5 Steps to Maximize Your Business Credit Card Rewards

In my last post, I told you about the six credit cards I used in 2024 to generate over $15,000 in cash back for my business and nearly two million points. Now I want to show you how to achieve similar results by maximizing point multiplier and cash-back incentives.

Step 1: Analyze Expenses

Before you start applying for credit cards, make a list of everything your business spends money on each month. Think of the biggest buckets first, like shipping, advertising, travel, etc. Categorizing those expenses will help you choose the best cards from the list I provided in part one.

For example, if you spend a lot on travel, look for cards with travel multiplier incentives. If advertising is your biggest expense, choose cards with marketing bonuses. Alternatively, you could go with a card that adapts to your purchase patterns, such as the AMEX Gold Business card that offers monthly 4X points in your top two expense categories.

Match your biggest expenses to cards that reward those categories. Then, start signing up for your new cards, and make sure you take advantage of sign-up bonuses (the links included in this post will get you large bonuses).

Step 2: Use the Right Card For Each Purchase

Credit card rewards programs offer different point multipliers for specific purchase categories.

For example, AMEX Gold offers 4X points on advertising spending and software subscriptions. So, I use that card specifically for these business purchases.

Chase Ink Business Preferred offers 3X points on shipping, travel, and advertising purchases. I use that card for those purchase categories.

The trick is to match each purchase with the card that maximizes your reward.

Step 3: Rotate Cards After Hitting Spending Caps

The cards I use all have annual spending caps limiting how much you can earn on the point multipliers. For example, once you hit AMEX Gold’s $150,000 cap in annual spending, you only earn 1X points instead of 4X.

Don’t let this cap limit your rewards.

When I max out my AMEX’s $150k cap (I do this in just a few months with advertising spend), I switch to a card that offers similar rewards, my Chase Ink Preferred in this case. After I use that card for a few months, I either repeat the process with another card until the caps reset in January or apply for another card from the same bank.

Step 4: Get Cash Back For Everything Else

Once I hit the point multiplier limits on the point cards, I stop using them almost completely until the following year, when those incentives reset. Then, I move almost all my purchases to cash-back cards.

For purchases that don’t qualify for point multipliers, I use flat-rate cash-back cards. For example, I might use the Capital One Spark (2% on all purchases) or the Chase Business Ink Premier card for purchases over $5,000 to earn 2.5% cash back.

Why do I do this? Earning 2% cash back makes more sense than earning 1X points.

Chances are that many of your expenses will fall into the cash-back category. And even if they are small, these expenses add up over the course of a year. Automate these expenses and watch the rewards flow in.

Step 5: Redeeming Your Points

Now the fun part, redeeming your points. Here are a few tricks I’ve learned to get more out of my hard-earned points:

• Avoid redeeming points directly through your bank credit card portals. Generally, you get far more value by transferring points to hotels, airlines, or other partners.
• Watch for transfer bonus offers—airlines, in particular, like to offer incentives when you transfer points. Sign up for your bank’s marketing emails to stay on top of the point sale offers.
• Use sites like https://seats.aero/ or https://amex.point.me/ to maximize transfer value when booking flights. Last summer, I booked first-class flights from Boston to Dublin for just 70,000 points through an affiliate partner. These tickets would have cost $7,000 cash or more than 300,000 points had I cashed in points through the lender portal. I got them for a quarter the cost of the points after finding a deal on point.me (you get a free subscription to this if you’re an AMEX Platinum card holder).
• Consider using your points for other purchases, but stack up incentives and discounts by cashing out points for gift cards and then using discount codes when you purchase things using those gift cards online. Several times a year, AMEX offers a sizable bonus when you use your points to buy gift cards. For example, you could get a 20% bonus on Crate & Barrel gift cards and then find a discount code around the holidays for another 20% off. Now go buy that new bedroom room set you’ve been eyeing for 40% off.

The Bottom Line

Smart financial decisions compound over time. And whether it’s optimizing your credit card rewards, SEO, or marketing spend, small efficiencies add up. At the end of the day, that’s what WISE Digital Partners is all about—eliminating waste and maximizing ROI.

Want to explore more ways to grow your business? Book a one-hour strategy session with me.