American Express is wooing US small businesses with the launch of a new credit card, which the group claims can empower their spending to promote healthier cash flow and the ability to say “yes” to more business opportunities.

The American Express Blue Business Cash Card is a cash-back credit card that offers no annual fee, a 0% introductory annual percentage rate (APR) period and opportunities for smaller companies to expand their credit spending limit.

“We know that three-quarters of [US] small business owners experience unexpected business costs on a monthly basis, but less than a quarter of them feel fully prepared to deal with those unexpected costs,” said E-Bai Koo, executive vice president, global commercial services at Amex.

“We launched the Blue Business Cash Card to help alleviate some of the most common pain points of running a business so that business owners can concentrate on growing their business.”

A competitive market

Amex also released findings from a June 2019 survey conducted by market researcher Savanta. Of the 500 US business owners who participated, 65% said that having automatic cash back would help them manage their cash flow and 62% said that the opportunity for added cash back would enable them to reinvest in their business.

A 2017 Small Business Credit Survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that 45% of small business owners reported using credit cards regularly, and 65% of cardholders reported using personal cards to fund business expenses.

Amex hopes that the newly launched product will help US small business owners gain access to more capital and reinvest in their companies. 

“The Blue Business Cash Card gives card members the backing to thrive with cash flow and flexible payment solutions,” says Brett Sussman, vice president of global commercial card lending for Amex.

“With 2% automatic cash back and no annual fee, [it] is a simple tool that can help business owners run and grow their business.”

Key card features include: no annual fee, 2% cash back on up to US$50,000 in eligible purchases (1% after that), and the ability to manage cash flow with “Expanded Buying Power,” a feature that allows small businesses that qualify to make a limited number of purchases above their credit limit.

No category restrictions apply when shopping with the new card, so users can earn cash back on all purchases. As an additional bonus, the card comes with an introductory 0% APR period on balances and transfers for the first 12 months.

Amex is also connecting US small business owners to Connect to Quickbooks and its Spend Manager solutions to integrate into their accounting portal and analyse spending.

The Amex Blue Business Cash Card will compete with several other no-fee small business credit cards in the US market, which include Visa’s Ink Business Cash card, Capital One’s Spark Cash for Business card and the Discover It Business Card.