cost of the tickets vs the number of miles required to estimate a monetary value for the points.

ForeignDude

Okay, thanks. I'll do the leg/finger and brain work for that and come back if I have more questions. Thanks for the explaining and high levels of patience :-)

gum

My suggestion would be to start with a low or no fee American Express Card.

Although not available in Germany if I would be you I would just start with a yearly fee free product like the prepaid card:

https://www.americanexpress.com/us/c...paidCard-Large

or just begin with some of the cash-back or blue cards!

Or another entry level card which allows you to collect Membership rewards points:

https://www304.americanexpress.com/c...yday-LearnMore

Besides the calculation that Mia mentioned you should just have a look with which speed the Membership rewards points are accumulated and which card has a full Membership Rewards programmme and which doesn't have.

(In Germany there are e.g. to different Membership Reward collection opportunities. One with nearly the double the speed of the base programme)


If you use the card regularly I am convinced that you soon will get upselling offers to another, higher card colour.

But these two cards are a good instrument for you to have a look if you really like amex and test how their service is.

Hope this helps.