Blog: Business Credit Card
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Business Credit Card - Saturday, April 21, 2007
I love using my credit cards. If you're fortunate to not have debt and aren't the type to go on spending binges, plastic in your pocket beats cash any day. Buyer protection, convenience, and perks like travel miles or cashback leave virtually no benefit to using cash over card. Unless you're trying to buy stuff anonymously, like drugs or something.
At any rate, I've always found the card companies to be very responsive to everything I've asked for, including rushing me a new card by UPS overnight delivery when I needed it in a couple days. Responsive, that is, until I got a business credit card from Chase.
I have a personal card with Chase and the service has been stellar. Recently they sent me an offer by mail, saying that I qualified for the "Business Card with Premier Cash Rebate." And indeed it did sport a great cashback plan- 3% on purchases from gas stations, restaurants, office supplies, and home improvement stores; 1% on everything else. It was better than the cashback plans on all my other cards at the time, and thus too good to pass up.
But little did I know that a business card was on the other side of the hill of my experience with credit card companies. And in this case, it was the side where the grass wasn't greener. So when I made up a business name to get the card, I found myself in uncharted waters.
After receiving my new card in the mail and activating it, I placed a call to business card customer support. I could instantly tell that the representative who took my call was pretty out of it from the sound of his voice. Probably because of being hassled by business people the whole day.
"Thank you for calling Chase, my name is <indistinguishable mumbling, like he didn't want his name to be known> can I have your name please?"
So after the standard procedure of me verifying that I'm not somebody off the street who jumped me and stole my card, I told him that I wanted a higher credit line. Instead of the usual "Ok let me run that through the computer ... ok it's done" I was told that it would take 2-3 days because it was a business card. Fair enough.
The next day I got a call from a Chase representative whose tone sounded like I was on trial for a murder.
"What is the name of your business?" he asked.
"Dragonskies Media."
"And what is the nature of this business?"
"Oh, web development, and... that sort of stuff" I feebly replied.
"How long has this business been in operation?"
Well I've been doing web development, and that sort of stuff, for quite a while but I gave an estimate of how long this site has been up, "About half a year."
He continued uncaringly, "And what is the annual net income of this business?"
"Well, our household income is-"
He cut me off. "No, your business income, not your household income."
"Err.. I'd say about... five thousand." That was all he needed to hear.
"Ok I'm sorry but at this time we will not be able to give you a higher credit line." That was it. Game over. I tried to gripe, but my Jedi mind tricks had no effect on his powerful psyche, or rather, years of dealing with real business people.
But no matter. I do enjoy the cashback rates I'm getting on my new card that has "Dragonskies Media" embossed beneath my name, and I still have a higher credit limit on it than my struggling "business" makes in a year. I'll get them to bump up the limit later when I have more credit history to make me look good, and when it's time to buy that Ferrari.
At any rate, I've always found the card companies to be very responsive to everything I've asked for, including rushing me a new card by UPS overnight delivery when I needed it in a couple days. Responsive, that is, until I got a business credit card from Chase.
I have a personal card with Chase and the service has been stellar. Recently they sent me an offer by mail, saying that I qualified for the "Business Card with Premier Cash Rebate." And indeed it did sport a great cashback plan- 3% on purchases from gas stations, restaurants, office supplies, and home improvement stores; 1% on everything else. It was better than the cashback plans on all my other cards at the time, and thus too good to pass up.
But little did I know that a business card was on the other side of the hill of my experience with credit card companies. And in this case, it was the side where the grass wasn't greener. So when I made up a business name to get the card, I found myself in uncharted waters.
After receiving my new card in the mail and activating it, I placed a call to business card customer support. I could instantly tell that the representative who took my call was pretty out of it from the sound of his voice. Probably because of being hassled by business people the whole day.
"Thank you for calling Chase, my name is <indistinguishable mumbling, like he didn't want his name to be known> can I have your name please?"
So after the standard procedure of me verifying that I'm not somebody off the street who jumped me and stole my card, I told him that I wanted a higher credit line. Instead of the usual "Ok let me run that through the computer ... ok it's done" I was told that it would take 2-3 days because it was a business card. Fair enough.
The next day I got a call from a Chase representative whose tone sounded like I was on trial for a murder.
"What is the name of your business?" he asked.
"Dragonskies Media."
"And what is the nature of this business?"
"Oh, web development, and... that sort of stuff" I feebly replied.
"How long has this business been in operation?"
Well I've been doing web development, and that sort of stuff, for quite a while but I gave an estimate of how long this site has been up, "About half a year."
He continued uncaringly, "And what is the annual net income of this business?"
"Well, our household income is-"
He cut me off. "No, your business income, not your household income."
"Err.. I'd say about... five thousand." That was all he needed to hear.
"Ok I'm sorry but at this time we will not be able to give you a higher credit line." That was it. Game over. I tried to gripe, but my Jedi mind tricks had no effect on his powerful psyche, or rather, years of dealing with real business people.
But no matter. I do enjoy the cashback rates I'm getting on my new card that has "Dragonskies Media" embossed beneath my name, and I still have a higher credit limit on it than my struggling "business" makes in a year. I'll get them to bump up the limit later when I have more credit history to make me look good, and when it's time to buy that Ferrari.