Best Flat-Rate Cashback Credit Cards for Businesses 2024: Earn Rewards in ‘Easy Mode’
Written by Dayana Yochim
Edited by Carolyn Kimball
Fact-checked by Andrea Coombes
For small business owners (including freelancers, contractors and sole proprietors) who already have a lot to manage, a flat-rate cashback card is a no-fuss way to earn rewards on all of your spending.
A flat-rate rewards card pays the same percentage in cash back on every purchase, regardless of spending category (like gas, travel, dining, office supplies, utilities and so on). This straightforward rewards structure requires little to no hands-on management — no rotating bonus categories to track or tiered rates to consider. A flat-rate rewards card offers businesses a way earn a profit from must-pay expenses in “easy mode.”
The best flat-rate cashback credit cards for businesses
To determine the best flat-rate cards for businesses, we started with what the data told us: which cards paid the most cash back annually based on an average small business’s expenditures. After narrowing the list — with an assist from our Business Credit Card Rewards Calculator — we looked at fees, sign-up incentives and other features that either enhanced or detracted from each card’s appeal.
Three business credit cards led the pack among the flat-rate cards in our database:
- TD Business Solutions Credit Card: Best for unlimited 2% cashback plus welcome bonus
- American Express Blue Business Cash: Best no-hassle rewards redemptions
- Spark 2% Cash Plus Card: Best charge card (flexible credit line) for no-cap 2% rewards
- Honorable mentions: Bank of America Business Advantage Unlimited Cash Rewards, Capital One Spark 1.5% Cash Select, Chase Ink Business Unlimited Card, U.S. Bank Business Leverage Visa Signature Card.
Why trust our best-in-class credit card picks? Our editorial decisions are independent, impartial, and never influenced by affiliate partner relationships. (Translation: No provider can buy its way onto a recommendations list or pay for more flattering coverage). We crunch numbers, scour fine print and rely on our on-staff topic experts to deliver guidance that enriches readers. See How We Make Money for more on how we roll.
See a credit card that’s worthy of a slot in your wallet? Take a moment to confirm card details on the issuer’s site before you apply.
1. TD Business Solutions Credit Card
😀 All business: Get 2% cash back on all purchases, no rewards caps apply; easy-to-earn sign-up bonus and $0 annual fee.
🙁 Funny business: Won’t help you build business credit; 3% foreign transaction fee.
How much can I earn using the TD Business Solutions Credit Card?: A small business that spends $2,500 a month would earn $600 cash back per year using the TD Business Solutions card. One that spends $10,000 a month would earn $2,400.
There are other flat-rate business credit cards out there (see our other picks below). But the TD Business Solutions Credit Card offers the most generous terms: 2% cash back on everything, no monthly or annual spending caps. Other perks include a $250 welcome bonus (subject to change), extended warranty protections and other Visa network benefits — all for no annual fee.
If building your business credit reputation is a priority, just know that TD Bank does not report account activity to the business credit reporting bureaus. It does, however, provide information to consumer credit reporting agencies, so be on your best behavior.
The TD Business Solutions Credit Card is best for business owners with work-related expenses that fall outside of the traditional bonus categories on other rewards card programs.
Read our full TD Business Solutions Credit Card review.
2. American Express Blue Business Cash
😀 Blue skies: Earn 2% cash back on up to $50,000 in spending per year; rewards automatically credited to account (how convenient!); 0% intro APR on purchases and no annual fee.
🙁 Clouds ahead: After hitting the annual $50K spending ceiling, purchases earn just 1% cash back. Note the 2.7% foreign transaction fee and lack of a sign-up bonus.
How much can I earn using the American Express Blue Business Cash card?: A small business that spends $2,500 a month would earn $600 cash back per year using the American Express Blue Business Cash card. A $10,000 monthly spend would kick back $2,400 in a year.
Amex takes the no-hassle approach to rewards cards one step further with the Blue Business Cash card. Not only are there no bonus categories to track — 2% cash back applies to the first $50K you spend each year — but it even automatically credits the rewards you earn to your account within two billing cycles.
The card is also flexible if you happen to exceed your credit limit. (Our advice: Just because you can doesn’t mean you should test Amex’s boundaries. It can be costly.) And the Amex Blue Business Cash card comes with Amex’s protections (on purchases, travel mishaps) and fun stuff (presale tickets).
The American Express Blue Business Cash card is best for businesses seeking a cashflow breather, which the card’s 12 months of 0% interest on new purchases provides (subject to change). It’s also a better fit for smaller businesses that put less than $50,000 of expenses on plastic. Spend more than that and the cashback rate is halved to 1%.
Read our full American Express Blue Business Cash review.
Compare cash back credit cards
Select and compare two credit cards head to head to see which offers the most bang for your buck.
Select Credit Cards
↓×- Amazon Business American Express Card
- Amazon Business Prime American Express Card
- American Express Blue Business Cash
- American Express Plum Card
- Bank of America Business Advantage Customized Cash Rewards
- Bank of America Business Advantage Unlimited Cash Rewards
- Capital on Tap Business Credit Card
- Capital One Spark 1.5% Cash Select
- Capital One Spark 1.5% Cash Select for Good Credit
- Capital One Spark 1% Classic for Business
- Capital One Spark 2% Cash Plus
- Chase Ink Business Cash Card
- Chase Ink Business Unlimited Card
- Costco Anywhere Visa Business Card by Citi
- TD Business Solutions Credit Card
- Truist Business Cash Rewards Credit Card
- U.S. Bank Business Leverage Visa Signature Card
- U.S. Bank Triple Cash Rewards Visa Business Card
Compare
0 of 23. Spark 2% Cash Plus Card
😀 Sparkle: Flexible spending limit; 2% category-agnostic unlimited cash back on all purchases, plus 5% cash back on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel. No foreign transaction fees. Welcome bonus available.
🙁 Fizzle: $150 annual fee; 2.99% late fee on balances not paid in full each month.
How much can I earn using the Spark 2% Cash Plus Card?: A small business that spends $2,500 a month would earn $450 cash back per year using the Spark 2% Cash Plus Card. Spend $10,000 a month and you’ll earn $2,250 cash back annually.
The Spark 2% Cash Plus Card is not technically a credit card: It’s a charge card. You won’t see a “minimum payment due” on the monthly statement because the minimum is the entire balance. (That’s the difference between a charge card versus a credit card.) Failure to pay in full will cost you a 2.99% late fee on the unpaid amount.
Still here? Like the TD Business Solutions card, the Spark 2% Cash Plus Card imposes no cap on your cashback earnings. But because it’s a charge card — with a more flexible spending limit — it offers a higher rewards earning upside than a credit card with a traditional credit limit. (Take a beat, cowboy: We’re not talking about a limitless spending cap. Your credit/payment history and card behavior determines how much spending rope you’re allowed.)
Best cashback card for credit builders
Capital One Spark 1% Classic for Business is a flat-rate cashback card if you (or your business’s) credit has signs of wear and tear. As such, it offers a just-OK 1% cash back on all purchases (no rewards spending caps). Like the other Spark business cards, you earn an elevated 5% cashback rate on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel and pay no foreign transaction fees. There’s no annual fee, but also no welcome bonus or 0% introductory APR on the table.
Honorable mentions
These credit cards are also worth considering if you’re looking for a flat-rate cashback business credit card. Although the 1.5% cashback rate on most of these cards is lower than our top picks, they have other attractive features (who doesn’t like a sign-up bonus?).
- Bank of America Business Advantage Unlimited Cash Rewards is a real flat-rate rewards card contender for companies that also maintain a BofA business deposit account or Merrill Edge business investment account. Depending on your account balances, the deeper banking relationship could nab you a 25% to 75% rewards boost, upping the card’s standard 1.5% unlimited cashback rate to as high as 2.62%.
- Capital One Spark 1.5% Cash Select is a no-annual-fee Spark credit card for those with excellent credit. The tradeoff for avoiding the annual fee is a lower cashback rate (1.5% unlimited vs. 2% unlimited with the Spark 2% Cash Plus charge card). But it still includes the 5% cashback rate on hotels and rental cars booked via Capital One Travel. Plus, there’s a welcome bonus to sweeten the deal. Like other Capital One cards, it charges no foreign transaction fees.
- Chase Ink Business Unlimited Card pays 1.5% back on all purchases, offers a chonky welcome bonus, a limited-time 0% APR on purchases and is a good choice for those in the Chase Ultimate Rewards system where you can combine earnings from multiple cards to cash in. Note that it lacks some of the benefits that other Chase cards offer.
- U.S. Bank Business Leverage Visa Signature Card is not technically a flat-rate card: It offers 2% cash back on your top two categories each month — automated based on your spending patterns — and 1% on all else. The expansive list of spend categories makes it an attractive option for businesses with big “freight and transport services” or “direct marketer” costs, to name a few. Other plusses: A generous welcome bonus, real-time rewards redemption, 5% cash back on prepaid hotels and car rentals booked thru U.S. Bank and no foreign transaction fees. The card’s $95 annual fee is waived for the first year.
Let’s get down to business!
Flat-rate, tiered-rate, rotating rewards? Use the investor.com business cashback credit card calculator to compare your potential earnings among all types of business rewards cards.
Looking for a no-hassle, flat-rate credit card for personal use? See our guide to the Best Flat-Rate Cashback Credit Cards.
How we chose the best flat-rate cashback business credit cards
We chose the Best Flat-Rate Cashback Business Credit Cards based on data from the investor.com business credit card rewards calculator and our own research into each credit card’s terms and conditions.
Here are six things we looked for to determine which cards made the cut:
The biggest payouts. Our credit card tool calculates the annual dollar value of the rewards each credit card program pays per $1 spent. The investor.com cashback earnings estimates used in this Guide are based on what a cardholder who spends $2,500 per month ($30,000 annually) would earn back in a year using the credit card. For a bespoke cashback result, enter how much your business spends each month into the credit card calculator to see exactly how much you would earn in rewards from every rewards card in our database.
The fewest rewards earnings hindrances. The algorithm automatically adjusts the Cash Back Per Year total to account for annual fees, reward spending caps (limits placed on the amount of your spending is eligible to earn rewards), default rewards rates, and different cashback rates on different spending categories. Because we were looking for flat-rate cards, we excluded tiered-rate rewards cards, except when they offered ….
No-hassle rewards boosts. We set out looking solely at flat-rate rewards cards. But if an issuer ponied up a bonus rate on our biggest monthly purchases without making us lift a finger, we took notice. That’s how the U.S. Bank Business Leverage Visa Signature Card (with its truly no-hassle automatic 2% cash back on your two largest monthly spending categories) earned its spot on our recommendation list.
Low fees. Just one of the investor.com picks for Best Flat-Rate Business Rewards Cards charges an annual fee — the Spark 2% Cash Plus Card. We included this charge card on our recommendation list as an additional option for businesses that put large expenses on plastic, want the additional spending power of a charge card, and may bump up against the $50,000 annual rewards spending cap that comes with the American Express Blue Business Cash card.
We also looked at foreign transaction fees. Although all but two of the card issuers we feature — Spark and U.S. Bank — charge foreign transaction fees, we didn’t disqualify them since it doesn’t automatically affect all cardholders. It’s your call whether a card’s foreign transaction fee is a dealbreaker for your situation.
Money-making/saving features. Sign-up/welcome bonuses offer a near-immediate boost to your earnings. In instances where the annual cashback rewards rates were equal, we favored those that offered a sign-up bonus because: ka-ching. Same with introductory no-interest periods on purchases and balance transfers, which can save your business some serious coin over time.
Easy rewards redemptions. The lowest hassle — and fastest — way to cash in on the cash back you earn is to redeem the money as a statement credit. Click a few buttons on the card’s app or website, and your rewards will reduce any outstanding balance or offset future purchases. All of the cards we reviewed offer this option at a minimum. The American Express Blue Business Cash card earned bonus points for automatically crediting earned rewards to the cardholder’s account within two billing cycles. That’s one less thing a busy business owner has to worry about.
Check out the individual flat-rate cash back card reviews we link to for more details on each offering.
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About the Editorial Team
Dayana Yochim has been writing (articles, books, podcasts, stirring speeches) about personal finance and investing for more than two decades, focusing on bringing clarity and the occasional comedic aside to what is often a murky, humorless topic. She’s written for NerdWallet, The Motley Fool, HerMoney.com, Woman’s Day, Forbes, Newsweek and others, and been a guest expert on "Today," "Good Morning America," CNN, NPR and wherever they’ll hand her a mic.
Carolyn Kimball is Managing Editor for Reink Media Group and the lead editor for content on investor.com. Carolyn has more than 20 years of writing and editing experience at major media outlets including NerdWallet, the Los Angeles Times and the San Jose Mercury News. She specializes in coverage of personal financial products and services, wielding her editing skills to clarify complex (some might say befuddling) topics to help consumers make informed decisions about their money.
Andrea Coombes has 20+ years of experience helping people reach their financial goals. Her personal finance articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, MarketWatch, Forbes, and other publications, and she's shared her expertise on CBS, NPR, "Marketplace," and more. She's been a financial coach and certified consumer credit counselor, and is working on becoming a Certified Financial Planner. She knows that owning pets isn't necessarily the best financial decision; her dog and two cats would argue this point.