Wednesday, June 28, 2017

(Possibly dead already!) Hurry!?! Sign-up bonus (~$300) going away on arguably the best no-annual fee rewards card!

I have no idea how long this will be around. I think it will be gone very soon, but can't say for certain. Read on for more details ...


Before I go any further, I always start off with a reminder of my CREDIT CARD WARNINGS.

UPDATE: It appears that this offer may have died. You can keep checking HERE and HERE to see if maybe a new/working link is found again.

American Express (Amex) recently announced a new credit card called the Blue Business Plus card. Rather than have me re-hash the details, I'll point you to THIS POST from my friend Shawn at Miles to Memories. IMPORTANT (for now at least - see below), do NOT use the link in his post to apply for the card. You see, Amex recently removed the sign-up bonus (quite possibly permanently) from this credit card on it's own website (and via links from most websites).

But Doctor of Credit recently posted a link (in THIS POST**) that is still working to get the 20,000 Amex Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus (after $3000 in spending within 3 months). Those 20,000 points are "worth" at least $200 for booking airfare travel via Amex, and potentially $300-400 if you transfer the points to Amex travel partners (a discussion for another day). **If the link in this post has disappeared, it probably means that the 20,000 point sign-up offer for this card has disappeared (still might be worth getting the card - but will be a bummer!). Also, I recommend taking a photo of your online application page (your info filled out before you hit "submit") with the offer details. Given that this offer is probably on it's last legs, you want to be sure that you can document you signed up for this offer before it was gone (and there's still some small chance you might have to fight for it, and possibly even lose the fight - although hopefully/probably not!).


As highlighted in the posts (linked to above), this is a great card for at least three reasons. First, a 20k point sign-up bonus is pretty nice for a card that has no annual fee. Second, earning 2x points per dollar spent (up to 50k points per year) is also pretty great for a card with no annual fee. Since each of those points are worth at least a penny each (towards airfare via Amex), this is effectively (at least) a 2% "cashback" (in the form of travel) card with no annual fee. And there's potential for getting 3-4% value (again, how to do this with Amex Membership Rewards points is a topic for another day - or feel free to do a web search). Finally/third, Amex cards are great to have for access to their "Amex Offers" program (again, a topic for another day or a web search).

A couple of other things to consider:

1) This is a Business Amex card. That means that you are supposed to have a business to apply. In my experience, Amex is very liberal/loose with what it will accept as a business. They basically just ask you what the name and structure is of your business, and your annual revenue. I know many people have been able to just use their own name as the name of the business, and a structure of sole proprietorship, while showing very little ($1000?) of anticipated annual revenue (perhaps from selling stuff via Craigslist, eBay, and/or a garage sale??). If you want to read more about this topic, I suggest doing a web search for something like "applying for business credit cards as a sole proprietorship".

2) One nice thing about Amex Business cards is that they typically do not do a credit report hard-pull to approve you. Although they might if you have no (or limited) relationship with Amex before this application. Also, generally Amex Business cards do NOT count against Chase's "5/24 rule". If you are a rewards credit card "newbie" this is important. As Chase is one of the biggest/best credit card issues out there, and given their 5/24 rule, you generally want to start out by applying for their card(s).


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