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finder.com’s rating: 4.1 / 5
★★★★★
Up to 1.5%
Cash back
$250
Annual fee
670
Recommended credit score
Review by
Megan Horner is the banking and credit cards Group Publisher at Finder. She's passionate about helping you find the best credit cards and bank accounts to meet your financial needs — whether that's earning great rewards or improving your credit score. Megan's expertise has been spotlighted on Lifehacker, CreditCards.com, American Banker and featured on news broadcasts across the country. Before working at Finder, Megan worked at Credit Karma and QuinStreet.
But the card’s main feature is the long grace period. Despite the inability to carry your balance, the Plum Card lets you pay your balance within 60 days with no interest as long as you pay at least 10% of your balance before the due date. As a bonus feature — you get to choose your own due date. This can make managing your business budget slightly easier.
American Express instantly approves your application if you meet the criteria and the information you provided is accurate and complete. Upon approval, you’ll receive the card in three to four business days via UPS.
Let’s say that your monthly expenses are $20,000, and you pay the entire amount within 10 days of your closing date. The 1.5% discount you earn in statement credit is $300. If you pay your balance within 10 days for the entire year, you’ll get $3,600 in statement credit as a discount.
Suppose you have a $20,000 balance for the first month. You have 30 days to pay 10% of the balance, or $2,000, by the payment due date to be able to carry the rest of your balance of $18,000 for the next 30 days — for a total of 60 days grace period.
On the second month you spend an additional $20,000, so your new balance is what’s spent plus the $18,000 from the first month — for a total of $38,000. Now you would have to pay the first month’s $18,000 plus 10% of the second month’s balance to be able to carry the remaining $18,000 of the second month over to the third month, and so on.
This could be a good card for small businesses that struggle with cash flow and need more time to pay the balance on their card. Unlike other business cards, where the grace period is 25 days, The Plum Card® from American Express gives you a 60-day grace period as long as you pay at least 10% of your balance by the payment due date.
When you apply for The Plum Card® from American Express, you’ll have to provide information about yourself and your business, including:
You need a good business credit score of 670 or higher to apply for The Plum Card® from American Express.
Businesses that have a credit score of 670 or higher are most likely to be approved.
Customers like the deferred payment option and the 1.5% discount on early payments. They also like the increase in spending limit they get the more they use the card.
American Express is accredited by the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and has an A+ rating. Based on more than 170 customer reviews, the company has earned a composite score of 3.78 out of 5 stars. However, as of August 2021 there are almost 3,000 customer complaints that center on poor customer service. Others report issues with missing statement credit and miles, having their card unexpectedly canceled and problems logging in to their online account.
At first glance, the only setback this card has is the annual fee of $250, with a $250 intro annual fee for the first year. But if you take into account that it lets you delay your payments without paying an APR, then the money you save may outweigh the annual fee.
Before you apply, consider other options with our comprehensive guide to business credit cards to find the right one for you.
To determine the average value of an Amex Membership Rewards point, we looked at the equivalent dollar value a redemption option would cost in the Amex Membership Rewards program. We calculated this average across all redemption options available through Amex to reach the approximate value you can expect when redeeming these points on average. In this case, the average value of a single Membership Rewards point came out to 2 cents per point.
Remember that your points could be worth more or less depending on what you redeem them on, so this value should be used as a general guide.
Editorial note: Any opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any card issuer.
Insurance benefit note: Eligibility and benefit level varies by card. Terms, conditions and limitations apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by Amex Assurance Company.
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