shanshan

I am starting a small busienss. I want to put all my expenses on a single card for forward tracking. expenses will be esoteric, and thus won't be mostly airfare, dining, etc. will be paying insurance, contractors, plumbers, etc.

one option is to use a new card at year-end each year. aside from going that route, which "card to rule them all" should I use? AMEX SPG was the intended choice.. but seems like a lot of places don't accept AMEX. Thinking Chase Ink Plus.. but $95 not worth it since I don't get the multiplier categories...

a new card at year-end.. and saving the statements... maybe that IS the way to go??

thank you

roki

Do you know what your annual spend will be? Certain cards give you an extra bonus after you hit a certain threshold that may offset an annual fee.

augustus21

One of the best non-bonus category Visa/MC cards I can think of is the United Club Card. Yes, the annual fee is steep, but if you are spending a ton on random business expenses and value United miles (some of the best), then I would go for it.

The BA card gives 1.25 avios/dollar, but the fees on BA are heinous. The annual fee is reasonable.

Give us more information about annual spending.

Ragnarok

You can get the ink classic.
It has the same multipliers and has no annual fee.
And you can still transfer the points to ff programs in the future when you get a CSP / Ink Plus / Ink Bold.

shanshan

Thank you for the responses. My annual spend isn't crazy, unfortunately. Its basically rental property I've bought to provide some sort of eventual retirement in 30 years (no pension for me.. just a lot of job volatility).

I've actually thought of spending the money for an LLC only to be able to get all the cards all over again! But commingling personal/business expense for LLC is bad bad bad. So these cards will just be sole proprietorships...

I am thinking that my annual spend will be ~$5-8K:
Insurance: $3.5K
Contractors/Maintenance: $2K
Transportation: $0.5-1K
Other: $1.5K

A few big expenses (> $20K each) will have to be paid with cash/check unfortunately.
And for 2013, I've unfortunately needed to make 2/3 of my insurance payments already (and couldn't put on my AMEX SPG).

the more I think about it, the strategy seems like it should be (i) one no-fee card just to have on any recurring payment streams (utilities). And then each year put all my spend on a single card for the bonus -- and swap the card each year (avoid annual fee).

Most bonuses are < $5K spend right. So i save all my insurance payments for same period, also around tax prep time.. should give me $4K spending at once in a April timeframe with plenty of time to spend whatever other minimums I need...