I am buying a franchise and am currently in the startup phase. I will be spending around 200K +/- next year on the card. Does anyone have experience in this area and any card suggestions?

Are you most interested in cash back or hotel/airline points?

Chase Ink is great 1.5% cash back on all purchases.

I appreciate the responses. I do not have a preferred airline or hotel. I would if the card allowed perks. I did look at the Ink card but not sure if there is a better option. I have 2 weeks or so to make my choice so reviewing all options.

I have also looked at American Express and they have great perks but have fees (which I could spend enough to bypass).

I think the Ink or American Express are my top, but I have not looked into specifically at any hotel or airline option. This is business based and will carry much more funding than my personal card. I just want to be smart about it and this is why I am asking others who may know more than myself.

Check out this from NerdWallet: https://www.nerdwallet.com/best/credit-cards/small-business?trk=nw_gn_6.0

Also note they have ratings for LLCs, best 0% intro for business and best corporate cards linked from that page.

Very good advice and was the first website started looking.

My debate now is money back or travel options. I need to figure out what is the better value. I Live in West Palm Beach so most flights would be American or Delta. Mostly Delta because we go through ATL on any longer flights. Trying to figure out the best value overall.

Gotcha - that context helps. I travel a ton for work and used TPG to decide on my personal travel card. If you were on NerdWallet, I'm sure you've seen this one too. They've got a good take on biz cards: https://thepointsguy.com/credit-cards/business/

Thank you. As a new business owner, I am learning a ton of new information. I appreciate the help!

The majors all have no fee, cash back options that will have bonus % added on if you bank with them and enroll in their preferred rewards.

Amex blue business is 2 points per dollar no annual fee... If it was me I would likely do the Hyatt because their highest tier is pretty nice and hard to get to but with that much spend you would hit it in 7-8 months.

Multiple people have mentioned the Hyatt business card. curious why that one specifically? I have no issue with Hyatt but I honestly cannot recall one time I have stayed at one. Just not sure how functional it will be but again I do not know.

In talking with my wife I think the hotel/Travel aspect will be more important because it will force us to do more vacations that will be good for the family.

BigAggieCane said:

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Multiple people have mentioned the Hyatt business card. curious why that one specifically? I have no issue with Hyatt but I honestly cannot recall one time I have stayed at one. Just not sure how functional it will be but again I do not know.

In talking with my wife I think the hotel/Travel aspect will be more important because it will force us to do more vacations that will be good for the family.

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I have a Hyatt business card, and I'm very happy with it. Reached Globalist level earlier this year. Bottom line, Hyatt rewards are the most lucrative in the hotel business by a good bit, and they have the nicest range of upscale properties (ranging from Hyatt Place to Park Hyatt and others), in my opinion. I pay for Hyatt Place stays for Aggie games, and cash in points at Park Hyatt properties in Europe, for example. They also have generous free night rewards along your journey to Globalist, and suite upgrades and club level access are pretty easy to achieve. They even have a concierge tier where you can call or email a dedicated live on-shore person group to help make more difficult travel arrangements (i.e. small group travel arrangements, mixing paid and free nights at a property, etc.) that other chains just don't offer. The downside is that they have fewer properties than the other big chains (Hilton, IHG, Marriott), so make sure they have the accommodations you want in the locations you desire before you commit.

Thank you for the response and now I am more interested. I clearly do not know enough about Hyatt. But I plan to learn.

At that level of spending I would look into the AMEX Business Platinum. They have a promotion going on right now, 250k sign up bonus for $20k spend. That is by far the best sign up bonus on the market right now.

It really just depends on if you have time to vacation but if you do and there is a nice Hyatt in the city you want to go to you will be treating yourself and your family to very nice suites. Comparing that to 2x or 1.5x on $200k spend, I would rather have that than $3k - $4k cash back.

American Airlines card by Citi, and a Chase Ink card to start IMO.

permabull said:

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Amex blue business is 2 points per dollar no annual fee... If it was me I would likely do the Hyatt because their highest tier is pretty nice and hard to get to but with that much spend you would hit it in 7-8 months.

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I use Amex blue and use the points to pay the bill. I've been pretty happy with it.

A couple more thoughts:

- Using pure economics, a 2% cash back no annual fee card is probably your best bet. I think there are several out there that offer this. Your business will in effect have a 2% higher profit margin on all card expenditures, which is great if you're trying to demonstrate profitable growth (although future potential buyers will discount this income stream when they look closer, as they'll want to use their own payment methods).

- I used the above method for a while, but then realized that frequent flyer/hotel points are not taxable distributions, not dividends or return of capital, and can benefit you personally while not really harming your business. Think of it as a perk of being a sole owner (this is much tougher to navigate if you have a partnership or more than one owner). Just an easy way to reward yourself without creating a taxable distribution event (until the IRS starts getting much more aggressive on this - they failed at the corporate level in the 90s when they tried to make frequent flyer miles earned on company travel a taxable benefit - huge outcry!).

We do Chase Ink with probably $600k annual spend on company cards. It's really nice to earn nearly 1,000,000 ultimate rewards points a year. I took a trip last month that would have cost $6k for about 200k points.

I like the Chase Ink Preferred card for 3% back on wireless and internet. It also has legit cell phone insurance for all phones covered on the plan.

nice! How did you get 3x on the reward redemption?

I get 1.5 through Sapphire, so would love to know how to do better.

Did you convert to miles and get a nice special?

Diggity said:

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nice! How did you get 3x on the reward redemption?

I get 1.5 through Sapphire, so would love to know how to do better.

Did you convert to miles and get a nice special?

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I think "nearly a million" is probably 900,000 points which would be 1.5x on $600k. Just guessing

Your sapphire has transfer partners that can give outsized value... I.e I am thinking about going to Tampa next year and I can book the presidential suite at the Hyatt on Tampa Bay for 24k points a night so $240 worth of cash back or $360 worth of points via the chase travel portal for a room this is over $900 a night.

If I actually had Hyatt status I could book a regular room and get the upgrade for free.

permabull said:

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Your sapphire has transfer partners that can give outsized value... I.e I am thinking about going to Tampa next year and I can book the presidential suite at the Hyatt on Tampa Bay for 24k points a night so $240 worth of cash back or $360 worth of points via the chase travel portal for a room this is over $900 a night.

If I actually had Hyatt status I could book a regular room and get the upgrade for free.

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gotcha. I never seem to be able to replicate those types of deals.

I usually just end up using the travel portal, which I know isn't the best return, but less of a headache.

It's also how much do you value the room, if you would never pay $800-900 for a hotel room then you can't value it 1:1 against the opportunity cost of getting cash back instead.

I rarely redeem points in the portal. I almost exclusively transfer to travel partners. I'd never spend $750+ a night on a room, but now that I've gotten use to it through redemptions it's hard to go back.