bigmillz

Hi all,
First post here, and looks like this would be an appropriate spot. If not, I apologize.

Starting a new business and I have a very good opportunity to run a lot of money through my card for expenses (margins happen to be low, but the gross is very very high), and figured I'd look into this to accumulate miles and build status. Not to mention, giving us an extra month to pay bills when customers and orders drag behind. I can't get into risky territory, but if there's a way to do this, it would help my travel hobby tremendously.

The problem is, unlike many businesses that make company purchases on various cards with no fee (i.e. buying new computers for an office), these payments have to go to China, and the only way to use a card is through a small handful of industry-accepted payment sites. Think akin to Paypal, but focused on large commercial purchases.

The problem is, these payment sites charge 3%+ to run a card, while ACH funding is fee free or damn close. With the going rate of miles & points being in the vicinity of $0.01-0.02 (at best), I'd be eating tens of thousands annually by using my card.

I've spent 2 months trying to come up with an idea, and so far only have the following:

1. I have a friend who works at Amex, and might be able to have them approach the vendor(s) directly to work out an agreement, likely which will sign away my ability to ever do a chargeback. I would be very lucky to get a break even rate this way, and that's if the vendor sees this benefitting their business. Unfortunately, they are stuck in their ways and prefer ACH or one of said payment sites.
2. Use a card that gives points back on travel bookings (i.e. 35% on Amex Platinum) to squeeze some more value out of points. I can't see this giving me more than $.027/2.7% value per point though, if my math is correct. More likely just 1.35% excluding unusually good flight deals booked on MR points.

Curious if anyone here has any additional tips or ideas. I can't possibly be the only business that is looking at floating some $500k+ and prefers using a card. But with that 3% fee, that's a mind boggling $15k thrown away

Thanks, and happy to finally post on here!

fone

The last time, I've used Alibaba to pay, with trade assurance. The standard is 2.99% fee, but I believe there was a promotion (at least for Singapore), to cap the fees at US$40 max. Singapore also have card that gives 4 miles per S$1 for Alibaba, so that was an avenue for me.

bigmillz

Oh that's smart! Didn't think of a cap, or of finding a payment system in another country.
Not to mention paying via Alibaba.

mia

Welcome to Flyertalk. If that's an annual number it means you will need a card with a credit limit of, say, $75,000-$100,000 from an issuer that will approve transactions when they see a high fraction of charges made in another country. Do you have that?

bigmillz

Someone else pointed this out to me. I'm used to my charge card (no preset limit) here, but good point. I do have financials from my other business that might be worth presenting.

Also I don't mind paying by ACH while building business credit up.

mia

No preset limit isn't the same as unlimited. There is a limit, but it's fluid, depending on what they know about you, and what you are buying. Typically, USA business card issuers are more interested in your personal income and credit record, than in the business. This can change as the relationship evolves.