Questions and Answers

Lucky,

I have a client that has 4 companies. The challenge for them is to find the correct cards for all the businesses.

One is a Marine Business and they buy more then $25,000 in Gas a month.

Then another business just spends on average $75,000 on feed and farm equipment a month.

Then another is a home health company.

So which cards for each company. The home health company is a big Giant spender and they aren’t doing points programs for the company. Which they travel flying and hotel stays literally every week. Can you just give me what you think are really good cards for some of their spends. What corporate cards should they be using?

Thanks for any help you can give.

I think the first business can probably use the AmEx Business gold card which offers 3x on fuel as an option. The Citi TY Premier might also be a good option along with the AmEx Everyday Pref. If they want to deal with gift cards they could also get the Ink Plus which gives 2x at the pump but can also buy gift cards at office supply stores at 5x.

Not sure if there are any bonuses available for feed and farm. Everyday Pref or SPG might be the best options here unless they prefer straight cash that the Citi double cash offers.

For the third company, again a solid travel card is probably a good fit: Citi TY Premier or CSP. Of course recommendations may vary depending on their loyalty to a particular airline or hotel program. It may also vary depending on length of stays, airlines and airports frequented etc. For e.g. if they often stay four or more nights at hotels they may want to consider the Citi Prestige.

[USER=79]@Gaurav[/USER]
Would this be Amex card you are talking about?
[URL]https://www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/credit-cards/business-gold-rewards[/URL]
Notice the fine print, 3x points on the first 100K then 1x points so would need to change card during the year.

@Carla
What you need to check for your client before making a choice on a card for the marine business is what category does the firm that sell the fuel get coded as in the credit cards company systems? It might not be setup as a gas station, but some other form of business.

An another choice these days if your clients fuel suppliers is listed as a gas station is Diners Club Elite. It’s Mastercard these days and give 3 points per USD for gas with no limit on upper spend, note that the fine print says “Automobile fuel service stations – pay at the pump only”
[URL]https://www.dinersclubus.com/home/consumer-cards/conscards-l2/diners-club-card-elite[/URL]
[URL]https://www.dinersclubus.com/home/club-rewards[/URL]
[URL]http://thepointsguy.com/2014/10/diners-club-rewards-launches-transferable-points-program/[/URL]

If coded as the right type of gas stations the Diners Club Elite should give your client 900K points a year.

@Carla

Probably not in the spirit of this website, but have you considered if using credit cards for these expenses will increase you clients monthly expenses?

Or if your clients have a few big suppliers will they offers discounts similar or even higher than cash back cards when paying bills directly into their bank account?

Earning Points and miles is not free of cost and on big contracts the savings might end up being eaten up by higher costs of using credit cards.

On the flip side higher expenses could lower their taxes, they might want to check with an tax attorney or an accountant on that.

Also will your clients have time to use all the points they earn? Even at 1point per dollar they would get 1,2 million points a year just on the marine and farm biz, if the Diners card works for gas and you get transfer bonuses on other cards it might be closer to 2 million points a year. Remember most points devalue over time and earn no interest .

Have you considered contacting Luckys company Pointspro? They offer an consulting service for 150USD an hour, which frankly would be cheap considering the sums you talk about.
[URL]http://pointspros.com/additional-services/[/URL]
Or send a message here to Luckys right hand woman [USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER]?

[USER=268]@No Name[/USER], good catch on the 100k limit. I wasn’t aware of that but good to know. Diners isn’t a program that most people think of but a good option to have. AFAIK, the Everyday Pref and Citi Premier have no caps either so might be worth it to do a comparison between them to see whose transfer partners would be most useful to the client.

Your point about commercial discounts for cash is also a good one to keep in mind!

Hi Carla, great advice here so far!

I think the other thing to think about is what do they want to use points for. With the sums you’re discussing, they are going to earn a ton of points regardless, and you’re going to hit a lot of these caps. So I would think about if they’re looking to cut costs on their business travel, or if the owners have international travel goals, etc.

The worst thing is to push someone into a card because it’s “a good deal” only to find the points don’t really help them with what they’re hoping to do.

They could donate them to the helpful folks here :p