Tag Archives: credit cards

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Which Credit Card Should I Use for Business Expenses?

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Over the years, I’ve accumulated my fair share of credit cards. I was lured in by cash back programs in the olden days when they were actually giving decent cash back rewards, so I have Chase Freedom and American Express Blue Cash cards. I also have a Chase Amazon card, a Bank of America card (my first credit card), a Macy’s card, a Bloomingdales card, and an Express card, oh, and a shiny red Virgin America card that has a lot of miles on it I haven’t used yet.

Lately, though, I’ve faced a new kind of credit card spending that I’m not sure how to approach. I work for a company that requires their employees to pay for all their expenses up front. While for small expenses this isn’t a huge deal, I’m talking international trips here. Thousands of dollars. On my credit card bill.

Now, the good thing about this is I can rack up miles fairly quickly, and ultimately I’m not paying for the travel, I’m just paying up front. I am sure I will be reimbursed. It still concerns me that this is on a credit card under my name just in case there is a delay in that. But this is for a large, trustworthy company so I don’t foresee this being an issue.

What I’d like to get your advice/opinions on is…

1) Should I put all my travel on one of my cash back cards (like the American Express Blue Cash) so I actually reach the 5% cash back after $6500 spent, even though now it’s only for purchases like gas and stuff?

2) Should I open a mileage card on United or Continental, esp now that they’re merged? I hate the annual fees for the mileage cards… they just seem so stupid. With the processing fees they charge to book flights now with frequent flier miles, is it even worth it?

3) Should I get a business credit card (like the American Express Gold Business Card?) These cards also have annual fees (even higher than the mileage cards) but they do, at least, keep my business expenses in a separate account. It’s just, for the sake of the expenses spending, I don’t really own a business. I’m a W2 consultant. Not a contractor. I do have a side business but have yet so spend any money on it, except car mileage. Maybe I would if I get a business credit card. But are the benefits/rewards really worth it? Also, I read that you have less protection on a business card. That scares me. What if it gets stolen when I’m traveling or something? I do like the peace of mind that I have with consumer credit cards while traveling. I’d have those too, but what if a business credit card was lost?

Any other ideas? I’m worried about having too many cards because it will do something to my credit history. I am not sure what, though.

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The Chase Freedom Card Rocks: $250 in the mail!

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Well, after all these years of being afraid of credit cards, I finally took the plunge. And less than a year later, I’m waiting on my first $250 rewards check in the mail. I always figured those rewards programs were bogus, but the personal finance community seemed to like this specific card, so I tried it out. Once you hit $200 in rewards dollars they give you an extra $50. Now, that makes me feel better about the ridiculous interest they charged me when I took out a cash advance traveling in Israel. I still pay off my credit card balance like clockwork, so interest rates generally aren’t a concern. And I’m excited about my $250 (even if it means I’ve prob been spending too much to earn that $250.)

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"It’s None of My Business, But…"

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My good friend has a problem with money. I want so desperately to help her get on the right path, but anything I say would come off as judgmental.

My friend, let’s call her Lisa, is an intelligent 20-something gal. She has a high school degree but dropped out of college because it wasn’t for her.

Her parents own two smallish houses in an area where real estate costs an arm, a leg, and a gold mine. She lives in one of them. She doesn’t pay anything for rent, etc.

Her parents also own a small business. She works for them part time. Since I’ve known her, the business has been struggling a bit. They’ve kept it going, but her paycheck of something like $1000 a month doesn’t always come in on time.

Lisa is knee deep in credit card debt.

Lisa owns a few pets. She recently bought a dog. She loves her dog. But the dog costs a lot of money. She’s already paying to take care of a cat and a bunny rabbit.

Recently, Lisa went on a trip with a friend who was auditioning for a show down in Los Angeles. While they didn’t stay in a luxury hotel, Lisa did pay for airfare and half of the rental car. According to her blog, her friend didn’t plan in advance, so she had to put the rental car on her credit card, which just happens to already be maxed out. Lisa took the trip just for her friend, and she’s only staying for two days, basically to wait for her friend to audition, and then return home.

It’s none of my business, but I just want to understand why someone so deep in credit card debt would buy a dog and take an unneeded trip. These purchases add up fast.

I guess some people live their lives just accepting credit card debt as the norm. But I don’t understand how they do this.

I want to help Lisa get out of credit card debt. The friend side of me wants to lend her money to pay of her credit card bills so she can not be taking on such high interest rates. But I couldn’t do that because the likelihood of that scenerio ending pretty is rather low.

Do any of you have friends who just spend, spend, spend without thinking about their credit card debt? Have you ever tried to step in and help?

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Psychology of Overspending: Buying Happiness

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Check out the awesome interview with me over at LuluGal’s HowISaveMoney.net in her weekly “meet the blogger” series!

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Ok, I’ll admit it. I’ve been awful with my finances this last month.

I auditioned for this fashion assistant reality show that will air on CW and, prior to the casting, I used it as an excuse to spend way too much money on new clothes that I mostly didn’t need.

The good news is I returned the things that I’ll likely never wear. I’ve definitely passed my days of fearing going to a store and returning an item. Even though 59% of the time a return ends up equaling another purchase (just keep me away from the mall, ok?) I’ve gotten better about returning without buying something else, or buying something much cheaper to quench my spending arousal without bursting my budget.

Realizing that this need for spending is so deeply routed in my depressed childhood, well, it makes me want to spend a little less.

I think I’ve written about this briefly before, but I’ve been thinking a lot about it lately.

I was such a loner as a kid. I was “cootie girl” / odd girl out. I still am a bit of an oddball, but I’ve found my niche, I think. As a kid, it was unbearable.

All that made me feel good in life were compliments. Some of those compliments I’d earn from drawing a picture or something, but the easiest way I found to earn compliments was to wear something that would get me noticed.

Going to the store to shop was me the kid in a candy store. And my mom let me get pretty much everything I wanted. I didn’t buy super expensive clothes, but at a fairly affordable department store like JcPenny, I could easily spend $500-$700 in one visit. I just bought a lot of things. My mom told me that if something fit I should buy a few pairs and have it in every color it comes in, even if I didn’t like those colors.

Then we got home and my dad, who was making the money, would throw a fit about our spending. I felt guilty about that. It was, partially, my fault. That, I think, was one of the major rifts that formed between my parents early in their marriage. They shouldn’t have been together in the first place, but without that shared understanding about finances, it couldn’t work (yes they’re still married and, no, they shouldn’t be.)

As I grew up, the idea about buying happiness stayed.

I remember in middle school spending hundreds of dollars of my parent’s money to buy my “friends” smallish $10 gifts. My friends was anyone I knew, I really, hoping that if I bought them some cute earrings they might like me a little more. I think maybe they did. I didn’t get nearly the same amount of gifts in return, but then I was so naive and didn’t realize that others at my own school didn’t have the same sort of disposable income that my family did. Besides, people who I knew but weren’t close friends with weren’t going to get me gifts. Still, I liked the surprise they got when I gave them a gift. I thought for a milisecond, maybe they even liked me. And that was worth more than all the money in the world.

Nowadays, my biggest cause of overspending is the infamous “SALE” sign. I love feeling like I got a good bargain, as it gets me off in so many ways. First of all, I got to buy something (score) and secondly I got that something of preferably great quality for a large percentage off. The schadenfreude spot of my brain is laughing to itself and saying, with a Dr. Evil voice and pinky finger to my mouth – “hahahahahah, someone else actually spent $300 on this while I’m getting it for just $100!”

The problem, obviously, is that $100 is a lot of money and after a few items at $100 or $70, it adds up. Maybe not to what I would have spent on the original item at the department store, but I usually end up spending more on sales than when I go to a department store and buy one item at full price.

The only way I keep my spending in control now is by avoiding use of my credit card at all costs. But I’ve gotten to the point in my life where I want to start building my credit history aggressively, and I’m also getting fed up with the crappy rewards that my bank of america debit card offers (keep the change is kind of cute, but I’m not saving much with it.)

So I decided to sign up for some new credit cards.

I FEAR credit cards because I’m terrible at paying bills at times. I always end up with a late fee on a bill of $30 that ends up costing more than the actual bill.

OK, so I’m going to pay these bills on time, once I start using my new credit cards.

I’ve been reading a lot about the Chase Freedom Card and one of the American Express cashback cards (as soon as I remember the name I’ll write it here.) I was reading about them on another frugal bloggers blog (as soon as I remember the name of where I’ll add it here too).

So I never realized how much money I could save just by using a credit card for purchases, especially now that I’m spending quite a bit of money a year. I still can’t put my largest purchase, my rent, on my credit card, but I can start saving by buying gas, clothes, food and other things on a CC. Sweet. I like me some savings.

For those of you interested in figuring out what credit card(s) would be best for you, I recommend checking out the Cash Back Credit Card calculator over at askmrcreditcard.com — it seemes really helpful. I think it’s accurate.

I’ll be writing a more thorough post about credit cards and my cash back rewards in the future… once I actually get the cards, that is.