Applying for a business card?
 

Hello guys,

I'm sorry if this has been asked before, I haven't been able to find it with several searches: can anyone apply for a business card? Do you have to have a legally registered business in order to apply for a business MC with Citi, for example, or not? If not, how do they do a credit check?


Thanks!

Yes anyone can since they will check personal credit and you will be liable if you default just like a personal card. Just out your name llc and put your social where it asks for tax id. Finally list your business as sole proprietorship.

My "business" has quite a few cards. Issuers don't seem to care very much, even if you just put in your SSN and list as a sole proprietorship.

Sithlord! You should know better than this. To put LLC at the end of your name is just like putting Inc. at the end. It is fraud unless you are truly registered as a corporation with the state. It is a Felony offense. You can however put "Sithlord and ASSOCIATES" adding associates at the end of your name and use your SSN.

Great, thanks for the answers everyone!

drbond, every business card application that I have read requires the applicant to agree to use the card "for business purposes". If one has no business, is this also fraud? Do card issuers actually care or check? Some applications caution that business cards are excluded from some consumer protections, but I have not seen specifics. Anyone know?

It would be fraud. However, it is not covered under any criminal statute and would not carry any criminal penalty. It would however be a violation of the cardholder agreement and subject to cancellation or any other action available to the issuer. It could be prosecuted civilly as breach of contract.

OPINION: I don't know of any card issuers that actively search out non business users and I doubt that they do. But that could change at any time. There have been instances where cards have been cancelled due to improper usage or violation of cardholder agreement. This has been a result of claimed chargebacks or other loss of revenue for the issuer or high service maintenance.

A business cannot use a lack of understanding for a defense or a three day waiting period in most states if not all. Card issuers do not allow all chargeback codes on business cards and some do not allow any. There is a long list of things associated with personal cards that do not apply to business cards.

I hope you find this of some interest.

My bad.:D

I rather like the sound of "Sithlord and Associates". I wonder what services or products would be offered.

Cool, so I could be ET and Associates :D

"For business purposes" would surely include charging business travel to the card and then expensing that to you employer. So if you do that, then it seems to me that you are within the letter of what you are signing on the agreement.

My employer gives me an Amex corp card, but I am fed up with paying the linkage fee to get MR points. Having read this I'm going to get a couple of the business cards I am always getting invitatiosn for, unlink the Amex corp card and never use it again.

Jedi mind tricks ,the force of course.:cool:

I agree that using a card to segregate employer reimburseable expenses is easily defensible as "business" usage, and Citi markets the Citi Professional cards specifically for this purpose...

http://www.citicards.com/cards/wv/ca...o?screenID=913

However, I am thinking more about the situation where someone uses a business card for a full range of personal transactions with no pretext or pattern of "business" use.

Why would someone want a business card if they don't have a business? I use business cards as a way to keep my accounting separate. But from an actual usable card scenario I find that Business cards for the most part offer the same features and benefits as the person card, EXCEPT, the limit is usually 1/2 to 1/3 of a similar personal card.

From what I've read there's also a big difference between small business credit (most based on the guarantor's credit rating) and medium to large business credit, which seems to be based on getting credit history established to a DUNS number.

1. Typically these cards do not appear on your personal credit report unless you pay late. This can be useful to someone who is applying for a number of cards to earn bonuses or other rewards.

2. In the case of American Express the Business Gold Rewards Card is currently much more attractive than any other Membership Rewards card because there is a substantial activation bonus, threshold bonuses at $20,000 and $50,000 calendar year spending, and a renewal bonus. Moving spending from a personal card would net many more points than continuing to use a personal card.