QFB feels we’re making progress towards the goal.  We’ve convinced tons of vendors, suppliers and whatnot into taking American Express.  Thus far, we’re amazed at how many have offered to take it and don’t care about the commission.  Where this happens we are using our Platinum and at this point earning 25,000 MR points per month.  Not a bad start!  

And, for those who pass the cost to us, we accept up to 1.5% of it and charge on the Plum card.  Then at least we break even.

Best of all, a new promotion until Feb 2011 has come out, where spending $10,000 on your business Platinum will net you another 5,000 points per month.  So at this point you can really gather up the points which can be used for travel all over the place - you can transfer to tons of airlines or even buy tickets with points as a currency.

The promo is here and has no signup: https://www212.americanexpress.com/dsmlive/dsm/int/businessplatinum2010pilot.do?vgnextoid=1813451a0caf6210VgnVCM100000defaad94RCRD&om_rid=DSSL4z&om_mid=_BLjDHcB748hsSp&om_lid=axp9

If you’re charging $10,000 on a corp card consistently, you’ll earn at least 180,000 points over the next year.  At this pace I’m looking at 300,000 points.

That isn’t even counting my taxes.  They are going on my Amex too ;)

Till next time…..

QFB

Most people who hold American Express Cards didn’t even know about this one.  I didn’t!  The American Express Auto Purchasing Program makes car buying a relatively hassle-free experience.

Last fall I was shopping around for an Audi A4.  I had test driven at a local dealer but was astounded when we sat to talk about numbers.  The dealer’s best price was $625 per month on a 36 month lease!  That dog won’t hunt!

So I had temporarily given up on my Audi ambitions, there is no way that $625 is a good price for that car.  Maybe for an A6 thats loaded, but not the A4 I wanted (Manual transmissions only come on the A4 and A3 now).  But then, enter the Amex APP.  I found this via some hidden link on the American express site and gave it a try.

Basically, you go step by step through the process, you price the car you want by choosing all of the features…  Then the system pairs you up with a local dealer.  The dealer called me within an hour, and without any haggling we had a purchase price well, well under invoice.

Within a week I was driving my new, manual transmission A4 (silver, exactly what I wanted), and the lease cost was only $500.00 per month.  Savings over the term of the lease?  $4500.00.  Thanks Amex!

Try it yourself, here:

http://amexnetwork.zag.com/

Our quest for the legendary American Express Centurion card has begun!

A little about us.  We have been Amex card members since 1996.  Right now we have a Green, Business Gold, Business Platinum, normal Platinum, Blue and a Plum card.

In addition, we have a Presidential Plus Mastercard from Chase - where we do most of our spending.  Now, the purpose of this mission is to try to get the Centuron Card (aka “The Black Card”) while not killing our spending on our Presidential Plus.  Why?  Because as Continental Elite Flyers, we get Flex Elite Miles on CO with each bucket of $15,000 spent.

So, since we can’t guarantee receiving the Black Card - especially with rumors of it going back to invite only…  We are instead trying to move more expenses to our Amex cards that were previously handled via checks or other instruments, and keeping the benefits of our Chase card.  Of course, if we got The Black Card, those elite miles really wouldn’t matter anymore, because The Black Card offers up elite status anyway.

Step one in our quest: Application for Plum.

The Plum card seems to be a great step for our business.  We get flexibility in terms, if we need it.  If we pay 10% of a balance, we can float the rest for 60 days.  Not bad for a business owner.  But even better, if you pay your bill within 10 days, you get 1.5% back.  So the first thing we’ve done is acquired a Plum card.  Then, we have alerted our vendors that payment must be electronic now and we are willing to pay up to 1.5% of the fee (for those who aren’t happy about this arrangement).  What do we care - previously we’d pay by check anyway.  At least we are saving postage!

So, follow us on Twitter or via this site and keep up with our quest.  Comments always appreciated…!