Money Blue Book

When I was little I always wondered why my parents bothered to rummage through our closets, cabinets, shoe racks, and sock drawers for assorted clothing every few years. I would see my mom folding and stacking old and outdated clothes that I never wore anymore into black garbage bags and deliver them to the Salvation Army or Goodwill. It wasn’t until I started working and earning income that I finally realized why it made sense to take the time to compile old apparel and send them to local charities. Other than the usual altruistic factors, the biggest reason is to take full advantage of the IRS itemized charitable tax deduction for qualified clothing donations.

Not that we all shouldn’t be donating to charities out of the kindness of our hearts, but Uncle Sam has provided us an attractive incentive in the form of tax breaks for charitable contributions. Most people are keenly aware that they get a tax deductible write off when they tithe or donate money to a charitable organization like their local church. But some seem to forget that the deduction also applies to noncash donations like clothing, shoes, and furniture, so long as they are in reasonably good condition. Of course, like with all good perks there are ground rules in place to prevent abusive taxpayers from going crazy and taking unfair liberty with the charitable deduction. Without these regulations, you would probably have people assigning all sorts of outrageous valuations on the items they donate ($25 for a used T-shirt complete with holes, for example).

The Charitable Tax Deduction Is Useful Only If You Itemize

The calculation of one’s annual tax return usually entails adding up all the income and gains for the year, and then deducting expenses and losses to come up with the final taxable income balance. The IRS provides two primary deduction methods - the simpler standard deduction, which is a flat set amount, and the itemized method, which requires the taxpayer to manually report each individual deduction that he or she qualifies for. The charitable deduction is one of many that falls in the itemized category. The taxpayer has to choose whether to take the standard deduction or to itemize. However, until the total sum of all itemized deductions exceed the standard, it doesn’t make sense to itemize. Unless you already carry a hefty home mortgage with itemizable mortgage interest, it probably makes more sense to itemize every other year, and bulk up your donations in those years. When you itemize, charitable contributions should be a key part of your tax reduction plan.

Five Steps To Donating Your Clothes And Getting That Tax Deduction, Without Being Audited

When donating clothes for the tax deduction, the worst thing you can do is to drastically overestimate the donated clothing value and trigger an alarm bell. Triggering a red flag will send the IRS man running to your home to request receipts and proof of your donation. Because charitable donation is one of those tax items frequently abused by taxpayers, the IRS closely scrutinizes such claims. Thus you want to make sure you go by the book:

1) Gather All Your Unwanted Clothes and Organize Them - Most usable articles of clothing, including shirts, jackets, coats, shoes, dresses, socks, neckties, suits, and even underwear may be donated to local thrift shops and charitable institutions. For underwear and socks however, it’s important to be aware that the IRS now requires all articles of donated used clothing to be in good used condition or better. It’s probably a better idea to avoid worn socks and underwear. While it’s true what they say - that beggars can’t be choosers, we should still try to respect the dignity of those individuals receiving them. If you want to donate those particular items, I suggest buying a new cheap pair for donation.

2) Make A Detailed Record Of Your Donated Items - While it is likely no questions of your donation will ever arise, it is still important to keep a detailed list of your donation in case questions arise or you get audited on the matter. Try to keep a spreadsheet chart or list of all articles donated, recording information such as the number of clothing articles, the estimated dates of purchase, condition at the time of donation, the assessed fair market value of each item, and perhaps even substantiation of how you calculated and arrived at the particular valuation. Some people also recommend taking digital photographs of each item. I recommend taking photos, especially for those items whose valuation may be a bit high and out of the norm.

3) Assign An Appropriate Fair Market Value For Each Clothing Item - The donation valuation process is generally subjective and you are responsible for assigning the proper value for your charitable donations. There is no exact IRS formula or chart as the agency relies on subjective approximations. However, if you wish to donate more than a total of $500 worth of clothing or other goods to charities, you must complete Section A of Form 8283 Non Cash Charitable Contributions, and include it with your federal tax return. A formal donation appraisal by a qualified appraiser is not needed unless you are making a contribution of non-cash property worth more than $5,000. A qualified appraiser is someone authorized to complete Part III, Declaration of Appraiser, of Section B, which must also be included with the tax return in that event.

The IRS permits taxpayers to only deduct the fair market value of the donated clothing and household good. Fair market value is the reasonable price that an ordinary buyer would pay for the item in a regular market situation such as at a flea market, on eBay, or at a thrift shop. Fair market value is not the original purchase cost but the second hand used price that could be obtained in an otherwise efficient market.

There are various used clothing charts and valuation tables on the internet to help determine worth. Both The Salvation Army and Goodwill Industries provide assorted valuation guides on their web sites, which may be used as templates for approximating fair market value. You should keep in mind that the donated value is frequently much less than the original purchase price. If you want additional clarification, please take at look at the official IRS publications on the subject:

• Publication 561, Determining the Value of Donated Property - Useful if you want to examine a few valuation scenarios.
• Publication 526, Charitable Contributions - Addresses the entire subject of charitable donations and provides a useful background.

4) Deliver Your Donated Clothing To The Charity - Most people donate clothing and other household products through charitable organizations such as their local church, or through Goodwill and the Salvation Army. I recommend visiting their websites to locate one of their many thrift shop locations nationwide where you can bring your bags of donated clothing to. There is no need to make a reservation or appointment. Just deliver your bags of clothing and your categorized list of items. Be sure you have properly compiled your list of donation items before bringing the items to the site. Don’t expect the charity to sort the items and do the work for you on the spot.

Usually, the way it works is you drop off your items at the donation site and a staff member provides you with a receipt upon request. Although you are not obligated to obtain a written receipt from the charity if the total value of the donated clothing is under $250, you should still always request one for record keeping purposes. Sometimes, but not always, they’ll make a note on the receipt for you about exactly what was dropped off, but the description is usually very general - such as “3 bags of clothing”. Other times, they will simply hand you a blank receipt for you to fill out.

Some charitable thrift shop centers allow you to mail your clothing donations in, or even provide large clothing donation boxes where you can leave your clothes. Just be sure to include a self-addressed, stamped envelope so the center can send you a receipt later. Shipping costs are tax deductible as well.

5) Claim the Value Of Your Clothing Donation As A Charitable Deduction On Your Tax Return - Since you went through all the trouble of donating your used clothing, be sure to take the appropriate deduction on your tax return when you file. To claim the charitable tax deduction, you will need to report the value of your donated clothes on Schedule A of Form 1040 as an itemized deduction. The total value of your charitable deductions cannot be more than 50 percent of your adjusted gross income in any single year. However, donations exceeding the 50 percent limit can be carried forward to future years.

As with most things in life, I recommend that you plan ahead before making large clothing donations. If you don’t usually carry significant itemizable expenses such as home mortgage interest and taxes, you should save up your donations until you have a sizable amount before making the contribution. While charitable giving is always a worthy cause, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to fully maximize the tax advantages the government provides.

It’s unbelievable how much it costs to buy a house these days. Looking at single family home prices in my area and even those located in less appealing crime ridden neighborhoods, I am just now realizing that I may never be able to afford one in my lifetime. Well, at least not the American dream home I always imagined. Not that I ever really wanted the traditional country home with the proverbial white picket fences, but somehow I always envisioned I would be closer to this dream by my late 20’s. I always figured by this time I would already be the proud owner of a brand new single family home or at least a newly constructed townhouse. So far, due to the lack of sufficient finances to match the out of control housing prices, I have not been able to attain my goal. Is this dream becoming a fantasy I wonder?

Ever since the beginning, the great American dream of prosperity and happiness has always revolved around owning a piece of land (preferably with a house on top of it). Home ownership has always been associated with security and stability. The mere act of possessing a parcel to call your own has always symbolized the triumph of moving from the unexplainable stigma of renting to a greater plane, found only on higher rungs up the economic and social ladder. But in recent years, even those who thought they had found their American dream have seen it shatter into a nightmare of swirling foreclosures and defaulting subprime loans. For prospective future home buyers like myself, we can only hope that the correcting market will find a way to prevent the dream from fading out of our financial grasps.

The Rapid Rise In Home Prices Has Almost Put Home Ownership Out Of Reach For Many

During the housing surge in 2003, I witnessed most of my older friends snap up brand new home constructions left and right. Their newly purchased homes seemed to appreciate and grow in value at an unstoppable velocity. Homeowners at the time saw their home equity surge to staggering heights in a short period of time, and many couldn’t help but bask in the financial glow of their paper net worths. But for everyone else like me looking in from the outside, it was a difficult and demoralizing time. I thought I was missing out on the greatest boom in history.

The fact that I resided in a nice Maryland suburb of Washington D.C. known for its historically high real estate prices made it even worse. Single family starter homes in areas convenient to work easily tipped the scales at $700,000 for old homes and nearly a million dollars for newer, nicer ones. These are just your basic houses, without the frills or additions. To seek out more affordable options, I would have to move further out into the distant suburban boonies of ghetto Baltimore and deal with a 2-3 hour round trip commute to D.C. everyday - a very hard pill to swallow, and one I just could not reconcile with.

The Heavens Finally Grant Us The Housing Collapse Needed To Help Bring Normalcy and Order Back To A Real Estate Market Gone Wild

It was not until the housing bubble finally popped and released its full fury that the market has finally started to regain its senses and inch its way towards equilibrium again. For the last few years I thought the American dream of home ownership was disappearing from the reach of many ordinary middle class Americans like myself. Thankfully the dream has not disappeared, but merely faded out of sight while the housing hype and hysteria rode its doomed coaster. I am utterly relieved that housing prices have finally began to make its descent back to normalcy, to better match the steady growth of jobs and employment wages.

For too many years, housing prices were inflated by irresponsible homeowners and unscrupulous subprime mortgage companies offering easy money, sped on by the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decisions. Mortgage companies aided and abetted the creation of the housing bubble by tempting highly advertised mortgage loan offers of 1% interest rates, interest only adjustable loans, pick a payment packages, and agreeing to fund home purchases for buyers with questionable credit histories. Inflated home appraisals were also a big component of what fueled the housing bubble. For years, home appraisers were pressured by mortgage originators, real estate agents, and home sellers in tandem with borrowers alike to overvalue the homes they appraised. With the unspoken collaboration of unethical home value appraisers, real estate prices soared to unchecked levels. At least one of my friends who worked as an appraiser was cognizant of the demand to keep home price valuations artificially high. Those who failed to play ball and produce the desired numbers would lose business and commissions to another appraiser willing to churn out fraudulent home valuations. This all resulted in a real estate system that soon became broken, corrupted, and in desperate need of a good shell shocking.

While I sympathize with current homeowners who are dismayed at retreating home prices, I think in the grand scheme of things, this type of market blood letting is a must for the sake of our nation’s economy and housing future. Home prices must accurately and efficiently match the supply and demand of the market, backed by the strength of jobs and wages. Hopefully, rapidly dropping prices spurred on by an ever increasing housing inventory supply will weed out the flippers and those with subprime credit who irresponsibly bought too much home than they could reasonably afford.

My Housing Plans and Recommendations For The Future

For now I plan to rent an apartment for the foreseeable future, at least until my life takes a turn (marriage etc). I still hold on to the American dream of home ownership, but for now that dream will have to wait until market prices settle. Fallout from the credit crisis and subprime mortgage debacle will take years to sort out and run its course. But looking at the high cost of home prices today, I also know that so long as I remain single and rely solely on my own income, my dream of owning a single family house will not be possible. The American economic system was simply not designed for single middle class individuals - only through pooled resources as a married team can a couple afford a home.

But for everyone out there who is not head over heels in debt and has a good FICO credit score with a solid credit history, now is an attractive time to be a prospective home buyer. Today’s market is definitely a buyer’s market. Home prices are more reasonable now that interest rates are low again. But I think most people should still hold out. While bidding competition from investors is currently very low because there are few buyers, there are still many more significant price drops to be had. Don’t believe anything you hear from delusional housing market pundits like the National Association of Realtors.

Unless you can successfully get the home seller to accept a low ball offer that is substantially less than the listed price, I would recommend that buyers wait at least 2 more years until 2010 before they even consider buying a home (renting is not as terrible as some people seem to think). As always, don’t buy more home than your current stage in life requires and always buy within your means. The general rule of thumb is that most prospective homeowners can afford to mortgage a property worth 2 to 2.5 times their annual gross income. Obviously it’s much easier to afford a home mortgage when you are married with two income streams than it is on just one single person’s paycheck. If I had prematurely jumped into the house buying craze years ago, I would probably now be owning an upside down mortgage on an overpriced home rapidly losing its value, and struggling with mortgage payments.

I often work on the computer late into the evening and most of the time I keep my television set on as background noise. Usually there isn’t much programming going on in the wee evening hours - that is, except for the inescapable torrent of Girls Gone Wild commercials which seem to flood their way onto the airwaves after midnight whether you like it or not. The other types of shady programs that seem to craw their way onto my TV screen at night are the sleazy late night infomercials selling all sorts of silly products from male enhancement pills, to expensive audio tapes on how to get rich quick while working in your pajamas. While some of the commercials are tastefully done, hyping somewhat useful products like fruit juicers or portable infrared ovens, most them are repetitive scams designed to get you to part with your money fast.

Exposing Money Making Get Rich Quick Infomercials

When most people have gone to sleep, the roaches come out to play. The vast majority of late light commercials fall into the slummy get rich quick category. Most are slickly produced sales pitches for useless packages containing rehashed literature and DVD tapes about how to earn big bucks flipping houses, dabbling in cash flow notes, or making money on eBay. Of all the late night infomercials, the one that really sticks in my mind is the so-called Shortcuts to Internet Millions gimmick being hawked by a guy named Jeff Paul. It’s not the fact that he is selling information that can easily be read and obtained online for free that makes me mentally nauseous and annoyed, it’s the gratuitous visual sales tactics that he uses to sucker gullible consumers into buying his promises of money making fortune. His commercials are full of ridiculous and extremely misleading assertions. Simply after watching his commercials for a few minutes, I felt my own IQ slipping down a few notches.

Without a doubt, it’s mostly the targeted male viewers, who despite their better judgment and gut instincts, still blindly succumb to the song of the financial siren. I guess many men find it hard to resist the message and promises of making millions when they are being flirtatiously whispered by beautiful curvy women surrounded by other attractive visual displays of lavish pools, opulent mansions, and luxury vehicles. Despite a world where society and the media continue to be pressured toward political correctness, in the world of advertising and product promotion, several sad truisms still ring true - “there’s a sucker born every minute” and “sex sells.” Much of these tactics are keenly and specifically demonstrated by the Shortcuts to Internet Millions infomercials.

Here are five of the more exploitive (but very effective) infomercial tactics used:

1) The Use Of Flirty Female Hosts To Mesmerize and Make The Sale - Without a shadow of a doubt, the use of sexual imagery is very effective at capturing the attention of the mostly male target audience. For the record, I want to make it very clear (to minimize email complaints), that I am moderately liberal in my social views. I don’t think there is anything wrong with women dressing up the way they want in real life. I have no problem with that. What I have a problem with is the use of this sleazy and blatant form of exploitation and allure to sell a product that frankly has nothing to do with the associated imagery - something I feel insults my intelligence.

The Shortcuts to Internet Millions infomercials feature two noticeably attractive and perky hosts, Kelly Britz and Tina Milano, as they gush and chat about how much money they are each making on the internet using the program. They go on and on about how it’s so easy and magical, and how all their (presumably very attractive) girlfriends are all logging on and getting into the online affiliate money making business without so much as breaking a sweat. Right……

The attempt at sexual innuendo is not even subtle. It’s not merely two attractive women sitting on sofas having a pleasant discussion about their unbelievable passion for internet marketing. We are talking about two very, very, very prominently endowed women bearing their bare cleavages, while gushing about how easy it was for them to make thousands of dollars a week through eBay with just a few mouse clicks - without having any knowledge or prior experience with computers or the internet. It’s like Jeff Paul swiped two girls from the preceding Girls Gone Wild commercial and handed them microphones so they can blab away about how they magically made money on this thing called eBay. Wearing extremely low cut tops as they chatted away on screen, the stereotypical bombshells offered zero credibility in my eyes and likely in the eyes of most serious consumers as well. However, in a warped way, their mere presence got my attention and likely the focus of many male viewers, and sadly, perhaps even luring a few into handing over their credit card numbers to order the ridiculous product.

2) Obsession With Associating Everything With Magic - Why do they insist on making the attractive female hosts seem so naive and brainless? “Do you really know how your e-mail magically appears on your computer screen?” one of them quizzes. The female genius then offers a few more “magical” references, concluding her powerful and persuasive argument of, “If you can type on your keyboard and click your mouse you can do this.” By golly, she’s right!

In the world of the Jeff Paul Shortcuts to Internet Millions’ infomercial, everything seems to magically appear - especially with the program’s so-called “3 Clicks To Cash” process. You type in your information and voila, your new business website “magically appears on the internet”. You send an email, and the words get “magically sent”. You don’t even need to do any work or online promotion because money will just “magically get earned” and checks will “magically come flying to you”. After all, the internet is just one magical fairyland where everyone magically makes money right? Try telling that to all the multi-million dollar dot com startups that went bust in 2000.

3) The Joke That Computer and Internet Illiterates Can Still Become Online Millionaires - I’m sorry to burst the combined delusional bubbles of Jeff Paul and his two babes, but making money on the internet requires a lot of computer and internet knowhow. Getting started online is easy - anyone can start up a basic template website. But to truly become a successful online entrepreneur requires substantial amounts of trial and experience, as well as committed dedication towards effort and learning, whether it be with eBay or any other online medium. It can be done but the process requires skills beyond mere flipping through a few book pages or clicking a few mouse keys to get your simple turnkey website on the web. To successfully promote your site and make money, you have to rank high in the search engines, particularly Google, which is a competitive and time consuming task. It requires that you not only roll up your sleeves, immerse yourself in the subject, but also dedicate lots of time to developing the business. No one makes money on the internet overnight. Those who think they can will be taken for a magic carpet ride that ends nowhere. If we were to buy into the program’s sad and misguided logic, then even computer newbies like my mom and dad could easily become internet millionaire tycoons with just a few instant mouse clicks.

4) The Idea That You Don’t Need To Have Your Own Line Of eBay Products Because You Can Easily Make Money From Drop Shipping - It’s so sad that people fall for this particular sales pitch. Drop ship products are merchandise that the manufacturer agrees to ship directly to the consumer without the merchant having to take possession for shipment. The fallacy is that it is lucrative and allows anyone with a website to make a ton of money. The reality is that drop ship products are the absolute worst when it comes to profiting from eBay sales and making money online. Sure it’s convenient, but because there is little buying risk to you as the eBay merchant, the so-called wholesale prices you obtain are not really wholesale at all. As such, profit margins are virtually non-existent and in fact, after eBay fees and transaction costs, you will almost always lost money or simply break even if you’re lucky.

Furthermore, most of the drop ship products are items that already face saturated competition on the internet and eBay, further driving down the selling price and negating any profit potential. Most of these drop ship products are also pretty lame and you will almost never find any hot products like top of the line electronics for drop shipment. To truly get eBay wholesale product prices, you need to buy in huge bulk from the manufacturer, which obviously requires tremendous upfront capital investment and the unavoidable carrying of substantial inventory risk.

5) The Sales Gimmick That Revolves Around the Giving Away Of Free But Traffic-Less Websites - The Shortcuts To Internet Millions program seems to be feel that they are providing the buyer a great offer by giving away ten supposedly free websites as incentives. The reality is that most of these sites are template turnkey sites that can be easily and instantaneously cranked out and given away - a million of them at a time. Without organic internet traffic, which takes weeks, months and even years to build, they are useless.

Do the hosts ever talk about how the new website owner is going to successfully drive online traffic to the site? Of course not. Because if consumers knew how much work they would have to put in, they would lose their greedy interest. Free websites are worthless if you don’t have the knowhow to generate links and build online traffic. Big companies spent thousands and millions of dollars promoting and advertising their sites all over the web. Do you think a simple consumer with 10 free template websites is going to somehow trump them all and rake in the sales overnight? Of course not.

There is a reason why although thousands of new online entrepreneurs jump onto the internet money making bandwagon every second, only a tiny percentage of them ultimately survive. Internet success takes a massive amount of online advertising and social link building to generate traffic. It takes a lot of time to investigate, research, and learn from others as well. Having a new commercial website without traffic, even one given to you for free, is nothing more than taking on a piece of trash. Even if the infomercial promised you a thousand free websites - all you would be getting in your possession, without weeks and months of computer training and internet expertise, would be a thousand heaps of trash - nothing more.

My Recommendation If You Really Want To Make Money Online Or Become A Successful eBay Entrepreneur

For one thing, you should stay away from the late night infomercials. Watch them for the eye candy entertainment whatnot, but don’t even think about buying products through those late night shows. With the wealth of free information that’s available on the internet, there is no need to buy the information from some late night salesman. Please don’t be gullible and let your sense of greed cloud your better judgment. If you want to learn something about making money on the internet or want to know more about internet marketing strategies, you are better off following the blogs of proven online entrepreneurs such as John Chow, Darren Rowse, or Shoe Money. You’ll learn more about affiliate marketing, online blogging tips, and search engine optimization tactics from them than from any product toting guy or hot female hosts on TV. At least you won’t have to deal with the subsequent and continuous upsell attempts to get you to buy more expensive package upgrades, paid training, or costly mentoring services prevalent among these get rich quick infomercials. If you must throw your money away, buy one of those As Seen On TV Magic Bullet fruit blenders or something.

Updated List Of The Best Business Credit Cards Below!

Like most small business owners, I have my eyes on the prize with expectations based on the potential of future expansion. While my current small home business is still in the early growth stages and has not developed to the size where I needed to incorporate, I decided early on that now was a good time as any to start keeping my personal and business expenses separate by taking advantage of the expense tracking and management benefits afforded by business credit cards.

Whether you are a small business owner who works from your own home, or have your own dedicated virtual office setup, there may eventually come a time when you will need additional cash and credit infusion to pay for business expenses such as inventory, office supplies, or utility fees including wireless services. More than half of all small businesses currently use credit cards to pay for expenses, but less than half of the users utilize business credit cards. While most seem content on relying on their existing consumer cards, there are a number of key reasons why it’s better to use business credit cards under your company’s banner.

For those running a business as a sole proprietorship like myself, you may have already applied for an Employer Identification Number (EIN), sometimes referred to the Federal Tax ID. If so, you will need to enter it when applying for a business credit card. If you are a regular non-business consumer who wants to take advantage of the rewards and benefits that business cards have to offer, you can still apply by entering your personal name as the name of the business, thereby leaving the Federal Tax ID part on the card application blank. That’s generally permissible because individuals can always declare themselves to be a sole proprietorship business unto themselves.

Benefits And Advantages Of Using A Business Credit Card

Business credit cards provide a focused selection of business oriented tools to help business cardholders better manage their expense transactions and day to day employee operations. Many of their advantages are not available in ordinary consumer credit cards. Here are some of the important small business benefits that they offer:

1. Special Business Rewards - Business credit cards offer unique discounts and rewards for an array of business expenditures that range from office furniture and equipment, to airline travel, gas fill-ups, car rentals, and utilities such as wireless services. Many businesses also choose to carry multiple business cards - using low to 0 interest APR offers to carry 0 interest balances, while using reward oriented cards to earn airline miles or cash back of up to 5% on business related purchases.
2. High Credit Limit - Compared to their consumer card counterparts, most business credit cards tend to offer higher initial credit lines, an attractive benefit for growing businesses in need of access to lots of credit. The higher business credit limit is particularly attractive when coupled with 0% APR introductory purchases and 0% balance transfer offers. High credit limits and 0% APR credit card offers help businesses build start up venture capital to better grow and expand their enterprises.
3. Avoidance Of Asset and Expense Commingling - For solo proprietorships, commingling your personal and business expenses is not as big of an issue. But as your business expands, due to liability and taxation concerns, you may ultimately want to convert your business into a limited liability company (LLC) or corporation - operations that mandate the separation of your personal expenses from your business transactions. By using dedicated small business credit cards now sooner than later, you make it easier to complete the transition in the future.
4. Multiple Cards For Employees - One useful benefit of business credit cards is the ability to request multiple linked credit cards for your business employees. By adding employees as cardholders to your account, you enable the consolidation and tracking of your business transactions from one location. Most business credit cards also offer free expense accounting, with transactions broken down by each authorized employee’s card access account.
5. Itemization and Expense Tracking - The usage of business credit cards also offers the flexible and scalable ability to fix preset credit limits for each employee. Not only can you place credit usage limits for each employee cardholder working off your account, many card programs allow you to set limits on how much particular employees can spend in specific purchase categories. Business credit cards make it easier for small business owners by providing monthly and year end credit card statement summaries, with all transactions conveniently itemized and categorized. Rather than having to fumble around with a bulky envelope full of receipts, business credit cards make it easier for you to manage your cash flow and daily business transactions.
6. Opportunity To Build Business Credit - A small business credit card also offers your new business the opportunity to link your business tax ID to the account, enabling your business to build its own credit history. Maybe not now, but having a developed credit report and ready access to credit are key ingredients to growing your future business. One day, your business may very well require a capital infusion through credit loans to take it to the next level.

List Of The Best Business Credit Card Offers:

1) Discover Business Card - With this card, businesses can earn 5% cash back reward bonuses on office supplies, 2% on gas, and up to 1% on everything else. The card also offers a 12 month 0 APR balance transfer deal with a 3% balance transfer fee, capped at $75. Perks for small business owners include free employee cards with customizable spending limits and monthly reports, categorized online quarterly and annual statements, and free travel benefits. One of the best benefits of the Discover Business credit card is the ability to write and issue fee-free purchase checks. The unique purchase check function allows you to write checks to business suppliers who do not accept credit cards. Your purchase check interest rate will be the normal purchase APR on the card. Best of all, there is no transaction fee for this service, and there is no annual fee.

2) Capital One Business Platinum With Double No Hassle Miles -This Capital One credit card offer is suited for business owners with above average credit who make frequent purchases and want to earn rewards twice as fast. Cardholders earn 2 reward miles for each purchase dollar spent. Reward miles earned can be redeemed for airline travel, cash back, or merchandise. There is no limit to the miles you can earn, and miles earned do not expire for the life of your credit card account. Travel rewards can be used to fly on any airline with no blackout or reservation restrictions. There is no annual fee for the first year - thereafter it’s $39.

3) Capital One Business Platinum With Preferred No Hassle Miles - With this business credit card offer from Capital One, you get to choose where to earn 3 miles for every dollar spent based on your personal business needs. Your potential triple purchase rewards can be chosen from categories that include travel and hotel lodging, gas and auto service stations, building supplies and hardware, computers and electronics, office supplies and furniture, or advertising and shipping. There is no reward mile expiration date and no limit to the amount of purchase rewards you can earn. Best of all, there is no annual fee.

2) Advanta Platinum Business Card Unlimited Rewards - Advanta Bank has emerged as a leader of the small business credit card market. This particular Advanta card offers both an introductory 15 month, 0% APR offer for balance transfers, as well as the ability to earn 1% rebate rewards, redeemable for cash, travel, and merchandise, with no annual fee. The plastic credit cards provided can also be uniquely personalized with your company’s name on the top of the card.

3) Advanta Customizable Platinum Business Card With Unlimited Rewards - This custom credit card offer provides the same 15 month, 0% balance transfer offer as the regular Advanta Business Unlimited Card, along with the ability to earn unlimited 1% purchase rebates. However, not only can you customize the card with your company’s name, you can also customize the card design to display your small business or company’s logo or trademark colors.

4) Advanta Net 90 Platinum Business Card - Advanta presents consumers and small business owners with the opportunity to enjoy continuous and recurring 90 days worth of 0% interest free purchases. This is not an introductory offer, but a permanent grace period feature that allows you to pay no interest for 3 months after any card purchase. This reward credit card also earns 1% back with a generous credit limit and no annual fee.

5) Advanta Business World Master Card - This card allows you to earn 1% back on all purchases with an additional 50% worth of extra bonus point rewards every year. In regards to the credit card rewards earned, there are no earnings cap, no travel redemption restrictions, or any sneaky blackout dates. There is also no preset spending limit or annual fee.

6) Advanta Kiva Business Card - With this joint public interest Advanta-Kiva offer for small business owners and entrepreneurs, as you earn purchase rewards for yourself, the card issuer matches your redeemed rewards in the form of loan grants for people in developing countries. Cardholders get a 5% statement credit on the first $1,200 each year for Kiva grants, charitable donations, and other eligible purchases. The card also provides an unbeatable 15 month, 0% balance transfer offer, with no annual fee.

7) Citi Premier Pass - This Citi Premier Pass is definitely one of the best, if not the best airline miles card, particularly if you are a frequent flier, a frequent business traveler, or a fan of free airline tickets. With the reward points you earn for using the card, you can redeem for plane tickets on any airline, with no blackout dates or seating restrictions. The Citi Premier Pass also has no annual fee. With the card you earn 1 reward point for every dollar spent, plus a point for every 3 miles you fly, and an additional point for every 3 miles your business companion flies if you purchased their ticket. The card currently offers a $100 bonus gift card for new sign ups.

8) Citi Premier Pass-Elite Level - This card is the ultimate rewards card for earning free airline miles. If you are a frequent flyer you will greatly appreciate the miles earning potential it has. With the Citi PremierPass Elite, you earn 1 reward point for every 1 mile you fly, 2 points for every dollar spent at gas stations, supermarkets, drug stores, and transportation related businesses including parking, and 1 point for everything else. You can redeem the points for free plane tickets with no airline restrictions, no blackout dates, and no seating limitations. A $75 annual fee does apply but if you are a frequent business traveler, you will easily make it up in the form of free airline tickets. It is currently offering a $200 bonus gift card for new sign ups.