Ok! There’s a lot here, so I wanted to take some time to respond.
I think I'm struggling because what I really want is URs, not MRs, because I'm trying to aggregate URs to get us to Europe in business class.
You say you want points to fly to Europe in business class. Have you searched awardhacker .com to see what airline points and award programs might work for your travel plans? It may give you some idea how to use your MRs.
I'd love to get him a CIC, but he already has 2 business cards with Chase - a SW Biz and a CIP (CIP was obtained in mid august). Our business is for real, but its small (renting out one apartment). He is 3/24. Think I can get him a CIC in November, or will that make the Chase gods angry?
But let’s try to shortcut this. If you want DH to get URs instead of MRs, I think he’s fine to apply for a third Chase business card. You said he’s 3/24, so not exactly a risky applicant. The other factors that seem to weigh heavily on approval is the spacing between DH’s cards and total credit lines on DH’s Chase cards.
How many cards (Chase and other reported cards) has DH been approved for in the past 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months? You said he got a CIP in mid-August. That’s almost 2 months ago. Did DH open any more cards that show up on his credit reports since then? If not, I think he’d be fine applying for a CIC as early as mid-October, certainly by November.
However, before DH applies for the CIC, I would take stock of the overall credit lines on his Chase cards relative to reported personal/household income. If his total credit lines are near or over 50% of the income that’d be reported on an application, he should proactively SM Chase to lower his credit lines before applying. The lower the better. Then, DH should wait until the statements on the cards for which he reduced the credit lines to close so that Chase reports the lower credit lines to the bureaus, and his credit reports reflect this lower exposure when he applies.
If I should hold off on Chase business cards for him, then do I just let go of the FOMO and get him the Biz Plat?
I've been wanting to get DH going with Amex, but have been trying to get the 100k personal plat offer (because I understand you're less likely to get that once you're a customer). No luck with cardmatch. So now I'm trying to figure out our next move.
I'm reluctant to get him started with Amex with anything other than the unicorn 100k personal plat because FOMO.
It’s long been the conventional wisdom that getting an Amex card, particularly an Amex MR-earning card, will decrease your chances of being targeted for the 100k MR personal Platinum card. However, about a week or two ago, there was a discussion on reddit questioning how true that is anymore (I tried to look for the thread, but couldn’t find it). Anyway, it seems existing Amex cardholders are getting targeted on CardMatch and Amex pre-qualified offers for the 100k Plat.
If you just take our small group right here, I know
@wendow had at least the Business Gold Rewards card and was able to pull the 100k personal Platinum; and
@disneymagicgirl already had a number of Amex co-branded cards when she pulled the 100k Plat offer. So perhaps getting Amex co-branded cards and business charge cards might not really preclude you from pulling a 100k Plat offer one day.
I could do the personal for the public offer (60K), but I can't refer him, and a $550 AF isn't that appealing.
Why can’t you refer him?
You have the Biz Plat, right? Have you heard that Amex referrals are “universal” now? From an Amex non-cobranded card, you can generate a referral link that lets the applicant apply to any of Amex’s 29 cards.
So from your Biz Plat, generate a referral link, then open it in a new incognito window. At the top, you should see a drop down menu to “View all Cards with a Referral Offer,” click “Looking for a Personal Card,” click “Reward Points,” and you should see the 60k MR Platinum card. The Biz Plat earns a large 15k MR referral bonus (capped at 55k MR/year) for an approved card. So you could refer DH to the 60k MR Plat, and earn 15k MR. The 15k MR would go into your MR account, and DH’s 60k MR would go into his account.
If you prefer all 75k MR go into DH’s MR account, you could try to pull the 75k MR Plat offer in incognito mode.
If you had DH sign up for the Plat in late November or December, he could triple dip the $200 airline fee credit in December 2018, January 2019, and January 2020 for $600 worth of AA, Delta, or SW gift cards before the second year AF is due.
I'm thinking about the gold card (probably not in rose gold ), because the grocery store points sound good.
Keep in mind that the Amex Gold card will add to DH’s */24 count, so if you have any cards you want from Chase, you should probably focus on those first.
The Amex Gold has a 50k MR offer through incognito and referrals that’s good until 1/9/19. (Similarly, like I mentioned above, you can refer DH to the Amex Gold from your Biz Plat for 15k MR to you, and a 50k MR welcome bonus for your DH.) And even after that, I’d guess the 50k MR offer would continue to be one of those targeted offers that one can pull via incognito. So unless you want to start a triple dip of the Amex Gold’s airline credit this year (in which case, apply in late November or December) to get all the value you can out of one AF, there’s no rush. And if you think you may end up keeping the Amex Gold beyond its first year, then the value of the triple dip doesn’t really matter.
Or I could get him a Biz Platinum (public offer is 75k, so no point in referring him). Not scared of a 10k MSR at this point in the year (have a business expense that I can pay/submit for reimbursement that will take a big chunk out of that).
Have you tried calling the direct lines to ask if the 100k MR/$10k MSR Biz Plat offer is still available? I saw a DP last week of someone calling in and being told the offer is 75k MR for $20k MSR, but the DP wasn’t clear what number they called. We have numbers to a few direct lines, so it might be worth a few HUCAs.
As I mentioned above, it doesn’t seem like holding an Amex biz charge card kept
@wendow from pulling the 100k MR personal Plat offer.
At least you guys get why I'm obsessing over this decision... most people would just think I'm a weirdo for the amount of mental space this question has been occupying.
Hope this helps!
Seriously, I think it's the most beautiful card ever. I'm not sure I'll be able to let go of it in a year!
)...She was very blunt about it while saying "Your card was declined, do you want me to try again or do you have one that will actually work"...Meanwhile my dad was laughing hysterically at me that I tried to use a Platinum Card at that store. I pulled out a Visa Gift Card and all was ok again, haha.
