Anyone have any experience applying as self-employed company director?

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stux

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Its been a while since I've applied for a new CC, and being self-employed by a Company i'm a Director of, I suspect the process will be different than for a regular employee.

Has anyone recently applied for a Westpac Black, who is a director of their employing company and/or self-employed?

If so, what hoops did you have to jump through? And had you been 'self-employed' for a while?

Any tips/advise/experiences appreciated
 
I did this 12-18 months ago...if I recall timeframe correctly.

I don't remember any particular hoops to jump through as a self-employed person. Had to provide what I consider standard docs, past individual tax returns (think they actually wanted pay slips but I don't pay myself that way). Don't recall having to show business income or anything like that.

Important to note that ALL my business banking has been with Westpac for 8 years - transaction accounts, savings accounts, foreign currency accounts, forex trading, chattel mortgages. So they have an insight into the business operations directly if they wanted.

But my recollection was a painless process.
 
Applied a couple of weeks ago before the end of the recent promotion. They wanted a recent business bank statement (have never banked with Westpac) and a copy of last personal tax assessment. Of course with trust disbursements my tax income was considerably less than what I made for the trust so the limit they gave me was less than I wanted. Anyway to get all those bonus points I just have to pay it off every few weeks. Hopefully they will see I'm an excellent credit risk & treble my limit. In 3 weeks I've got 60K points with bonus still to come.
 
stux YES YES YES to all your questions - I apply for EVERY CC that is offering singup bonus. Am usually successful - sometimes not - Macquarie keep knocking me back - almost all others accept me.

Only suggestion I can offer is to make sure your financials indicate a perfect history over a reasonable to long term - just apply - what's the worst that is goping to happen?
 
A lot of credit card companies seem to have trouble with a zero wage figure so I have had to put in the super contribution of 35k plus my other income and it all works out ok.
We have multiple cards with the latest Westpac Black cards and Westpac Platinum Kris Flyer cards all working hard. Citi,Woolies,Bankwest and Amex have all been ok for us as business owners.
Our business pays all our suppliers 30 days and we have good financials.
 
If you've been self-employed for less than 2 years, they have a blanket denial for those cases, so make sure you don't put put less than 2 years for self-employed period. That's what I did, the application went into referral, and then they called me telling me that they won't approve any applications where the applicant has been self-employed for less than 2 years. I had to convince them that even though I had only been working through my company as a consultant for less than 2 years(the rest of the time, I had been working as a PAYG contractor), the company itself was set up 7 years ago and had good financials for all that time.
 
Our business started in 1979 so that first 2 year rule is something we do not see.
Getting to yes in the US was a journey that has worked out well and I overcame the issue of no income there and just Australian tax returns and I just used the exchange rate on that day to get us both set.
 
Got one a few months back after a bit of hassle.
First manager declined me. She left.
New manager said ok, especially when I said I had been there for 30+ years and you were giving them away fee free, with bonus points etc to any other "NEW" customer, and treating me like cough.
So fee free for first year, no bonus points, and next year we argue again...
Didnt need financials etc (no regular pay slip as such) but not a high limit plus they had my history.
Try it and see.
 
Thanks guys, that pretty much covers it from all angles :)

I'm going to wait until we get the latest financials wrapped up to apply, who knows, maybe a good signup offer will come out.

I plan to use the Black for a loooong time as my primary card so I don't mind waiting a bit.
 
Just argued my way out of the annual fee again using same "bonus points giveaway" argument.
Do banks want to keep the customers they have??
 
Oldish thread - but to add a data point. Tempted by the current bonus, plus the new capping and cessation of points on ATO spend on my existing NAB card, applied online. Got a text later in the day asking me to call them. Current notice of Assessment and last two months of company bank account requested. Got approved the following day - so all in all very easy for a sole director company.

With some banks I have had some problems as I take the bulk of a "wage" as fully franked dividends - so some banks don't view this as wage income. I also run an Accounting firm so some banks have freaked when my Accountant's contact details are me. However no problem with this application.
 
yeap told the same by westpac that company had to be least two years trading before i could apply so ended up using my sole trader abn. no proof of income asked and recently got my first company card after 1.5 years trading just told them i had been a sole trader for over 5 years and the business expanded so no proof of income asked and got the personal black card recently but told them i was an employee of my own company no proof of income asked either. dont have any transaction accounts any more becuase of the fees. with westpac only for business and personal credit cards now
 
Two years trading is standard but have never really had a problem. As far as I know my accountant has never been called.
 
The easiest way is to slip straight through their default process without raising any flags.

There is a difference between self employment and being a director/majority shareholder of a profitable enterprise.

It's always easier to be an employee of a company you happen to own shares in. If you operate an ABn under your own name maybe it's time to switch the structure.... There are many beneficial reasons to do this and obtaining personal credit is just one of those.
 
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