What a Best Buy for Business Program Can Offer Your Business (and What It Can’t)

If you’re a business owner who constantly shells out working capital for electronics, you might be wondering if there’s a Best Buy business program for people just like you. And your hunch is right, because there are Best Buy perks for business owners. But it’s not a Best Buy business credit card like you might think.

There’s no actual Best Buy business credit card, but Best Buy does offer a Best Buy Business Advantage Account. This is essentially a corporate purchasing program that offers business owners a long list of perks, along with a nice, shiny Best Buy for business purchasing card. It’ll make you feel like you’re actually spending with a Best Buy business credit card.

But is the Best Buy for business corporate purchasing program the most lucrative way to shop for electronics for your business? Let’s look at what Best Buy’s business program can offer you, as well as its top alternatives:

Although a Best Buy business credit card doesn’t exist, Best Buy does offer a corporate purchasing program that extends you a purchasing card. That said, you won’t see many returns for your business by spending through this program. The main pull of joining this program is the customization that Best Buy allows for purchases.

However, this upside doesn’t quite make up for the fact that you won’t be able to make purchases with your business credit card through the Best Buy Business Advantage program.

If you want to access more returns for your business’s spend on electronics, then you should consider choosing a business credit card like the Amex Business Gold or the Blue Business Cash Card that will reward your business with points or cash back.

Alternatively, if you want access to flexible financing, look to the Blue Business Plus, which comes with a 12 month intro APR period, so you’ll have 12 interest-free months to gradually pay off any big electronic purchases your business has to make.

If you want to streamline and discount your electronic purchases, then the Best Buy Business Advantage program is a solid, store-specific upgrade for you to consider. You’ve likely gathered that, generally speaking, this Best Buy for business program will give your business access to exclusive perks and optimizations for your Best Buy shopping.

Getting into specifics, Best Buy Business Advantage does come with a lengthy list of features. But there are a few that are most notable.

For starters, all of your purchases through the Best Buy Business Advantage program will come with detailed net 30 invoices.

What that means plainly is that purchases you make with your Best Buy for business account will be invoiced with detailed documents that require your business to pay in full within 30 days of purchasing an electronic from Best Buy.

Another top perk of participating in the Best Buy Business Advantage program is that you’ll have access to Best Buy’s business purchases website, Best Buy for Business. This site offers up exclusive deals and financing options to businesses that participate in the Best Buy Business Advantage program.

With Best Buy for Business, you can access discounts for purchasing electronics at a high volume. Plus, you’re able to choose from flexible payment options, which can open up even more possibilities for the electronics your business can afford.

Additionally, if you join the Best Buy Business Advantage, you can make purchases over the phone. So, if you’re not able to make it to a brick-and-mortar Best Buy, but you’d prefer to purchase through a human-to-human interaction, this program opens up the third option of buying electronics through the phone.

Finally, you can customize multiple facets of how the Best Buy Business Advantage program works for your business.

With your business’s account, you’ll be able to manage individual buyers’ accounts while even allowing multiple buyers to purchase under a single account. Plus, if your business has tax-exempt information, you could keep this info on file through this program, so you won’t have to file every time you make a purchase.

One notable downside to purchasing electronic through Best Buy for Business and the Best Buy Business Advantage program is that you won’t be able to purchase with a business credit card. Because you’ll only be able to purchase through paper, electronic debit, or a combination of the two, your spending won’t be rewarded with points or cash back for any of the purchases you make through the Best Buy Business Advantage program.

And if you do spend that much on electronics that you’re weighing joining a Best Buy program for business, you’ll likely want to get some sort of reward to benefit your business. Whether that’s cash back, travel rewards, or whatever you’re hoping to earn, you should be maximizing your spending for your business.

Opting to shop instead at another electronics provider that will let you purchase with a business rewards credit card could potentially show your business greater returns than the savings that you would see through Best Buy for Business.

First up, the American Express Business Gold Card is one of your very best business credit card options if your business does most of its electronics spending on computer hardware and software.

If you pick the Amex Business Gold card, then you can receive 4x rewards on the two categories where you spend the most out of a list of six for up to $150,000 in purchases annually:

• Airfare purchased directly from airlines
• Restaurants in the US
• Purchases at gas stations in the US
• Purchases for print advertising in select media in the US
• Purchases for shipping in the US
• Purchases for computer hardware and software in the US

This means that your business could basically see a 4x rewards return for every single dollar spent on computer hardware and software, should you opt for this card and spend the most in this category every month.

You’ll also earn 1x rewards for every other dollar you spend on everything else.

Be sure to keep in mind that this business credit card, unlike the Best Buy Business Advantage program, comes with an annual fee, at $295. And it’s definitely high, especially for small businesses that aren’t working with astronomical budgets.

Another great option for business owners who want to see big returns for electronics purchases is the American Express Blue Business Cash Card. In contrast to the Amex Business Gold, this business credit card rewards spending with cash back rather than rewards points.

The Blue Business Cash Card’s cash back rewards program allows you to earn 2% cash back on all eligible purchases on up to $50,000 per calendar year. After that, you get an additional 1% back. That means you’ll get a decent cash back reward for every dollar you spend on everything you might buy at Best Buy, among other places.

Finally, you’ll earn an even 1% cash back for every other dollar you spend, whether you spend on electronics or on other categories.

You’ll be able to access these cash back returns for no annual fee at all, so you won’t have to measure your cash back returns against an annual lump sum, unlike with the Amex Gold.

On the other hand, you might be looking for another option that affords the flexible financing that Best Buy Business Advantage offers.

In which case, you should consider making larger purchases on a business credit card that comes with a 0% intro APR period, like the American Express Blue Business Plus.

This intro period means that your business can carry an interest-free balance on purchases made on the Blue Business Plus from month-to-month for up to 12 months, provided that you make your minimum monthly payments on time, every time.

So, if you need to make a big-ticket electronics purchase for your business, then you can make this purchase with the Blue Business Plus and pay the cost off gradually over 12 months without garnering a single cent of interest.

The Blue Business Plus will also reward you for the spending you do with the card—you’ll get 2x rewards for the first $50,000 you spend every year, and 1x rewards thereafter.

Plus, the Blue Business Plus doesn’t come with an annual fee, so the flexible financing and rewards returns it comes with could be yours for free.

So, what’s your next move on Best Buy for Business?

Well, though your next move is certainly up to you—you’re now well equipped with all of the knowledge you need to make the best decision for your business. From our vantage, we’d highly suggest that you spring for a business credit card over the Best Buy Business Advantage program.

By upgrading your business spend on electronics with a business credit card, you’ll be able to access high returns and optimal flexibility that a Best Buy-specific program simply can’t offer.