Bank of America® Platinum Plus® Mastercard® Business card review: Solid choice for low rates

Bank of America allows you to order an unlimited number of employee cards at no extra cost, so your employees can use their cards to make business purchases. Many issuers charge a fee for additional cards or limit how many employee cards you can have, so this is a big perk.

One of the main Platinum Plus Business card benefits is travel insurance. As a cardholder, you’ll get $100,000 in travel accident insurance. You’ll also get emergency ticket replacement, car rental insurance and assistance if you lose your luggage.

You won’t be liable for unauthorized charges and will have purchase protection for eligible items that covers lost, damaged and stolen items for a period after purchase.

Bank of America has a suite of money management tools to make accounting easier for busy small business owners. Plus, you’ll be able to download your transactions to QuickBooks.

While this card won't earn you any rewards, as part of the Mastercard Easy Saving® Program you can enjoy automatic rebates when you use this card at participating restaurants, hotels and gas stations. You can even get rebates for certain software purchases.

The Ink Business Unlimited Credit Card offers rewards with no cap on how much you can earn from spending. Much like the Bank of America Platinum Plus Mastercard Business, it has no annual fee and a welcome offer. However, the Ink Business Unlimited has a lengthier intro purchase APR period, so business owners have more time to pay off a large expense without dealing with interest.

The Ink Business Unlimited also takes the upper hand when it comes to a 1.5 percent unlimited cash back on purchases. Business owners will find long-term value with the Ink Business Unlimited, as it continues earning cash back past the welcome offer. Since the Platinum Plus Business card lacks a consistent rewards system, the Ink Business Unlimited card might be your best bet if you’re interested in earning on your business spending. However, if you’re a Bank of America loyalist and plan to pair the Platinum Plus Mastercard Business with a rewards-earning card, then you might include it in your overall business strategy.

Another option to consider if you want to rack up rewards is the American Express Blue Business Cash Card. It offers 2 percent cash back on up to $50,000 in purchases each year, then 1 percent after that. It also offers a lengthier intro APR offer on purchases. In almost every aspect, the Blue Business Cash Card wins out against the Platinum Plus Mastercard Business card, so it’s a better option for business owners who want to earn rewards and finance a large purchase with an intro offer. 

The Business Advantage Customized Cash card’s rewards structure is personalized to the cardholder because you earn 3 percent cash back in the category of your choice, such as gas/EV stations, travel or office supply stores. You also earn 2 percent back on dining and 1 percent on all other purchases. The combined cap spending on both bonus categories is $50,000 in a calendar year, then the earning rate drops to 1 percent.

This rewards system is a good deal for businesses that spend a lot on certain items and want to earn consistent rewards. You can use the Bank of America Platinum Plus Mastercard Business card for purchases outside your 3 percent and 2 percent categories that you want a relatively low APR on and use the Business Advantage Customized Cash card for business purchases that can earn boosted rewards.

If you have debt to consolidate, you may want to consider getting the U.S. Bank Business Platinum card. It has an extra long, competitive intro APR offer on purchases and balance transfers that beats out the Bank of America card’s offer. You can use the Platinum Plus Mastercard Business card for financing purchases and the U.S. Bank Business Platinum for transferring a balance and chipping away at business debt.

Since this card doesn't offer rewards, small business owners can use the Platinum Plus Business as a starter card. You can get a taste of perks like solid travel protections as you develop your budget. Once you know where you are consistently spending, you can consider a rewards card that matches your expenses.

If you think you might qualify for the Platinum Plus Business card's low variable APR, then this might be the best option for competitive interest rates. A rewards card loses its value if you carry interest charges month to month, so this could be a standout choice if you tend to carry a balance.

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 recommended credit score for this card is a FICO score of 740 to 850, which is in the excellent credit range. Other factors are also considered when applying.

Bank of America offers a full suite of no-annual-fee business cards in addition to the Platinum Plus Mastercard Business: Business Advantage Unlimited Cash Rewards Mastercard®, Business Advantage Customized Cash Rewards Mastercard® and Business Advantage Travel Rewards World Mastercard®. If you prefer a rewards card, then you might consider these alternatives.