BuyPower Business Card From Capital One Reviewed, Plus Top Alternatives

If you’re a loyal GM customer and a hardworking business owner, the GM BuyPower Business Card from Capital One could just be the business credit card for you. The BuyPower Business Card earns the most rewards on GM purchases. So, if you’re already buying GM products, why not earn something back for your spending? You can also earn some rewards back on your gas, restaurant, and office supply spending. As a business owner, these might already be part of your regular spending, which could make this card a great choice for you.

The BuyPower Business Card is off to a good start with its lack of an annual fee. Without an annual fee, you can focus more on your business spending and earning rewards rather than keeping up with the cost of simply owning the card.

This card is also great for business owners who may have to travel for work, since there is no foreign transaction fee.

You’ll want to be wary of initiating a cash advance on your credit card, though. That will incur a fee of 3% of the cash advance amount and never less than $10. Return payments incur a fee of up to $25 and late payments of up to $38. You can avoid these fees simply by avoiding their corresponding transactions.

The card also has a hefty penalty APR, which kicks in if you make a late payment. This can boost your interest payments substantially. Plus, GM can choose to keep your penalty APR in place indefinitely.

You have three different ways to earn rewards with the BuyPower Business Card. The best option comes with 5% earnings on purchases of GM parts, accessories, and authorized GM Dealer services. Next, purchases at gas stations, restaurants, and office supply stores have 3% earnings. Finally, all other purchases gain 1% earnings. There is no limit to the earnings you can build up or redeem. Your earnings won’t expire, either, as long as your account is open.

GM earnings essentially work like cash back since you can use your earnings to offset the cost of a new GM vehicle. However, you won’t be able to redeem your GM earnings for actual hard cash nor any outside merchandise. Each earning redeems for $0.01.

When you’re ready to buy your new GM vehicle, you can combine your BuyPower Business Card earnings with another vehicle offer to help lessen the actual cost. This excludes the GM Employee Discount Program, GM Company-Owned Vehicle Discount, and GM Supplier Discount Program, however. You also cannot use your earnings to purchase a pre-owned vehicle nor vehicles sold at auction.

You don’t have to tell the salesperson you’re using GM earnings while you shop around and negotiate. You can simply wait until you’re actually paying to apply your rewards to either the entire purchase price or the down payment.

In addition to its rewards, the GM BuyPower Business Card offers a few more perks. This includes the ability to add on employee cards at no extra cost. That can provide a bit more convenience and efficiency when it comes to business spending. As the boss, you can set each card’s credit limit and keep track of each card’s spending activity.

This card also gives you access to perks reserved for Mastercard customers. For one, the Mastercard Easy Savings® Program offers savings with automatic rebates on select gas, dining, hotel, and travel purchases. Mastercard customers also benefit from identity theft resolution services, zero liability on unauthorized purchases, extended warranties, and purchase assurance.

If you need more time to pay off your purchases without any interest over your head, check out the annual-fee-free Blue Business Plus Credit Card from American Express. The card offers 12 months of 0% introductory APR on purchases and balance transfers. This gives you a year to at least meet your credit card minimums and avoid falling into debt. After this introductory period, your APR will be a variable rate, depending on your creditworthiness and varying with the prime rate. Always check the issuer’s terms and conditions for the latest APR information.

The Blue Business Plus Credit Card earns rewards on your purchases, as well. You can earn 2x Membership Rewards® points on your regular business purchases up to $50,000. This isn’t the most rewarding points program out there, however, without any special categories and a relatively low points-earning rate.

Even with its decent reward-earning system, the BuyPower Business Card is pretty limiting. Cashback cards like the Bank of America® Business Advantage Cash Rewards Mastercard® offer more opportunities for earning and redeeming your rewards. With a cashback system not linked to a certain brand (like GM), you have more flexibility. You don’t have to spend exclusively at that brand nor redeem your hard-earned points only with that brand.

Bank of America® Business Advantage Cash Rewards earns 3% cash back on purchases at gas stations and office supply stores, up to $250,000 each year. (If you surpass that limit in a year, the rest of your purchases in that year will earn 1% cash back.) You’ll earn 2% cash back at restaurants and 1% cash back on all other purchases. Plus, by enrolling in the Business Advantage Relationship Rewards program, you can boost your earnings by 25% – 75%. There’s also a special offer where you can earn a $200 statement credit bonus by spending at least $500 in net purchases within the first 60 days after account opening.

You can also count on this card for 0% APR safety cushion. The 0% APR introductory period lasts nine months, which gives new business owners the better part of a year to pay off purchases.

Credit cards with great rewards systems are often reserved for customers with excellent credit. That isn’t always the case, however, as seen with the Sam’s Club® Business Mastercard®. You can qualify for this card with good credit. Plus, the card doesn’t charge an annual fee which can help you stay on top of your finances. (You do have to be a Sam’s Club member, however; it comes with its own membership fee, of either $45 or $100.)^[1]

This card earns 5% cash back on eligible gas purchases worldwide. This is limited to $6,000 per year. Any gas spending on the card after that earns 1% for the rest of the year. You’ll also earn 3% cash back on dining and travel expenses and 1% cash back on other purchases at Sam’s Club and wherever Mastercard is accepted.

This business card is really for loyal and frequent GM customers. Your best options for growing your earnings involve spending your money on GM products and services. Then when it comes time to redeem your earnings, you can only put them toward a GM vehicle. Even for those who do spend enough with GM, the card still doesn’t offer the kind of variety that most rewards credit cards offer. The card will probably work best as a second or third credit card, along with a more broad rewards credit card. That way, you can still earn rewards with GM, but also earn rewards like more tangible cash back to use elsewhere.