AMEX Launches A New Blue Business Cash Card Earning 2% Cash Back, Kills The SimplyCash Card For New Applications

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AMEX has launched the American Express Blue Business Cash™ Card today.

It has no annual fee and offers 2% automatic cash back on up to $50,000 of spending per calendar year.

Terms and restrictions apply, see rates and fees here.

AMEX has also closed the SimplyCash card for new applications. If you have an existing SimplyCash card you can continue using it or you can convert it into the Blue Business Cash Card.

Personally I prefer the The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express to the new Blue Business Cash Card. It’s basically the same card offering, but it earns points instead of cash back. It too has no annual fee and earns 2 points per dollar on up to $50,000 of spending per calendar year. As I value AMEX points at about 1.5 cents each, that makes it 50% more valuable than the cash card. You can read more about that card in this post.

But for those that prefer cash back and want a business card, this is a good option.

Personally I wish AMEX would do what Chase does with their cash back cards and earn points that can be used as cash back or transferred to cards with airline mileage transfer capabilities. But with the launch of this card it doesn’t seem like we’ll see that capability anytime soon.

The no annual fee 2% cash back field has a couple of good options, such as the PayPal Cashback Mastercard® and the Citi Double Cash® Card. But this is a welcome addition as it is a business card and spending on a business card won’t hurt your personal credit score.

Both the American Express® Blue Business Cash Card and The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express offer a 12 month intro period of 0% APR on purchases and balance transfers.

0% APR is a lucrative offer as carrying balances on consumer cards can have a very harmful effect on your credit score, but as these are business cards, those balances won’t hurt your credit score.

This is a business card, but 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.

It’s important to just write your own name as the business name if you are just applying for your own small business as a Sole Proprietorship that doesn’t have any business paperwork.

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.

Secondly, if you close a business card it won’t ever have an effect on your score.

Thirdly, 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.

That makes the 0% APR on a business card earning 2% cash back a very strong offer.

Will you apply for the American Express® Blue Business Cash Card?