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The new TD Business Solutions Credit Card offers a $200 signup bonus when you spend $3,000 within the first 90 days of account opening and offers strong cash rebate earning. (HT: Joe Brancatelli)
- 3% on phone, Internet and cable services
- 2% on dining and at gas stations
- 1% on everything else
The card has no annual fee and no foreign transaction fees.
Now I find this new card interesting for a couple of reasons.
- It almost exactly mirrors the spending bonus categories of the Chase Ink Cash Card except that Ink Cash gives 5% back on phone, internet and cable rather than 3% and also includes office supplies as a top rebate category. Ink Cash also does 2% on dining and gas.
- It’s a new issuer that’s getting aggressive in this space. Credit card rewards are getting more aggressive, not less aggressive.
Now, is this the best cash back card or the best business rewards card? Nope.
The Ink Business Preferred℠ Credit Card has an 80,000 point signup bonus after $5000 spend within 3 months. That can even be enough for a roundtrip business class award ticket between the US and Europe. (Chase points are super valuable because they transfer directly to a variety of airlines and hotels.)
It earns 3 points per dollar on travel — that’s airlines, hotels, rental cars, tolls, even Uber — and 3 points per dollar on shipping and advertising on social media and search engines, so great for anyone who advertises on Facebook or Twitter, or who spends money advertising with Google. It also comes with $600 protection against theft or damage when you use it to pay your cell phone. Of course ‘5/24’ applies, if you have had 5 or more new card approvals in the last 24 months you may not be approved.
Cash back is a better strategy than airline miles for people who use their credit card spending for domestic economy flights, plus of course cash isn’t limited to travel and potentially earns a rate of return when invested.
Roughly speaking 2% — or spend categories worth more than 2% — is the new normal. And that’s what airline frequent flyer programs have to compete with. One cent per point in value just isn’t going to cut it anymore and I’m not sure the people running the airline programs have figured that out yet, but if they don’t catch on quick to the need for higher redemption expenses it’s going to mean lost revenue.
You should read the blog “Doctor of Credit”
I think you could learn a lot
Nothing special about this card…nothing! Now, had they offered 3x on Travel then that would catch my attention along w/ the $200.00 signing bonus…otherwise, I’ll stick w/ my Ink Cash/Plus for their 5x categories that this card pays only 3x…same w/ Gas/Rest.
Gary – the old wives tale of domestic flyers only getting value via cashback cards needs to cease. A 12,500 one-way redemption only needs to be used on a flight greater than $250 to get .02 back – a price not very hard to find. Anything more expensive is just adding even more additional value …
This is the best card I’ve ever heard of for my business, which spends >$100k/month on internet and cable!! It’s uncapped (unlike the Chase Ink) for goodness sake!! Wow!
Tried to sign up and wouldn’t go through, because of international formatting of phone number, which I googled and tried multiple different ways. No success.
Anyone else had this problem?
I really really want to object to finance industry’s use of the term “cash back”. You’re not getting any cash back. What you’re getting is a rounded up amount dumped into a “way to save” account (this is what Wells Fargo calls it). It’s your own cash, people, no financial institution is giving you anything ever.
Not sure why you never mention the Alliant Credit Union card. Low annual fee, 3% cash back on everything the first year, 2.5% from then on. Anyone can join with a $5 or $10 donation to charity.