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Overview
These are five of the best business credit cards, and this is my Amex account with over 11 million credit card points. I’ve used credit card points to travel basically anywhere I want for free, and this covers not just the top five business credit cards, but several more of the best cards you can use right now to maximize your reward travel and fly anywhere for free on money you’re already spending in your business. The first card is the Amex Business Gold Card.
Amex Business Gold Card
This card is absolutely fantastic, and it’s one of my favorites. It’s not just about the intro bonus, it’s the ongoing benefits that make it worth it. You can earn four times points on your top two categories, up to $150,000 per year combined. What are those categories? Purchases at U.S. media providers for advertising in select media, which includes YouTube ads, Google ads, and pretty much any online advertising you’re running, all earn four times points with the Amex Business Gold Card.
Point Value and Multipliers
Amex Membership Rewards points are generally worth around a penny each if redeemed for cash, but up to 2 cents if you transfer them to partners and redeem for travel. That means you could be getting anywhere from 4 to 8 cents per point back just by spending on advertising. It’s not only advertising either, electronics, software, cloud services, restaurants, gas stations, transit, wireless phone services and more all earn four times points. You’ll also earn three times points on flights and prepaid hotels, and one point on everything else.
Credits and Welcome Bonus
You also get a bunch of credits, a $240 flexible business credit, a Dell Plus Membership, and a handful of other perks. One important thing to know about all of these cards is that they come with a welcome bonus, meaning when you sign up and spend a certain amount in the first few months, you get extra points. This is usually 100,000 Membership Rewards points, but right now it’s 200,000 points through the referral offer linked below, which tends to run higher than what you’d find elsewhere. That’s on top of the 4x or 3x you’re already earning on ad spend, so these points can add up fast.
You’ll additionally get 0% APR for the first 6 months, meaning no interest on purchases during that window. It really makes this an all around great card, and one of the most highly recommended cards out there.
Venture X Card
Next up is the Capital One Venture X Business Card. This one is quickly becoming an all time favorite, since it earns unlimited two times miles on every single purchase. There’s also a 150,000-mile bonus when you spend $30,000 in the first few months, plus a $300 annual travel credit. The card carries a $395 annual fee, but with the travel credit factored in, as long as you spend on travel each year it effectively drops to $95. That’s something worth looking at with most of these cards, they carry an annual fee, so it pays to find ways to offset that fee with the points and credits you can earn.
Chase Ink Business Preferred
Then there’s the Chase Ink Business Preferred Card. It earns three times points on advertising, shipping purchases, internet and cable, and travel, which is great if you’re running an e-commerce business since shipping tends to be a big expense. You might be wondering why you’d pick this over the four times points on the Amex Business Gold. Both are capped at $150,000 per year, so if you spend a lot on ads you’ll burn through that cap fairly quickly, and having a second card to fall back on is the real perk here. You can currently get 90,000 bonus points through the link below.
Amex Business Platinum
Next is the Amex Business Platinum Card. You might be wondering why this isn’t first on the list, the Amex Business Gold, Venture X, and the Chase Ink Business Preferred are a better fit for most business owners, but the Business Platinum is still an amazing card to have, and it comes with a massive welcome bonus. As a referral offer, instead of 150,000 points it’s 250,000 Membership Rewards points when you use the link below.
Amex Business Platinum Perks
It comes with a variety of credits, over $1,000 worth of credits and special offers: $400 in Dell credits paid out as $200 every six months, $360 at Indeed, $150 at Adobe, and a $120 wireless credit. It also comes with CLEAR Plus for free, which means skipping the security line and getting to your gate fast, useful if you’re traveling a lot to speak at events. There’s also a $200 airline fee credit. On top of that, you get access to the Global Lounge Collection, meaning airport lounges at over 1,400 locations. Whenever you’re heading out or flying back, you can go straight to the lounge, show them the Amex Platinum card, and get in for free food and drinks before your flight, which beats standing around a crowded terminal.
There are also perks like guaranteed late checkout at certain hotels, and for the multipliers, you earn five times points on flights and prepaid hotels booked on amextravel.com. You get 1.5 times points on purchases over $5,000, and for everything else you’re probably better off putting it on the Venture X card for two times miles. Still, this card is great for travel perks and that five times points on flights and hotels booked directly through it.
Chase Ink Business Premier
This is the first cash back card on the list, so if you’d rather collect cash back than points, the Chase Ink Business Premier Card is a great option. You earn 2.5% cash back on purchases of $5,000 or more, and unlimited 2% cash back on everything else, similar to how the Venture X has unlimited two times miles. You can also redeem through the travel portal instead of straight cash, so you’ve got some flexibility. On top of that, there’s a $1,000 bonus currently available after spending $10,000 when you use the link below, basically a free thousand bucks, which makes this a solid pick if cash back is what you’re after.
Rakuten
Speaking of cash back, Rakuten lets you earn cash back just by shopping through their portal at basically every major online retailer. Say you want to use that Amex Platinum Dell credit, the $200 statement credit twice a year on the Amex Business Platinum, you can stack that with Rakuten. Just search for Dell on Rakuten and you’ll see up to 12% cash back on purchases made there. Click “Shop Now,” and it activates the cash back, so you’re getting the $200 credit plus 12% of your purchase back. You can do this with thousands of other stores too, Macy’s at 12%, Dell at 12%, and plenty of places you probably already shop at. It’s a great way to stack rewards on top of your card’s bonuses, and you can even redeem Rakuten cash back for Amex Membership Rewards points.
Amex Business Blue Plus Credit Card
This is the first card on the list with a $0 annual fee. The annual fees on the other cards are justified by their benefits, but if you want something with no annual fee that still earns solid rewards, the Amex Blue Business Plus Credit Card is a great option. It currently earns 15,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend your first few thousand dollars, has 0% interest on purchases for 12 months, and gives you two times points on up to $50,000 in purchases per year, one times after that. It’s a great starter card if you’re new to business credit cards and not ready to commit to an annual fee yet. That said, the other cards on this list, even with a $95 or $295 annual fee, are worth it for the benefits you get, but this one is a solid way to dip your toes in first.
Marriott Bonvoy
This is the Marriott Bonvoy Business Card. It earns extra points for staying at Marriott hotels, six times points at Marriott properties, four times points on restaurants, gas stations, and shipping, and two times points on everything else. That adds up to a lot of extra Marriott Bonvoy points if you stay there often. Signing up and hitting a certain spending threshold also gets you complimentary Marriott Bonvoy Gold status and three free nights. How valuable those free nights are really depends on which hotels you stay at. Combined with Gold or Titanium status and the upgrades that come with it, this card is a solid addition to your wallet, and you get an extra six times points anytime you book Marriott travel with it. If you’re more of a Hilton person, there’s also the Hilton Honors Business Card.
Hilton Honors
The Hilton Honors Business Card earns 12 times points at Hilton properties. Worth noting, Hilton points are generally worth less than Marriott points or Amex points, so 12x isn’t actually twice as valuable as the six times points at Marriott, they’re roughly comparable. It also earns five times points on other purchases up to $100,000 per year, comes with complimentary Hilton Honors Gold status, and currently offers 175,000 Hilton Honors bonus points. Marriott tends to be the primary choice, but if there’s no Marriott around, Hilton is a solid backup that still earns you points and status.
Delta SkyMiles Reserve Business Card
Finally, there’s the Delta SkyMiles Reserve Business Card. If you fly Delta a lot, this gives you extra perks there, though you should pick whichever airline card actually matches how you fly. It earns three times miles on every eligible dollar spent with Delta, one time mile on everything else, and an elevated 1.5x after you hit $150,000 in spend for the year. It also comes with complimentary Delta Sky Club access, which you’ll notice is also included with the Business Platinum, plus Centurion Lounge access similar to that card.
There are also bonuses that help you reach Delta status faster, plus a companion certificate each year that lets you bring someone along on a flight for free. There are other credits too, like Resy and rideshare credits, 15% off when booking award travel, priority on the upgrade list, and more. There’s a lot packed into this card. The annual fee is $650, which is on the higher end, but if you fly Delta often it can easily pay for itself.
Final Thoughts
Those are the top credit cards for travel hacking your rewards points. There’s also a video covering the best personal credit cards if you want to check out more options. All the cards mentioned above have referral links below, which often come with better bonuses than what you’d find searching around on your own. That’s how you can rack up extra rewards points every time you travel.