Business Credit card

[Joe Isaac]

Hi all,

I would like to take advantage of the Qantas rewards on offer from some of the big banks for their Business credit cards. However since my ABN is less than 12 months (Registered in Feb '24), I am not told that I'm not eligible for these cards. The other alternative they suggested was that if I have been trading for at least 6 months then I could be eligible for a business credit card but it would involve a lot of paper work, provide business plans, business projections etc.
I'm not keen on going through tons of paper work for that though. My intention on having a business credit card is to not only keep business expenses separate but also collect reward points while making payments. I am the sole director of the company.

Looking for some advice here . Has anyone had a similar issue with getting a business credit card?

Thanks
J

 

[brett-au]

I assume you are talking about NAB as they have one of the better offers. They will probably ask for more than 6 months, multiple bas submissions, evidence of no debt with the ATO, all your financial records linked to xero or another web portal.

You are probably better to sign up for a few personal cards and get almost as good value.

Note the consensus is that you will wreck your credit score.

This is similar to seeing some of the very good deals available in the US. 4 points per dollar, free international data sims, lounge passes, no annual fee - but you need a SS number.

 

[Brissy1]

Amex has an offer on and doesn't mention in "eligibility" any 12 month requirement, but I haven't personally put it to the test.

Qantas Business Rewards Card | Amex AU

The American Express Qantas Business Rewards Card offers flexible payments, no pre-set spending limit, and Qantas Club lounges. Learn more and apply today.

www.americanexpress.com

 

[SYD]

Sole Trader with ABN or Pty Ltd?

The former, you ought to be able to get any card if you can met the lending criteria. The later, they’ll want to see up to 3yrs trading history.

I set up a company structure and I was knocked back by WBC (wanted 3 yrs!) but I was able to get an AMEX Biz CC off the back of my existing long history with them. Glad I never got in the habit of churning.

 

[Joe Isaac]

I assume you are talking about NAB as they have one of the better offers. They will probably ask for more than 6 months, multiple bas submissions, evidence of no debt with the ATO, all your financial records linked to xero or another web portal.

You are probably better to sign up for a few personal cards and get almost as good value.

Note the consensus is that you will wreck your credit score.

This is similar to seeing some of the very good deals available in the US. 4 points per dollar, free international data sims, lounge passes, no annual fee - but you need a SS number.

Thanks Brett.
Spoke with ATO yesterday. They advised that its better to have a business credit card rather than a personal credit card to pay for business expenses.
You are right in saying that it will wreck my credit score and thats something I would like to avoid as I never had a bad credit rating before.

Thanks again for your input regarding this.

 

[elanshin]

Amex is very lax with this requirement as compared with other banks. If you do go with amex ask around for a referral code.

 

[Joe Isaac]

Amex has an offer on and doesn't mention in "eligibility" any 12 month requirement, but I haven't personally put it to the test.

Qantas Business Rewards Card | Amex AU

The American Express Qantas Business Rewards Card offers flexible payments, no pre-set spending limit, and Qantas Club lounges. Learn more and apply today.

www.americanexpress.com

AMEX doesn't seem to be too popular here in Australia due to the surcharge associated with it hence didn't investigate further.

Thanks for your advice though.

 

[Joe Isaac]

Sole Trader with ABN or Pty Ltd?

The former, you ought to be able to get any card if you can met the lending criteria. The later, they’ll want to see up to 3yrs trading history.

I set up a company structure and I was knocked back by WBC (wanted 3 yrs!) but I was able to get an AMEX Biz CC off the back of my existing long history with them. Glad I never got in the habit of churning.

Thanks for your input, Syd.

PTY ltd.
If it was sole trader I could have easily gone for a personal credit card as the card would be associated with my name rather than company's.

 

[Joe Isaac]

Amex is very lax with this requirement as compared with other banks. If you do go with amex ask around for a referral code.

Thanks elanshin.
Will look into AMEX but its surcharge is higher than the other credit cards which is why I didn't investigate it further.

 

[Quickstatus]

business credit card

The benefit of a "business card" is - in the case of the Amex Business Charge Card is the inclusion of merchant ABN in the statement and the ATO ruling that the statement is valid as a tax invoice - for Amex.

It is also a good way to separate out business and personal expenditure.

I'm not sure if other non Amex business cards have the same feature. It's not a significant benefit as often there is no recorded ABN and these days it is easy to take a photo of the tax invoice and save it to something like Dropbox.

As others have pointed out, be careful to limit the drawing limit on the CC (note charge cards don't have limits) especially if you are going to apply for secured loans in the near future until you establish a spending pattern