Best Business Credit Cards: What’s Hot, What’s Not
Tip It!A couple of years ago, I was in the market for a business credit card, so I applied for an American Express card that was offering a $250 signup bonus (sadly, that offer has long since expired). While this card was perfectly serviceable, I occasionally run into places that wouldn’t accept AmEx, and I also wasn’t crazy about the $125 annual. I ultimately cancelled it.
After that, I applied for a Discover Business card. I was once again enticed by a generous signup bonus, but I ultimately ran into similar problems regarding card acceptance. There are a few key places around town that won’t accept anything but Visa or MasterCard. Thus, I’m once again in the market for a business credit card.
Features of the ideal business credit card
My needs are simple. I want a cheap, widely accepted card — thus, I’m looking for a Visa or MasterCard. I also don’t carry a balance, so the APR is a non-issue. I’m more interested the annual fee (or lack thereof). Rewards are great, but my business expenses aren’t actually that high, so they’re not a huge deal.
The best business credit card — for me
As of right now, the most attractive business credit card of 2012 out there for my needs appears to be the new AT&T Universal Business Rewards credit card from Citi. Most importantly, this is a Visa card and there’s no annual fee. The rewards also match up fairly well with my relatively meager spending.
For example, I’ll get 5 ThankYou points for every dollar spend on AT&T products/services (currently DSL and phone; also considering an iPhone) as well as 3 ThankYou points per dollar spent at gas stations, office supply stores, and on professional services (like legal and accounting). All other purchases qualify for one point per dollar spent. While points aren’t quite as good as cash, I can trade them in for gift cards at stores that we frequent.
Oh, and for those that are looking for a bit of interest-free financing, there’s a six month introductory period with 0% APR on purchases.
Published on April 24th, 2009 - 4 Comments
Filed under: Credit Cards, Self Employment
About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!
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4 Responses to “Best Business Credit Cards: What’s Hot, What’s Not”
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April 24th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Thanks, very timely info. We are cancelling our Capital One business credit card because of their completely frustrating customer service, I can’t even call it service. Their entire approach seems designed to drive the customer into head-banging madness. I hung up on them today after being transferred to 4 different “account specialists” who could not figure out how to modify the account to give my business partner/husband/financial manager (he is all of these) on-line access without me calling in to verify his worthiness each time. This is after many other head-banging phone sessions over the past couple of years, and after several hour-long phone sessions where I was assured that he now had unlimited access to our business account. The communication and understanding of most of their customer support staff are limited. We are in the market for a new business cc provider. On the positive side, Capital One did an excellent job of catching a hacker into our account several years ago. If they could fix their customer service, we would gladly stay with them.
April 24th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
Did you and Jim coordinate this?
I had a sense of deja vu when I saw this post’s title in my feed reader.
Looks like you guys agree on the AT&T card. Great minds think alike!
April 25th, 2009 at 7:10 am
It seems that Visa and MC rule the world as far as acceptability . . .
July 8th, 2010 at 9:53 pm
Knowing a credit card service with a lot of perks and great customer service is good. A credit card company offering promotions, discounts and amiable customer service representatives has the edge over other credit card providers.