Amex Introduces the Plum Card for Small Businesses

American Express is launching a new, innovative credit card for small businesses. It is designed to allow cash flow management with maximum flexibility, featuring two unique options:

Pay Early Discount
Pay your balance in full within 10 days of your billing cycle date and get a 2% discount when your month’s total spending is above $5,000 and 1% when it’s $5,000 or below. The discount is applied to all new eligible charges in that month, and will appear as a credit on your following month’s statement.

Defer Pay Option
Take up to two months from the closing date on your monthly statement to pay your new balance in full–all without interest or finance charges. Just make an initial payment of 10% by the Please Pay By date on your billing statement and you can extend payment on the rest until the next month’s Please Pay By date.

The card does have an annual fee of $185, which is waived the first year.

To add a bit of drama, Amex is limiting the number of cards initially issued to 10,000. You can find more information on the card, as well as request an application at this link.

Before you consider applying, though, consider this: unlike personal credit cards, the rebate on business cash back credit cards is taxable. In contrast, miles are not. That’s why, if you do any traveling, I would recommend instead a business credit card that earns miles like the Starwood Preferred Guest Amex.