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The Blue Business Plus Credit Card from American Express is one of the top Amex credit cards and one of the best no-annual fee credit cards on the market.
While it’s not the most robust card, it does offer some perks that are unique and industry leading which make it worth getting for many people. Keep reading below for more details on the Blue Business Plus Credit Card!
Table of Contents
The Blue Business Plus Credit Card intro
The Blue Business Plus Credit Card is a fantastic no annual fee credit card that has one of the highest bonus earning categories out of any card on the market for everyday spend. It is perfect if you are trying to maximize rewards on expenses that don’t fall into major bonus categories like dining, groceries, and travel.
Since this is an American Express business credit card, it will not report to your personal credit report. This means that it will not count towards your 5/24 status and that makes it a great card to get early on before you have maxed out your Chase cards.
Tip: Use WalletFlo for all your credit card needs. It’s free and will help you optimize your rewards and savings!
Welcome Bonus
The Blue Business Plus Credit Card does not always come with a welcome bonus. That is one of the drawbacks to this card — you do not always get upfront value.
However, you can find targeted offers for this card or offers that you can pull up in Google Incognito/referrals. Typically, those bonuses will be ranging from 10,000 to 20,000 Membership Rewards after spending $2,000 in three months.
So unlike cards like the Gold Card or the Platinum Card (which both offer high welcome bonuses), the value in this card is more with the bonus spend.
If you are interested in a business card with a high welcome bonus that also has no annual fee, then I would suggest you to look at getting the Chase Ink Business Cash which comes with a 50,000 point bonus after hitting the minimum spend requirement ($3,000 in purchases in the first 3 months).
Eligibility
The Blue Business Plus Credit Card is an American Express credit card which means that it is subject to certain rules like the 1/5 rule, 2/90 rule, and also the max four/five card rule.
If you are not familiar with these rules or find them confusing you are not alone and it is one of the reasons why I am creating WalletFlo, so you don’t have to worry about these rules anymore.
Bonus categories
- 2X on all purchases up to $50,000 per year
- 1X on all purchases after that
There are not many cards that offer you the ability to earn two times the points on all purchases and earn transferable points.
That is what truly makes the Blue Business Plus Credit Card so special.
If you value American Express Membership Rewards at close to two cents per point, then this card is like earning 4% back on every single type of purchase up to $50,000 per year. That is a tremendous earning opportunity and a free ~$200.
What is more, most payment services like PayPal charge you at most a 3% transaction fee so with the Blue Business Plus Credit Card, you can easily offset those transaction fees.
This makes this card perfect for paying contractors, rent, etc. and coming out on top with your rewards.
For example, if you are earning 3.8% back in rewards and paying a 3% transaction fee, you are still at a net positive with points earned — not many cards allow you to do that.
If you are wondering how you get to a high valuation of $.02 per point, it is because this card earns Membership Rewards which can be transferred out to various travel partners.
When you transfer those points out to solid travel partners, you can then fly in amazing business-class and first-class products, which is why this is one of the best travel credit cards.
With some of those redemptions, you could be earning way higher than two cents per point but to keep valuations reasonable it is a good idea to limit your valuations to at maximum $.02 per point in many cases.
0% APR 12 months promo
You get a 0% APR promo period with this card so you can avoid interest for 12 months.
Since it doesn’t report to your personal credit report, this means that you can put a large purchase on it and pay it down with no interest and it won’t hurt your credit score while you pay it down which is pretty amazing.
So this would be ideal for holiday shopping if you need to carry a balance for a little while.
Foreign transaction fees
The Blue Business Plus Credit Card comes with foreign transaction fees (2.7% of each transaction after conversion to US dollars) which is quite the bummer.
Tip: Use WalletFlo for all your credit card needs. It’s free and will help you optimize your rewards and savings!
Additional benefits
This card is not going to offer you all of the amazing travel/purchase benefits that you can get with the Chase Ink Business Preferred. However, it still has some respectable benefits for a no-fee card.
Baggage Insurance Plan
Baggage Insurance Plan provides benefits for damaged, stolen or lost baggage, whether checked or carry-on.
- Replacement Cost of Baggage while in direct transit to a Common Carrier’s terminal for the purpose of Boarding a Common Carrier or when leaving from a Common Carrier’s terminal directly after Exiting from a Common Carrier, up to $1,250 for each Covered Person on a Covered Trip.
- Replacement Cost of carry-on Baggage up to $1,250 for each Covered Person on a Covered Trip.
- Replacement Cost of checked Baggage up to $500 for each Covered Person on a Covered Trip.
Car Rental Loss and Damage Insurance
Get covered for damage or theft of a rental vehicle but note that coverage is always secondary to any other insurance. This is the huge difference between this card and other like the Chase Ink Business Cash, which offers primary rental car insurance — a huge perk for a no annual fee credit card.
Extended Warranty
Extended warranty can extend the terms of the original manufacturer’s warranty on warranties of five years or less. Amex will provide an additional year beginning in 2020 versus the two additional years they offered before.
Purchase Protection
Coverage is limited up to $1,000 per occurrence; not to exceed $50,000 per Card Member account per calendar year. $1,000 is better than the $500 offered by many cards and for a no-annual fee it’s quite high. But other cards like the Ink Preferred will offer protection up to $10,000 per claim!
Travel Accident Insurance
To be removed soon.
Final word
Overall, I love the bonus earning potential for the Blue Business Plus Credit Card. Earning 2X Membership Rewards on all purchases is simply industry leading and allows you to justify earning points on pretty much any transaction. But other business cards out there have much more value to offer all-around like the Chase Ink cards.
Daniel Gillaspia is the Founder of UponArriving.com and the credit card app, WalletFlo. He is a former attorney turned travel expert covering destinations along with TSA, airline, and hotel policies. Since 2014, his content has been featured in publications such as National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, and CNBC. Read my bio.
