The American Express Qantas Business Rewards card tempts with bonus Qantas Points for new Card Members, complimentary lounge passes, complimentary business travel insurance and more.

But a good business charge card should offer more, such as additional cards for employees, easy integration to accounting software and more. We take a look at the other business features of the American Express Qantas Business Rewards card that aren’t crucial but are useful to have.

This article is Part 4 of the series — read up on Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 to learn more about the American Express Qantas Business Rewards Card.

American Express Qantas Business Rewards Card benefits series

Making the most of the cash flow benefits

The American Express Qantas Business Rewards Card is a charge card (not a credit card), meaning there is no preset spending limit. You spend what you need for work, and pay it off in full the following month to avoid charges.

American Express promotes its card as having ‘up to 51 days cash flow days’, meaning you have up to 51 days from the date of purchase to make a repayment. The actual number of days you have until repayment will depend on your billing cycle and payment due date. While 51 days is the maximum number of cash flow days possible on the American Express Qantas Business Rewards card, it’s generally less in practice.

Imagine you ran a business that needed to pay suppliers upfront. You could do so now, carrying the balance on your American Express card for up to 51 days. This could give plenty of time for your customer to pay for your work and for you to repay your balance, without dipping into your cash on hand.

Understanding the billing cycles and statement dates

As a very simple example, let’s say one of your monthly cycles is 1-31 January, and the payment due date is 21 February.

Any purchases you make on 1 January will have to be repaid by 21 February, giving 51 cash flow days. But any purchases made on 31 January will still be due by 21 February, giving you 21 cash flow days.

Assuming you pay the full balance off, then the same will happen next month, and so on. See this information video from American Express on how it all works.

Make payments anywhere in the world with American Express AccessLine

AccessLine is a solution that enables you to make payments to virtually anyone or business in the world as long as they have a bank account, even if they don’t accept card payments at all.

Best of all, purchases will appear on your American Express Qantas Business Rewards card as normal, earning points and being eligible for up to 51 days of cash flow (see Part 3 for more information on that).

Here’s how it works:

  • Apply for American Express AccessLine (it’s not automatically offered).
  • When approved, pre-register a supplier or payee with American Express.
  • Place your order with the supplier as usual.
  • Make a payment through American Express, selecting your card as the settlement method.
  • American Express sends the payment to your payee’s bank account in the currency of your choice and at the time of your choosing.
  • The charges and transaction fee appears on your corporate card statement as usual, where you’ll earn points and have up to 51 days to settle the balance.

This facility could be a handy tool to negotiate early purchase discounts with your supplier, then get American Express to make payment promptly. The charges will appear on your card as normal and you won’t have to settle the balance until after your cash flow days are over.

American Express AccessLine is only available to certain business and corporate credit and charge cardholders. Fees apply for transactions and there are ‘over 110 different currencies’ available, including US Dollars, British Pounds, and Chinese Yuan Renminbi.

Pay on the go with your smart devices

Finally, American Express cards are integrated with Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, so you’ll always be able to pay with a smart device, even if you don’t have your card on you.

Your compatible smart device should be NFC-enabled, which is a common feature in most recent mid-range and high-end phones. Many smartwatches will also have this capability.

Set up your American Express card through the Apple Pay, Google Pay or Samsung Pay app, then you’ll be good to go.

Integration with MYOB

If your business uses MYOB accounting software, then your American Express Qantas Business Rewards card can automatically feed card transaction data directly to MYOB’s cloud accounting software as well as BankLink Practice.

The accounting program already links to all leading Australian banks and financial institutions, making American Express cards a natural fit in MYOB’s direct credit and charge card feeds in Australia.

MYOB research findings have shown that bank feeds, a service that automatically imports and matches financial transactions into cloud accounting software, saves business owners an average of 10 hours per month. The average value they put on this time saving is $713.

Up to 99 additional employee Card Members

Organise up to 99 additional cards for employees, business associates, or any similar individual that would benefit from holding one. They can go out and make purchases on behalf of your business.

When Employee Card Members make purchases, you’ll be able to see who performed the transaction and when. However, you will still be responsible for the overall balance each month.

Additional cards are a great way to keep your accounts and purchases consolidated, while still giving individuals the freedom of having their own card.

Summing up

The American Express Qantas Business Rewards card comes packed full of business-friendly features that are designed to let you focus more on your work.

When you look beyond the points and lounge passes, you’ll find useful benefits and tools, such as the ability to carry purchases on your account up to 51 days, MYOB integration, AccessLine domestic and international payments and more.

Don’t forget that the Qantas Business Rewards program itself plays a big part in this card, and has lots of business-friendly perks as well. From discounts on flights to the ability to transfer your reward points to any Qantas Frequent Flyer individual account, the American Express Qantas Business Rewards Card is a top pick.

Business-friendly features of the American Express Qantas Business Rewards Card was last modified: October 24th, 2022 by Daniel Sciberras