Update 4/1/19: The offer has changed to exclude employee cards from earning a bonus, so the max bonus is now $200, and requires the spend be done on the primary card only (thanks to reader charles li for pointing this out).
The Offer
- Signup for the U.S. Bank Business Edge Cash Rewards World Elite Mastercard and get $200 back when spending $1,000 within the first 90 days.
There are interesting terms on this signup bonus: “Each card meeting the spend requirements will earn cash back. Spend on multiple cards may not be combined to meet the requirement.” MMS confirmed this specifically with U.S. Bank that each employee card can earn the $200 bonus so long as that card spends $1,000 within 90 days. A reader also confirmed having success getting the bonus on each employee card.
You can not mix the cards, however; each employee card, separately, has to do $1,000 in spend to get the $200 statement credit.
Card Details
- No annual fee
- Card earns 3% cash back on cellular, gas and office supply store
- Card earns 1% cash back on all other purchases
- An annual bonus equal to 25% of your prior year’s Cash Rewards will be awarded following your Cash Rewards enrollment anniversary date, up to $250
- Free employee cards
- No cash back maximum, no expiration on the cash back
Our Verdict
We’ve never seen before a card which offers the signup bonus on the employee cards as well. I guess they are trying to drive signups from business with multiple employees.
The card application allows up to 10 employee cards for a total of 11 cards. They say you can call in and add more employee cards after approval. Important note: you do need the SSN and DOB of employee to be able to add them. Related, U.S. Bank does not report business cards to the personal bureau even on the primary card, and certainly not on the employee cards.
A business with many employees can get a $2,200 bonus by signing up for this card (!), though it would require $11,000 in spend. It’s possible you can get the $200 bonus even on employee cards added after the fact, but that much isn’t clear. (Apparently, adding more after the fact does not work.)
The card also has a 25% bonus after the anniversary. Not clear if the $200 signup bonus will get bonused. If yes, that would turn the bonus into $250 per card ($2,750 if you did the full 11 cards).
Definitely intriguing for the right person. Not sure how strict U.S. Bank is with employee cards, e.g. if your spouse sometimes helps with making business purchases, you can probably add them as an employee card.
Looking at the terms on a couple of other U.S. Bank business cards, like Select Rewards and Flexperks, it appears only this Cash Rewards business card has the special terms allowing the signup bonus on each card separately.
Check out these 22 Things Everybody Should Know About US Bank Credit Cards before applying.
Hat tip to reader John
