Bank of America® Business Advantage Customized Cash Rewards Mastercard® credit card review: A straightforward card with added flexibility

If you’re running a small business and looking for ways to return some operating costs to your wallet, the Bank of America Business Advantage Customized Cash Rewards Mastercard is a great choice. While it lacks the bells and whistles of some competing cash back business cards on the market, the lack of annual fee and flexible reward categories make it easy for your business to capture the maximum rewards rate possible throughout the year. 

Rewards rate: Tailor your rewards to your spending

The Business Advantage Customized Cash Rewards Mastercard’s biggest feature makes it easy to maximize its cash back rate on your business spending. Cardholders can choose from various eligible bonus categories for 3 percent cash back. These categories cover products and services that should prove valuable to budding businesses, including gas stations (also EV charging stations), office supply stores, travel, telecom and wireless, computer services and business consulting services. This is a healthy spread of products and most businesses should find at least one category that can help them earn big cash back. 

What’s more, you can change your selected bonus category once each month. With a little foresight, you can swap your rewards category to whatever your business spending demands throughout the year. This means it’s much easier to maximize your annual cash back compared to a business card with fixed reward categories. 

Plus, it earns a flat 2 percent back on dining purchases, so if you buy meals for employees or clients frequently, the Business Advantage Customized Cash card’s dining category supplements your chosen category earnings. This flexibility makes the card a great complement for a flat-rate cash back card.

Just keep in mind the card’s $50,000 annual spending cap for 2 percent and 3 percent category purchases. After you reach the limit, your purchases only earn 1 percent. 

Finally, you can earn anywhere from 25 percent to up to 75 percent additional cash back if you have a Bank of America Business Checking account or Merrill investing account with a qualifying combined three-month average balance. The Preferred Rewards for Business program tiers are:

• Gold tier ($20,000 to $49,999): 25 percent bonus cash rewards
• Platinum tier ($50,000 to $99,999): 50 percent bonus cash rewards
• Platinum Honors tier ($100,000 and more): 75 percent bonus cash rewards

If you qualify for the Platinum Honors tier, then the Business Advantage Customized Cash card’s rewards rates increase to 5.25 percent on your chosen category, 3.5 percent back on dining, and 1.75 percent back on all other purchases. The spending cap still applies. 

Welcome offer: Easy to obtain and has solid value

With the Business Advantage Customized Cash, you may qualify for the $300 welcome offer after spending $3,000 with the card in the first 90 days.

While the card’s welcome offer is less than some of the best business cards, those cards often have much higher spending requirements or carry an annual fee. On the flip side, the $300 you can earn with this card is more than the $200 average on other credit cards with no annual fee while maintaining comparable spending requirements. 

For business cards with welcome offers of $450 in value or more, you’ll typically need to spend anywhere from $4,500 to $6,000 within those first three months. In comparison, $3,000 within 90 days is much easier to fit into your budget. 

Rates and fees: Little to worry about

The Business Advantage Customized Cash’s rates and fees fall right in the middle of the pack, without any unwelcome hidden fees. A no-annual-fee cash back business card is always a welcome sight and can help you put cash back in your pocket without worrying about offsetting annual charges for simply holding the card. 

While the card comes with a 4 percent balance transfer fee, it doesn’t offer a balance transfer intro APR, so it isn’t a good choice for transferring any business debt in the first place. But the card doesn’t impose a penalty APR if you pay late, which can be helpful for newer business owners. Just remember that late payments can still affect your business credit score, and late fees will likely apply.

One small nitpick: The card carries a foreign transaction fee, making travel abroad with this card potentially expensive. However, this isn’t a huge deal as the card’s main features are centered around business spending in the U.S. If you don’t travel for business purposes frequently, this card still carries plenty of value.

While the Business Advantage Customized Cash offers plenty of value to the right business, not all businesses may find the card fulfills all of their financial needs.

Rewards: They’re lacking in flexibility 

The Business Advantage Customized Cash Rewards Mastercard notably lacks access to a valuable rewards program. Similar business cards from Chase and Amex allow you to book travel on their travel portals with points and miles or transfer them to high-value partners for potentially more value. The best credit card rewards programs also offer access to other fantastic perks, many of which are travel related. Though Bank of America’s travel rewards program is available on its travel cards, the Business Advantage Customized Cash unfortunately doesn’t earn points in it. If you’re looking for ways to capitalize on frequent business travel, keep the Business Advantage Customized Cash card’s limitations in mind.

Intro APR: Solid, but on the shorter side

The Business Advantage Customized Cash Rewards Mastercard comes with a  intro_purchase_apr: is not a valid shortcode field. APR offer for purchases that lasts nine billing cycles (17.49% - 27.49% Variable APR on purchases and balance transfers Variable APR thereafter). While this intro APR for purchases is nothing to sneeze at, it lags behind some of the best business card with intro APR offers, which can have intro APRs of up to 12 months. 

Intro APR periods for purchases are often useful for startups or newer small businesses that have expensive initial operating costs, so this offer is a bit disappointing. Other cards can have longer periods for purchases — and they may be better options if you want at least a year of breathing room to pay off large business expenses when you open a new card. If this feature is an important part of why you’re opening a business card you might want to further research the pros and cons of an intro APR card. 

Perks: Not bad, but not great 

While an up to 75 percent extra cash back through the Preferred Rewards for Business program sounds like a feature that would elevate the card, the steep requirements prevent all but dedicated Bank of America customers from nabbing it. To earn the full 75 percent, you’ll need to open a Bank of America business checking account or Merrill investment account and maintain a three-month average daily balance of at least $100,000.

The card’s other perks include QuickBooks integration, travel accident insurance, auto rental insurance, emergency ticket replacement, lost luggage assistance and the ability to check your business credit score for free. These are useful, but you can often find these on other no-annual-fee business rewards cards. Plus, using this card for frequent travel isn’t the best use of the card’s strengths. If you or your employees travel frequently, the best travel business credit cards may offer much more value through travel statement credits, higher earning rates on travel, transfers and more.

Bankrate credit cards writer Ryan Flanigan gets great value from the Bank of America Business Advantage Customized Cash Rewards card by maxing out its top-earning bonus categories.

This card gave me a solid intro APR and a high credit limit, which helped me finance some needed expenses. If I max out the $50,000 yearly spending in the 3 percent category, that earns $1,500, which is an unbelievable return for no annual fee. There’s a good list of categories to choose from and I can change them monthly, which makes hitting this benchmark easier for my business spending. If your business can park enough money with Bank of America, the Preferred Rewards program can boost your earnings as high as 5.25 percent, which is uncommon for a no-annual-fee card.

— Ryan Flanigan, Writer, Credit Cards

Though the Business Advantages Customized Cash Rewards Mastercard is a solid business card option, it’s not for everyone. You can consider two other credit cards that may have more flexibility or allow your spending to be more versatile. 

The cash back you earn from this credit card is solid, but it’s not the perfect, one-size-fits-all cash back card. Since the Bank of America Business Advantage Customized Cash Rewards Mastercard has niche rewards categories, pairing it with cards with a flat reward rate for every purchase creates an effective credit card combo.

This card might not be for everyone, but it’s a solid choice for smaller businesses looking for a simple cash back business credit card. Overall, if you’re not worried about the spending cap and the bonus categories suit your business expenses, the Bank of America Business Advantage Customized Cash Rewards Mastercard is worth a look.

Dig deeper: Is the Bank of America Business Advantage Customized Cash card worth it?

For rates and fees of the American Express Blue Business Cash™ Card, please click here.

All information about the Bank of America® Business Advantage Customized Cash Rewards Mastercard® credit card has been collected independently by Bankrate and has not been reviewed or approved by the issuer.

Our proprietary card rating system takes into account a mix of factors when scoring business credit cards, including each card’s rewards rate, estimated annual earnings, welcome bonus value, APR, fees, perks and more.

We analyzed over 50 of the most popular business credit cards and scored each based on how its key features stacked up compared to those of other cards in its category.

Here are some of the key factors that gave this card its score: