NAB Rewards Business Signature Credit Card

Running your own business is rewarding. Having a business credit card like the NAB Rewards Business Signature Card is not just doubly rewarding. It can be triply rewarding, delivering NAB Rewards Points at up to triple the normal rate on selected business purchases, as well as providing a substantial welcome bonus upfront.

Make your high business turnover even more profitable

Your business has to spend money in order to earn it, but you can extract extra mileage from your business expenses by making them earn NAB Rewards Points, which in turn can be used to reduce your costs. Here’s how it works for this card:

• 1.25 NAB Rewards Points per dollar spent on everyday business purchases, including ATO payments;
• 2.50 NAB Rewards Points per dollar spent at major department and hardware stores (Myer, David Jones, Bunnings, Mitre 10, and more);
• 3.75 NAB Rewards Points per dollar spent with Webjet;
• 3.75 NAB Rewards Points per dollar spent on overseas transactions, either while travelling or online.

That’s lots of ways to earn lots of NAB Rewards Points, which can be used to reduce your business expenses (e.g. by exchanging them for office supplies or travel) or to reward employees. More good news: there’s no monthly or annual cap on how many you can earn.

‘Everyday business purchases’ excludes cash advances, balance transfers, interest charges and account fees, and purchases of foreign exchange.

Kickstart your NAB Rewards balance with 100,000 bonus Points

You won’t need to spend much to see those NAB Rewards Points start rolling in, big time. Spend just $4,000 using the card in the first 60 days (not such a big target for a business account) to get a 100,000 Points boost.

Earn faster while controlling expenses with multiple cards

You can issue cards on the same account to other business partners (such as your spouse) as well as trusted employees. Each card can have an individual — and different — credit limit. Since you’ll get a monthly statement for each card and a summary statement for the total account, you can control expenses and quickly transfer the data into your business accounting records.

Additional security comes in the form of complimentary NAB Commercial Cards Unauthorised Transaction Insurance.

Ways to spend NAB Rewards Points for the benefit of your business

There’s no shortage of ways to make those rewards work for your business. You could:

• Reduce business travel costs by redeeming NAB Rewards Points for flights and accommodation via webjet.com.au;
• Reduce travel costs by exchanging NAB Rewards Points for points with Virgin Australia, Air New Zealand, Singapore Airlines, and Cathay Pacific;
• Buy office supplies, technology, other office equipment, and staff lunchroom items;
• Convert your NAB Rewards Points into cashback on your card account or other NAB accounts;
• Swap NAB Rewards Points for merchandise to use as gifts for your best customers, including AFL gift cards and memberships;
• Boost your business image by using Points for a charity donation.

If you don’t have enough Points for your chosen business reward, you can use Points + Pay to cover the balance with cash or your card (thus earning more Points).

Ways to use NAB Rewards Points for the benefit of employees

If you want to reward employees (including the business owner) rather than reduce business costs, there are still plenty of options.

• Holiday travel and accommodation booked through Webjet;
• Holiday flights booked via frequent flyer points as a result of transferring NAB Rewards Points;
• Gift cards to use at major retailers;
• Movie tickets;
• An extensive range of other entertainment and sporting experiences, Australia-wide;
• Merchandise from an online catalogue.

You can also reduce the burden of business travel on your employees and their families by transferring any Points accrued from their individual business card expenditures. That is, Points could be transferred to an employee’s personal NAB Rewards account.

Additional security for business and employees

Complimentary NAB Commercial Transport Accident Insurance is activated when travel fares are paid using the card. It provides cash compensation for a serious injury sustained when travelling on a plane, train, bus or ferry. It has the potential to not only protect the business principal and employees but also reduce business liability and insurance costs.

Visa concierge service

Business travellers and business entertainment hosts are more likely than the average person to make good use of Visa’s global concierge service. Booking assistance and advice are available for travel, restaurants, entertainment events, and cultural, shopping and tourist activities.

Special Visa benefits for business

Just as it does with personal cards, Visa offers benefits to its business cardholders tailored to meet their special needs. Benefits can vary over time but could include:

• Waiver or reduction of some fees associated with car rental;
• Access to booking services for accommodation;
• Special offers and discounts on airport lounge access and traveller assistance;
• Duty-free shopping discounts.

Card’s interest rates are not a viable alternative to standard bank finance

This is not a low-interest credit card, although its 18.50% p.a. purchases interest rate is lower than that of some competing cards. The cash advance interest rate is a high 21.74% p.a. To get the best out of it for your business, you’ll want to:

• Make the most of the up to 44 interest-free days, possibly by timing your regular payments to occur close to the beginning of the billing cycle;
• Pay off the balance in full on the due date every month to avoid interest charges;
• Steer clear of cash advances to avoid immediate interest charges.

Annual fee is substantial but justifiable

The $175 annual fee is quite a big commitment, but one that is easily justified in the first year, where the bonus NAB Rewards Points alone are worth over $500 in retail gift cards.

In subsequent years you would need to spend around $34,000 using the card (slightly less if there were department store or overseas purchases in the mix) to recover the cost of the annual fee in gift card value.

Check to see if you’re eligible

Most business owners will have no problems with the eligibility hurdles for this card. You need to be:

• An Australian citizen or permanent resident aged over 18;
• A sole trader, partnership, trustee or company;
• Have an ABN;
• Be registered for GST;
• Have a business turnover of $75,000 or more;
• Able to provide at least 12 months of business financial data.

Fast online application

When applying, you can upload your financials from any accounting software. Better still, if you use MYOB or Xero you can grant NAB access to your financial reports via a secure login. Both of these methods will result in a speedy decision.

A card to control and reduce your business costs

Being able to issue credit cards to employees — while limiting the amount they can spend and receiving both detailed and summary monthly statements — is a useful management tool. But even if you are a sole trader who needs just one card, you can still receive the same advantages as a company by reducing your business costs by earning and strategically redeeming NAB Rewards Points, free insurance, and other business-oriented benefits.