Amex SimplyCash New Offer: $250 Cash Back, No Annual Fee
American Express has again increased the sign-up bonus for its SimplyCash Business Card from American Express. For fans of cash back without an annual fee that do a significant amount of spending, the sign-up bonus can be compelling and the card is a solid keeper. Until February 24, 2015, it is offering $250 cash back sign-up bonus in statement credits after spending $5000 within the first 3 months. It also offers 5% cash back at office supply stores (up to $25,000 a year) and 3% cash back in the category of your choice where you can choose among multiple everyday categories.
Because the sign-up bonus stacks with the regular cash back earnings from the card itself, the best way to think of the sign-up bonus is being a 6% cash back card – 10% cash back card on exactly the first $5000 spent within the first 3 months depending on what you spend on. This is broken down as follows:
- 6% cash back on spending for regular purchases (5% from the sign-up bonus plus 1% from regular spending)
- 8% cash back on spending for your selected 3% category.
- 10% cash back on spending at office supply stores.
- 13% cash back for spending at Hyatt if you choose hotels as your 3% category. (Hyatt is a member of the Amex OPEN Business network and earns an additional 5% cash back)
Admittedly, the bonus isn’t that that high compared to the usual 40,000-50,000 point or miles ones we see for other cards, but it usually doesn’t offer any kind of sign-up bonus whatsoever. So why even consider this card? First, we should only look at it among credit cards without an annual fee and this is now one of the higher sign-up bonuses among cards that don’t charge an annual fee. Secondly, the 5% and 3% incremental spending bonuses open up significant opportunities if we use them wisely.
While I am willing to pay an annual fee occasionally when the reward is worth it, I really prefer to have a card that I can hold onto for a while, especially if it means I can earn big bonuses on my spending. And that’s where the real value for this card lies; the spending bonuses. It offers 5% cash back at office supply stores (up to $25,000 a year) and 3% cash back in the category of your choice where you can choose among multiple everyday categories. I’ve written before that office supply stores will sell gift cards to many other merchants (Sephora, Macy’s, etc) without a fee so this card gives us the opportunity to earn an additional 5% cash back on regular shopping.
Credit Card Offer Details
- Limited Time Offer: You can get a $250 statement credit after you spend $5,000 on qualifying purchases on the Card within the first 6 months of Card Membership
- To be eligible for this offer, your application must be received by February 24, 2015
- With no annual membership fee, it’s a smart choice for your business
- Reinvest in your business with automatic cash back
- 5% at U.S. office supply stores & on wireless telephone services purchased directly from U.S. service providers
- 3% on the category of your choice and 1% on other purchases
- On purchases up to $25,000 at 5% and 3% per rebate year, then 1%
- Terms and limitations apply
How To Take Advantage of the Bonuses and Rewards
- Earn $250 cash back as a sign-up bonus.
- Use the 5% Office Supply Store bonuses to earn 5% cash back on most of our shopping by buying gift cards to departments stores, hardware stores, electronics stores, etc.
- Choose the 3% bonus earnings category among airfare, hotels, car rentals, U.S. gas stations, U.S. restaurants, U.S. purchases from select media and U.S. purchases for shipping.
Buying Gift Cards at Office Supply Stores for 5% Cash Back
Staples, OfficeMax and OfficeDepot don’t just sell office supplies. They sell gift cards to merchants and this is a good way to get an extra 5% cash back on general shopping. At Staples, you can find gift cards to:
- Home Depot
- Sephora
- Macy’s
- Sears
- Nike
and these are just a few examples. You can then use the gift card to shop at the merchant directly. Here is a list of e-gift cards sold at Staples.
3% Cash Back on a Category of Your Choice
You can choose 3% cash back among the following categories:
- airfare
- hotels
- car rentals
- U.S. gas stations
- U.S. restaurants
- U.S. purchases from select media
- U.S. purchases for shipping
Since this card is also part of the American Express OPEN Business Network, it earns 5% cash back at Hyatt. If you happen to choose hotels as your category and use this card at Hyatt, the two will combine for an 8% cash back.
How does the offer compare to other cards?
One of the reasons I like this card is because it actually compares very well against other cash back cards without an annual fee. The spending bonuses are plentiful and the sign-up bonus is relatively high for a no-annual fee card. Here’s how the other cards stack up:
- Chase Freedom Card offers $100 cash back sign-up bonus and 5% rotating quarterly bonuses on everyday categories such as gas, dining, grocery stores, etc. These are capped at $1500 per quarter.
- Citi ThankYou Preferred offers 15,000 Citi ThankYou points (valued at $150) and double points on dining and entertainment.
- Chase Ink Cash® Business Card offers $200 cash back sign-up bonus and 5% cash back at office supply stores (up to $25,000 a year) as well as internet and wireless bills.
- Amex Blue Cash Everyday Card offer $50 cash back sign-up bonus, 3% at supermarkets (up to $6000 a year) and 2% at US gas stations and select department stores.
Overall, the $250 sign-up bonus is higher than the other no annual fee cash back cards on the market. The 5% cash back at office supply stores plus an additional 3% cash back on a chosen category surpasses the rewards offerings of most other cards that have a bonus cap. Provided one applies by next February for the higher sign-up bonus, this is a solid card to keep around.
(You can find the card offer in my Best Credit Card Deals list, as usual).
Using a CB at an Office supply store where you get 5X on a Ink card doesn’t make sense for me…….those UR miles are worth at least $0.09 which is almost double the cash back………the CB only works where you don’t have spend that has the category bonus……….surgical use………….
correction on your ink cash and ink plus, I believe the term is up to first $50,000 on the 4 points and rest 1 point.
Hmm. I still think that — for anyone who travels — cashback cards are largely a sucker’s bet.
Most recent example: I redeemed 144,000 Chase points for Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer points and booked two Suites from Los Angeles to Tokyo. Cash value: $14,000, or nearly 10 cents per point. Heck, even if I’d only have really been willing to pay about $1,500 per ticket, that’s a cash value of about 2 cents per point.
Given how easy it is to regularly earn >1 point per dollar spent on Chase cards, it seems that one who travels would nearly always be able to get greater value in aggregate spending there vs. a cashback card.
Then again, if someone already has a zillion points, or has all their travel paid for as part of their work, or is happy traveling domestic economy all the time… then admittedly, perhaps cashback cards then make sense.
That’s definitely very true. You can generally get better value for your points if you’re earning points that are redeemable for transcontinental travel at Saver ticket levels, but most of us will only take one or two trips a year where we can use points at that high a value. That’s, of course, when we can find award availability. I personally will use my miles for trips to Europe and South America this year, but the rest is mostly fixed value points and cash equivalents.
For the most part, if you’re traveling domestically, higher than 2 cents per point is hard to beat. So once I have enough miles for my trip to Europe, for example, then I will typically switch to cash back cards.
How do you get to 13% for Hyatt Hotels? And does this apply to Gift Cards as well as they are purchased from Hyatt? Also with the “Open” benefit does this ad an extra 5% for a total 18% on the first $5,000 spent in the first three months?
Thanks
That would already include the OPEN benefits. If you choose hotels for your 3% category, 5% OPEN benefit and then 5% cash back on the first $5000 spending, that adds up to 13%. It also applies to gift cards, yes.