Webster Visa® Business Real Rewards Card

Webster Visa® Business Real Rewards Card Review

The Visa® Business Real Rewards Card from Webster Bank is a basic business rewards credit card. It only earns cardholders 1.5 points for every dollar they spend.

However, there are no confusing point tiers to worry about. Additionally, other rewards cards that offer higher earning potential may not reward business owners for the purchases they actually need to make to run their businesses.

In exchange for a lower earning rate on points, cardholders have no spending requirement to earn the 2,500 point bonus after signing up. Furthermore, there is no annual fee associated with this card.

What’s more, new cardholders can take advantage of 0% interest for six months on purchases and balance transfers. This can help new business owners pay for important purchases over time without having to pay extra. The balance transfer feature, however, may not be beneficial to all business owners.

Keep reading to learn more about the benefits of this card. The information below will also help you determine whether this Visa® Business Card will meet your business needs.

Earn the Same Points on All Purchases

This Webster Bank Visa® earns cardholders 1.5 points for every dollar they spend. In this regard, the card is similar to the Bank of Missouri Business Real Rewards Card.

There are no spending categories or points tiers to worry about. This makes earning points a very straightforward process as you’ll know exactly how much you’ll earn every time you take out your Visa card.

You may wonder whether it won’t be better for your business if you apply for a card with a higher earning rate. There are a couple of things to consider before deciding to go for a rewards card that earns you more points.

First, the more rewards you receive, the more you have to pay for them. The rewards cards that earn you the most points usually charge you high annual fees. As a business owner, this may affect your bottom line.

Second, many higher-earning rewards cards – especially for businesses – only award points for certain types of purchases. And these purchase categories may not include anything that represents your actual business expenses.

For instance, a business rewards card may offer 3X points on hotels, airfare, and gas purchases. However, if your business doesn’t require you to drive around or travel out of town, you may not have many opportunities to earn triple the points.

As such, a basic rewards card that earns you less points but has no restrictions on what purchases will earn you points may be the best option for most business owners.

Earn Some Bonus Points

The Webster Visa® Business Real Rewards Card provides new cardholders with a little something extra. When you sign up, you’ll earn 2,500 bonus points on your first purchase.

What’s great about this offer is that there is no minimum purchase amount to qualify for this bonus. You can spend $1 and still earn these extra points.

Now, this bonus is significantly smaller than what you can get with other SNB business rewards cards. However, keep in mind that you not only have no annual fee but introductory 0% APR, too (more on that later).

Remember that you’ll earn these points on top of what you’d normally earn on purchases. So, if your first purchase with this card comes out to $1,000, you’ll earn a total of 4,000 points.

Redeeming Your Points

The Visa® Business Real Rewards Card issues points at the end of each monthly billing cycle. As such, you won’t necessarily earn points as soon as you purchase something.

Additionally, keep in mind that you receive points from your monthly net purchases. If you spent $1,529 with your card in a month but received $29 in refunds, you’ll only earn points on $1,500.

You have several redemption options with this card. You can redeem your points for prizes on the Elan Rewards site. Prizes include merchandise, gift cards, and travel vouchers. The one snag is that you can’t browse the rewards catalog before you open an account.

This can make it difficult to determine how many points you need to obtain an item from the catalog. Furthermore, there might not be anything in the rewards catalog that you’ll be interested in getting for your business.

Fortunately, you can redeem your points for cash back. With this option, each point you earn is worth about $0.01 (one cent). This may seem meager, but it is a standard point value for many rewards cards.

You have two cash back options: cash deposit or credit statement. You can only redeem points for a cash deposit within seven days after you’ve been issued them. Additionally, you need to have an SNB checking or savings account to receive a cash deposit.

With a statement credit, on the other hand, you don’t need to have any additional SNB accounts. What’s more, you have up to two months to redeem your points for a statement credit. Just keep in mind that these credits won’t be deducted from your minimum monthly payment amount. These credits are deducted from your balance.

0% APR on Purchases

The Webster Visa® Business Real Rewards Card offers an intermediary between high rewards and long introductory APR periods. As such, this card can be a great option for business owners who need a little bit of both.

New cardholders can take advantage of 6 months of 0% interest on their purchases. This introductory promotional period begins on the date that you open an account.

This deal can be very attractive to business owners who need to make a large purchase and need time to pay it off without any additional charges. If you make your purchase as soon as you sign up for this card, you can maximize the amount of time you have to pay it off interest free.

Just remember that any balance that carries over after the six-month introductory period will automatically accrue interest. If you want to avoid these charges, make sure that your purchase total is small enough to comfortably pay off in six months.

0% APR on Balance Transfers

When you sign up for the Visa® Real Rewards Business card, you also have access to 0% interest on balance transfers for six months. The good thing about this offer is that your six-month period begins on the date that you transfer a balance.

However, you only have 186 days (roughly six months) to make a transfer and take advantage of this offer. Nevertheless, you can still wait five months after signing up for this card before you transfer a balance and still benefit from six months of no interest.

This feature may help business owners who have small balances on higher-interest credit cards. But people with large balances may find that six months are not enough to pay off a balance. If you are just starting your business, you may not yet have enough of a cash flow to make large cash payments each months.

Take this example, for instance. Suppose you have a $12,000 balance on a high-interest credit card. If you transfer the entire balance to your Real Rewards Card, you’ll have to pay $2,000 a month. This can place a major strain on your finances…especially if they’re limited.

Instead, you may want to consider transferring a small portion of that balance to reduce the balance on your high-interest card. This way you’ll be able to pay off your transferred balance more comfortably.

Should You Apply for the Webster Visa® Business Real Rewards Card?

If you want to earn rewards on your business purchases without having to pay an annual fee, then this might be the card for you. You earn less points than you would with other SNB rewards cards, but this may not be a bad thing for your business. As mentioned, many rewards cards only award you points on certain types of purchases, and these may not match your business expenses.

Having six months of zero interest on purchases can be particularly helpful to business owners who are looking to finance a large purchase. However, you should make sure that your purchase is small enough to pay off in six months without causing your business financial distress.

The balance transfer feature can be nice if you have a small balance to transfer. However, six months may not be enough time to pay off a larger balance.