Discover it® Business Card review: An easy start for business beginners, but gone from the market

Like the Discover it® Business Card, the American Express Blue Business Cash Card has no annual fee, which makes it more affordable. But the two cards diverge in a few major ways. The Amex Blue Business Cash intro offer lets you earn a $250 statement credit after you make $3,000 in purchases in your first three months. Depending on how much you spend, this may pale in comparison to what you could have earned with the Discover it® Business Card’s Cashback Match. 

You’ll also earn a higher rate of cash back with the Amex Blue Business Cash than the Discover it® Business Card, at 2 percent back on all eligible purchases. But this 2 percent earning rate is capped at $50,000 per calendar year. Anything you spend over $50,000 will earn you only 1 percent cash back, which is lower than the unlimited 1.5 percent flat rate the Discover it® Business Card touts. Big businesses with budgets that blow through the $50,000 annual spend may be better off hanging on to the Discover it® Business Card if they already have one.

The Ink Business Unlimited credit card and the Discover it® Business Card are quite similar: Both offer the same unlimited flat rewards rate for no annual fee and similar ongoing variable APRs. The biggest difference is in the welcome offer: The Ink Business Unlimited’s welcome offer earns you $750 bonus cash back when you spend $6,000 in the first three months. You’d have had to spend $25,000 during your first year with Discover’s card to get the same welcome offer value.

You may also have a slightly lower barrier of entry with the Ink Business Unlimited, since you can have good to excellent credit (670 to 850 on the FICO® scale) to feasibly be approved whereas you had needed excellent credit for the best approval odds with the Discover it® Business Card (740 to 850 on the FICO scale).

The best business cards offer rewards in key business spending categories, so a primary factor in a business card’s rating is its rewards value. This includes the card’s average rewards rate, estimated annual rewards earnings, sign-up bonus value and reward redemption value.

To estimate a business card’s average annual rewards earnings, we first calculate its average rewards rate based on how much it earns in different bonus categories and how closely its categories align with the average small-business owner’s spending habits. In other words, we assess whether the card earns rewards at a high rate in the most popular business spending categories. 

We researched 10 key business spending categories including dining, gas, office supplies, travel, telecommunications, insurance and more to get a sense of the average small-business owner’s spending habits. We assumed an average annual spend of around $40,000 per year based on Bankrate survey data. 

Using this data, we are able to assign a weighting to each of a card’s bonus categories. We also estimate the redemption value of points or miles from various issuer, airline and hotel rewards programs.

This weighting and rewards valuation allows us to estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings — how many points or miles you’d earn with a given card if your spending was about average and you used the card for all of your business purchases — as well as what those points are worth. We also use point valuations to determine a card’s sign-up bonus value.

With these calculations complete, we assign each card a score based on how its average rewards earnings, sign-up bonus value, rewards rate and redemption value stack up against other business cards, factoring in the card’s annual fee.

The better these values, the higher its score will be, making it more worthy of inclusion in our list and increasing its potential ranking.

We also score business cards based on how much it costs to keep them in your wallet or carry a balance. 

To start, each business card is scored based on whether it offers an intro APR and how its ongoing APR compares to the rates available on other business cards. This is because an intro APR on new purchases or balance transfers can be a lifesaver if you need to pay down debt, finance a large business purchase or free up cash flow. 

While intro APRs are not uncommon on business cards, they aren’t a given, so cards that offer this sort of payment flexibility will score higher in our card rating system.

Even more important to both a card’s score and its inclusion in our list, however, is how its annual fee influences its overall value. We consider a card’s annual fee in two ways — how it ranks relative to the fees you’ll find on other cards in the category and how it impacts a card’s overall rewards value. 

Cards with an annual fee will always be at a slight disadvantage in our scoring system since annual fees inherently cut into your rewards value. However, if a card offers terrific value via its ongoing rewards and perks, it can earn a high score and a spot in our list even if it carries a high annual fee. 

With this in mind, we rate a card based primarily on how its ongoing rewards value and ongoing perk value (such as annual credits or bonuses) stack up against those of other cards in the category when you subtract annual fees.

We rate each business card’s flexibility based on the restrictions it imposes on earning and redeeming rewards. 

Flexibility factors include whether a card only allows you to earn a high rewards rate on only a small amount of spending or requires you to meet a certain earning threshold before you can redeem rewards. We also examine whether your points are worth less when you opt for some redemption options over others and whether a card gives you the flexibility to transfer rewards to travel partners.

We also score each card’s set of features – its perks and benefits — against five tiers of features to provide a rating. Top-tier perks include benefits like airport lounge access, travel credits, elite status with an airline or hotel and credits for expedited security screening membership programs.

We give extra weight to perks especially useful or valuable for small-business owners, like being able to qualify with no personal guarantee, digital advertising credits, free employee cards and accounting perks.

The Discover it® Business Card’s main perk is its wide range of coverage for business-related expenses. As a flat-rate business card, you’ll earn the same rate of cash back on all your purchases and you won’t need to worry about strategizing to maximize rewards in specific spending categories.

Yes. The Discover it® Business Card offers employee cards with the option for business owners to set specific credit limits. You can get up to 50 employee credit cards for no extra cost.

It’s best to limit your business credit card use only to business-related expenses. Doing so will save you time when it comes to filing taxes for personal and business reasons. It’s also important to note that business expenses can be broad, depending on what your defined business is, so be sure to use discretion when noting something as a business expense.