Best Small Business Credit Card in Canada for 2022
The American Express Business Edge™ Card was first introduced to the Canadian Market in October of 2019. It came storming onto the market and literally blew away the competition for small business credit cards. A strong welcome bonus, very strong points earning rates (and they're valuable points) and an easily manageable annual fee make this card stand out. The card mimics it's personal card brethren the American Express Cobalt Card in bonus categories for points and earning Membership Rewards select points and in Rewards Canada's mind it is the best small business card in the Canadian market.
The American Express Business Edge™ Card makes up one of half a dozen small business cards in American Express Canada's card portfolio. It is the first American Express small business card to earn Membership Rewards Select points which aren't at all different from Membership Rewards - you simply cannot combine points from a card that earns Membership Rewards points (like the Business Platinum Card® from American Express) with points earned on a Membership Rewards Select card like this one.
The American Express Business Edge™ Card currently offers a welcome bonus of up to 67,000 Membership Rewards points when you are approved for the card. The first 45,000 is awarded when you spend $5,000 on the card within the first three months. Plus, earn 10x the points for every $1 spent on eligible business essentials including office supplies & electronics, rides & gas, eats & drinks within 6 months of Cardmembership, up to a maximum of 10,000 points. The card then offers a 1,000 points bonus each month that you spend $3,000 on the card and is a continuous bonus that will be awarded to you for the life of the card as long as you hit that $3,000 in monthly spending. It is this 1,000 point per month bonus combined with the 55,000 welcome points that make up the up to 67,000 points you'll see in the card's marketing efforts.
The American Express Business Edge™ Card has a very reasonable annual fee of $99 on the primary card and no fees for any additional cards. The interest rate
on the card is 19.99 % for purchases and 21.99% for cash advances which is in line with most of the cards at this
level.
The card earns Membership Rewards points like other proprietary American Express cards and has category multipliers on the types of purchases:
You can use our American Express Cobalt™ Card Confirmed Multiplier Locations which lists hundreds of retailers from around the world to get an idea where you can earn 3x and 1x points.
Spending Category | Points earned per dollar spent | Rate of return when booking your own travel | Rate of return Cash Back | Rate of return when booking Amex's Fixed Points for Travel | Rate of return when converting to airline & hotel programs |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Eats and drinks (restaurant, quick service restaurant, coffee shops, drinking establishments, food delivery) | 3 | 3% | 3% | up to 6% | 3% to 18% or higher |
Rides and gas (bus, subway, taxi, ride sharing) | 3 | 3% | 3% | up to 6% | 3% to 18% or higher |
Office supplies and electronics | 3 | 3% | 3% | up to 6% | 3% to 18% or higher |
All other spending | 1 | 1% | 1% | up to 2% | 1% to 6% or higher |
The American Express Business Edge Card participates in Amex's Membership Rewards program which is the best credit card reward program in Canada as it has so many valuable redemption options. You can redeem points for any travel you book with the card, you can redeem points for any purchase you make on the card, you can redeem via Amex's Fixed Points for Travel and you can convert your points to Air Canada Aeroplan, Air France KLM Flying Blue, British Airways Executive Club, Marriott Bonvoy and numerous other programs.
If you redeem using the Use Points for Purchases option, you will get a $10 credit towards every 1,000 points redeemed for a purchase. This means the purchases you make in accelerated categories will equate to a 3% return.
Moving on to the Fixed Points Travel Program, the card provides great value here as well. Being able to earn up to 3 points per dollar means you can be flying for as little as $5,000 in spending on this card and provides up to a 6% return on those accelerated urchases. Here are the Fixed Points award charts:
From the above you'll see you only need 15,000 points for popular short haul round trip flights. Make that spending with 3x multipliers and you have that ticket for only $5,000.
Finally, another huge and I mean huge benefit to the redemption side of this card is the ability to convert to Membership Rewards Frequent Traveller participants. As of August 16, 2021 the Business Edge Card gained access to all of American Express' transfer partners including Air Canada Aeroplan and British Airways Executive Club. This is on top of the hotel transfer partners that card already had. With minimum point values of 1 cent for Marriott, 1.5 cents for Aeroplan and British Airways you are looking at returns of 3 to 4.5% for that 3x points earning. But that's a minimum - there are so many occasions where you can get 3, 4 or even more cents per points with this programs that puts the Business Edge's return easily into double digits!
As with all American Express Cards the card comes with American Express Invites which includes Front Of The Line® Advance Access, Front Of The Line® Reserved Tickets, Front Of The Line® E-Updates, Special Offers & Experiences for all Cardmembers and Social Access for all Cardmembers.
The card comes with a small insurance package that incudes Employee Card Misuse protection, Car Rental Theft and Damage Insurance, a purchase protection plan and buyers assurance.
One benefit that isn't promoted front and centre by American Express that his card has just like the consumer cards is the Amex Offers benefit. Amex Offers continually provides special deals at select retailers when you use your registered American Express card. The deals are typically a statement credit after you meet a minimum spend with a retailer but have also seen discounts and bonus points offers as well. We have a complete Guide to American Express Canada 'Amex Offers' where you can learn more about the Amex Offers program.
The full time earn rate of three points per dollar spent on eats and drinks, rides and gas & office supplies and electronics isn't matched by any other small business card in the market. With it translating to a minimum 3% return this card is front of the pack for earning. No other card small business provides a full time 3% return.
The sign up bonus is another strong point, 45,000 points is worth a minimum of $450 towards travel or cash back or even $900 of short haul flights with the Fixed Points Travel program. Add in the additional 1,000 points you can earn every month for the life of the card if you spend $3,000 per month and you can really see how this card just continually racks up the points.
You can have up to 99 supplementary cards which means the majority of Canadian small businesses can make do with one account and easily hit that $3,000 in spending every month!
The elephant that is in the room with every American Express card is the notion of the lack of acceptance of American Express cards. Yes the cards aren't accepted at as many places as Visa or Mastercard - there's no bending the truth there - however over the past few years American Express has been very aggressive at adding new merchants all the time and have been closing the gap on the big two issuers. In fact in the U.S. it is now claimed that American Express is accepted at 99% of the locations that Visa and Mastercard are. Here in Canada we aren't that high yet but we aren't that far off. If you want help to see where American Express is accepted I recommend checking out these two features of ours:
Another potential drawback for this card is the cap on the number of points you can earn annually at the 3x points rate. This is capped at 75,000 points per year which translates to $25,000 in spending. If you are a sole proprietor, small partnership or corporation this limit shouldn't really matter however if you are a company that needs dozens of cards - up to the 99 allowable - you probably are able to spend a lot on your account and may hit that limit really fast. At least you have the 1,000 points per month to count on should you be at the 1x points level.
The insurance package isn't very strong when compared to some other small business credit cards, there aren't a lot of travel benefits or coverages on the card which can be expected as the card isn't marketed as a travel card only. Hopefully you and your employees have personal cards that can provide coverage when you travel and seeing that this card has no point accelerators for purchasing flights, hotels etc. you most likely want to put those purchases on another card any ways.
Taking what they learned from the consumer Cobalt Card from 2017 to 2019 American Express developed a similar card for the small business card that is a winner. At the original time of posting this review the American Express Business Edge card is the best small business credit card in the market for low to medium spending. Its elevated earn rates coupled with the most flexible redemption options from the Membership Rewards program make the card ideal for small businesses with 1 to 100 employees. Whether it is the only card you have for your business or if you make it part of a trio for your company's credit card portfolio (we always state you should have a Visa card, a Mastercard and an American Express card) it will help you keep track of your expenses all the while rewarding you and your business very handsomely.
Top Small Business Travel Rewards Credit Card for 2023
Earn up to 67,000 welcome bonus Membership Rewards® points
Earn 45,000 Welcome Bonus points when you charge $5,000 in purchases to your Card in your first three months of Cardmembership
Plus, earn 10x the points for every $1 spent on eligible business essentials including office supplies & electronics, rides & gas, eats & drinks within 6 months of Cardmembership, up to a maximum of 10,000 points.
You can earn an extra 1,000 Membership Rewards points for each monthly billing period in which you spend $3,000 in purchases on your Card.
This could add up to 12,000 extra points in a year.
That’s $670 in statement credits that can be reinvested in your business.
Annual Fee: $99 | Additional Card Fee: $0
Earn points that you can redeem in a variety of ways.
Make the most out of a full suite of business management tools that give you more control over your business - anytime and anywhere.
Access coverage that can protect your business purchases when you charge the full price of eligible items to your American Express Business EdgeTMCard.
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