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The Plum Card® from American Express review
Get up to 60 days of an interest-free period on your business purchases.
finder.com’s rating: 4.1 / 5
★★★★★
- Get this card if you want flexibility in managing your monthly expenses.
- Pick something else if you want to earn more rewards.
- Apply with a good to excellent credit score of 670 or higher.
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Up to 1.5%
Cash back
$250
Annual fee
670
Recommended credit score
Review by
Megan Horner
megan.horner@finder.comMegan 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.
Expert review
The Plum Card® from American Express is a card that requires you have to pay your balance in full before its due date. It comes with a $250 intro annual fee and a 1.5% discount if you pay your balance within 10 days of the closing date. Consider this a 1.5% cashback reward on all purchases for paying your balance on time.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.
Finder experts pick The Plum Card® from American Express as a 2021 best product for credit cards.
How to apply for The Plum Card® from American Express?
- Go to the provider's site and select Apply now.
- Select The Plum Card® from American Express from the list and click Apply.
- Complete the application form with all the required information about your business and the employee who will receive the card.
- Review your application and submit it.
How long will it take to be approved?
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.
The Plum Card® from American Express benefits
- Pay early and get a 1.5% discount. Whenever you pay within 10 days of the closing date, you get a 1.5% discount on your payment. Consider this like getting 1.5% cash back as a statement credit.
- Pay later with no interest. Most business cards give you a grace period of 25 days to pay your balance, whereas 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. At first, this may not seem like a perk worth paying $250 a year for, but keep in mind that most business cards have a variable APR of 12% to 22% on purchases after the 25-day grace period. If you find it hard to pay your balance on time, you’ll save more money avoiding the APR on other cards than the annual fee you’ll have to pay for The Plum Card® from American Express (Terms apply, see rates & fees).
- No preset spending limit. American Express gives you increased flexible purchasing power that adjusts with your card use, your payment history, your credit record and other factors determined by the bank.
How does The Plum Card® from American Express early pay discount work?
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.
How does The Plum Card® from American Express’s 60-day grace period work?
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.
You’ll also like …
- 0% foreign transaction fees. You can freely use this card when traveling abroad, as it has 0% international transaction fees.
- Choose your billing cycle. American Express gives you the option to choose your own billing cycle, which can be at the beginning, middle or end of the month.
- Get additional cards with no annual fee. You pay a $250 annual fee only for the first card — and there’s a $250 intro annual fee the first year. Every additional card has no annual fee.
- Travel, baggage and rental car insurance. Reservations paid entirely with this card gains you automatic insurance up to $100,000 for accidental death and dismemberment coverage while traveling. Your baggage is insured up to $1,250 for carry-on items and up to $500 for checked baggage, and you’re insured for car loss and damage when you rent a car.
- Roadside and global assistance hotlines. When you’re stranded on the road, you can call the roadside assistance hotline for help changing a flat, jumping your battery and more. For trips more than 100 miles from home, you have 24/7 access to medical, legal, financial and other emergency services you may need by calling the Global Assist® Hotline. Keep in mind that third-party service costs are your responsibility.
- Online expense management tools. With this card, you have access to mobile banking where you can set up automatic payments and alerts, monitor your employee spending or connect with your QuickBooks account to transfer your transaction data.
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What to watch out for
- High annual fee. The Plum Card® from American Express entails a $250 annual fee, with a $250 intro annual fee for the first year. This is relatively high, but if your business has a hard time collecting cash, the longer grace period can save you more in APR costs than the annual fee of the card.
- No cashback rewards. The Plum Card® from American Express is designed to help you pay your balance at a later date without paying a high APR. If you pay your balance within 25 days, you may want to look for a card that will also give you cash back or reward points.
- Not a credit card. This is a card that requires you to pay your entire balance in full before its due date.
What size business is The Plum Card® from American Express good for?
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.
What should I know before I apply?
When you apply for The Plum Card® from American Express, you’ll have to provide information about yourself and your business, including:
- Business name and address
- Industry type
- Company structure
- Years in business
- Number of employees
- Annual revenue and monthly spending
- Federal Tax ID, also known as Employment Identification Number (EIN)
- Personal information of the card owner, including annual income
What credit score do I need?
You need a good business credit score of 670 or higher to apply for The Plum Card® from American Express.
What’s my likelihood of being approved?
Businesses that have a credit score of 670 or higher are most likely to be approved.
The Plum Card® from American Express reviews and complaints
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.
I got the card. Now what?
- Use the online management tools. American Express offers online tools that can help you set up autopay and account alerts to avoid late payments and to notify you of suspicious activity. You can also manage your expenses by using the American Express® Business App and can transfer your data directly to your QuickBooks account.
- Contact customer service. For questions, call the 24/7 customer service line at 1-800-528-4800 or use the online chat feature.
Bottom line
The Plum Card® from American Express could be a great card for your business if you struggle with cash flow. With this card, you can pay your balance in 60 days if you pay at least 10% of it by the payment due date. Plus, you get a 1.5% discount for every payment you make 10 days before the closing date.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.
Frequently asked questions
How we determined the value of Amex Membership Rewards points
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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