U.S. Bank FlexPerks Business Travel Rewards Card review

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There are lots of great business credit cards available from a variety of issuers, with each one offering slightly different welcome offers, benefits and perks. Among those issuers, U.S. Bank offers a few cards within its FlexPerks rewards program.

Right now, cards within that program, like the U.S. Bank FlexPerks® Business Travel Rewards Card, are not available to new applicants because the company is overhauling the program. While we don’t know exactly what the card will look like if and when it reopens to new customers, we’re going to review it here today so you can see what benefits it currently offers and know whether they might be a good fit for you down the line.

Note that if  you’re already a cardholder, nothing is changing. You can continue to use your card as you normally would and earn bonus points for purchases at office supply stores, airlines, or gas stations (whichever you spend the most on in each monthly billing cycle), in addition to cellular phone charges and qualifying charitable donations.

Here, we’ll review the U.S. Bank FlexPerks Business Travel Rewards card — plus mention a few comparable cards for those who don’t already have it, and may not want to wait.

U.S. Bank FlexPerks Business Travel Rewards card review

Current bonus

This card is not available to new applicants.

Benefits and perks

Bonus points on select categories

As a small business owner, it’s a good idea to make sure your credit card offers good rewards for your business expenses. The U.S. Bank FlexPerks Business Card offers bonus spending categories that are a good fit for many businesses. Here’s what you’ll get with your FlexPerks Business Card:

• 2 FlexPoints for every dollar spent at gas stations, office supply stores or with airlines — whichever category you spend the most on each monthly billing statement
• 2 FlexPoints for every dollar spent with cellular providers and eligible charities
• 1 FlexPoint for every dollar spent everywhere else

$25 Airline Allowance

You can be reimbursed up to $25 per round-trip airline travel award ticket toward incidentals like baggage fees or inflight food and drinks. There are a few restrictions:

• You must redeem a minimum of 10,000 FlexPoints per round-trip airline award ticket in order to be eligible for the $25 airline allowance
• You may be credited up to $25 on a future statement for qualified purchases made using your card with the airline providing the award travel flight
• You’re only eligible for the $25 airline allowance if you redeem points through the U.S. Bank travel center or by phone (not via Real-Time Mobile Rewards)

Annual fee waiver

If you spend at least $24,000 on your card within your 12-month annual statement year, you will receive a credit for your $55 annual fee back to your account.

Car rental discounts

When you are renting with National, Enterprise or Alamo in the U.S. or Canada, you’ll get access to various money-saving benefits like free upgrades and discounted rates.

How to redeem U.S. Bank FlexPerks points

U.S. Bank FlexPoints are worth 1.5 cents each when redeemed for travel, including purchases made directly with airlines, hotels, car rental companies, taxis, limousines, passenger trains and cruise lines. You can redeem points for travel through the U.S. Bank travel center or by phone.

U.S. Bank also has a program called Real-Time Mobile Rewards, which allows you to instantly redeem FlexPoints as a statement credit. To redeem for hotels, the minimum purchase amount is $500, and for car rentals, the minimum purchase amount is $250.

You can also redeem your FlexPoints for merchandise, gift cards and statement credits, but you’ll get 1 cent per point in value from these redemptions.

That means that if you always use your points for travel, you will be earning 3% back on purchases at gas stations, office supply stores, airlines, cellular providers and charities, and 1.5% back on all other purchases.

Is the annual fee worth it?

The U.S. Bank FlexPerks Business Travel Rewards Card has a $55 annual fee that is waived the first year. If you want to add additional employee cards to your account, each additional card has a $10 annual fee.

Since the annual fee is waived for the first year, you can always get this card and test out whether you use the benefits enough to justify paying the annual fee in future years. Additionally, the first year you’ll earn the 25,000 FlexPoint welcome bonus, which is worth far more than the annual fee.

After the first year, the FlexPerks Business Travel Rewards Card won’t make sense for everyone. It does offer decent bonus spending categories, but unfortunately, you only get one of the categories of gas stations, airlines and office supply stores each month, not all three. It is nice that U.S. Bank automatically chooses the category where you spent the most money to apply the benefit, but it would be even better if it was an “and” instead of an “or.”

One of the best and most unique benefits of the card applies when you redeem your points. Whenever you redeem your FlexPoints for an award flight, you’ll be offered up to $25 in statement credits to cover incidentals like baggage fees or inflight food and beverages. No other credit card offers anything quite like this.

Other cards to consider

If you’re thinking about getting a business credit card, you might want to consider a few others before you apply for the U.S. Bank FlexPerks Business Travel Rewards Card. Here are a few of our favorite business credit cards:

• Ink Business Preferred Credit Card — 100,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points welcome bonus after you spend $15,000 in purchases within the first three months. Earn 3x Chase Ultimate Rewards points for every dollar you spend on travel, shipping purchases, internet, cable and phone services, advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines (up to a maximum of $150,000 in combined purchases per account anniversary year) and 1x Chase Ultimate Rewards points per dollar on all other purchases. $95 annual fee.
• Ink Business Cash Credit Card — $750 bonus cash back after you spend $7,500 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. Earn 5% cash back (5 Chase Ultimate Rewards points per dollar) on the first $25,000 in combined purchases each account anniversary year at office supply stores and cellphone/landline/internet/cable TV services; 2% cash back (2 Chase Ultimate Rewards points per dollar) on the first $25,000 in combined purchases each account anniversary year at gas stations and restaurants; 1% cash back (1 Chase Ultimate Rewards point per dollar) on all other purchases. No annual fee.

Bottom line

The U.S. Bank FlexPerks Business Travel Rewards card has some unique features, including a $25 airline incidental reimbursement on award tickets and bonus points for spending with charities. Depending on the nature of your business, these perks could be very beneficial.

Other than that, this card offers a reasonable $55 annual fee (waived for the first year), which can be waived with $24,000 in spending during your cardmember year, and has other solid points-earning categories. If you can maximize the card’s benefits it could be worth keeping year after year.

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