Advanta Platinum Business Card Review
Summary - The Advanta Platinum Business Card is a basic no-frills credit card that will appeal to the small business owner who is either looking for a low interest rate business credit card, or for a credit card to transfer balance. It is among the three Advanta cards that are available to small business owners. Find out more about this card.
Fees and Rates - There is no annual fee for both the main cardholder and business employees. The apr is at prime rate plus 5.99%. You get an introductory 0% APR for 12 months on both purchases and balance transfers.
Online Account Management - Advanta cardholders get benefits like free online account management, and detailed expense reports. Statements can be downloaded to Microsoft Money, QuickBooks or Quicken. Limits on employees cards can be set individually. You can get a credit line of up to $50,000.
Advanta Platinum Business Card Peer Comparison
The first thing that springs to my mind is to compare this card with the other two Advanta cards.
Versus Advanta Platinum With Rewards - Advanta has another business credit card called Advanta Platinum with Rewards. It is essentially a 1% cash back credit card. It also allows new card holders to transfer a balance and get 0% APR for 15 months. To be honest, I'm not impressed by a cash back card offering just 1% cash rebates because there are better cash back business credit cards around that pay more than 1% cash back on certain spending categories. So in this shoot out, the Advanta Platinum with Rewards wins.
Versus Advanta Life of Balance Card - The Advanta Life of Balance Platinum Card has a slightly more complicated tiered cash back formula that will appeal to small business owners who spend a lot on their card. They also offer a 2.9% life of balance deal for new card holders. Once again, though the Advanta Platinum Business Card falls slightly short.
Is this the right Advanta Card?
Conclusion - The Advanta Platinum BusinessCard will appeal to the small business owner who is either looking for a basic low interest rate business credit card, a card to transfer a balance, or a 0% apr offer for purchase for some capital expenditure needs. But before you get this card, you should also consider other Advanta cards because they offer better balance transfer deals as well as cash back. I would even go further and suggest that you consider cards like the Simply Cash Business Card from Amex or the Chase Ink Cash, as they both offer more than 1% rebates (up to 5%) on certain spending categories. If you are looking for a card to transfer a balance, the best cards to do that are actually consumer cards. The Citi Platinum Select MasterCard and the Citi Diamond Preferred Card both offer 0% Intro APR* for 21 months on both balance transfer and purchases.
Update - Advanta has stopped issuing cards since the height of the financial crisis in 2008. Consider some of our other suggestions here if you are looking for a small business credit card.
Positives
- No annual fee
- Low APR
- Good 0% apr introductory deal
| Advanta Platinum Business Card | |
| Benefits | |
|
Free Online Account Management Detailed Expense Management Report |
|
| Cost/Fees/Interest rates | |
| Introductory rate | 0% introductory APR on purchases and balance transfers for 12 billing period |
| Annual Fee | No annual fee |
| Purchase APR | Prime Rate plus 5.99% |
| Balance Transfer APR | Prime Rate plus 5.99% |
| Cash Advance APR | 5.99% |
| Penalty/Default Rate APR | The higher of account apr plus 3% or Prime Rate plus 17.99%) |
| Min Finance Charge | $1.00 |
| Grace Period | 25 days |
| Balance Transfer Fee | 3% min $5.00, max $50.00 (during introductory period) |
| Cash Advance Fee | 3% min $5.00 |
| Convenience Check Cash Advance fee | 3% min $5.00, max $50.00 |
| Over-the-credit-limit fee |
$15.00 - less than $501.00 $29.00- between $501.00 and 1,001.00 $39.00 balances over $1,001.00 |
| Late Payment fee |
$15.00 - less than $250.00 $39.00 balances over $250 |
