Compare the Features and Benefits of Hilton Honors American Express Card and
Graphite™ Business Cash Unlimited Card

The Hilton Honors American Express Card is the entry level Hilton card in a family of three Hilton credit cards for individuals including this one, the Hilton Honors Surpass® Credit Card, and the Hilton Aspire® credit card. The is the only one without an annual fee at all, but the benefits on the other two may be worth exploring in exchange for those annual fees.

(All information about the Hilton Honors Aspire® Credit Card ahas been collected independently by Your Best Credit Cards.)

If you stay with Hilton frequently and simply aren’t willing to pay an annual fee, this isn’t a bad card. With 7X earned at Hilton portfolio properties (we value that at 3.5% worth of points back since we value Hilton points at 0.5 cents each), you’ll certainly do well when you pay with this card at Hilton family hotels and resorts.

5X Hilton Honors points at US restaurants, US gas stations, and US supermarkets on a no-annual fee card isn’t bad either, with a 2.5% effective return on spend assuming a value of 0.5 cents per Hilton point).

However, if you do step up to the annual fee cards, you do get more. The Surpass comes with automatic Hilton Gold status instead of Hilton Honors™ Silver status, which adds a breakfast or meal voucher credit to your benefits along with room upgrades and gives you the opportunity to earn a Free Night Reward valid on any Standard Night Reward after $15,000 in spend on eligible purchases on your Card in a calendar year.

And the Aspire, despite its hefty annual fee, provides come crazy benefits like Diamond elite status.

However, you are probably reading about this card because you want a no annual fee Hilton credit card and this one is pretty strong for a new annual fee hotel card. Not to mention the shopping protections like Extended Warranty and Purchase Protection as well as no foreign transaction fees.

Rates and Fees for the Hilton Honors Credit Card from American Express

It’s easy to look at this card and wonder how it differs from the American Express Blue Business Cash™ card, with no annual fee, and wonder why you’d pay a $295 annual fee on this card.

The primary two reasons are:

1) This card is a No Preset Spending Limit card. If you put heavy spend on a business card, you would max out the credit limit on the Blue Business Cash™ very quickly.

2) Importantly, that card only earns 2% on the first $50,000 spent annually on eligible purchases and just 1% thereafter. Terms apply.

This card will earn you the full 2% on unlimited spend. You’ll earn back the $295 annual fee (in Rewards Dollars) after the first $14,750 in eligible spend. If you are spending $500,000 on the card annually, that is a rounding error on the way to 2% cash back on everything else.

Previously, you had few options for such high spend, with the Business Platinum Card® as the obvious choice.

However, the Business Platinum  earns just 1% in Membership Rewards points on all spend outside select categories. Specifically, it earns 2X Membership Rewards® points per dollar on up to $2 million in eligible purchases in the U.S., per calendar year, in the following select business categories combined:

• Electronic goods retailers
• Software & cloud system providers
• Construction materials and hardware supplies.
• Shipping providers.
• Purchases of $5,000 or more

The Business Platinum card also earns 5X per dollar on airfare and prepaid hotel purchases with American Express Travel. Terms apply.

So the cash back from an unlimited 2% on this Graphite Business Cash Unlimited may be far more worthwhile to you, especially if you don’t play the “points game.”

And don’t forget you’ll also get an unlimited 5% Cash Back on American Express Travel® on flights and prepaid hotel bookings through Amex Travel®. That can really add up for business travel collectively booked on the Amex Travel platform.

Card Members can get metal Employee Graphite™ Business Cash Unlimited Cards for $95 per year for the first 5 Cards, and $95 for each thereafter, with the ability to earn Reward Dollars on purchases and receive alerts to help Card Members know who’s spending and where.

This card competes squarely against the Capital One Spark Cash Plus and the Venture X Business which earns 2X Capital One Miles.

Rates & Fees for the Graphite™ Business Cash Unlimited Card

Rates and Fees for the The American Express Blue Business Cash™ Card

Rates and fees for The Business Platinum Card® from American Express