The Office Depot Business Credit Card Review

You’ll only be able to use the Office Depot business credit card at Office Depot and on their website, and you’ll have to spend $500 within your first year to access any rewards for your spending. This will unlock VIP perks for you, which are basically 5% rewards on ink, toner, paper, and document services.

If you’re looking for lucrative rewards, then the Office Depot business credit card probably isn’t the best business credit card for you.

That said, as a little extra perk, 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.

So, though the Office Depot business credit card won’t necessarily funnel value back into your business, you can rely on this one-off introductory discount of $50.

Remember when we said that the Office Depot business credit card wasn’t exactly for business owners looking to rake in the rewards?

Well, we meant it.

The Office Depot business credit card won’t offer you any sustained rewards for your business spending. That is, you won’t be able to access cash back or rewards point for any credit you use and pay off on the Office Depot business credit card.

That said, you’ll 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.

You get the idea—the rewards that the Office Depot business credit card offers aren’t the most lucrative.

But because this card won’t come with an annual fee, you will be able to rest easy knowing that you won’t have to pay for the Office Depot business credit card.

• You do most of your business spending at Office Depot.

• You don’t want to be tied down by store-specific spending and rewards.

Just like any other business credit card, the Office Depot business credit card comes with features both good and bad.

Generally speaking, though these positive features the Office Depot business credit card offers 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.

Let’s take a look at the most notable positive features this business credit card option boasts:

One of the most attractive features a business credit card can offer up to business owners?

Being free.

No matter how lucrative a business credit card’s rewards program is, shelling out a yearly fee in order to access will cause many small business owners to wince.

And even though the Office Depot doesn’t offer up the most exciting package of rewards, you can rest easy knowing that you’re accessing a free signup bonus and a free line of credit (as long as you don’t carry a balance, of course).

Not to mention, should you choose to attach additional cards to your Office Depot business credit card for your employees to use, you won’t have to pay an employee card fee to do so.

Many business credit cards with no annual fee will sneak in an additional employee card annual fee to make sure that—with the additional spending that your employee is doing—you don’t rake in to many net rewards.

Well, because the Office Depot business credit card doesn’t offer sustained rewards, they allow you to access unlimited employee cards for free.

Finally, upgrading to VIP status with the Office Depot business credit card is remarkably easy to do. All you’ll have to do is make sure that you spend $500 on the card within a year, and you’ll magically turn into an Office Depot VIP. As a result, you will be able to access rewards for your spending on the Office Depot business credit card—5% back in rewards on ink, toner, paper, and print/copy/ship services.

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.

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:

Quite simply, if you need to be able to do any business spending outside of Office Depot or their website, then you’re going to have to find another business credit card. And while the Office Depot business credit card might be ideal for putting Office Depot expenses on, you’ll be able to earn and spend more with more versatility with other business credit cards that reward your spending on office supplies.

Not rewarding your spending in any form or fashion is another of the Office Depot business credit card’s fatal flaws.

You won’t be able to earn any rewards for your Office Depot spending if you’re spending less than $500 a year. On the other hand, if you are spending more than $500 a year on the Office Depot business credit card, you’ll gain VIP status, which will reward you 5% just for the money you spend on ink, toner, paper, and print/copy/ship services.

Though the Office Depot business credit card does offer a welcome bonus, it’s so small that it’s nearly negligible.

At the end of the day, the $50 statement credit you’ll be able to access if you spend $150 within 60 days of opening your account might not be enough motivation to open the account in the first place.