American Express Blue Business Cash Review

What Is Amex Blue Business Cash?

The Blue Business Cash Card from American Express is tailor-made for the small business owner who prefers a straightforward cash back program over a rewards points program. There are no spending categories to track and no annual fee to offset — making it a breeze for any small business to use.

Keep reading our Amex Blue Business Cash Card review to see why we gave it a solid 4.3/5 overall rating and named it one of the best business credit cards on the market.

Blue Business Cash Card From American Express: Quick Facts

Rewards & Perks

There’s no high-level calculus needed for this card’s rewards scheme. All your business purchases will earn the same 2% cash back until you reach the $50K/year spending threshold. All subsequent purchases will earn you 1% cash back until the start of your next calendar year.

Accordingly, Blue Business Cash earns strong marks in this category

2% Cash Back On Your First $50,000/Year Spent

The generous rewards rate for this card is 2% cash back on all purchases. While there are plenty of cards on the market offering above 2% cash back, most of those cards offer this rate on specific spending categories only. Two percent cash back is among the highest universal rates you can get from a credit card.

However, note that this double rate only covers the first $50,000 you spend on the Blue Business Cash Card each calendar year.

1% After You Spend $50,000

After you hit the $50,000 mark on the Blue Business Cash Card in a calendar year, your cash back rate will drop to 1% cash back. If you plan to put more than $50,000 on the card annually, you may prefer to look at a different cash back card that doesn’t impose a spending cap.

A $250 Welcome Bonus

Blue Business Cash offers a $250 welcome bonus after you spend $3,000+ using your card within your first three account months. It’s not the largest welcome bonus you’ll see in a business credit card, but it does have a relatively low spending threshold to meet.

Redeeming Rewards

When it comes to rewards redemption, Amex simply gives you a statement credit every billing period. You won’t be able to pick and choose how you redeem your rewards — no gift cards or travel redemption options come with the Blue Business Cash Card.

This isn’t ideal if you like some flexibility in how you redeem your rewards, but if that’s something you prefer not to have to think about, this card may be for you.

Rates & Fees

No annual fee, a competitive ongoing APR, and an intro APR period led us to give Blue Business Cash a strong rating in this category. However, overseas travelers beware: There’s a foreign transaction fee.

No Annual Fee

This Amex card has no annual fee. You’ll be in the black no matter how much you spend because, with no annual fee to offset, your rewards will start earning money from day one.

0% Intro APR For 12 Months

If you need to carry a balance initially, Blue Business Cash delivers 12 months of 0% APR on purchases, which is great if you need some help smoothing out your cash flow.

A Competitive APR

After the 0% intro period is up, you can expect an APR that ranges from 18.49% - 26.49% (variable). Considering how interest rates have risen over the last few years, the lower end of this range is relatively low compared to other business credit cards on the market.

Obviously, if you pay off your balance in full each month, you won’t need to worry about the APR regardless.

A Foreign Transaction Fee

Frequent flyers take note: The Blue Business Cash Card comes with a 2.7% foreign transaction fee. This is a fairly standard rate when it comes to foreign transaction fees, though you can find business credit cards that don’t charge this fee.

Other Fees

There’s a couple of additional standard fees to keep in mind. Balance transfers will ding you $5 or 3% of the amount of each transfer (whichever is higher). There’s also a late payment fee that can go up to $39 (returned payments will be charged the full $39 amount).

Features

Blue Business Cash gives you full access to Amex’s roster of business credit card features. It’s enough to earn this card a 4.7/5 category score here.

Eligibility Requirements

We recommend that you have good to excellent credit before applying for the Blue Business Cash Card. That means you’ll want a credit score of at least 640.

Note that this is just our recommendation — Amex doesn’t specify a minimum credit score for this card.

Customer Service

Amex offers a full range of support options for Blue Business Cash cardholders.

With 24/7 direct customer support, FAQs, and some positive reviews from users, we’re giving the Amex Blue Business Cash Card a solid (if not spectacular) rating in this category.

Amex Blue Business Cash User Reviews

The Amex Blue Business Cash Card earns a workmanlike 3.5/5 rating in the User Reviews category. There’s room for improvement here, but that’s the case for nearly every business credit card we review.

Blue Business Cash earns an average user score of 3.3/5 at WalletHub (20 reviews) and an average score of 3.7/5 from users at Credit Karma (39 reviews). These scores are in line with what many of the leading business credit cards have received.

How Does Amex Blue Business Cash Compare To The Alternatives?

Amex’s Blue Business Cash is a great business credit card with broad appeal, but it’s not the best choice for every business owner. Let’s explore instances in which you might want to go with a different card.

Final Verdict: Is Blue Business Cash Card From American Express Right For You?

Blue Business Cash from Amex is a great business credit card for a wide variety of businesses. With no annual fee to worry about, a 12-month intro 0% APR, and a high 2% cash back rate on your first $50K in annual purchases, the average business owner has a lot to like.

However, if you prefer to have a range of options when it comes to redeeming your rewards, you want a card with extensive travel perks and/or no foreign transaction fee, or if you just want to earn a higher rewards rate on certain purchase categories (like office supplies or software subscriptions), you may be more attracted to a different business credit card.

Furthermore, if you run a large company and you want a full expense management package with your card, you might want to check out the best corporate credit cards instead.

You might want to apply for Amex Blue Business Cash if:

• You want a high-rate cash back card
• You don’t plan to spend much more than $50,000 annually
• You’d like to avoid an annual fee

You might want to look for a different card if:

• You plan to spend a lot more than $50,000 annually
• You travel frequently
• You want a card with more redemption options

Credit Card Review Methodology

We spend hours researching and evaluating each credit card that we review at Merchant Maverick, placing special emphasis on key characteristics to generate our ratings.

When rating credit cards and credit card issuers, we use an 18-point rubric that looks at rewards and perks, rates and fees, features, eligibility requirements, customer service, and user reviews. We weigh each section differently to calculate the total star rating.

• Rewards & Perks: 40% of the total star rating
• Rates & Fees: 30% of the total star rating
• Features: 15% of the total star rating
• Eligibility Requirements: 5% of the total star rating
• Customer Service: 5% of the total star rating
• User Reviews: 5% of the total star rating

Each section is further broken down into granular, weighted subsections, in which we examine specific attributes like APR, introductory offers, cash back and travel rewards, credit score requirements and disclosures, foreign transaction fees, and the availability of employee cards.

Read more about how we rate business credit cards.