Many jetsetting business owners can fall into intentional routines, and doing your business with a few select brands every time you travel is certainly a smart move.
Whether we’re talking airlines, hotels, or rental car services, many travel services offer perks like points and member statuses to businesspeople that travel with them routinely.
One of the brands that does this best is Hilton Hotels & Resorts with their Hilton Honors Program.
If you’re a diehard Hilton customer, then you might be considering making the move toward signing on to their Hilton Honors Business Credit Card. Though this decision might seem like a no-brainer for Hilton devotees, no matter your travel habits, it’s always prudent to get an idea of your options before you make the big decision.
Here’s your ultimate guide to the Hilton Honors Business Credit Card and its top business travel credit card alternatives:
TL;DR: The Hilton Honors Business Credit Card and How it Stacks Up to Its Competitors
If you’re looking for top-of-the-line perks that are specific to the Hilton portfolio, then the Hilton Honors Business Credit Card could be the right move for you.
You’ll get either 7x, 5x, or 3x Hilton Honors Bonus Points for every dollar you spend with the card, along with Hilton Honors Silvers status and a chance to earn a 50,000-point signing bonus. Plus, you won’t have to pay an annual fee to be a Hilton Honors cardholder.
However, these points can only be redeemed at Hilton Hotels and Resorts or exchanged at low rates for cruise or airline tickets. As such, many business owners might want to search for alternatives that offer points that are redeemable for a wider variety of goods or worth more per point, or both.
If this is what you’re looking for, then we suggest you consider either the Chase Ink Business Preferred or the Capital One Spark Miles Select as top-of-the-line travel business card alternatives to the Hilton Honors Business Credit Card.
The Rundown on the Hilton Honors Business Credit Card
First thing’s first, let’s take a look at how the Hilton Honors Business can upgrade your business spending.
As for sustained rewards, when you spend with a Hilton Honors card, you’ll gain access to the following rewards rates:
- 7x Hilton Honors Bonus Points for every dollar you spend directly at any hotel or resort within the Hilton portfolio
- 5x Hilton Honors Bonus Points for every dollar you spend on purchases at:
- Gas stations in the U.S.
- Supermarkets in the U.S.
- Restaurants in the U.S.
- 3x Hilton Honors Bonus Points for every dollar you spend on all other eligible purchases
But that’s not all this Hilton Honors card has to offer—you’ll also get 50,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points if you spend just $1,000 during your first three months with the card.
Not to mention, once you get the card, you’ll automatically get upgraded to Hilton Honors Silver status, and if you spend at least $20,000 with your card during your first year with it, you can get upgraded to Hilton Honors Gold Status.
The very best part?
This Hilton business credit card doesn’t come with an annual fee, so you’ll be able to access its perks for free.
This Hilton Business Credit Card’s Most Notable Downsides
This all sounds pretty nice, right?
Well, before you get too excited, it’s crucial to take a look at all of the details on the Hilton Honors Business Credit Card, even the less-than-ideal ones. Just like any other business credit card, the Hilton Honors card comes with its own fair share of downsides—and, depending on your preferences, some of them might be deal-breakers.
The most notable cons that this Hilton business credit card comes with have to do with its rewards program—Hilton Honors.
The first thing you’ll really need to know about the Hilton Honors program is that the points it doles out and redeems travel for—Hilton Honors Bonus Points—don’t have a uniform worth and, in many cases, aren’t worth as much as your average credit card’s rewards points.
In fact, while most credit cards come with points that default at 1 cent per point, Hilton Honors Bonus points on average are worth a mere 0.59 cents per point. So, when you see the rewards rates that any Hilton Honors business credit cards come with, be sure to keep in mind that these points are often worth as little as half of what other business rewards points are worth.
Plus, though it might go without saying, it’s important to emphasize that Hilton Honor Bonus Points can pretty much only be redeemed as purchase at Hilton portfolio hotels. Though these points can be transferred for cruise tickets or frequent flyer miles, they’ll be worth even less—around 0.2 cents per point—if you decided to redeem them this way.
The long and short of it?
Though the Hilton Honors Business Credit Card might seem like it provides high rewards rates, the points’ lower worth and hyper-specific redeemability will make the deal a little less sweet.
Your Top 2 Alternatives to the Hilton Honors Business Credit Card
The Chase Ink Business Preferred
If you’re looking for far-reaching, high-worth business travel rewards, then look no further than the Chase Ink Business Preferred.
This business credit card can offer your business one of the most generous welcome bonuses available on the market. Once you spend $4,500 during your first three months with this card, you’ll earn a whopping 80,000 points.
As for sustained rewards, you’ll earn at the following rates as you spend with your Ink Preferred:
- 3x points for every dollar you spend for up to $150,000 annually in the following spending categories:
- Travel
- Shipping purchases
- Advertising purchases made with search engines and social media sites
- Internet, cable, and phone services
- 1x point for every dollar you spend with your card outside of those categories and beyond that spending cap
We know what you’re thinking—after learning about the Hilton Honors Business Credit Card’s main downsides, you’re probably wondering what these points are actually worth.
Well, that’s where the Ink Preferred really shines.
When you redeem the points that you earn with your Ink Preferred for travel—like hotels and plane tickets—through Chase’s online rewards portal, Chase Ultimate Rewards, they’ll be worth at least 1.25 cents per point. That’s more than double the average worth of a Hilton Honors Bonus Point and six times the worth of a Hilton Honors Bonus Points transferred to be redeemed as travel miles.
And, when we do the math, we find that this return rate means that the Ink Preferred’s signing bonus of 80,000 points would amount to a staggering $1,000 worth of free travel. You read right.
Meanwhile, the Hilton Honors Business Credit Card’s welcome bonus, when calculated for worth at their points’ average worth, measure up to only $295. That said, though its bonus amount might not measure up, the Hilton Honors Business Credit Card’s spending threshold for its welcome bonus—at a mere $1,000 spent in your first three months—is much more ideal than the Ink Preferred’s $4,500 spent within the three months threshold.
Additionally, there’s one more thing you should definitely keep in mind when it comes to the Ink Business Preferred—it comes with a $95 annual fee. Now, that might seem like a lot to shell out only to spend more money, especially when you measure it against the Hilton business credit card’s $0 annual fee.
That said, when you look at the big picture and take the Ink Preferred’s welcome bonus into account, you’re getting much more bang for your buck with this business credit card option, even if you do have to shell out a bit of your business’s cash in order to access it.
The Capital One Spark Miles Select
Even though the Ink Preferred might offer a sweet deal in spite of its annual fee, many business owners simply aren’t willing to shell out a lump sum of money every year for an annual fee, no matter how lucrative the card is.
And that’s fine!
Even if you’re not up for a business travel rewards card with an annual fee, you’ve still got options.
One of the very best free, business travel rewards cards out there is the Capital One Spark Miles Select.
This business credit card is a fee-less wonder: You’ll be able to access high-worth, widely-applicable rewards for no annual or foreign transaction fee at all. You’ll get an even 1.5 miles for every single dollar you spend—no caps, no limits, no problem.
Plus, you’ll gain access to a perk that many travel rewards card can’t offer your business—a 0% intro APR period. For your first nine months with the Spark Miles Select, any balance you carry on the card will be interest-free. That’s right—as long as you make your minimum monthly payments on time, you won’t accumulate a single bit of interest on your Spark Miles Select balances for your first nine months with the card.
And the intro perks don’t stop there, either—if you spend $3,000 during your first three months with the card, you’ll earn a generous welcome bonus to the tune of 20,000 miles.
Again, you’re probably wondering what these points are even good for. Well, the points you earn through your spending on a Capital One card will be worth 1 cent per point if you redeem them as travel.
With unlimited points and a lucrative rewards program, the Spark Miles Select is the very best deal you can find for a no-fee business travel card.
The Bottom Line for the Hilton Honors Business Credit Card
So, now that we have all of the necessary information at our fingertips, it’s time to ask, “What’s the verdict for the Hilton Honors Business Credit Card?”
Well, as the person who knows your small business the best, only you can make this decision on your next move. If you’ve gotten all of the information you need, and you still want to move forward with this Hilton business credit card, then your nest step will be to apply.
My advice?
Even if you want rewards for your spending at Hilton Hotels and Resorts, other business travel cards like the Ink Preferred or the Spark Miles Select can give you higher-worth, wider-reaching points for it.
So, whether or not you decide to break your travel routine and branch out in the future will be up to you—and not your travel rewards program.
The post Your Ultimate Guide to the Hilton Honors Business Credit Card and Its Top 2 Alternatives appeared first on Fundera Ledger.
from Fundera Ledger https://www.fundera.com/blog/hilton-honors-business-credit-card
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