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Research: Understanding business card reward schemes - Credit-Land.com

A good reward scheme has become one of the top most priorities of credit card owners and therefore, has become the deciding factor of choosing a credit card. Nowadays, because of the tough competition, many credit card companies offer beneficial reward schemes without charging the annual fee. Business owners benefit highly from these reward credit cards that do not charge an annual fee.

Some credit card companies offer reward schemes that are tailored to meet the needs of small business owners. Reward schemes like point system, or grocery reward points do not benefit business owners. They have special uses for their cards, and so require a specific set of reward schemes if they have to benefit from the use of their credit cards.

The most attractive reward scheme that helps the business owners the most, is the frequent flyers reward program, or air miles reward scheme. This is good for business owners who are required to travel quite frequently for official purposes. Having an air miles reward scheme not only helps save instant money on the air tickets, but also help getting an upgrade to business class, first class waiting lounge, instant check-in and many other advantages. Air mile reward schemes work fairly simple. Air miles can be accumulated with every single use of credit card, and when it reaches a certain limit, the points can be redeemed for free air tickets for the next travel. Since business owners use only credit cards for transactions, it is very easy to accumulate air miles that can be redeemed for discounts on air tickets. These air miles will have an expiration date and a fixed upper and lower limit. While this can cause some restrictions while redeeming the points, frequent flyers are not greatly affected by this.

Cash back reward schemes also offer a great advantage to business owners, since business owners can earn some percentage of the cash they spend all year round. Credit card companies offering this reward scheme, give back a preset percentage of cash back every year to card owners. Depending upon the total money spent, that percentage can range anywhere between 1% and 5%. Since business owners deal mostly with credit cards for their purchases, there can be a substantial amount of returns every year from this scheme. Small time business owners can use these returns effectively for logistics, business related purchases and earn even higher discounts on their purchases.

Travel rewards other than air miles can also be of special interest to business owners, since deals on hotel stays and car rentals can be very attractive. Similar to air miles, for every use of credit cards, points can be accumulated that can be redeemed for free hotel stays and discounts on car rentals. Since this is in close conjunction with air miles rewards, both combined can give very good deals on travel.

Other reward schemes like discounts on any business related purchases, or free upgrades of business software and free shipping of office supplies and so on, can also be beneficial. But these rewards do not offer much in return when they are taken individually.

Disclaimer: This editorial content is not provided or commissioned by the banks or credit card issuer(s). Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of the banks or credit card issuer(s), and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the banks or credit card issuer(s). Reasonable efforts are made to present accurate info, however all info is presented without warranty. Consult with the issuing bank of the card or account for terms & conditions.
All rates and fees, and other terms and conditions of the products mentioned in this article/post are accurate as of the last update date but are subject to change. See the current products' Terms & Conditions on the issuing banks' websites.