American Express Business Plum – Get 3.5% Cash Back On Up To $30,000 In Purchases (First Three Months & In Chunks Of $10,000 Spend)

The Offer

• You can earn up to 3.5% cash back on your first $30,000 in purchases within three months with the American Express Business Plum card. Broken down as follows:
  • Earn 1.5% cash back with no limit when you pay early
  • Plus get another $200 for every $10,000 you spend, up to $600 in cash back

The Fine Print

• Offer ends August, 24th, 2015
• Annual fee of $250 is waived first year
• Additional employee cards are free
• No foreign transaction fees

Our Verdict

3.5% cash back sounds fantastic, but there is a lot not to like about this promotion. Here are the three two (I had a third, but I forgot it. If I remember I’ll add it, sorry!) things I hate, in order:

• You only have three months to spend, a full year would have been much more generous
• You only get 2% of that rate in chunks of $10,000 spend. If you end up spending $19,000 you’re going to lose out on a lot of money. A flat 3.5% would’ve been much better.

It’s very easy to get 2% cash back on all purchases and the Discover it Miles card offers 3% cash back f0r first year with no cap (will be interesting to see what happens to big spenders). Let’s assume you’re able to spend the full $30,000 within three months, you’d earn the following with different cards:

• 2% card (Citi Double Cash or American Express Fidelity): $600
• 2.22% card (Barclaycard Arrival Plus): $666
• 3% card (Discover it Miles): $900
• 3.5 card (American Express Plum): $1,050

Comparing to a 2% card, this is a healthy extra $450, but compared to the Discover it Miles it’s only another $150 but the Discover card has the advantage of being for a full first year rather than only three months and it also might be possible to downgrade the card to a regular Discover it card to take advantage of the rotating 5% categories.

Personally I think the Discover it Miles card makes more sense, if you can spend $10,000 a month you’d earn up earning $3,600 cash back at the end of your first year using that card for all your purchases (although there is always a risk that they won’t pay out).

I imagine a lot of my readers are still trying to meet the $20,000 spend requirement on the American Express Business Platinum, but keep in mind that this Plum offer goes until the end of August and it’s also regularly offered.

P.S I hope the title is less clickbaitey than the last few, sorry if they have annoyed anybody. Has not been my intention and I loathe click bait titles. If something isn’t being accurately described, please let me know and offer possible improvements.

Hat tip to Danny Deal Guru.