Compare the Features and Benefits of United℠ Business Card and
American Express® Green Card

If you’re a business owner contemplating on getting a personal United credit card, it’s worth taking a closer look at the United Business Card first.

Cardholders earn 2x unlimited miles on a diverse range of bonus categories, including United purchases (which includes United flights, seat upgrades, wifi or onboard purchases), dining including eligible delivery services, gas stations, office supply stores, and local transit and commuting. All other purchases accrue 1x miles. And don’t forget, beyond the initial hard inquiry when applying for a business card, it won’t report to your personal credit as long as you remain in good standing.

The annual fee is $150 (occasionally waived for the first year, based on the bonus offer being offered at the time, although the offers that waive the annual fee the first year also generally offer less miles.)

Fortunately, maximizing the card is effortless thanks to its number of tangible benefits. You can get every first checked bag free on United flights and even earn an annual $125 United credit after purchasing five United flight purchases. Coupled with the opportunity to enter the United Club twice per year ($59 value each time), that’s roughly a $200+ value off the bat toward travel.

Then you have the rideshare benefits ($8 back as a statement credit each month from January through November and up to $12 back for the month of December. Yearly opt-in is required.) for up to $100 a year back and then perhaps less commonly used perks like the credits for FareLock, United Hotels, JSX, and Instacart.

Other non-tangible, yet equally useful, benefits that the United Business Card provides include priority boarding, a 25% discount on inflight purchases, and the ability to earn Premier Qualifying Points every year from spend (see the next paragraph for details). Depending on how often you’re flying United every year, these perks offer elite-like benefits just by holding this card.

And don’t forget the ability to earn PQPs towards elite status from spend. You’ll earn 1 PQP for every $20 you spend on purchases with your Business Card – up to 4,000 PQPs per year.

If you were purely looking to earn United miles, however, you might well do better with the Chase Ink Business Preferred® Card which would earn 3X Chase Ultimate Rewards points on the first $150,000 spent on all travel purchases, has similar trip protections, and its points transfer 1:1 to United – but also to more than a dozen other airline and hotel partners.

We have a detailed comparison of the United Business Card vs. the Chase Ink Business Preferred Card.

Chase is the issuer of this business card and is quite generous when it comes to providing travel and purchase coverages with high limits. Plus, Chase tends to offer partner benefits exclusively for cardholders.

American Express seems to have positioned the Green Card to more directly compete with high performing mid-tier cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card and Citi Premier card, offering a few more direct benefits than each of them in exchange for a $150 annual fee (vs. $95 on those other cards). (Rates and Fees)

The American Express Green Card is a Powerhouse for Travel, Transit and Dining

Whereas the The Platinum Card® from American Express is all about the benefits (elite statuses, statement credits galore, etc), the American Express® Green Card is all about the 3X Membership Rewards points on all things travel (including Transit!) plus 3X on dining – all for a relatively low annual fee of just $150 (Rates and Fees). It’s great for frequent travelers, especially if you don’t already have a card that earns at least 3X on travel purchases.

And it does have a couple of benefits that can cover the annual fee. If you don’t have access to CLEAR (which lets you go ahead of most other people at airport security in select airports / terminals), this card will cover $189 in CLEAR fees which is enough for a whole family to have a membership. And you also get up to $100 in credits for airport lounge access with LoungeBuddy.

It’s worth considering this card in combination with other American Express cards. One solid Trifecta that maximizes points would be an Amex Gold Card, an Amex Green Card, and The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express. You’d use the Gold for Dining and U.S. Supermarkets, the Green for 3X points on travel and transit, and the Blue Business Plus for 2X on other eligible purchases (up to $50,000 a year; 1X Membership Rewards points per dollar thereafter).

In another Trifecta replace the Gold Card with a Platinum Card and enjoy all the perks and benefits of the Platinum card while putting all non-airfare travel and transit charges on the Green Card and the rest on your Blue Business Plus.

In short, I don’t think anyone should have the Green Card as their sole credit card, but I do think it has a nice place among a handful of American Express cards that earn Membership Rewards points.

Keep in mind that American Express Membership Rewards points never expire and combine among all of your Membership Rewards-earning cards. All points earned from various American Express cards have the same transfer partners.

The Amex Green Card Functions as a Credit Card

The Amex Green card is part of the same family of Amex proprietary cards formerly referred to as charge cards. However, the Green Card has a built-in Pay Over Time feature, making it function in many ways as any other standard credit card. Unlike a typical credit card, the Green Card allows you to carry a balance for certain charges, but not all.

What this means: Amex generally limits a cardmember to 5 credit cards (personal and small business combined), while they have a limit of 10 on proprietary Amex cards (formerly known as Charge).  This means that even if you already have 5 Amex credit cards, you would still be eligible for a Green Card.

Bonus Eligibility: They still state that if you had the Green Card before, you are not eligible for a welcome bonus on this card. So you’ll be eligible if you have less than 10 Amex charge cards and have never had the Amex Green card before.

Rates and Fees for the American Express® Green Card