Reaching the $5,000 Minimum Spend on the AMEX Business Gold Rewards Card

The American Express Business Gold Rewards Card has a very strong sign up bonus for Membership Rewards points going on, but a steep spend requirement in place. Today, I will suggest some strategies on how to achieve the minimum spend requirement. But first, below are the highlights of the credit card:

• $250 annual fee (first year fee waived)
• Earn 40,000 sign up bonus points when referred (30,000 without referral) after spending $5,000 in the first 3 months
• Earn 10,000 points for every referral
• Earn 1 point for every $1 spent on all purchases
• Earn 1 additional point for every $1 spent at 3 suppliers of your choice to a maximum of 250,000 additional points each calendar year

First of all, no question, the best way to spend the $5,000 is on one of the partners that give you 1 additional point. Keep in mind that you can only choose 3 of the suppliers. But if you cannot take advantage of any of the suppliers, that’s fine too, because a few scenarios comes to mind.

When you plan to start a new business, there are lots of start-up costs. When you plan to move your business from one location to another, there are definitely lots of moving expenses. Another scenario is when you want to make wholesale upgrades to your business. I would actually suggest that if you have a few upgrades in mind, try to save it to upgrade everything at once to help you meet the $5,000 minimum spend requirement.

Just in case the suppliers that you plan to use do not fall in the list below, at least identify which suppliers you plan to make your purchases from, and determine if they accept American Express, before deciding on whether to apply for this credit card.

Another strategy that I would strongly recommend is to use this credit card in combination with the regular version, the American Express Gold Rewards Card, which gives you  2 points for every $1 spent on travel (flights, hotels, car rentals, cruises, etc.), gas, groceries and drug stores purchases. With this approach, you can really rack up Membership Rewards points in a hurry.

Here is a quick reminder of all the suppliers that give you the additional point bonus.

• 407 ETR
• Acklands Grainger
• Atlas Van Lines
• Best Buy Company Inc., Future Shop
• Canada Linen & Uniform Services, Quebec Linge
• Castle Building Centres
• CDMV Inc.
• CDW Canada
• Coopervision
• Dixon Electric
• Gescan Ontario
• Goodyear Canada Inc.
• Halpern Enterprises
• Hiossen Implant Canada Inc.
• K Dental Inc.
• Kal Tire
• Lowe’s Canada
• Microsoft
• MVR Cash and Carry
• Nobel Biocare Canada
• Patene Building Supplies
• Pattison Outdoor Advertising
• Petro-Canada
• Plastiq
• Pneus Andre Touchette Distribution Inc.
• Quickbooks Canada
• Reachlocal
• Rotsaert Dental Laboratory Service Inc.
• Sage
• Sameday Worldwide
• SESCO/OSSO Electric Supplies
• Sescolite
• Shaw Communications
• Texcan Ontario
• The Argen Corporation Kastle Mills
• The Insurebc Group
• The Medcan Clinic
• TigerDirect.ca
• Unisource Canada
• Vector Energy