Bank of America® Business Advantage Travel Rewards World Mastercard® credit card review

Best for a no-annual-fee business credit card

• Rewards rate: An unlimited 3X points on travel booked through Bank of America Travel Center and 1.5X points on all other purchases
• Welcome offer: 30,000 bonus points when you spend $3,000 or more in the initial 90 days
• Annual fee: $0
• Purchase intro APR: 0 percent on the initial nine billing cycles
• Balance transfer intro APR: N/A
• Regular APR: 12.24 percent to 22.24 percent variable

If you travel a lot for your business, the Bank of America® Business Advantage Travel Rewards World Mastercard can help fund your company trips. With this Bank of America credit card for business, you receive rewards for your regular spending that you can redeem for things like travel or gift cards. Here’s our breakdown of everything you need to know.

Current welcome offer

You’ll get 30,000  bonus points after you spend $3,000 in the opening 90 days of your account, worth a $300 statement credit you can use toward travel. If you’re already spending that kind of money in a three-month timespan, you might as well get rewarded for it.

Rewards

With the Business Advantage Travel Rewards World Mastercard, you’ll earn points on everything you buy. Plus, you can double the number of points—3X points you get every time you spend on travel purchases, like airlines, rental cars or hotels through the Bank of America Travel Center.

Earning rewards

You can earn twice as much on any travel purchases—3X points—and get a flat 1.5X the points on everything else. There’s no limit on how many points you can receive, either. Plus, if you become a Preferred Rewards for Business Platinum Honors tier member, you can get up to 75 percent more points on everything you buy. To qualify, you have to hold the card, have a Bank of America checking account and an average $20,000 balance over three months in your qualifying deposit accounts.

Redeeming rewards

To redeem points earned with the Business Advantage Travel Rewards World Mastercard, you have a few options, but using it for travel will get you the most value. You can get a statement credit to use toward travel or at the Bank of America Travel Center. Otherwise, you can get cash back or gift cards, but the points are worth less.

How much are points worth?

Based on calculations from the welcome offer, when you use your points toward travel, each point is worth around $0.01. However, when you use the points toward gift cards or cash back, they’re only worth $0.006, meaning 2,500 points equals $15.

Benefits

This Bank of America business credit card has several travel benefits and a few more general rewards. Typically, you have to pay $95 or more to get any business travel benefits, but this card is different.

No annual fee

You don’t have to pay an annual fee with this card. Many business credit cards have a waived annual fee for the first year, but they require you to pay the fee going forward. That’s not the case with this card.

Unlimited points

There’s no limit to how many points you can earn from travel or general spending with this card. For a no-annual-fee card, this unlimited point allowance is an especially enticing perk. Also, you have the opportunity to increase your points earnings by up to 75 percent if you become a Preferred Rewards member.

Travel protections

When you use this card for travel, you’ll get several built-in benefits. You’ll have one million dollars of travel accident insurance, reimbursement for lost luggage and trip delays and coverage for trip cancellations.

No foreign transaction fees

This business credit card doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees, which is great for the international business traveler.

Rates and fees

First and foremost, there’s no annual fee with this card. You’ll also get a 0 percent intro purchase APR for the initial nine billing cycles, then a variable APR between 12.24 percent and 22.24 percent. Plus, there are no foreign transaction fees, so you don’t have to pay extra to swipe your card overseas. You can also expect a welcome bonus of 30,000 points which can be redeemed for a $300 statement credit towards travel purchases if you spend $3,000 in the first 90 days, which is nothing to sneeze at—especially considering you won’t pay an annual fee.

How the Bank of America Business Advantage Travel Rewards World Mastercard compares to other business travel cards

Two other business travel cards worth looking at are the Capital One Spark Miles for Business and the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card. Both of the other cards have a $95 annual fee, although the Capital One card waives it for the first year. The rewards programs for the other two cards are a bit better (unless you become a Preferred Rewards member), so you have to weigh what is most important to you.

Additionally, the other welcome offers are worth more—$500 for the Capital One card and $1,250 for the Chase card (when redeemed for travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards)—but they also require you to spend more initially. For Chase, you have to spend a whopping $15,000 in the first three months and $4,500 in the first 3 months on the Capital One Spark Miles for Business, so that might be out of reach for many cardholders.

Best cards to pair with the Business Advantage Travel Rewards World Mastercard Credit Card

You would do well to pair the Business Advantage Travel Rewards World Mastercard with a more flexible business cash back card that lets you earn cash back on your purchases more easily.

When you redeem for cash or gift cards, you’ll get less bang for your buck with this card, so it would be good to also have a card in your wallet that gives you a higher redemption value for things other than travel.

Bankrate’s Take—Is the Bank of America Business Advantage Travel Rewards World Mastercard worth it?

This card could be great for frequent business travelers who want to use their rewards on travel expenses, as you can get more out of the card when you redeem your points for travel.

Don’t expect luxury perks like airport lounge access when it comes to this card—those benefits are hard to come by unless you pay an annual fee. If you’re hoping for top-of-the-line perks from a travel credit card, or if you don’t travel much for business, you might want to look elsewhere.

Pros

• Unlimited rewards with no annual fee
• Easy-to-earn welcome offer
• No foreign transaction fee
• Lower APR than many competitor cards
• Intro APR on purchases for the first nine billing cycles (then a variable APR of 12.24 percent to 22.24 percent)

Cons

• No luxury business perks
• Must redeem your points for travel to get the most value
• Reward rates aren’t quite as high as the competition