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September 10th, 2007

Plum Card from American Express Offers Small Business Owners Discounts for On-Time Payments and Chance at Interest-Free Revolving Balances

By Justin McHenry

American Express last week introduced a very interesting credit card for the small business market. The Plum Card aims to help small business owners who can’t get “trade terms” by offering discounts of up to 2% on early payments as well as interest-free deferrals of up to two months when cardholders pay off at least 10% of their balances in the first month. Business owners pay with The Plum Card and then receive terms closer to what they’d enjoy when paying invoices on credit. The goal is to reward early payments while giving business owners slack when cash flow issues make immediate payment difficult.

Established businesses often receive discounts for paying vendor invoices early, but others can’t get credit at all and must pay up front if their businesses are too small or don’t have a long track record. The Plum Card essentially bridges the gap by paying the vendor immediately while giving more lenient credit terms to the cardholder.

Cardholders that pay their balances in full within 10 days of the end of a billing period will receive the early pay discount, which equates to a one-percent rebate on balances of under $5,000 and a two-percent rebate on balances over $5,000.

American Express sees the card as being targeted especially toward businesses in construction, retail, wholesale, IT/Solution providers, the auto-care after market and others.

Most popular / best credit cards according to IndexCreditCards.com visitors:

  1. Discover® More Card
    1.
    Discover® More Card - 0% APR on balance transfers for 12 months & 6 months on purchases, 5% cashback bonus in popular categories, up to 1% cashback bonus on all other purchases
  2. Chase Freedom Card
    2.
    Chase Freedom Card - 0% Intro APR and no Annual Fee, 5% bonus cash back in popular categories , 1% cash bank on everything else
  3. Citi Platinum Select MasterCard
    3.
    Citi® Platinum Select® MasterCard® - 0% on purchases & balance transfers for Up to 18 months, APR as low as 9.99% variable. $30 statement credit.
  4. Blue Cash from American Express
    4.
    Blue Cash® from American Express - Earn up to 5% cash back on gas, groceries and drug store purchases, and up to 1.5% back on all other purchases, no annual fee, fast approval under 60 seconds
  5. Slate from Chase
    5.
    Slate SM from Chase - 0% Intro APR, Now with Blueprint, patented fraud protection

  6. American Express® Gold Card
    6.
    American Express® Gold Card - 10,000 American Express Membership Rewards bonus points when you use the card for at least $500 in purchases within the first 3 months.
  7. TrueEarnings® Business Card from Costco & American Express
    7.
    TrueEarnings® Business Card from Costco & American Express - 4% cash back for annual gas purchases up to $6,000, 3% restaurants, 2% travel, 1% everywhere else, 0% APR on purchases for first 6 months

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* variable rate = credit card interest rate changes in line with federal interest rates or other rate index; fixed rate = credit card rate stays the same regardless of changes in federal rates, but still may be changed by credit card issuer in the future.

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