Category Archives: Business Cards

Fifth Third Bank Business MasterCard: 0% BT for 12 Months, No BT Fee

Balance Transfer Offers, Business Cards

Fifth Third Bank offers two versions of its Business MasterCard–one with rewards and the other without. Both cards offer 0% APR on both purchases and balance transfers for 12 months with no balance transfer fees. After the first year, the Business MasterCard with Rewards does charge a $50 annual fee per card.

For more info, see 53business.com.

Note: Per the comments below, this offer is valid only for residents in the following states: Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Florida, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia.

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Discover Business Card: 10% Rebate on Restaurant and Electronics Purchases for 3 Months

Business Cards, Discover

For a limited time, when you sign up for a new Discover Biz Card account, you will receive a 10% “Special Holiday Offer”:

Earn a full 10% Cashback Bonus on your first $2,000 in restaurant purchases and a full 10% Cashback Bonus on your first $2,000 in home electronic store purchases for up to three months after your account is opened. Restaurant purchases are those made at merchants we classify as full-service restaurants, cafes, cafeterias and fast food locations. Home electronic store purchases are those made at merchants that specialize in the sale of electronic devices used for home entertainment and small electronic products, such as Best Buy and Circuit City.

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Amex Introduces the Plum Card for Small Businesses

American Express, Business Cards, Cash Back Cards

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.

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Discover Introduces Business Miles Card

Business Cards, Discover

Discover just rolled out a new business card that earns travel rewards, as a complement to its existing cash back business card. Its features are very similar to the cash back card, except that you earn Miles instead of cash back. Whereas the Discover Business Card offers 5% on office supplies, 2% on gas, and up to 1% on everything else, the Discover Business Miles Card earns 2 Miles per $1 spent on gas and travel expenses, up to $5,000 in annual purchases, and up to 1 Mile per $1 spent on anything else. The “up to 1%” language is necessary because both business cards only earn 0.25% at “select warehouse clubs, discount stores and their affiliates.”

Redeeming Your Miles
Miles redemption is very flexible and is identical to the personal version of Discover’s travel card:

Book any travel through any airline, travel agent or online travel site and pay with your Miles Card. Then redeem your Miles, for every 5,000 Miles get a $50 travel credit to your account towards your travel purchases.

You also have the option of redeeming your Miles for gift cards from one of Discover’s partners.

Unique features
There are a couple of unique features to Discover’s business cards which are worth highlighting:

  • Fee-free PurchaseChecks: for use with vendors who do not accept credit cards, Discover offers checks that you can write that are not only fee-free, but earn 0.25 Miles for each dollar you spend. Purchases made with the checks offer the same APR and grace period as regular purchases made with the card. Note that only checks used to purchase or lease goods or services from a merchant are eligible for this treatment; any other use is treated as a cash advance.
  • Real-time customizable limits for employee cards: if, for some reason, the credit limit for one of your employees needs to be increased temporarily, you can either phone or log into your account online to change it immediately. When you would like to reset the limit back to its normal level, you can phone or log in online again to set it back.

For more information, visit http://www.discoverbiz.com or click here.

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Chase Business Cash Rewards Card Review

Business Cards, Cash Back Cards, Chase

The Chase Business Cash Rewards card is not new, but if you’re in the market for a small business credit card, it’s certainly one worthy of consideration. Let’s cover the high-level essentials:

  • 0% fixed APR on both purchases and balance transfers for the first 6 (or 12) billing cycles
  • A variable purchase APR, as low as 14.24% (as of today), afterwards
  • A tiered rewards scheme with no merchant or category spending restrictions:
    • For the first $2000 of spending in a billing cycle, earn 1 point per $1
    • For new net purchases between $2000 and $2500, earn 5 points per $1
    • For new net purchases over $2500 in a cycle, earn 1.25 points per $1
  • You can redeem 5000 points for $50 or use the points towards merchandise.
  • Receive quarterly management reports
  • Receive additional cards your employees can use

While Chase markets the card as giving “up to 5% [cash] back,” that’s clearly misleading, as you’ll never receive a total return of 5%. If we were to use Chase’s logic, a flat 1% credit card could be marketed as giving “up to 100% back” if it was tiered such that you don’t earn anything for the first $99 of spending, but you earn $1 for the 100th dollar. But I digress.

Doing the math, the cash back percentage maxes out at 1.8% if you spend exactly $2500. That’s pretty nice. If you spend more within a cycle, your return will of course slowly move closer to 1.25%. So if you spend over $2500 in business expenses every month, you would earn somewhere between 1.25% and 1.8%, which is quite a nice return when you consider that it applies to any purchase, not just at specific merchants.

In addition, as a Visa, you’re unlikely to need another card should you so choose, in contrast with an Amex or Discover card, that do not enjoy universal merchant acceptance.

The news is not so good if you plan to carry a balance on the card. As is usually the case, if you won’t be able to consistently pay your bill in full, the first thing to consider is not the rewards or cash back, but the regular APR. And in this case, you can do better. Other Chase business cards, as well as business cards from other issuers, can offer better rates.

If, however, you don’t plan to carry a balance, this card is an excellent choice. It offers a high percentage of cash back every time, and you can use it almost anywhere.

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Double Membership Rewards Points for Amex Business Cards, Plus a $100,000 Sweepstakes

American Express, Business Cards, Sweepstakes

Amex is running another double Membership Rewards points promo targeted towards its Business card holders from November 1, 2006 through January 31, 2007. However, instead of earning double points on all purchases, you’ll only earn double points on your monthly spending above the amount of your October 2006 spending:

For example, if you spend $1,000 in October, $1,200 in November, $1,500 in December and $800 in January, the positive difference in your spending would be $700 and you would earn 700 bonus points in addition to the 3,500 regular points you would have earned for your spending from November through January.

In addition, when you register for this promotion, you’re automatically entered into a sweepstakes with a Grand Prize of a $100,000 statement credit. There are also four first prizes of a $10,000 statement credit and 2,000 second prizes of a $25 Starbucks gift card.

You can register for this promo either online at www.open.com/sweeps or by calling 1-866-537-1397.

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