US Bank Visa Business Leverage Signature Card Full Review

Benefits explained

• Your highest paying reward categories adjust for monthly spend: The American bank Business Leverage Visa Signature has an unusual flexibility to optimize the rewards of your spending. You earn 2 points per dollar spent in the top two categories your business spent the most in a single month. Points are worth 1 cent each when applied as statement credit. Since the list is long (at 48 categories), this feature automatically maximizes rewards on even relatively infrequent expenses, like a major auto repair on a company vehicle or a large annual order from a wholesaler.
• Bonus valued at $ 750: A one-time bonus of 75,000 is available after spending $ 7,500 in the first four months of opening the account. These bonus points are worth $ 750 when redeemed for credit on a statement or deposited to an account at US Bank.
• No limit on points earned: Some business cards cap on reward points once you hit a certain spending level, like $ 25,000 each year. This card has no such limit.

Disadvantages Explained

• U.S. bank card service to businesses is below average: Businesses don’t necessarily interact very often with their credit card issuer. But when it’s needed, it’s often a matter of urgency and even stress, and you want a satisfying experience. Unfortunately, this is less likely to be the case for businesses that deal with US Bank than with most other card issuers noted in the. JD Power Small Business Credit Card Customer Satisfaction Survey. In its 2020 survey, US Bank ranks in the lowest group, as the least satisfactory business credit card issuer of the nine that are rated. The US bank’s score of 814 out of 1,000 was 26 points lower than the national average.
• Minimal benefits: To say the least, this card is light on features and benefits. It not only offers a few standard benefits with business cards, such as tools to help track expenses, but no travel benefits either, like insurance coverage for rental cars.
• Points expire after five years: Usually, credit card points do not expire. This card offers an exception. Its rewards expire at the end of the calendar quarter that occurs five years after the date on which you earned the points in question. While this provides a long enough period of time to use the points, it also requires careful consideration when the rewards expire, to be sure they don’t “get old”.

The US Bank Business Leverage Visa Signature card is best suited for businesses spending a number of different categories, depending on the month. Such a spending model aligns well with this card’s rewards structure, which automatically adjusts for spending by automatically assigning the higher rate each month to the two categories with the heaviest spending.

US Bank Business Leveraged Visa Signature Card Bonus

You will earn 75,000 points after spending $ 7,500 in the first four months of opening an account. These points are worth $ 750 if you redeem them for credit on a statement, gift cards, travel, or if you deposit them in a US bank account.

Reward Details

You will earn 2 points per dollar spent on qualifying purchases in your first two of 48 qualifying spend categories each month. The categories encompass virtually all of the major types of expenses that a small business can incur, from travel (airlines and hotels) to basic infrastructure and overhead (telecommunications, utilities, building materials, insurance, healthcare) to shipping (freight, postal and courier services) and promotion (advertising and marketing). The full list of eligible suppliers:

• Advertising companies
• Airlines companies
• Clothing and accessories stores
• Car rental and transport providers
• Car dealers
• Auto parts stores
• Auto repair shops
• Cable, satellite, television and radio providers
• Charitable, civic and religious organizations
• Commercial and Home Furniture Stores
• Commercial equipment, parts and supplies
• IT service providers
• Computer Stores
• Building material suppliers
• Dental, laboratory and medical equipment suppliers
• Department stores, bookstores and novelties
• Direct traders
• Discount stores and wholesale clubs
• Drugs and pharmacies
• Suppliers of durable goods
• Entertainment venues
• Florists, nurseries and garden stores
• Freight and transport services
• Funeral homes and crematoria
• Service stations and fuel dealers
• Grocery stores and supermarkets
• Health care providers
• Home improvement service and supply
• Hotels
• Industrial suppliers
• Insurance providers
• Member organizations
• Suppliers of non-durable goods
• Non-medical testing laboratories
• Personal service providers
• Pet Supply Stores
• Plumbing and HVAC Suppliers
• Postal and courier service providers
• Professional service providers
• Publishers and printers
• Restaurants
• Schools and government
• Stationery and office supplies
• Telecom equipment suppliers
• Telecom service providers
• Utility companies
• Veterinarians
• Wholesale Product Suppliers

You will earn 1 point per dollar spent on all other qualifying purchases. There is no limit to the total number of points you can earn, but the points earned expire at the end of the calendar quarter that occurs five years after the date the points were earned. You will also automatically lose your points if your account is closed for future transactions.

Details on how to use rewards

You can redeem the points you earn for a penny each for a credit on your statement, a deposit to a US bank account, gift cards, or travel.

You can also redeem your points for merchandise. US Bank does not specify the point value for such redemptions, but with most cards it pays less than the more lucrative options.

How to Maximize Your Rewards

To get the most out of the US Bank Business Leverage Visa Signature card, organize your business expenses, if possible, so that every bill you pay is large enough to be among the top two expenses of the month, and so on. earn 2 points per dollar spent. You can achieve this, for example, by making arrangements to make (or at least bill) certain expenses every two or three months rather than every 30 days. Plus, make sure you take advantage of the one-time bonus of 75,000 points by spending $ 7,500 in the first four months of opening the account.

Standard benefits

• Free employee cards
• Expense Tracking with the U.S. Bank’s Expense Analysis Report Tool

Cardholder experience

US Bank received a score of 814 in the JD Power U.S. Small Business Credit Card Study 2020, and thus ranks last among the nine national companies rated. The industry average score of 840 was 26 points higher than that of US Bank.

You can contact the US Bank customer service team for the US Bank Business Leverage Visa Signature card at 866-485-4545.

Security functions

The security features of this credit card are industry standard.

Fees to watch out for

Although this card waives its annual fee the first year, it is $ 95 each year thereafter. The card also charges a higher balance transfer fee when you make a balance transfer request with the app than it does for balance transfer requests made after the app.

Our verdict

The business card, so to speak, of the US Bank Business Leverage Visa Signature is the simplicity with which it adjusts its rewards to business spending. When competitors cook in categories that you earn the best rewards for or force you to actively choose them, this card automatically assigns its best rewards to the two categories you spent the most on in the past month. And there’s no limit on what rewards you can earn at the best rate, unlike cards that limit spending for their optimal rate to just $ 25,000 spent each year.

These perks, however, do not alone make this card a great choice for all or even most businesses. For all the flexibility of its best rewards, businesses can get the same rewards return (of 2% of spend) on all purchases with other cards, some of which do not charge an annual fee. And without any travel benefits, this card is almost begging the company in your wallet for another card that has perks it lacks, like rental car coverage and no overseas transaction fees. Some of these cards also offer a 0% APR period on purchases or balance transfers (or both), which US Bank Business Leverage Visa Signature does not offer.