Thread: American Express Business Card for New Business

Hello,

I am currently deciding on whether to open a business credit card with AMEX or with other credit card companies such as capital one.

A bit of background of the business: I am looking to establish an LLC in the US. I do have the same business in Asia but they are two legally separate entity. I am also owning/managing two other family businesses in Asia. As the LLC that I am establishing would be a new company in the US, it would not have any business credit history. I am wondering whether is it possible to get an AMEX business platinum card. I would be the sole owner of this LLC. Also will my companies outside USA would matter in the process of obtaining the said card?

Personally, I have 5 years of excellent credit history. I am currently holding AMEX blue sky, BofA Platinum Plus Visa, Chase Freedom Visa, and CapitalOne Platinum and I do have 4-5 checking/savings account including one with AMEX (but I heard from the representative that it is a separate entity from AMEX card). All of these accounts are in good standing and have been for the past 5 years. Although I had BofA accounts as far back as 9 years ago, I closed them so I guess those history won't no longer matter (those were closed because of relocation, so they were in good standing). I have completed my degree and have zero debt attached to my name.

I had looked at the Plum card because it's 1.5% discount is very enticing for business purposes. However, Since I own/manage international companies, I would have to travel internationally and I don't see my travel frequency to lower anytime soon ( to my fiancee dismay). So I thought the platinum card would be a better option since I plan to use the business card for:

- international travel (40+ hours travel time - flight+layovers- can wear you down really fast). I would have luggages (international procurement remember?) and I thought the airline credit would be nice. The past two months I have traveled internationally twice. But I tend not to stick with one airline since ALL US airline tend to have poor customer service so the service value of the airline doesn't justify my loyalty.

- merchandise procurement (I tend to procure small batches of samples because of the nature of the countries I deal with, T/Ts and LCs are not exactly secure, I need to minimize risks or rather mitigate them). Some of the procurements would be a luxury items so they would cost several thousands a piece but these are usually with trusted international vendors. I really like the zero foreign transaction fee feature of the platinum and also offered by capital one.

- I don't have employees driving around so the extra member rewards from gas/groceries are pretty much worthless (this pretty much rule out the gold card).

- I do have other business expenses such as shipping materials, shipping costs, and website hosting costs.

Those are pretty much what I have on top of my head right now. But I tend to put every expenses in my credit card (at I really do mean everything, not just most purchases) when the merchant accepts credit card. I can get a non-us AMEX platinum and they run much cheaper (less than $100 AF) but the perks are pretty much nothing, only the ability to carry platinum amex and 0% foreign transaction fee.

So my question would be: have anyone work on this kind of environment and found the platinum card to be worth the annual fee? and how hard is it to get the business platinum card? I got my blue sky pretty easy on one try, but I won't judge all amex application based on that one experience. And also my fiancee has been telling me that the AF is not worth it considering other card such as Capital One, which also offer 0% foreign transaction fee.

Thanks for the input

since you own and manage your own business, you can apply for a small business American Express card. do you want airport lounges like the admirals club or deltas crown lounge? do you plan on calling the concierge and asking for assistance on getting dinner reservations when when you're out of town? will you be trying to get room upgrades? if yes then you might want to think about the 450 dollar Platinum. if no to these questions then you might want to think about the plum card.

Money and Mogul, thanks for the reply.

@money, I am very interested at the plum card, but I guess they don't have 0% foreign exchange fee? or they do and I just didn't read it correctly?

@mogul, have you ever use the platinum lounges? I heard the lounge perk is not that good

Although I do most of my business with us based company, but I also do business using other currencies, so the 0% foreign transaction fee do adds up.

Hey Peterson thanks for the reply. American Express has made some changes a while ago, on the platinum personal card and the small business cards. there are no foreign transaction fees. just on the personal cards except the platinum. not sure about the Delta reserve? or the corporate cards?