Office Depot Business Credit Card: What You Need to Know

So, small business owner, you want to get more for your office supply spend.

Specifically, you want to earn more for your office supply spend at Office Depot. Now, your reflex might be to jump into putting that spend on an Office Depot business credit card.

However, as you’ll soon see, many business credit cards can give you lucrative returns on your office supply purchases, plus much, much more. Not to mention, they won’t limit your spending to one specific store like the Office Depot business credit card will.

Let’s see what the Office Depot business credit card has to offer your business and just how that stacks up to its top competitors:

TL;DR: How the Office Depot Business Credit Card Stacks Up

Too long; didn’t read?

That’s okay—we’ll condense the most important parts of this review into a quick synopsis:

Basically, the Office Depot business credit card is pretty bare-bones—it doesn’t come with any stellar perks, and it only works at Office Depot or on their website.

Plus, having to pay off yet another credit card that you can only use at Office Depot may prove to be more complicated than it’s worth. If you’re aiming to simplify your small business’s finances, you’d probably be best off skipping the Office Depot business credit card.

If you really want to up your returns for your office supply spending, then look for a more general business credit card that has office supply store purchases in its top rewards tier—the American Express SimplyCash Plus or the Chase Ink Business Cash, two of the Office Depot business credit card’s top competitors, certainly won’t disappoint in this respect.

The Rundown on the Office Depot Business Credit Card

First, let’s take a look at what the Office Depot business credit card entails exactly.

As for the rewards that you’ll be getting for your spending with the Office Depot business credit card, you’ll get a flat-rate of 2% rewards back for every dollar you spend.

Additionally, the Office Depot business credit card comes with a modest welcome bonus of $50 off of your first purchase of $150 or more within your first 60 days with the card. Beyond those perks, you’ll also get $2 cash back for recycling your used printer cartridges through Office Depot, and you’ll gain access to members-only savings like Office Depot’s Rewards Member Pricing and Bonus Rewards.

Not to mention, if you spend $500 within 12 months with the card, you’ll become a VIP member and get 5% back in rewards on ink, toner, paper, and print/copy/ship services.

Though the rewards aren’t the most lucrative, because this card won’t come with an annual fee, you can rest easy knowing that you won’t have to pay for the Office Depot business credit card.

The Most Notable Advantages of the Office Depot Business Credit Card

Just like any other business credit card, the Office Depot business credit card comes with features both good and bad. Let’s first take a look at the good features this business credit card option boasts:

• No annual fee
• Flat-rate, unlimited rewards
• Free employee cards
• Easy VIP upgrade potential

Generally speaking, though these features are nice to have, they’re also certainly not exclusive to the Office Depot business credit card. In fact, many non-store business credit cards can offer you these perks without limiting you to spending and redeeming rewards in one place.

The Most Notable Downsides of the Office Depot Business Credit Card

Most of the downsides that the Office Depot business credit card comes with are related to this limited, store-specific scope. While many, more general business credit cards out there can also boast the aforementioned perks that the Office Depot business credit card boasts, they don’t come with the following downsides that this store-specific card has:

• Only of use for Office Depot purchases
• Can only redeem rewards with Office Depot
• Smaller welcome bonus

All in all, even if you’re an active Office Depot spender, we suggest you look beyond the Office Depot business credit card to one of its more general alternatives that come with all of its perks and none of its downsides.

The Top Alternatives to the Office Depot Business Credit Card

So, now that we’ve established that the Office Depot business credit card can’t exactly offer it all, where should you go next?

There are many business credit cards that can offer you top rewards rates for your spending at office supply stores. Because office supply purchases are such a frequent spending category for businesses large and small, you don’t have to look far for a business credit card that promises high returns for this type of spending.

But how do you sift through all of your alternatives to the Office Depot business credit card?

Easy—you keep reading.

We’ve chosen the top two business credit cards that outperform the Office Depot business credit card when it comes to rewarding your business for office supply store purchases, and then some:

The American Express SimplyCash Plus Business Credit Card

First up, one of the very best alternatives out there for the Office Depot business credit card is the SimplyCash Plus.

This cash back business credit card from American Express gives you top-tier rewards for all of the purchases you make at office supply stores—Office Depot or otherwise. And that’s not near where your cash back rewards will end with the SimplyCash Plus. When you spend with the SimplyCash Plus, you’ll gain access to the following cash back rates:

• 5% cash back on up to $25,000 annually for purchases made at U.S.-based office supply stores and wireless phone service providers<
  

• 3% cash back on up to $25,000 annually within one of the following categories:
  • Airfare (when purchased directly from airlines)
  • Hotel stays (when booked directly through the hotel)
  • Gas stations in the U.S.
  • Car rentals from eligible agencies
  • Restaurants in the U.S.
  • Advertising in the U.S.
  • Shipping in the U.S.
  • Computer hardware, software, and cloud computing purchases made in the U.S. and directly with select providers
    
• 1% cash back on all spending outside of these categories and above their spending caps

Flexible spending categories and high cash back rates—sounds pretty ideal, right? Well, for a limited time, you can access a generous welcome bonus through the SimplyCash Plus—if you spend $5,000 within your first six months with the card, you’ll earn a $200 statement credit. And if you spend $10,000 within your first year with the card, you’ll earn another $200 statement credit.

On top of all these flashy cash back rewards, the SimplyCash Plus is also practical.

For one, you won’t have to pay an annual fee to get your hands on it. Plus, it comes with an introductory period of nine months of 0% APR. So, as long as you make your minimum monthly payments on time during these first nine months, any balance you carry from month-to-month won’t gain a cent of interest.

One notable downside about the SimplyCash Plus is that it will charge you a foreign transaction fee of 2.7% of every purchase you make outside of the U.S. Though this might be a set-back for some jet-setting business owners, the fact that this card even allows foreign transactions puts it miles ahead of the Office Depot business credit card, which only works within the U.S.-based store.

The Chase Ink Business Cash Credit Card

Another pretty stellar alternative to the Office Depot business credit card?

The Chase Ink Business Cash.

This card offers some of the very best cash back rates on the market, and its top-tier rates apply to—you guessed it—office supply purchases of all kinds.

When you spend with the Chase Ink Business Cash, you’ll earn cash back at the following rates:

• • • 5% cash back for the first $25,000 spent annually on office supply store purchases and on cellular phone, landline, internet, and cable TV services
    • 2% cash back on the first $25,000 spent annually at gas stations and restaurants
    • 1% cash back on all other purchases, with no limit to the amount you can earn

If you’ll remember, your cash back earning with the Office Depot business credit card will default at 2% for all your Office Depot purchases. With this card, however, you’ll be earning 5% cash back for every dollar you spend on any office supply store.

And those cash back earnings barely even scratch the surface of the returns you’ll see with the Ink Cash.

If you choose to do your business spending with this Office Depot business credit card alternative, you won’t have to pay an annual fee for these perks. Not to mention, this card offers one of the longest 0% intro APR periods on the market—you’ll get a full 12 months of interest-free balances with the Ink Cash, provided you pay your minimum monthly payments on time.

That said, just like the SimplyCash Plus, the Ink Cash does charge a foreign transaction fee. This time, however, the fee will be 3% of every purchase you make abroad. If you’re doing a lot of your business spending outside of the U.S., then you might want to search for a business credit card that won’t charge you a foreign transaction fee.

Is the Office Depot Business Credit Card the Right Move for You?

There you have it—your ultimate guide to figuring out whether or not the Office Depot business credit card is the right move for you and your business.

Though you’ll always know what’s best for your business, we suggest looking to business credit cards that aren’t store-specific in order to find the most value for your business spending. Especially if the spending in question is on office supplies, you’ll almost always have tons of options out there that won’t limit you to one specific store.

And with this broader spending possibility will come more purchases with rewards and, frankly, even better cash back rates.

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