Low rewards and an annual fee make the American Express Business Green Rewards Card a disappointing choice for budget-conscious small businesses.
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| Total Rating | 3.7 |
|---|---|
| Rewards & Perks4.0 | |
| Rates & Fees3.2 | |
| Features4.7 | |
| Eligibility Requirements0.8 | |
| Customer Service4.0 | |
| User Reviews3.8 | |
Table of Contents
American Express Business Green Rewards Card has long been a part of Amex’s business credit card lineup. However, its mediocre rewards rate, unimpressive early spend bonus, and $95 annual fee mean that you’ll find many better business credit cards on the market, both from Amex and from competing issuers.
Keep reading for the specifics on how the Amex Business Green Rewards charge card measures up.
American Express Business Green Rewards |
Annual Fee: $95
Purchase APR: 19.49% - 27.49% (variable) |
|---|---|
| Rewards & Perks4.0 |
|---|
| Earning Rewards 3.5 |
| Rewards Redemption 5.0 |
Amex Business Green Rewards comes with a somewhat reasonable (though not great) slate of spending rewards for a card with no annual fee — the problem is that the card does carry an annual fee.
To start, the card bundles in a welcome bonus of 15,000 points that you earn after you spend $3,000 in eligible purchases within your first three account months. Assuming the standard rate of 1 point equals 1 cent, this offer is effectively worth $150, which is relatively low for a business rewards card.
The highlight of Business Green Rewards is its standard rewards rate of two points per dollar spent when you pay for travel through American Express’s booking portal, amextravel.com.
While it’s nice that the card offers an elevated rewards rate for travel, compare this with Capital One’s line of Spark business credit cards, every one of which offers unlimited 5x points or 5% cash back on all hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One’s online travel portal.
Beyond travel rewards, the Amex Business Green Card is simple: You’ll nab the regular old one point per dollar spent on all other purchases.
The most common way to use points earned with a Business Green Rewards Card is on travel. Through amextravel.com, you can redeem your points for flights, hotels, cruises, and upgrades. Flight bookings and upgrades will be the most economical — 1 point equals 1 cent here; hotels and cruises are valued at 1 point equaling 0.7 cents.
If travel redemption doesn’t suit your fancy, Amex includes a couple of other options. You can use points during checkout at an array of shopping experiences (including Amazon, Amex Express Checkout, Best Buy, and Dell.com) as well as cash them in for gift cards.
| Rates & Fees3.2 |
|---|
| Rates 3.1 |
| Fees 3.2 |
Technically, Amex Business Green Rewards is a charge card, which (theoretically) means that your balance is due in full at the end of each month. However, Amex’s Pay Over Time feature allows you to pay off certain purchases over time (an APR applies here, just as with a “normal” credit card).
Keep in mind that certain types of charges are not eligible for Pay Over Time. This means that, depending on how you use your card, a portion of your balance may be due at the end of the month and cannot be carried over to the next billing period.
The Business Green Rewards’s Pay Over Time APR of 19.49% - 27.49% (variable) compares favorably with the APR of “normal” business credit cards — the lower end of this range is less than the average APR for a business credit card in 2024, while the upper end of this range is a bit higher.
Again, remember that certain charges, such as gambling transactions and certain insurance premiums, are not eligible for the Pay Over Time option.
Business Green Rewards comes with a $95 annual fee. This isn’t the highest annual fee you’ll see in a business credit card — the problem is that this card’s rewards scheme would be underwhelming even if the card had no annual fee. Add the annual fee to the mix, and you have a business credit card that offers questionable value relative to the competition.
This card comes with a 2.7% foreign transaction fee, which, while less than the 3% foreign transaction fee charged by some competing cards, reduces this card’s value for the international traveler. If this is you, check out the top business credit cards for travel instead.
As for other fees, there’s a late fee of $39 or 2.99% of the amount that has to be paid in full — whichever is greater. Returned payments will cost you a $39 fee.
| Features4.7 |
|---|
| Business Perks 4.5 |
| Extra Benefits 5.0 |
As with most American Express cards, the Business Green Card comes with a healthy array of perks and benefits beyond the base rewards scheme, earning the card strong ratings in this category.
| Eligibility Requirements0.8 |
|---|
| Credit Score 1.0 |
| Requirement Disclosure 0.0 |
We recommend that applicants have excellent credit to qualify for the Business Green Rewards card. Amex doesn’t actually publish a credit score requirement for this card, but the consensus position among reviewers is that most Business Green Rewards applicants will need excellent credit.
Given this card’s modest rewards scheme, one would hope that this card would be available to business owners with lower credit scores, but this is not the case.
Maverick Tip: If you don’t know your credit score, don’t pay to find out! Check out one of these free credit score sites.
| Customer Service4.0 |
|---|
| Support Options 4.0 |
| Support Quality 4.0 |
This Amex business card offers a full range of customer support options.
| American Express Business Green Rewards Customer Service | Availability |
|---|---|
| Phone Support | |
| Email Support | |
| Support Tickets | |
| Live Chat | |
| Dedicated Support Representative | |
| Knowledge Base or Help Center | |
| Videos & Tutorials | |
| Company Blog | |
| Social Media |
With 24/7 live support, an online FAQ, and some favorable assessments from cardholders, Business Green Rewards earns solid marks in this category.
| User Reviews3.8 |
|---|
| User Feedback 3.0 |
| Review Sites 4.1 |
Amex Business Green Rewards has been around for quite a while, yet user feedback on this card is limited. Still, the card’s average user score of 4.1/5 at WalletHub (based on 186 reviews) indicates a decent degree of cardholder satisfaction.
Let’s discuss a few business credit cards that offer greater value than the Business Green Rewards card.
The American Express Business Green Rewards Card is a simple business charge card designed for domestic travelers. Its points scheme and redemption methods could be helpful to frequent domestic fliers.
However, no matter what your business spending is concentrated on, you can almost certainly qualify for a business credit card with a more lucrative points scheme — and that’s assuming you restrict yourself to a no-annual-fee card.
If you’re willing to pay an annual fee (as you’ll have to do with Business Green Rewards), the vast majority of the business credit cards you can get — including several from Amex — will reward you much more handsomely for your business spending.
Finally, if your credit score isn’t excellent (or even good) but your business is doing well, you may want to explore the best corporate credit cards instead.
You might want to apply if…
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We spend hours researching and evaluating each credit card that we review at Merchant Maverick, placing special emphasis on key characteristics to generate our ratings.
When rating credit cards and credit card issuers, we use an 18-point rubric that looks at rewards and perks, rates and fees, features, eligibility requirements, customer service, and user reviews. We weigh each section differently to calculate the total star rating.
Each section is further broken down into granular, weighted subsections, in which we examine specific attributes like APR, introductory offers, cash back and travel rewards, credit score requirements and disclosures, foreign transaction fees, and the availability of employee cards.
Read more about how we rate business credit cards.
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