Business Credit Card for House Hack?

Question

I currently have 1 SFH being rented right now and just moved into another that I will only live in for 2.5 years. I'm military and I plan to house hack for the rest of my military career which means a new rental property every couple years!  I do plan to open a business card for travel rewards/points but I am unsure whether I can charge the house hack renovation expenses to a business card...  Is this commingling or is it fine because I'm 100% positive I will rent it in a couple years?

Johann Jells · Answer

I don't understand, you can't house hack very well if you are purchasing under an business or LLC since you lose the mortgage and tax benefits of owner occupancy, so I assume you have neither.  Just get a whatever card you like and only use it for RE related purchases. But simply categorizing non-business transactions as such on a single card would work fine too, though it's messier.

Nick Macklin · Answer

I definitely misunderstood your post before, however, here is some additional info on why I was asking.  I am travel hacking the southwest rewards but after getting the personal card I found out all points needed to be in the calendar year and not within a year. Then to top it all off I found out they are now restricting you to 1 personal and 1 business card so I am forced to try and get all the points posted to my rapid rewards account by 12/31/18. As such I was just trying to figure out if there were any legal concerns when mixing non-business charges on a business card. Obviously I would not be claiming the charges as business expenses for tax purposes and the interest is a non-issue since I pay the balance of each month.

Nick Macklin · Answer

it's not better necessarily. It is more the bonus points that you get from all of the cards together. Everything is paid off in full every month either way. In any case the benefits aren't the issue in question. I just want to know whether it's legit to do that or not.

Johann Jells · Answer

So you're saying the business cards have better bonus & benefits than personal? I haven't seen that. I think you'd at least need an EIN rather than a SSN to open.

Nick Macklin · Answer

I may misunderstand but I'm pretty sure you can get a business card with just an ssn. You don't need an LLC to run a business it's just smart. I want the business card for the bonus along with all the regular cards.