Was it a soft pull or a hard pull? Would be nice to know

It was a soft pull if anything! My personal credit scores did not change. I’ll be talking about that in a video going up soon so keep an eye out!

🎃

@@georgeberry4569 Happy Halloween!

This is what I love to hear!! Congrats on your approval David! That's so cool man. I also never received any hard pull on my credit, and my score was completely unaffected as well! It's really cool that Amex makes this a possibility for their existing customers. Although it isn't always the case, I've found it to be true most every time. Congrats once again man. I'm super happy for you!

Let's go!!! Sounds like we had the exact same experience so that's awesome. Congrats on the new card Jonathon! I've definitely enjoyed having it as a part of my setup.

Thank you Matt! I think it fit my strategy very well and I’m super happy it all worked out!! Like I said in the video, that’s no kind of financial advice but I’ve heard it’s helpful in getting approved, especially if you don’t have a high income to report. Just gotta be as honest as you can while still maximizing your approval odds at the end of the day.

Thanks so much Robert! I think the BBP is super solid as a catch-all card. 2x points on all purchase is nothing to complain about that's for sure! And yeah I agree with you on the no annual fee business card front. I think I'll just get the Ink Cash and then Ink Unlimited next and then reassess at that point most likely. Time will tell!

That's so cool Marcus! We had very similar applications it seems. Some slight differences, but pretty close to the same! That's also a great data point to know for those that are curious. I'm excited for the next card as well! What are you going for next?

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial On the list are Wyndham Business, Alaska Business, and a second Ink Cash if that’s allowed (for a different business). More research is needed for each of these. What are your ideas? I’m also wondering when. I may apply again in about a month or two. I’m 4/24 for another 15 months, and I’m waiting to see if there are going to be any historic high SUBs on the personal side.

Those all come with some great offers right now! I’m not sure you’d be able to get two ink cash cards as long as you use your same personal information since that would still show as 2 of the same accounts under your SSN, but i could be wrong about that! It would be worth a call to chase maybe! And as for your strategy, for me, if I’m under 5/24 I’d be farming that status with business cards, Chase or otherwise, so that I can get every single chase card I want and not have to worry about that rule again. Of course down the line you may want a new chase card that comes out so you still want your 5/24 status to be manageable, but you shouldn’t have to be scared of applying for cards down the line and that’s why I like getting all the Chase cards you want asap. At the end of the day though, I wouldn’t stress about it and I would apply for whatever cards make sense for you, personal or business. If you do want more Chase cards though, I’d lean business right now of course. Hopefully that helps a bit!

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial Quick report back. I just called Chase. Because it’s a separate business I can apply for a second Ink Cash. So that card is still in the running! 🖋️💵 = Ink Cash

@@marcusyoung5440 Oh that is awesome and really good to know! Thank you for following up on that for us all. Looks like you know your plan now huh?

Hey man, I'm honored I was able to help you out! That's so awesome to hear you were approved. I was in the exact same boat as you and I never realized how easy it is to qualify for a business card before I watched a lot of my (now) fellow content creators. I think the bonus you went with is the way to go too. $15k spend is pretty insane to have to hit for the amount of Amex MR points the other bonus gives you. It's great to hear you have the CFU as well! That's my favorite catch-all card out there, so I hope you like it as much as I do! The welcome bonus on that one is awesome as well. Thanks for being here and supporting my channel! I really appreciate you!

That's awesome to hear! Congrats on your approval too. Amex definitely treats us right. The one catch with those upgrade offers is that you then give up the opportunity to get a fresh welcome bonus, but as long as the upgrade offer is better then you can't complain about that!

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial Definitely. The target offer was 60k MR for 2k spend in 6 months. Current sub is 75k points for 4k spend in 6 months. However. I’m getting the 15k bonus for the BBP so in reality I didn’t lose much for accepting the target offer.

@@dominicsay3165 That's great man. That's a really solid upgrade offer so I don't blame you for taking it!!

I'm so glad this was helpful to you! And yes, although these cards are technically supposed to be used for business expenses only, a TON of people who have them use them not only for some personal expenses, but sometimes that's all they use them for. Especially when applying as a sole prop. I would definitely jump on those Chase Ink cards soon before the SUBs expire! I actually just made a video about my application for the Chase Ink Cash similar to how I made this one. Also, if you find it helpful and want to support the channel, feel free to use the links in my descriptions as I did in the video and that would be a massive help to me! You'll still get that 90k welcome offer which is pretty insane! I appreciate your support and best of luck to you on your application!

Congrats on the new card to you and your wife! I'm really glad you've found value in my videos and I look forward to chatting with you more in the future. I appreciate you!

That’s what I tried to portray through this video. Business cards are a lot easier to get than people think and they can be a really powerful tool! I appreciate the congratulations man!

I appreciate that Eric!! I'm excited to integrate this card as more of a catch-all card in my everyday spend, and using it to help increase the quality of my videos is something I'm looking forward to as well. Thanks for watching as always!

Thank you so much! I'm super happy to have it as a part of my setup. Now I just need the Amex Platinum to complete that trifecta which will be something I look to do in the future. I appreciate you E W!

Hahah oh no!! I know I definitely could hit that limit, but just thinking about the opportunity cost made it make much more sense for me to sacrifice the points to get a couple more cards with a much higher return on spend instead of using just the BBP all year. For people with higher spend than me, then it would make sense to go with the 50k offer... I just don't have super high spend yet! And thanks so much man!

I always do my best to check old video comments when I can. Congrats on your approval dude that’s freaking awesome! 👊🏼

Thank you Stan!! Since I was filming the application as I was doing it live, I didn't mention if it was a soft or hard pull for me but I did want to follow up on that. So far I have not received a hard pull on my accounts which is pretty awesome! I'm curious to see if anything shows up after this first billing cycle, so we'll see! I appreciate the kind words and I really do hope it helps someone who is also a beginner to the business credit card world. It can definitely be alarming at first!!

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial Nice! Yeah, if you didn’t receive a notice at the time of the application (Chase credit journey is pretty good with giving you an instant alert), then it’s pretty safe to say it was a soft pull 👍! Enjoy the new card!!

That’s awesome! Definitely pleasantly surprised by that. I wasn’t sure if the first business card application would be a hard pull or not even if I had a personal card, so that’s good to know!

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial I think I'm one of the only Outliers on the Planet that got two hard pulls from TransUnion and Experian for my first 2 Amex cards. But like Stan said, they would have hit immediately

Dang, this video escalated quickly! Great job Spencer!! 🚀🚀🚀

Oh that's awesome!! It's odd how some people have success with that and some get denied right away. Very interesting how the 5/24 rule works with certain cards. It sounds like you got a good couple cards lined up to get too which is always great. I'm a fan of a good roadmap!

Thanks so much Kush! I will maybe mention a little bit more in the future but for the most part I try to keep as much personal information private as I can. This application was a little bit more educated guess work since my KZfaq business is new, but I know it would be really helpful to know my inputs so I'll think about talking about that in my unboxing video maybe! And if I don't, you could always remind me once that one is up. Thanks for your support and suggestions man! I appreciate it.

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial did you ever post a video with additional info?

Yep the unboxing should have more info in it for ya!

Thank you so much Neno! I’m glad to be a part of the fam!

That’s so good to hear. That’s why I do this!! Congrats on your approval!!

Thank you for updating me on that! That makes a lot of sense. There are so many factors that go into credit card applications, so it's always hard to truly pin down, but at least you have a good idea of why it may have gone like it did. That's really interesting that they have so many different nuances person to person and state to state. I also signed into my account before applying, but maybe going through a referral link (even if you're signed in) causes the application to change. All of this information is super helpful to know so I really appreciate you taking the time to tell me about them! And I really appreciate the kind words. This is what I love to do and I hope to one day make it my full-time job and double down on the content. I've always said that if $10-15k magically appeared in my bank account today I would take the leap haha. I guess time will tell though!!

I appreciate it Joshua!! I’m super glad I got approved!

I appreciate the confidence man!! And thank you for the congratulations as well. I'm super happy with a $10k limit off the bat and hopefully that'll increase over time as well. I'll have to keep your order in mind for the future haha😂

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial - When I got my BBC and BBP they started me with 10k on each :) Amex is no joke :)

Dang that’s awesome dude! Congrats on that.

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial - Always remember that AMEX also has their 2/90 rule. Cant have more than 2 cards within 90 days. That also applies towards business cards. Plus the overall total credit cards u can have with Amex is 5 (Personal & Business). And I’ve filled up all 5 slots with them.

Thanks so much Nathaniel! Definitely glad to have this one in my arsenal.

That is so good to hear! Thank you for taking the time to type out this comment. That really means a lot. I’m happy I was able to help you out and congratulations on the new card! I’m super happy for you. Let me know if you ever have any questions for me.. I’d love to answer them for you. Thank you again for the kind words!

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial yes. :)...I will do it, thanks ..

Of course!!

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial Hola! Spencer.. question. Is there any limit to the use of money on the card? or can you use all the money? .. was 7k approved it ..

@@stars2486 Hey there! You can put as much money as you want on the card up to that credit limit of $7k. However, you never want to max out a card without paying it off right afterwards. If you don't pay it off quickly, it could really hurt your credit score. Technically you can put as much money on the card as you want every month (as long as it isn't a one-time purchase over $7k) becuase you can make intermittent early payments to the card throughout the month to free up your available credit. Hopefully that helps a bit!

Yeah man I bet that comes in handy when you're shopping at places where you usually get 1%. 2x Amex MR points is very different than 1% cash back that's for sure. I'm excited to get this card some use as well!

I put other as the industry type

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial Even when the welcome bonus period is over, whether you get it or not, its a safety net for all your MR points and is NO ANNUAL FEE like you said! Its a great keeper card.

@@Th33Vultur3 I 100% agree with you!! That's a big reason it's so powerful and I think it's super important to bring up.

@@Th33Vultur3 Good to know! At the end of the day, as long as your credit profile is strong, that category shouldn't have too much weight attached to it.

That’s awesome Johnny! I’m really glad I got it as well and it’s already gotten some use even though I don’t have the physical card yet lol.

That's awesome to hear!! A $10k credit limit is really solid! Congratulations on the approval and I'm excited to hear how you like the card!

Haha thank you Sledge! It's definitely beneficial to form that good relationship with Amex because they treat you right if so! I'm happy to have gotten this card added to my wallet. It'll be a great one to start building my business credit with!

That means a lot! Of course!!

Thank you Manny! I’m super glad to have it man!

Did u get any sign up bonus? I don’t see any no more 😔

@@Will-ue4gb No sadly on the BBC or the BBP

Thank you so much Andy! Do you have some yourself?

They have most likely tightened their standards since then

Hi there! I'm glad you found value in my video! This card is definitely powerful as a beginner business credit card and I'm happy to have it in my wallet. Congrats to you as well! And thank you for sharing your personal experience with it. That's definitely going to be really helpful to people! I wonder what triggers them to ask for extra information, but it's good to have data points like this and I appreciate you letting us know! Thank you for your support and I hope we get to talk more in future videos!

Thank you so much Yaroslav! I'm glad my comment made you want to check my channel out. I love Graham's videos and have followed him for a long time, so I'm always happy to support what he's doing over ther.

I agree with you Jimmy! And thank you man I appreciate the kind words and the congratulations! Are you looking to add any cards in the near future?

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial AMEX Hilton Aspire. As much as I am a fanboy for the Aspire I still haven't picked it up. 😂 Next year though for sure.

That'll be a super solid addition for sure. I'm excited to hear about it man! What time of the year are you thinking?

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial Sometime 1st quarter so we can have everything set up for a summer trip.

Nice that’s a great plan. You gotta tell me how it goes.

Congratulations on the new card! That's so great to hear. I'm excited to hear how you like my future content as well!

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial No problem! Just supporting the hustle! Also I used your data points for the bonus, which my targeted bonus was pretty darn good.. compared to the ones you explained on the video! So just want to say thanks again!

That's awesome to hear! Especially since they took the bonus away on this card recently. Congrats again! @@sonny6810

I really appreciate that K! I'm glad you enjoyed it. And nope it was just a soft pull if anything! My scores haven't changed at all and no new inquiries are on my accounts which is awesome. I love that Amex does that as a lender. Definitely makes me want to apply for more of their cards!

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial that's great!! amex is a great lender and i can't wait to get one of their cards sometime

@@k.-- They definitely are a top lender in the credit card game. There's a reason so many love them! As you know, you just gotta make sure that if you're going for one of their annual fee cards you need to get value from the credits! Other than that you're golden.

That's awesome to hear Kevin! Congrats on that man. As for how I value Amex points, they are tied with Chase as it comes to anything travel redemption related. Chase beats them in cashback and I personally use their transfer partners more, but you can definitely get a ton of value from both point ecosystems with travel partners and in their portals. Cashback is what makes Chase's ecosystem better overall though.

Thank you Cesar! I'm definitely really glad to have it in my wallet! I've already been using the virtual card since I was approved so it's been getting it's use without me even having the physical card lol.

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial I love AMEX, got 5 cards with them and only got hard pulled for the 1st card. That and the soft pull CLI is a plus with AMEX

Yeah I really loved that about this application. It doesn’t look like I’ve received any kind of hard pull which is awesome! That’s my first experience with that so I was pleasantly surprised! Now I’ll have to test out the soft pull with a CLI increase request one day!

Agreed! Especially when they’re transferable points like Amex. I let the CFU slide as well since I can get 2 cents/point or more with it through travel partners, effectively making it a 3x card on everything.

Well those are still some great limits and luckily Amex is pretty good about credit limit increases over time and will usually only do a soft inquiry if you manually request an increase. That's just one of the perks of using them as a lender!

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial Definitely going to need you to film a credit limit increase video lol. I think thats nice its only a soft pull.

@@LadyALCO Yeah I definitely will one day. That's a great idea. I'll probably try to do it through their online chat first and see what comes of it but I'll film the process for sure! And I'll make sure it's a soft pull too.

@@LadyALCO what was some of your data points, why 2k his 8k?

It could be a multitude of things! The business card applications still consider all of your personal information as well, on top of your businesses revenue and expenses. I’m assuming her and her husband just had different credit profiles and for whatever reason they gave them different limits because of that. It’s kinda hard to predict!

Thank you!! Applying as a sole prop and your SSN is what allows you to get approved for this card without an official business. However, this card only reports to the business credit bureaus and not my personal credit. I'm technically not building credit tied exactly to an LLC, but I'm still building a business credit profile with those business bureaus if that makes sense. Hopefully that helps a bit!

Thank you so much! And yes I do I have the Amex gold card which meant this application was only a soft pull if any!

That's awesome Robert! I'm happy to hear it. I appreciate you as well!

That's an excellent question and congrats on the approval! I could go into a ton of detail in order to answer this, but instead, I'll leave a link at the end of my response that'll help you understand how people think about this more. The way I personally see it is that you should only technically put business expenses on this card, but then again, as long as you aren't deducting every purchase you put on this card then you should be okay to use it for personal and business expenses alike. You just don't want to be doing something sketchy like using this card only for personal expenses but also deducting that from your taxes at the end of the year. But to my knowledge, it's okay to put personal spend on these cards because if you think about it, if you apply as a sole prop, it's going to be really hard for a lender or someone else to tell what's personal and what is business, so don't stress about it too much. I will be using this card for everything I can to hit the welcome bonus and based on what I've read, no one has ever really had an issue putting personal spend on a business card (as long as it's not a corporate card or something). I hope that gives you a bit more confidence but it's hard to give a concise answer on this. At the end of the day, it is not ILLEGAL to put personal expenses on a business card, so maybe that helps haha. www.reddit.com/r/amex/comments/sb391d/can_someone_explain_using_business_credit_cards/

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial Thanks haha!!

@@jeibercolon-marquez8435 No problem! Sorry for the drawn out response lol. Reddit is your friend though!

Yessir! It's an unknown thing that flies under people's radars all the time. You could definitely get one for your YT channel at this point. And that's all good man, I just appreciate you watching!

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial Yeah, I might seriously look into it, thanks!

No problem man! It’s a whole new world out there once you start getting business cards. There’s a ton of value to be had!

Thank you! That means a lot. And I’m really glad to hear you got approved for this card and that this video was helpful! You’re definitely really ahead of the game as an 18 year old which is awesome to see. My perspective on it is that if you do really want to get Chase cards in the future and aren’t dying for another card right now, I would probably wait till you’re under 5/24 while you’re still early on in the credit card game. You could always add business cards until then if you have the income in your business to do so. All I know is that it definitely doesn’t get easier over time to hold off on cards and get back under 5/24 haha. Those are just my thoughts though.

That's a really interesting thought! My highest credit limit is just above $10k out of my personal cards, so I wonder if that's true... Thanks for bringing that to my attention!

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial Thanks for confirming. yeah I spoke to a company and a rep said they match whatever you have on your personal credit. That’s why it’s a good idea to target credit unions to get those high limit credit cards before targeting business credit cards.

That’s actually not a bad strategy at all. The more you know! Thanks again for letting me know about this. I wonder if other lenders do the same or if this is an Amex specific thing.

That's true as long as it's your official business name. If you're applying as a sole prop, your name will show up on the card twice unfortunately.

Thank you, I really appreciate the kind words! I'm glad you enjoyed it and hopefully I'll get to talk to you more in future videos as well!

Most definitely, you gained a sub from and will share with others. Already had AMEX So applied immediately after watching your video. Now I have ANOTHER ONE

@@djtgrind That means a lot man. Congratulations on your new card!! That's awesome to hear!

That's awesome! I loved being immediately approved as well. It's such a great feeling! Luckily that has been the case for all of my applications so far, so I hope I can keep that streak alive lol.

Hahah yeah let's hope so! I was pretty shocked as to how accurate you were lol. And I thanks for the congratulations! It feels really good to have gotten approved. And that's a huge compliment that you rewinded a couple of times! As long as that means I didn't explain something really poorly I guess lol. I was hoping through this video I can show people that business cards really are accessible to everyone which is a great thing about em. I do really care about getting the details right haha. Sometimes to a fault. I hope this one serves as a bit of an evergreen video so even if you come back to it in the future everything should be valid still! I was thinking of you when I made the real estate comment so I'm glad you noticed. plz don't come after me lol... NOT financial advice 😂

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial No no, you explain things very well. I rewind a million times when I need to know something ha. Memory method I use I guess. Nah, your caring shows through your videos so it’s a huge plus for us. We see it. Yes, for sure evergreen. You can tell by the views how valuable this video was! And thanks for thinking of me haha, I need to save as much on gas… electricity as I can!

@@AnthonyVenture Okay perfect that's good to know! And that's definitely a good way to remember things. I'm just glad my content is worth you rewinding! And I appreciate that man. I'm glad it comes off that way. This has definitely been one of my best early performing videos ever... matter of fact I think it is my best performer which is awesome. I feel really fortunate to have that happen and I just hope it continues to pull interest months or years down the line! Hahah I forgot you don't spend money on gas... I guess you'll need a card for those charging stations in particular. Didn't you say the new US Bank card could be that card for you?

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial You’re killing it man! And yes, either the U.S. or the autograph for charging, but I’m not sure yet. I have to find a new CC for a big purchase coming up, about $1500 but I’m struggling to find a worthwhile SUB haha.

@@AnthonyVenture I appreciate it! And yeah I feel you. That's exactly why I just wanted to apply for some kinda card right now to take advantage of my spend, but I didn't go for anything crazy. Anything is better than nothing at the end of the day! I feel like the best welcome offers are gonna come on luxury travel cards and business cards right now to be honest. There are some diamonds in the rough though.

I really appreciate the kind words!! I'm a huge proponent in trying to create the life you want for yourself rather than letting life happen as it does. Although it can be a grind at times, if you know what future you want for yourself, I think you should really try to get it! Thank you for your support!

Thank you Renee!!

I really appreciate that Lexton and I'm glad you enjoyed it! I hope to talk to you more in future videos as well!

Dang that's awesome! Assuming you were an existing Amex customer, I imagine the only hard pull you had on those cards if any was for the Chase Ink Unlimited. Congrats on both approvals!!

Thanks bro! & honestly I’ve never had a card with Amex. The only thing that I ended up opening with them was a savings account that I had for a month haha, maybe that helped ? I’m not sure. And as far as chase, they pulled 2 reports. Equifax & Experian, I got hit with 9 points from Equifax and only 1 on Experian. Pretty weird

@@dreamotb1 No problem! And yeah I've been growing to love Amex more and more since I got my Gold card (and now the BBP). Maybe the savings account did help, but I've found they usually like to give people cards if they're responsible with them which is really nice. Interesting to see Experian only affected by 1 point? I wonder why that is. Good to know though!

I think you’re right! They may end up doing a soft pull, I’m not 100% sure about that yet, but I haven’t had a hard pull at all yet for this application which is awesome!

Technically this is a business credit card, but a majority of people with it use it for personal expenses. I generally try to separate my expenses these days and only use it for business, but if you start asking around, you'll realize people use this as a daily driver for personal expenses too despite the fact that Amex technically says you shouldn't do that. Personally, I've used it for all types of expenses with no issues whatsoever if that helps at all.

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial cool. Thank you very much for the response!

No problem! @@DJFresca10

Thank you! And as I discussed in the unboxing in more detail, I didn't get a hard pull for this one since I was an existing Amex customer already.

That’s a great question! Obviously I am not a CPA or financial advisor by any means, but to my knowledge the only reason your taxes would change is not just because you got this credit card. However, if you do use your card for only business purchases then your taxes will change because you need to report what you are and aren’t writing off. If you report your dog walking as extra income and pay taxes on that, then that will already be wrapped up in your taxes as pretax income, but if you do decide to write off any business purchases, that would need to be taken into account in your taxes as well. This is the best of my knowledge but once again no tax advice.

That has definitely been nice! Hopefully KZfaq is starting to get that under control.

Hi S D!! I'm not sure what your current credit card setup looks like, but Amex does offer other no annual fee personal cards that are great to start with as well! For example, the Amex Blue Cash Everyday card just got a massive update to it and it is a no annual fee card with some excellent earning categories! Obviously as the name suggests, it is a cash back card rather than an Amex point earning card, but it's a great place to start depending on what you're looking for. If you do have a business (or an idea for one that could turn a profit) then this is one of the best business cards out there that a lot of people recommend. I only really recommend starting the business card applications once you have a majority of the personal cards you want and are trying to farm you 5/24 status or something along those lines. But if you're new to credit cards, then personal credit cards are great! Be careful with the ones with really high annual fees like the Platinum card because they can be a money suck if you don't use those credits. Since I don't know your exact setup and what you're looking for, those are my initial recommendations, but I'm here to answer more questions if you have them!

Oh that's a really good data point to know. Thanks for sharing Thomas!

Thank you Ahmed!! No hard inquiries here! Only soft if anything. My credit scores haven't been affected at all! That is of course because I already had the Gold card previously and since it's a business card it has much less of an effect on your personal credit except for a possible hard inquiry.

I froze my account on all of the major three credit bureaus so I can apply safely. I have a relationship with Amex through Amex everyday card for three years. Do you think freezing is a safe heaven from pulling that hard inquiry ? I am considering Amex Amazon prime business credit card since it gives 5% on amazon purchases which is not going to report to personal ?

I had someone else in the comments today mention that they had all reports frozen and still got approved for a business card, but I can’t confirm that personally. Since you already have that relationship with them it’s entirely possibly you’d be approved without any kind of pull, but again I can’t guarantee anything. If you did get denied you could call their reconsideration line and see if your frozen reports were why though if you wanted and maybe you could get the decision reversed. And no business cards should be reporting to your personal credit report with the exception of some lenders cards, but Amex is safe on that front to my knowledge!

Every transaction that the owner chooses to put on the card is business related.

I agree with you GT! I’m excited to start using it more frequently for sure!

You bring up a great point and I appreciate you sharing that! For me personally, I don’t get too hung up on what my credit scores are as long as everything is over 700 or so. I use my Experian score through chase as one of my most realistic measures, but as long as that score is good I’m pretty confident I’m in a good spot. This is really good to know though if you’re toeing that line and are wanting to know your score exactly and thank you again for bringing it up!

Also most ppl don't want to go the PG route which is using their SS#. There's card that don't require it like the Sam club card and others so no it's not all cards. I avoid those that require my social as it adds a hard inquiry on my personal. With that being said, the Sam's club card requires 1 yr in business to be approved. I don't like inquires so much that I'll hack my approvals by going for cards that do a soft pull for pre approval and once I see my offer, I freeze my reports and click the accept and get my new card. Trick only works of the report isn't frozen while doing the approval but freezing before accepting.

That’s a commitment to the game for sure man! I feel like I’ve come to the conclusion for myself that inquiries are not a big deal at all unless you have a ton of them in a short period of time. Mainly because they don’t stay on your report for too long and they stop affecting your score even quicker. Usually after 1-2 billing cycles my score recovers past where it was before the hard inquiry, so it hasn’t been an issue for me yet. I haven’t ever frozen any of my scores yet but I know a lot of people that do and do that successfully! That may be something I do when I look to get a mortgage or something along those lines to avoid a ton of dings to my score, but for just credit card applications I try not to worry too much.

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial true true! Yea I've been walking a fine line with credit since I been repairing it due to running into hard times a few years ago. It's true that when it's around my scores you need to be abit more careful with your reports. For example, I some bought land this yr the down payment was based on my score so I monitored it very carefully before they pulled. Also, you don't really need to worry about hard inquiry for finding a mortgage or car. You get a shopping period which let's multiple companies pull your report but only the 1st company shows meaning multiple inquires count as 1. Car and Mortgage should be 14- 45 days depending on the scoring bureau.

I 100% understand man! Sometimes every single point matters and that’s completely fine. I think it definitely applies to almost everyone depending on the season of life you’re in. And I forgot about that grace period of inquiries when shopping loans so thank you for reminding me! I’ve heard that in that process you can get tons of pulls on your credit, but if they only show up as 1 inquiry I guess that’s not too bad!

Hey Pablo! Since I was an existing member of Amex as well, they did not do any hard inquiries! Just a soft one if that. My scores weren’t even affected!

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial Thank You so much for your response ❤️❤️

Of course Pablo! That’s what I’m here for!!

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial I apply yesterday, and today I got the email that I'm approved🤩!!! Looking forward to seeing the unboxing video. 🤩 BTW, Congrats on the approval as well. LOL

That’s so cool to hear man!! Congratulations on your approval! The unboxing video will be coming very soon. I appreciate the congrats on my end, but once again, same to you!

I just applied and got approved

If I'm being honest with you, I'd be willing to bet the majority of people apply for this card as a sole prop and use it only for personal expenses. Most of the folks who comment on my videos about the BBP say that. There's no big harm in applying as a sole prop for this card, so I wouldn't stress about that. Even if you applied as an LLC it's still tied to your name at the end of the day. Business cards just won't report to your personal credit (besides with Cap1 and Discover). Hopefully that helps!

Well there you go! Congrats man!

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial I appreciate the video now this is my 3rd card with Amex as well as checking and saving. I was aware they only do 1 pull if approved for a product being in it for life I was scared they would do a hard pull on business side and they didn’t so that’s a plus I was just scared of that pull

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial I will sub as well because of said factors Video was informative Even though this video is 6 months old you reply like you care about your subs this was a very fast response I like that. You also seem to love what you do and I’ve watched a couple videos before anyway so as a token of gratitude of me getting approved I’ll sub that’s the least a bro can do

That's great! Since your Gold card has been reporting to the credit bureaus, this application should just be a soft pull to my knowledge. As for your business, you can put EXPECTED revenue and expenses in the application, so it doesn't have to be money you already have. Just be realistic with it is all! If they requested tax forms (which they rarely do and haven't ever done for me) then you'd just explain to them that it's expected revenue and you were hoping to use the card for startup costs and such.

Thanks Spencer for the quick response! So I can use the card like a regular card or like my gold card and dont need to fill out anything about my revenue I made after a year? I Will be applying now with your link wish me luck.

Since I’m a sole prop I don’t actually have an EIN at the moment. While I could go get one pretty easily, I think a lot of people would like to just use their SSN for their applications as well, so I went with that here. Either way works perfectly fine! If you did have an LLC or something of the sort, you would want to use your EIN for sure though. Hopefully that makes sense!

They did that to a friend of mine too. I'm not sure what causes them to give lower limits on their business cards sometimes, but after 60 days with the card, people recommend you request a credit limit increase of 3x and you should get it. Then you have to wait 6 months after that but could continue to request more. You can request higher than that at first, but even getting 3x your credit limit should be pretty easy to do. I hope that helps!

I would say it completely depends on what card best fits your setup right now! If you're looking for a card with no annual fee that you can keep open forever to help build business credit history, then the BBP is the way to go. If you want some more perks on better categories and can get enough positive value from the Business Gold and it's annual fee, then it may work better for you! It's all about what fits your overall strategy best, but those are some things to keep in mind.

For my first Amex card, the Amex Gold, they pulled from Experian and Transunion. For my BBP application, there was no hard pull at all since I was an existing customer which was super nice!

I'm honestly not sure if that's the case or not. I haven't heard that before! I just know it doesn't report to my personal credit of course, but I hadn't heard that about the business bureaus. Definitely something to look into!

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial Do me a favor Spence..........let me know when u finds out (either way). I would be more motivated to apply for this card if it does report to the business bureaus. After all, the goal (at least for me) is to build credit history with the business bureaus. Thanks bro!

Yeah that’s a good question! I’ll let you know if I hear anything. I’ve been assuming it’s reporting to the business bureaus this whole time tbh.

Good news is there was no hard pull for me! That is of course because I've had a previous relationship with Amex so that made it a really simple application process all around.

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial that’s awesome thanks

@@Alex-B2357 No problem Alex!

Both of these cards show up in my 1 Amex account, but they report to different credit bureaus of course. Hopefully that’s what you’re asking.

It's called The Credit Community! I'll add a link to my description of the video for you.

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial thank you so much! And congrats on your new credit card!

No problem and thank you!! I hope to chat with you in there sometime.

I’m not sure what they’re particular preference is. I’ve only had my Amex gold for 4 months and was approved for the BBP fine! You just can’t get approved for more than 2 cards in 90 days with Amex, but other than that, you should be pretty safe! Just make sure you only apply for a card whenever you know you can hit the welcome bonus!!

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial ok thanks. I’m curious because I’m paying off my car loan soon it has a $3500 balance left on it. So obviously I’ll be in way less debt. So I wonder if they will be wanting me to apply for another card.

Well the lower the debt to income ratio you have the better for lenders! I don’t think it’ll make a huge difference whether you apply for the card now or wait till you pay off your loan. Either way as long as your credit score is strong and you have a good credit history, you should be fine!

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial yeah my credit history is almost 3 years old. I have a clean payment history, my credit utilization is within reason, and my score is in the low 700 right now.

I would imagine you’d be approved then! Amex is definitely not quite as stingy with applications as other lenders, and you don’t hear many people getting denied unless their credit is in bad shape or they have a TON of recent hard inquiries. Even with a bunch of inquiries people still get approved. Of course I can’t guarantee you anything but I would have some confidence if I were you and even if you did get denied you could call their reconsideration line and hopefully get that decision reversed.

That's awesome! Getting approved in any capacity is an accomplishment so good work there! Amex is pretty good about only doing a soft pull if you ever request a credit limit increase, so keep that in mind for the future!

That's not a bad way to do it! Chase will show you your Experian scores which are pretty accurate, but if you want to compare it to your Transunion and Equifax scores, you could make an account with Credit Karma and use their platform. That'll give you a good idea as to where everything stands and although it isn't perfect, it's generally really close. To really get a full understanding of your credit report, you can get copies of the reports themselves through a government website (which I don't know the link for off the top of my head), but using Credit Karma + Chase's credit journey is all I use!

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial where did u see that other big sign up bonus I can’t find it

@@taylorseibert2237 If you search "Amex BBP 50k offer" in google, you should see a doctorofcredit.com link pop up. I clicked on that and then clicked on the link within the article that says "Direct Link to Offer". Since it's a targeted offer, it may not show up for everyone once you click on that link, but you should at least be able to get to the doctorofcredit article by searching those terms in google. Let me know if that works for you.

Very interesting! Did you apply as a sole proprietor? If so, did you report a really high revenue?

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial Applied as a sole proprietor. Reported $1000 per month revenue. I'm also an Amex Platinum and Blue Cash Preferred card holder.

Hmm weird. I guess $1,000 a month is a decent amount of money to be making if it’s a side hustle or something of the sort, but since it’s not crazy I wonder why they requested all that info.

Hey Neil! I use the Canon M50 with a Sigma 16mm f/1.4 lens.

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial Thanks a bunch! Great content

@@neilhg No problem!! I have also heard really great things about Sony cameras and I would say they probably have the better quality but with a higher price point to my knowledge. I picked this one up from Mark Plymale a while back for a discount so that's why I rock what I do.

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial and thx for using that mic!! People have no idea how those little details make the videos much more enjoyable. Good content and good presentation👍🏽🥂

@@miltchamberlain6218 No problem at all! I know how important audio is to me when I watch videos, so I wanted to give as much quality as I could in that department without breaking the bank. I plan on upgrading that too in the future so that'll be exciting!

I think your setup that you listed here will fit your strategy great! Everyone's setup is going to be slightly different, but to me, if you want points that are good for cashback and great for travel, then Chase cards are really solid. If you're a Cap1 fan instead, that's completely fine, and you'll get a ton of value from their cards as well. The thing about Chase cards is that in order to get the most value from them, you'll want the Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Sapphire Reserve, or the Chase Ink Preferred to get the most value from your points by transferring to travel partners, so keep that in mind. Also remember that if you want a Chase Ink card (or any Chase card), you'll have to be under 5 personal cards in the last 24 months, so try to plan ahead for that. If you have any other questions let me know!

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial i like capitol one better for travel. The categories for them is a lot better chase. Groceries and gas is not a category for chase. I like to have the cap one combo+a hotel card, and a grocery/gas card in bce. I will keep my discover it card for a monthly payment to keep it open as this is my first ever credit card. My premier cards will be venture x and aspire for when I am older and out of school. I like chase but their categories are not as good for everyday use. I just want a good mix.

@@Jes1919 Then it sounds like you've got a really good setup for yourself! I like to combo Chase and Amex cards to get me the most value on all those categories, but you can really do it with any lender, especially if you like cash back cards as well. Chase and Amex have all the travel partners I use the most (specifically Chase) and then when I'm ready to get some free points from a welcome bonus, I'll go ahead and get a hotel/airline card to fit that strategy. I'm not quite at that stage but I will be eventually!

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial what combo of amex+chase would you recommend? I like the amex gold but I don’t know how I could get its value. I live in a rural town so only go out for dining 2-4 times a month.

@@SpencerJohnsonOfficial for example, amex gold and bce+ chase unlimited and preferred.

Thank you Cordell!!

I appreciate you! By your username I assume you’re from Houston? I’m there quite a bit these days but I’m from Austin myself.