The Plum Card

I keep hearing advertisements about a plum colored card from American Express.  Does it compare to the other small to medium sized business cards?  It does in some ways.

One thing that annoys me is bank accounts and credit cards where you have to keep a certain balance or do gymnastic moves to get a certain reward you desire.  This card gives you a straight two percent back on your month’s total spending when you spend over $5,000.  The catch is that you must pay your balance in full within 10 days.  This would be before your statement comes in the mail so you would most likely log into your account online and pay the bill after you set up a few reminders telling you to take this action. 

The example the PlumCard.com site gives us shows a charge of $10,000 monthly wherever you use your card then making full payments within 10 days then totaling a savings of $2,400. 

What if you do not pay your bill in 10 days?  That is the big question I have.  Who has the type of accounting that makes this easy for their business without receiving an invoice yet?  I assume if you wait until your statement comes in the mail that you get no cash back.

If you spend under $5,000 in a month then you get a 1% reward.  Basically, this card rewards you for being plum on your spending and getting things paid no longer than 10 days of statement closing date.  Spend more and get more!

This card is a gorgeous, classy card and is part of the OPEN for Small Business network as an added bonus.  The demographic behind this card I suspect would be minority business owners such as women who not only like the color of the card but the savings and option to defer payments.

This option to defer payments is a unique way of putting a few months off the statement closing date to pay off the balance in full.  All you have to do is make an initial payment of at least ten percent by the “please pay by date”.  An example would be if your balance is $5,000, you can pay 10% of that which is $500 for the first month.

While this card seems to have a nice 2% reward that most cards do not even think of it spells out the word HASSLE to me.  I do not like hassle and neither do other small business owners.  As much as I love them advertising this card on CNBC every 5 minutes and love the beauty of this card I will have to stick with the more appropriate, less hassle card from American Express OPEN.

There really is no reason they should be charging a hefty $185 annual fee on this Plum Card.  Doesn’t AMEX make enough in late fees, interest, and merchant fees to not have to charge the small business account holder?  Anyone who pays $185 for a annual fee on a credit card and runs a business needs to read the “Dummies Guide to Running A Business” book a few thousand more times.  I would also advise them to buy a Jim Cramer or a Suze Orman book.