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

QFB took a break from our home improvement duties for a quick trip to Sunny (not really) Florida.  Of course, we took advantage of Amex every time we could…  Our Platinum Card helped us receive star treatment at National Car Rental (even QFB couldn’t stomach what Hertz is charging these days), and of course skipping the CDW saved us a buck or two.

Taking advantage of the Airport Club was of course a nice touch, as always.  The Platinum Card is really indispensable to any level of traveler.  In one trip we saved almost 1/2 our membership fee…  Not bad.

Now, its back to home improvement.  More things to order, more charges.  The quest continues!

Unexpectedly, we are moving from one unit in our building to another.  We own the building, which definitely makes it easy.  But with this comes a month of hell and tons of renovations.  And what better a partner to have (other than Mrs. QFB) than my Amex Platinum?  Already I’ve found tons of Amex partners to buy my wares from, with bonus rewards points in the area of 4X the original purchase cost.  That’s what I call a deal.  So when you are looking for contractors, suppliers or other tools of the trade, always check for their ability to accept the card.  When all is said and done, we’ll have a free trip anywhere, or a good upgrade, all thanks to our MR Points.

At the end of week 1, here is where we stand….

Awesome charges: $8000 of vendor transactions, $750 for autobody work, $2000 for wife’s tuition, $500 for a group dinner (will I charge and take other people’s cash?  Sure!) and a couple of trips to Dunkin.  Not a bad start though, considering I have another $12,000 worth of invoices due to pay in the next week…  Most charges via PLUM ;)

For those interested in Black Card resources, check out:

http://www.blackcardsource.com/

BTW, a couple of things for fellow Amex card holders…

* Always check out the Membership Rewards shopping partners before you make a purchase.  Idiot me bought 2 iMacs worth over $4000 and a MacBook pro and didn’t do it online.  Thats 23,500 reward points, or a free upgrade on my next coast to coast flight.  Ouch!

* The Platinum card has an awesome promotion at the Mandarin Oriental and the Wynn/Encore in Las Vegas: a free night with one purchased.  I’ll be using this for our next trip out to the desert in May.

* Make sure you review all the benefits of the cards you have.  I spent more time in researching this quest and realized that there are some pretty damned good benefits I wasn’t taking advantage of.  Don’t make the same mistakes I did!