Lowe's business card?

[Amanda G.]

I have a single-member LLC for my rental property and a Lowe's card in my own name for the 5% discount. I'm trying to decide whether to get a business one for my LLC.

Would the business card effect my personal debt-to-income ratio for buying more places with conventional bank loans?
Am I risking piercing the corporate veil if I use my personal card and then immediately reimburse myself from my LLC checking account?

I hope I won't need to use either more than a couple times a month, more when I acquire a new place and do the start up fixes.

[Christopher Phillips]

@Amanda G.

Business credit cards do report on your personal credit history. There are a few exceptions, but since you are the card holder that opened the account, they will do a hard pull on your credit and report any issues.

On a side note, LLCs do not protect you from personal liability. They protect your personal assets from creditors, which won't protect you if you have to make a personal guarantee for a loan to the LLC.

LLCs do no protect you from personally and directly injuring someone during the course of your business activities. An example would be a wall or door falling on a tenant or a worker. That injured person would be able to sue you and the LLC.

Where it would protect you is if an employee of the LLC injured someone. The owners and managers of the LLC would not be held personally liable in most cases and awards would be limited to the assets of the LLC. But, any good lawyer could get around that if it was shown that the owners and the managers failed to properly train and supervise the employee.

Best form of coverage for personal liability is insurance.

[Dave Chapa]

I have a Home Depot account under my LLC. The last personal credit report that was pulled for a property bought outside the LLC did not show the HD account, not sure why?? The HD account has carried up to 20+k at one time and averages $400+ monthly.

[Bryan Blankenship]

I'm not an attorney.....

But definitely get the business card. And no, it would not/should not be counted in your DTI in any way. An LLC is it's own living breathing person in the eyes of Ohio law at least.

The taxation is certainly pass through and a "disregarded entity" but it's still separate.

And go on Ebay or anywhere else and buy a bulk of the 10% discount cards for $1.50 each.  Much easier than using the account just to get 5%.  We've negotiated 22-25% overall on everything we buy with HD, Lowes, Menards, and every BB store.  

As for piercing the corporate veil - again, not an attorney, but 15yrs experience with this crap.  You are fine as long as 100% of everything is documented in and out and you pay yourself back just like a contractor you would pay on a job.  Invoiced, receipts, documented, etc.  There are many times even now that I'm out at a store and need to buy something (cash only pawn shop, etc) and I'll spend $300 personally and then go create an invoice to the company and have the company reimburse me.