Bank of America® Business Advantage Customized Cash Rewards Mastercard® credit card review: A straightforward card with added flexibility

The Capital One Spark Cash Plus may be the ideal alternative to the Bank of America Business Advantage Customized Cash card, if your business spending spans different categories. You’ll earn a 2 percent flat-rate on all purchases you make with the Capital One Spark Cash Plus, removing any extra strategizing you’d have to do with the Business Advantage Customized Cash card. The Capital One Spark Cash Plus also makes up for what the Business Advantage Customized Cash Rewards Mastercard lacks in travel rewards and perks. For example, you’ll earn 5 percent cash back on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel, and it doesn’t charge a foreign transaction fee (See Rates and Fees).

You’ll have to decide how much you’re willing to stomach on affordability. The Capital One Spark Cash Plus is a charge card, so you’ll need to pay your balance in full each month. You’d also pay a $150 annual fee (See Rates and Fees), which could be steep for some, especially if you own a small business. On the upside, there is no ongoing APR, as you can’t carry a balance.

If you’re willing to pay more to get more flexibility and no-hassle earning structures, you should give the Capital One Spark Cash Plus a look.

The American Express Blue Business Cash™ Card mixes the low-hassle, flat-rate rewards of the Capital One Spark Cash Plus and the spending cap on the Bank of America Business Advantage Customized Cash card to find a steady middle ground. If you don’t want to strategize for your earnings, you can get one of the best flat rates on the market with the Amex Blue Business Cash. However, similar to the Business Advantage Customized Cash Rewards Mastercard, you’ll only earn the flat 2 percent rewards on all purchases on the first $50,000 you spend annually. Anything more than that will earn you only 1 percent cash back.

Where the Amex Blue Business Cash pulls ahead is in its intro APR offer on purchases. It beats the promotional purchase APR on the Bank of America Business Advantage Customized Cash Rewards card by offering a longer intro APR offer on purchases. If you want more time to pay off a large expense when you open a business card, then the Blue Business Cash is the right choice.

Your decision may come down to how much control you want over your earning potential and if you think your business spending will stay under the designated spending caps. The Amex Blue Business Cash might be the choice for the business owner that wants to earn consistent rewards across all purchases and can benefit from some time to pay down larger purchases thanks to the intro APR offer.

A terrific choice for nearly any business with varying spending needs, the Ink Business Unlimited’s flat 1.5 percent on all purchases fills in the gaps for any categories the Business Advantage Customized Cash doesn’t cover. 

And the Ink Business Unlimited $750 welcome offer when you spend $6,000 in the first three months beats out several competitors in the space. Plus, if you have a personal Chase card that earned Ultimate Rewards points, you can pool your points together for maximum earnings.

Bank of America’s Business Advantage Unlimited Cash Rewards card also nicely complements the Business Advantage Customized Cash Rewards by offering a flat 1.5 percent back on all purchases. And like the Customized Cash Rewards, the Unlimited Cash Rewards also offers the opportunity for up to 75 percent bonus cash back through the Preferred Rewards for Business program.

Businesses that expect to spend less than $50,000 a year can benefit from the flexible rewards category choices without worrying about losing potential cash back on categories they won’t spend on. The choice categories include various business purchases like computer services, telecom and wireless services, travel, and office supply stores.

Self-employed cardholders may benefit from the flexible rewards structure just as small businesses do. However, the self-employed may find greater value in the easily obtainable welcome offer. The intro APR on purchases may also prove more beneficial for the self-employed than small-business owners thanks to lower operating costs associated with self-employment.

Qualifying for Bank of America’s Preferred Rewards Platinum Honors status and gaining that 75 percent cash back bonus is a hard sell for anyone not already banking with Bank of America. If you have a Bank of America business checking account or Merrill business investment account, you might find the Business Advantage Customized Cash Rewards a more compelling option.

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.