Top 5 Small Business Credit Card Sign Up offers for July - These cards provide the best value out of their welcome bonuses

Welcome to a new monthly feature here on the Rewards Canada blog - The Top 5 Small Business Credit Card Sign Up offers. This feature is pretty much the same as the Rewards Canada Top 5 Credit Card Sign Up offers that we been posting for travel rewards cards for the better part of four or more years! This is not a 'best' credit card list like our Top Travel Rewards Credit Card rankings but instead a look at cards for small businesses that have very good acquisition (welcome/sign up) offers. As always when choosing a card you should always take other factors into account other than the just sign up bonus, but when some of these cards are first year free, they can and do pay off even when you grab them strictly for the sign up rewards. This month we see three first year free cards on the list!


Here are our top 5 small business credit card sign up offers for July:

BMO Rewards Business Mastercard (Apply here)

Minimum value: $357

This card had its welcome bonus boosted last week to 50,000 points when you spend $5,000 on the card in the first three months. On top of that they are waiving the $120 annual fee in the first year which means you get the full value out of those 50,000 points which when redeemed via bmorewards.com for travel will net you just over $357. This is the highest welcome bonus value out of all small business cards in Canada.

Marriott Bonvoy™ Business American Express® Card  (Apply here)

Minimum value: $350

This card awards 50,000 Marriott Bonvoy points which are awarded after spending $1,500 on the card in three months. Those points are worth at least $500 in our minds which means after subtracting the annual fee you are coming out ahead by $350. In reality you can pull even more value out of the card (into four figures) as we outlined in our post A look at how The Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card provides huge value!  Don't forget you get an annual free night with the card as well on the card anniversary date! 

CIBC Aventura® Visa* Card for Business Plus (Apply here)

 Minimum value: $350
This card offers welcome bonus of 20,000 Aventura Points when the first purchase is made at any time. An additional bonus of 15,000 Aventura Points is awarded when you make $3,000 in net purchases during the first 4 monthly statement periods. Those 35,000 points are worth no less than $350 as the first year annual fee on this card is also waived. That is a minimum however as when you redeem the CIBC Aventura flight award chart you can get more value out of those points (up to $700) dependent on the price of the airline ticket you are redeeming for.

BMO^® AIR MILES^®† Business^® Mastercard^®* (Apply here)

Minimum value: $330
Like the other BMO Business card on this list, this card comes with a first year annual fee waiver which means the 3,000 AIR MILES welcome bonus comes at no extra cost. You'll receive 1,000 bonus miles on your first purchase and 2,000 more miles if you spend $5,000 on the card in the first three months of having the card. We value AIR MILES Reward Miles at no less than 11 cents each when you redeem for travel so that puts this welcome bonus value at a minimum of $330.

American Express Business Edge™ Card  (Apply here)

Minimum value: $201

The American Express Business Edge Card is the best overall Small Business card in Canada thanks to numerous factors. Its 30,000 Welcome Bonus points when you charge $5,000 in purchases to your Card in your first three months of Cardmembership is worth $201 ($300-$99 annual fee) may be less than other cards on this list but it has a stronger everyday earn rate on many purchases (Check out our American Express Business Edge Confirmed Multiplier Locations) and then you can also earn a 1,000 point bonus every month for the life of the card for each month you spend $3,000 or more on the card. This means in the first year alone you could earn up 42,000 points.

If you went for all these cards you ultimately could end up with over 1,500 in travel credits but even if you only take on one or two you are helping your travel budget significantly at no cost other than regular credit card spend. We don't really recommend getting all five in one month unless you know you can meet the minimum spend for them all at once, rather you'd want to pick one or two right now, perhaps another next month and so on.

American Express is not responsible for maintaining or monitoring the accuracy of information on this website. For full details and current product information click the Apply now link.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay