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The Blue Business℠ Plus Credit Card from American Express
Table of Contents
Welcome bonus:
Ending soon, you can earn 15,000 Membership Rewards points for opening the Blue Business Plus AMEX and spending $3,000 within your first 3 months of card membership.
Typically this card does not offer any welcome bonus.
Annual fee:
This is a rare AMEX card with no annual fee.
Terms and restrictions apply, see rates and fees here.
Card earnings:
Blue Business Plus offers a simple value proposition. You can earn 2 Membership Rewards points per dollar spent everywhere on up to $50,000 of purchases per calendar year. After $50,000 of spending you will earn 1 point per dollar for the remainder of the calendar year.
You can have multiple Blue Business Plus cards and you will earn 2 points per dollar on $50,000 of annual spending for each primary card that you have.
Mileage Transfers:
Most no annual fee cards can’t transfer points into miles unless you also have a premium card with an annual fee.
However this is a rare exception to that rule as this no annual fee card can transfer points into miles without having any other card!
Plus, AMEX often has transfer bonuses to airline partners. For example when AMEX is offering a 40% mileage transfer bonus you’ll have effectively earned 2.8 miles per dollar spent on this card! If you value the airline miles at 1.5 cents each, that’s an effective rebate of 4.2% everywhere!
Keep your points alive:
Another benefit of having this card is that if you close a pricier AMEX card, this card will keep all of your Membership Rewards points alive for free, and you’ll still be able to transfer them into airline miles and hotel points.
0% APR:
With this offer you’ll pay 0% intro APR on purchases for the first 12 months from the date of account opening.
0% APR is a lucrative offer on a business card, as carrying balances on consumer cards can have a very harmful effect on your credit score, but because as the Blue Business Plus AMEX is a business card, those balances won’t hurt your credit score.
Hybrid Points And Points Rebate:
You can transfer your points into valuable airline miles and hotel points.
AMEX transfer partners include:
- Air Canada Aeroplan (Star Alliance) 1:1 instant transfer.
- ANA (Star Alliance) 1:1 transfer.
- Avianca Lifemiles (Star Alliance) 1:1 instant transfer.
- Singapore (Star Alliance) 1:1 instant transfer.
- AeroMexico (Skyteam) 1:1.6 transfer.
- Air France/KLM Flying Blue (Skyteam) 1:1 instant transfer.
- Alitalia (Skyteam) 1:1 instant transfer.
- Delta (Skyteam) 1:1 instant transfer.
- Aer Lingus (OneWorld) 1:1 instant transfer.
- British Airways (OneWorld) 1:1 instant transfer
- Cathay Pacific Asia Miles (OneWorld) 1:1 instant transfer.
- Iberia (OneWorld) 1:1 instant transfer
- Qantas (OneWorld) 1:1 instant transfer
- Emirates 1:1 instant transfer
- Etihad 1:1 instant transfer
- Hawaiian 1:1 instant transfer
- JetBlue 1:0.8 instant transfer
- Virgin Atlantic 1:1 instant transfer
- Choice Hotels 1:1 instant transfer
- Hilton 1:2 instant transfer
- Marriott 1:1 instant transfer
Mileage transfers can often make sense for one-way, last-minute, or premium class travel. The value with airline miles can be under a cent each if used poorly, but properly used the points can be worth 5 cents, 10 cents, 15 cents, or even more per point, the sky is the limit.
For example I love using 6.5K miles transferred to Avianca to book a last minute $459 ticket on United, thanks to Avianca’s amazing short-haul redemption award chart.
There are also often bonus offers for transfers from AMEX to airlines.
You can also use your points for paid airfare at a value of 1 cent per point.
However if you also have an AMEX Business Platinum Card you can also get a 35% points rebate for award redemptions on paid tickets on the airline that you chose for your $200 fee credit in coach. You can chat with AMEX online to change your airline selection. You’ll also get a 35% points rebate on all airlines in business and first class. You can book these tickets on AMEXTravel.com. That will give you a minimum value of 1.54 cents (or higher) value per point. You can read more about that card here.
This hybrid redemption ability makes your points very valuable as they can be used for mileage transfers or paid flights, whichever provides more value for the flights you want to book.
Business vs Consumer card:
AMEX business cards don’t appear on your credit report. That’s good for several reasons.
First of all they won’t count against your 5/24 count for opening new Chase cards. Only cards on your report that have been opened within the past 24 months count for that.
Second, when you spend money on personal cards your credit score will be hurt even if you pay your bill on time. A whopping 30% of your credit score is based on credit utilization. You can pay off your card bill before your statement is generated to avoid that, but that takes effort and laying out money well before you have to. Additionally it’s good to have the statement close with a couple dollars to show the card is active and being paid every month. On an AMEX business card it’s just not reported, so you can wait until the money is due without it having a negative effect on your score.
Third, if you close a business card it won’t ever have an effect on your score.
You may already have a business that needs a card to keep track of expenses. For example if your name is Joe Smith and you sell items online, or if you have any other side business and want a credit card to better keep track of business expenditures you can open a business credit card for “Joe Smith” as the business. You don’t need to file any messy government paperwork to be allowed to do that. Just be sure to select “Sole Proprietorship” as the business type and just use your social security number in the Tax Identification Number field. That makes the 0% APR on a business card a very strong offer.
Will you apply for this offer?
For rates and fees of the Blue Business Plus AMEX, visit here.
Does this card have Purchase protection and extended warranty?.
Yes, it has both.
I have one open already for a couple years, can I open another one now for a different business and get the welcome bonus again?
If you can’t earn the bonus, you will get a popup after clicking apply allowing you to cancel the application from going through.
I have a amex Plat personal, can I open this card and close the amex Plat and save my MR points?
good quistion nathan wondering the same
Yes
Call for retention offer! Many people are being offered a lot to keep the card another year. I personally was offered $550 statement credit to spend 4k in 3 months, if i keep open another year!
When does this offer end?
Unknown, but appears to be very soon.
Hi Dan,
Simple Question
After $50,000 of purchases per calendar year, how much do you earn?
1 Membership Rewards point per dollar or nothing?
1
Is there a similar Chase / Citi no-fee card that can transfer UR/TY points to airline programs.
No, not at the full transfer ratio.
Dan, is this chart of benefits still accurate?
https://www.dansdeals.com/credit-cards/major-changes-coming-american-express-benefits-master-chart-whats-added-removed/
As far as I know, yes.
That chart is missing two of Amex’s best retail benefit cards, the Amazon Business and Business Prime, which are the only no annual fee cards that kept both Extended Warranty and even Return Protection which is now otherwise exclusive the the highest AF cards. It does have the baseline $1,000 purchase protection though instead of the premium $10,000 one.
It’s also missing the Schwab Investor card which is fully issued by and benefits written by Amex (so not like something like the WF Propel where the Extended Warranty and Return Protection are not handled by Amex) and that card is interesting because it is another no-fee card that kept extended warranty, so it is basically a superior version of the Cash Magnet since it gets the same 1.5% cash back but with Extended Warranty and with the ability to cash out your points instead of being forced to use statement credits.
I have a platinum personal card, and an everyday amex, if I cancel my platinum, will I still keep al the bonus MR points I earned on the platinum, and does the everyday no AF card transfer to airlines?
TY
Yes and yes. But just don’t cancel within 12 months of opening a card or getting a retention bonus.
Thanks
I just did that. Is that bad?
Yes
A week passed or so. Does that mean I’m in the clear?
No. They can always claw back a bonus.
They can also ban you from future AMEX bonuses.
What about if it was chase?
I had a flight that was cancelled. Amex refunded my points as dollars— nearly $4000. Should I leave it as a credit in my account or is it more advantageous to have them convert it back as points?
Any thoughts anyone?
Is there a surcharge for foreign purchases?
I see that it does have 2.7% fee.
Hi
Have the Marriott bonvoy amex business card if I open this can I close the Marriott and save points to this???
Thnx
You don’t lose points for closing an airline or hotel card.
If I open a business credit card under my own name as per your sole proprietorship instructions – and then one day open a real business LLC – can I change the credit card to reflect that ? Or would that need a new card to be opened ?
Amex said I’m not eligible for the welcome offer. I’ve never had a blue business before. I currently have a business platinum and a personal blue cash preferred. Did the personal blue cash make me ineligible?
I have a AX PLAT business card, can I downgrade to this card?
No
Can points transfer within family names>? If the amex gold card is in hubby name and I open this card, can his goldcard points transfer to this if we close that card?
No
Can this card only be used for business expenses? Can I use it for ordinary household charges?
Once approved do I need to link cards to combine points? I have a amex plat personal that I will be canceling. Thank you
It should be linked automatically.
Got one. Thanks for another card Dan (: do you think there might be an impact on future business cards (sp) applications? Amex or others?
Applied once and then said I wasn’t eligible (not sure why?) so I canceled. then tried a second app and didn’t say anything about not being ineligible. Any idea if that means I’ll get the bonus? Or did they just not show me the ineligible message the second time?
FYI
because you have or have had the Blue Business® Plus Credit Card, you are not eligible to receive the welcome offer.
Dan, I have Marriot bonavoy card I want to close. if I get this one, can I transfer the Bonavoy points to Amex points and bank them ‘on” this card once I close the bonavoy card?
Thanks
No, but you won’t lose your Marriott points if you close that card.
Can anyone tell me – does Dan have anything like an “ultimate credit card spreadsheet” where he compares all the cards out there and tells you which ones is excellent/good/crumby for the various reasons like travel, cash back, etc.? I need that.