TravelStrategies: *Business edge select card

  U.S. Bank Credit Cards

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Annual Fee

No annual fee

Typical Signup Offer

20,000 FlexPoints

$1,000 initial spend

($290 net value, .29/$)

Bonus Categories

3x Your Choice of Day-to-day Business Expenses, Automotive Expenses, or Travel and Restaurant Expenses (4.5%)

1x Everything Else (1.5%)

% Foreign Transaction Fee

This is one of the most attractive cards for earning bonus rewards on actual business expenses. It earns 4.5 cents per dollar on many types of expenses, like advertising and professional services, that aren't included with many other cards. If you already have a good alternative for these categories, it still might be worthwhile to take advantage of the card to earn bonus rewards on some automotive-related purchases and/or increase your annual "cap" on rewards for business purchases.

Jump to

• Signup Bonus
• Other Notable Benefits
• Bonus Categories

Collecting the Signup Bonus

This card is primarily interesting for its bonus reward rates on business purchases, not for its signup bonus. The typical signup bonus is 20,000 FlexPoints, valued at $300 (at 1.5 cents per point).

After subtracting the opportunity cost of using the card for $1,000 of spending, the calculated net value for the initial year is $290 (29 cents per dollar spent).

That's not bad, but it can be hard to get approved for U.S. Bank credit cards, and there are better signup offers available. However, if you decide to get this card for its valuable bonus reward rates, the signup bonus is a nice side benefit.

Other Notable Benefits

None.

Bonus Categories

• The Business Edge card offers good rewards on spending in the typical bonus categories.With this card you choose your own set of categories from three options. For that set, you'll earn 3x FlexPoints, worth 4.5 cents per dollar, without having to pay an annual fee.
  • Everyday business expenses, such as advertising, office supplies, telecom services, and utilities
  • Automotive expenses including gas, service, tolls, and even car purchases
  • Travel and Restaurant expenses
• Most people aren't going to want to choose the Travel and Restaurant option. There are plenty of cards that already earn good rewards on those categories. On the other hand, the Business Edge card's reward rates are slightly better than most of the alternative options. Best Credit Cards for Travel Spending.
• The Automotive option is interesting for people who don't have a bunch of business expenses, or already have another card that earns good rewards on business purchases. It is one of the only cards that earns bonus rewards on a some of the expenses that fall into the automotive category.
• This card offers some of the best rewards on a very broad range of business expenses. It can complement or replace some of the other good business-oriented cards.
• The Ink Cash card earns much higher rewards on Telecom services, and Office supply stores, due to your ability to transfer the points to airline and hotel partners (when paired with a Sapphire or the Ink Preferred card). But, you may not be able to get the card because of the 5/24 rule.
• The Ink Preferred card earns higher rewards on advertising, telecom services, and shipping. But it has an annual fee, and is also affected by the Chase 5/24 rule.
• The AmexSimply Cash card earns slightly higher rewards (5%) on wireless service, and office supply stores, but offers much lower rewards on the other categories.
• The FNBO Business Category card offers slightly higher rewards (5%) on a similarly broad set of categories, but is capped at $25,000 of expenses per year.

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