My Favorite Business Rewards Credit Cards
I’ve written about my favorite rewards cards already, but someone asked about my favorite business cards. On top of the extra rewards, I like these because they can also help you track and separate your business expenses. Remember, individuals can also sign up for business cards under their own name.
Overall Favorite
The American Express SimplyCash Business Card is a good balance of solid rewards and easy redemption. You get 5% cash back on gas, office supplies, and your wireless telephone bill - and 1% back on everything else. The cash back is automatically credited to your next month’s statement, no waiting or having to call in. No cap on rewards; no annual fee.
For lots of small home-based businesses like mine, this works out great since gas/office supplies/cell phone expenses are already a big chunk of our overall spending. Even if you are only going to deduct as business expenses a portion of your gas or wireless charges, I’d just put it on this card and separate it out later. In addition, there is 0% APR on purchases for 12 months.
Big Spenders ($2,500+ per month)
On the other hand, many people have businesses where you either have to constantly buy a lot of raw materials and goods to resell (including many eBay sellers), or you’re just starting out and are buying a lot of furniture and equipment.
The Chase Business Cash Rewards Card has a tiered cash back system that offers the following overall cash back percentages based on your spending per month:
Specifically,
For the first $2,000, you’ll get 1% back.
Between $2,000 and $2,500 a month, you get 5% back. (where the “up to 5% back” comes from)
Anything over $2,500 that month, you’ll get 1.25% back.
As you can see, the “sweet spot” is $2,500 a month, but for high spenders I couldn’t find any other card that gives you a better percentage with no earnings caps. You also get 0% APR for 12 months on both purchases and balance transfers (3% fee, $75 max), and no annual fee.
Also For Big Spenders: American Express Business Gold Rewards Card
I forgot about the American Express Business Gold Rewards Card (which I also got for the rewards), that also offers a good deal of Membership Rewards points during the first year.
It’s a bit hidden - if you click on the ‘Learn More’ link on the application page, you’ll see the bonus points offer:
5,000 bonus points after your first purchase
5,000 more bonus points total for spending $20,000 in the first year
20,000 more bonus points total for spending $50,000
Purchase reward of 1 point per each $1 spent
————————————————————-
10,000 points is equal to $100 in gift cards or 10,000 frequent flyer miles, so roughly 1 point = 1 cent.
Let’s say you spend $60,000 in the first year. You’ll get 1 point per $1 spent, so 60,000 points. You’ll also get all 30,000 points above. That’s 90,000 points (~$900) for $60,000 in spending, for an overall 1.5% back.
You can get another 10,000 points for the one-year card renewal, getting you to their 100,000 point level, but you’ll be charged the $125 annual fee, so you’ll have to decide if it’s worth it. The first year’s annual fee is waived.
Here are some fine print details for the cards:
AmEx SimplyCash Business Card
Cash Rebate: You will receive a monthly Rebate on the amount of your Purchases (net of credits for Purchases) made during the previous billing period based on the following structure: You will receive a Rebate of 5% for Purchases of wireless telephone services, automobile gasoline, and office supplies and equipment, in each case not purchased at a warehouse club, superstore or supermarket (?5% Purchase(s)?). You will receive a Rebate of 1% for Purchases in all other categories (?1% Purchase(s)?).
Chase Business Cash Rewards Card
You will earn 1 point per $1 for new net purchases totaling $0 to $2,000 each billing cycle. New net purchases totaling over $2,000 and up to $2,500 will earn 5 points per $1, and new net purchases totaling over $2500 will earn 1.25 points per $1. To determine the level of points earned for each billing cycle, only new net purchases are used in the calculation, and net purchases spending thresholds will reset to $0 at the start of each new billing cycle.
Find more in Credit Cards, Deals & Offers, General | 2/9/07, 1:50am | Trackback
February 9th, 2007 at 10:56 am
For more than $2,500 in purchases did you mean 1.8-2.25% instead of 1.8 to 1.25%?
February 9th, 2007 at 11:16 am
Ed - I added a graph and a better explanation to clear things up a little.
Actually, you can’t go higher than 1.8% because of the tiers. Chase wants to sound better because it can say “up to 5% cash back!”, but it’s misleading. Still, the overall cash back percentages are pretty good.
February 9th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
Isn’t Emigrant Direct 1.4% cashback on all purchases a better choice? Looks like over $amt charged, its around 1.4% on your chart anyway. Ofcouse its only for people who have 10K in savings account there.
February 9th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
Well these are business cards, first of all. But as a personal card:
I don’t like the idea of linking my credit card rewards with a bank balance requirement. The thing is, if you have $10,000, you can get a Fidelity Rewards card giving you 1.5% cash back.
With ED you have to keep $10k there at all times, otherwise you go down to 0.5% cash back. If their savings rate falls, you’ll be losing more money in interest than gaining in a bit more cash back.
February 9th, 2007 at 9:23 pm
What about the Advanta Business card? It has 5% back on office supplies, computers stores, gas, and utilities (which includes local phone, long distance, cell phones, cable, electricity, and ISP’s).
February 9th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
Do you mean this Advanta card? I couldn’t find any other 5% Advanta card.
It looks okay overall, but it’s only tiered up to 5% for those categories, so you’ll really be getting much less. In fact, anything under $20,000 in annual spending in those categories only gets 1%. The AmEx SimplyCash is not tiered and gives 5% flat in its categories.
February 12th, 2007 at 7:15 am
If you were using a credit card at 5%, you would have had to have spent $80,000 to get $4,000 rebates on new cars that lost $6,000 of value when you drove them off the lot. That is not a good deal! Reward cards are not a good deal! I’ve never used a credit card in my life and I’m quite content with the “deals” I get for using cash.
February 13th, 2007 at 10:11 pm
We spend 30K+ some months on expenses. We charge everything from advertising and travel to postage and VOIP.
We have tried several cards and the varying rewards programs are fun to play with. I particularly enjoyed capital one’s because we could get free gas cards to Mobile/Exxon. We handed them out as gifts. However, for the sake of expense reporting and ease of use and customer service,
I have found no better card than Open from American Express. Excellent service and AmEx is accepted more places than you think. To be honest the rewards are nice but the ease of use is what makes it worth it.
February 14th, 2007 at 5:12 pm
Tyler,
I think you’re missing the point. The point is the $4,000 (using your example) you get back to spend or invest in whatever you want. I would rather spend $76,000 to get $80,000 worth of stuff than spend $80,000 for $80,000 worth of stuff.
February 14th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
Who’s buying $80,000 cars with credit cards?
Plenty of self-employed small business owners have huge credit card bills every month, from buying napkins and plastic forks from Costco to buying gas for driving 3,000 miles a month to buying $100,000 of goods wholesale from Asia. These are all critical to the business, not frivolous purchases, and you might as well get it all for less.
Credit and cashflow can be critical to a business.
February 16th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
The PayPal promotion only works if it was directly sent to you. I suggest it be removed from the site to save people wasted time.
February 28th, 2007 at 7:23 pm
2% cash back Discover Card for Sam’s Club Plus Members. $5000 to $10,000 spent annually gets you 1.75% cash back. Once you hit 10,000, you get 2% cash back on ALL purchases made anywhere the Discover card is accepted! 2% cash back on all purchases up to $1,000,000 annually… in other words… no cap on earnings.
Downside… you have to be a Sam’s PLUS member and the annual fee for that is $100. But if you put everything on your credit card and pay the balance in full; this is the best deal anywhere.
Since getting my card, I’ve found that Discover is accepted at EVERY PLACE I SHOP!
By making no other changes to my spending habits… I’ll earn AT LEAST $600 more annually than with my curent Visa card. Yes… I’ll have to pay the $100 annual Sam’s membership fee, but again, so what. I’ll come out with an additional $500 even after paying to “Join the club”.
April 11th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
I don’t get it, everyone here is talking about 1-3% cashback credit cards…my Discover card offers me 5% for any purchase…I am fooling myself..? I do see a cashback bonus beign accumulated on my statements.
April 11th, 2007 at 7:20 pm
Hugo, are you sure that’s for all your purchases? It’s usually only “up to” 5% for certain categories.
April 12th, 2007 at 11:24 am
You probably already have, but if you travel a lot, you should checkout the Citi Premier Pass Elite Card. There is a $75 annual fee, but that is pretty much paid for by all the airline miles you accrue. It is 1 point for every mile you fly, in addition to your normal frequent flier miles, and 1 point for every dollar you spend. The only downfall is you only get the flight points if you spend that much $ (if you fly 3000 miles, you must spend $3000). After only having the card for a little more than a year I have had 5 free tickets (25,000 points a piece) valued at probably $2000 total.
June 4th, 2007 at 10:02 am
I particularly like the Amex Simply Cash card (5% off on gas and wireless as an instant rebate). I use this card just for those two purchases and think carrying the card around just for that is worth it. We probably spend about $250/month on gas/wireless, so an instead credit of $12.50 each month is more valuable than double miles on the Delta Amex card. The Amex SPG card is great also, only a $30/annual fee which is waived the first year and you get 10K pts after your first purchase. The SPG program is also a must since its the most flexible as well. I would recommend one card not mentioned up there, the Amex True Earnings card. You do need a costco membership ($50 year), but the card gives you 3% back for eating at restaraunts, 2% for travel (airfares, car rental, hotels), and 1% elsewhere. The business version of the card gives you 5% back on gas. You’ll get a rebate check in the mail in February following the close of the previous calendar year. I got a check for about $90 last time, went and bought some contact lens solution for $10, and the cashier gave me back $80 - so you don’t have to use the rewards fully at costco! I didn’t think the card would add up that much (btw, theres no annual fee for this c.card), but since I do take-out so much, it did add up!
June 18th, 2007 at 5:37 am
Never used credit card as i assume if I use it there would be a lot of hassles like expecting bills, crosschecking whether all entries are correct, following up if there’s an error not to mention the loss of credit history in case the bank forgets to or erronously doesnt credit the amount that you payed back.
Whats your take on this, can one reliably go ahead and use them and be happy forever or are there teething troubles. Anyone willing to share, the cons.
I just ask to motivate myself to get one, seeing so much activity and freebies feels like missed opportunity if I dont, but my mind again cautions me…. Am I paranoid.
July 23rd, 2007 at 11:13 am
Amex blue gives 1.5% cashback unlimited after $6000 in purchases. It gives 5% in some categories like supermarkets, gas. Discover at 2% would be the best if it truly is unlimited.
September 18th, 2007 at 3:51 pm
I use the Chase Professional card, which gives 3% cash back on restaurants, gas, home improvement, and office stores, and 1% on everything else. No cap on the 1%, and you can spend up to $2000 per month in the 3% categories without hitting the cap. I use this card all the time. Plus, 6 months of 0% balance transfer opportunity here ($75 balance transfer fee, though).
July 18th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Hi All,
I am seeking your advise. Your opinion on further matter would be highly appreciated. I am not sure if this is the right place but hope I won’t piss anyone off.
A few years ago (2004) I bought a car on my credit card. It was a great deal, 1.99% until paid in full. Since then I have been enjoying low interest and been paing it off slowly (not other transactions on my account since then). My current balance is $7,500. I have more than enough money on my savings accounts earning around 4% APY to cover this debt.
The credit card company (citi) sent me a letter saying that I can enroll into Citi Payment Partner Program. Basically they are going to credit my account with 10% of all payments I make during the next 4 months that exceed my minimum payment subject to a $550 maximum.
I have a few options here:
1. Pay $5500 at the end of the 4 month period. This way I will end up with $7500-4x$110-$5500-$550=$1010 and I can take time paying it off for 2% forever.
2. I can pay everything off and collect $550 cash by requesting a check for the credit of $550 on my account. This way I will loose $7100-$550= $6550 in cash.
3. Or I can just ignore everything and keep paying off my balance until the Sun will cool down to the temperature level not suitable to maintain Life in our Solar System.
I am not sure which one to take. 10% seems tempting. I tend to think of it as a sudden impulse return when investing $5K+.
There are two important things that might influence your suggestion:
1. My emergence fund will still be solid if I pay off this balance.
2. I am doing this 0% BT game for several years now. And I intend to continue doing it. So having no debt WHATSOEVER might help me get more credit cards with 0%BT after I pay off my currents 0% BTs.
What would you do ?
July 23rd, 2008 at 11:03 am
Amex has just quietly reduced gas % on SimplyCash card to 3% for the 1st year and 1% after that