Compare the Features and Benefits of Hilton Honors Surpass® Credit Card and
Graphite™ Business Cash Unlimited Card

With a relatively low $150 annual fee, The Hilton Honors American Express Surpass Card comes with some valuable benefits, including Gold Elite status, which gets you free breakfast (or a daily food and beverage credit) on all stays at full-service Hilton hotels and resorts.

Waldorf Astoria Pedregal – Cabo, Mexico

With Hilton Honors points having an approximate value of 0.5 cents per point, you are earning roughly 6% back on Hilton stays and 3% back on select categories in the US: gas stations, gas, and groceries. Remember you’ll earn 3X Hilton Honors points on other eligible purchases, so that would be worth about a 1.5% return on spend.

The Hilton portfolio also has some amazing hotels and resorts at which you can spend your Hilton Honors points and Free Night Reward certificates. You earn a certificate for a Free Night Rewards after $15,000 in eligible spend within a calendar year

You can get value of rooms that sell for over $1,000 a night and include the Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi and the Waldorf Astoria Pedregal in Los Cabos. You could easily make a case that simply being able to earn the lucrative Free Night Reward certificates is reason enough to hold this card.

You can also earn up to $200 back each year on eligible Hilton purchases (at a Hilton family property) when you use your Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card. You’re eligible to earn up to $50 in statement credits per quarter. (Terms apply.) That benefit alone more than covers your annual fee if used in full.

While we don’t recommend the Hilton Honors Surpass card as your only credit card, it certainly is worth more than its annual fee if you frequently stay at Hilton portfolio hotels and resorts.

Rates and fees for the Hilton Honors Surpass® Credit Card

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