Expiring Tomorrow: 50,000 Point Sign-up Bonus for the Amex Business Gold Rewards Card
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here: The Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express OPEN
Offer expired November 20, 2012:
Amex just notified me that their current 50,000 point welcome bonus (after $5,000 spent within 3 months) on the Business Gold Rewards card will be pulled by 5pm on Tuesday November 20th. Originally the offer was supposed to last until Novermber 26, 2012, but I guess plans changed or they've already gotten enough new applicants.
The previous public offer for this card was 0 points, so I highly doubt the welcome bonus will be increasing. However, Amex does sometimes offer one-day-only 75,000 point bonuses, but I have no idea if that will come back and they usually come with a $10,000 spend requirement within 3 months vs. $5,000.
I value 50,000 Amex points at about $850 (1.7 cents a piece) so this is a pretty solid offer considering the $175 annual fee is waived the first year. Amex points are best leveraged when taking advantage of transfer bonuses to airline partners and they just announced a 30% transfer bonus to British Airways from December 3- January 14, 2013.
I've had this card since November and use it to maximize the Open Savings program, which automatically gives you discounts when you use your card at certain vendors: for example 3% at Hyatt, 5% at Courtyard by Marriott, 10% at Hertz, 5% at Office Max and 5% at Fedex.
You also get 3 points per dollar spend on airfare and 2 points per dollar spent at: "advertising purchases in the U.S. to promote your business in the following media channels: online, TV and radio;(3) 2 points for gasoline purchases at U.S. stand-alone gas stations; (4) 2 points for shipping services purchased in the U.S. for courier, postal, and freight." Each category is capped at $100,000 per calendar year in spend, beyond that is 1 point per dollar. Update: Now you will also earn 2x on purchases made with from select computer hardware, software and cloud computing providers.
You don’t need to have a big corporation to get approved for this card- you can apply with your Social Security Number as a sole proprietorship and likely get approved if you have good credit and either have a small business or plan to start one. Check out this post for more info on applying for business cards.
Note: "Welcome bonus offer not available to applicants who have had this product or any other Business Gold, Green, or Platinum Card account within the last 12 months."
