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Buying computer equipment for work or shopping for a new laptop or desktop computer for home, you can earn a stack of points, miles, or cashback by using the right card at the checkout. Computers play a critical role in our technology-driven lives, often making up a significant portion of corporate and home-office spending. When investing in new computer equipment or hardware purchases, leveraging rewards-earning credit cards and taking advantage of shopping portals is a great way to maximize the return on your new purchase.
In this post, we break down the best rewards cards for computer equipment purchases and outline some strategies to help you earn thousands of rewards points when purchasing computer equipment and other associated hardware.
Top Credit Cards for Computer Purchases
Determining the ‘best’ credit card for computer purchases will depend on your unique circumstances and the store from where you intend to purchase. A corporate design office ordering 30+ iMacs from Apple will require a different rewards card than John Smith waltzing down to Costco to grab a budget laptop for streaming Netflix.
If you’re in the corporate camp, and making a substantial investment in computer hardware for your office, using a high-volume corporate or business rewards card will mean less chance of stumbling into spending caps, or running afoul of exclusions in credit card T&Cs.
If you’re purchasing computer equipment for personal or home office use, you can take advantage of low spending cap rewards cards like the Ink Business Cash® Credit Card to earn up to 5x Ultimate Rewards points on your purchase or consider leveraging the high purchase price to complete the minimum spend on a new rewards card.
| Credit Card | Points Earned on Computer Equipment & Hardware | Other Bonus Categories | Annual Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ink Business Cash® Credit Card | 5% cash back on the first $25,000 spent each account anniversary year on combined: • Office supply stores • Internet, cable, and phone services spending | N/A | $0 |
| American Express® Business Gold Card | 4X Membership Rewards® points on the 2 categories where your business spent the most each billing cycle including: Airfare purchased directly from airlines, U.S. purchases for advertising in select media (online, TV, radio), U.S. purchases made directly from select technology providers of computer hardware, software, and cloud solutions, U.S. purchases at gas stations, U.S. purchases at restaurants, U.S. purchases for shipping 4X points applies to the first $150,000 in combined purchases from these 2 categories each calendar year Then earn 1 point per dollar. | N/A | $295 ($375 if application is received on or after 2/1/24) - Rates & Fees |
| SimplyCash® Plus Business Credit Card from American Express | 5% cash back on first $50,000 (combined) spent at: • U.S. office supply stores: • On wireless telephone services purchased directly from U.S. service providers | 3% cash back on the category of your choice from: • Airfare purchased directly from airlines • Hotel rooms purchased directly from hotels • Car rentals purchased from select car rental companies • U.S. gas stations • U.S. restaurants • U.S. purchases for advertising in select media • U.S. purchases for shipping • U.S. computer hardware, software, and cloud computing purchases made directly from select providers | No annual fee |
| The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express | Earn 2X Membership Rewards® points on everyday business purchases such as office supplies or client dinners. 2X applies to the first $50,000 in purchases per year, 1 point per dollar thereafter. | N/A | No annual fee - Rates & Fees |
| Huntington Voice Business Credit Card | 4% cash back in one of 10 categories (up to $7,000 per quarter), including: • Electronics, computer & camera stores • Utilities & Office Supplies • Discount & warehouse stores | Other 4% categories include: • Gas stations • Travel & entertainment • Restaurants • Grocery stores • Department, apparel & sporting goods stores • Home improvement stores • Auto parts & service stores | $0 |
| U.S. Bank Business Cash Rewards World Elite™ MasterCard® | 3% cash back (uncapped) on office supply store purchases | 3% cash back (uncapped) on: • Cellular • Gas 25% annual bonus based on your prior year's Cash Rewards, up to $250 | $0 |
| The Business Platinum Card® from American Express | • 1.5X points on purchases of $5,000 or more, up to a cap of $2 million spent on these purchases in a calendar year. • 1.5X points at U.S. Electronic goods retailers and software & cloud system providers, up to a cap of $2 million spent on these purchases in a calendar year. | Get 5X Membership Rewards® points on flights and prepaid hotels on amextravel.com, and 1X points for each dollar you spend on eligible purchases. Earn 1.5X points on eligible purchases at US construction material & hardware suppliers, electronic goods retailers and software & cloud system providers, and shipping providers, as well as on purchases of $5,000 or more everywhere else, on up to $2 million of these purchases per calendar year. | $695 - Rates & Fees |
| Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card | 2 Miles per dollar on every purchase, every day. | 2 Miles per dollar on every purchase, every day. 5 Miles per dollar on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel. | $95 |
| Capital One Spark Miles for Business | Earn unlimited 2X miles per dollar on every purchase, everywhere, no limits or category restrictions, and miles won't expire for the life of the account. Unlimited 5X miles on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel | N/A | $0 intro for first year; $95 after that |
| Capital One Spark Cash Plus | 2% Cash Back on every purchase and 5% Cash Back on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel | N/A | $150 |
| Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi | 2% cash back on all purchases from Costco and Costco.com | 4% cash back on eligible gas worldwide for the first $7,000 per year 3% cash back: • At restaurants • On eligible travel purchases worldwide | $0 with a paid Costco Membership ($60) |
† The providers must have these specific names: Apple, CDW, Dell, HP, IBM, Intuit, Lenovo, Microsoft, Newegg, Oracle, Rackspace, Sage Software, Salesforce.com, Symantec, and Tiger Direct.
Best Rewards Card for Computer Equipment Purchases
We see the best card as a tossup between the Ink Cash from Chase and the Amex Business Gold card from Amex. You earn 5x points per dollar swiping the Ink Cash to purchase computer equipment from an office supply store, plus you have the option of buying gift cards for retailers such as Amazon or Apple at 5x from office supply stores and redeeming the gift cards at your chosen retailer via a shopping portal to earn additional points or cashback on your purchase.
However, purchases earning 5x are capped at $25K per year on the Ink Cash, and you forego valuable purchase protections if you go down the gift card route, protections we consider more valuable than rewards points or cashback. You’ll also need to pair the Ink Cash with either the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card, Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, or Chase Sapphire Reserve® if you want the ability to transfer points to travel partners or redeem for more than 1¢ per point in value, negating the ‘no-annual-fee' factor.
The Amex Business Gold card allows you to earn with Computer Hardware purchases direct from select U.S. providers as a category to earn 4x Membership Rewards points, capped at $150K in combined purchases per year. The list of providers includes companies like Apple, IBM, and Lenovo, and the higher spending cap makes the card a better option for companies that invest more cash in computer equipment and accessories, allowing you to negotiate directly with the provider to get the best deal. The 4X points apply to the first $150,000 in combined purchases from these 2 categories each calendar year. Categories include:
- Airfare purchased directly from airlines
- U.S. purchases for advertising in select media (online, TV, radio)
- U.S. purchases made directly from select technology providers of computer hardware, software, and cloud solutions
- U.S. purchases at gas stations
- U.S. purchases at restaurants
- U.S. purchases for shipping
Alternatively, the SimplyCash® Plus Business Credit Card from American Express (no longer accepting new applications) combines the best of both worlds for computer purchases, earning 5% back on computer purchases made at office supply stores, and 3% back on U.S. computer hardware purchases made directly from the providers listed above, up to a combined $50K in bonus category purchases each year.
If you spend more than $100K per year on computer equipment, the Capital One Spark Cash Plus earns an uncapped 2% cashback on all business expenses, similar to its miles earning equivalent the Capital One Spark Miles for Business, but you’d need to spend a massive amount each year to outperform the top rewards cards on the list.
Maximize the Return on Your Purchase with Shopping Portals
You can add an additional layer of value to your computer purchase by utilizing online shopping portals for extra points, miles, or cash back. Most major airline programs have online shopping portals, as do bank rewards programs such as Ultimate Rewards’ Shop Through Chase portal, allowing you to earn thousands of extra points just by clicking through the shopping portal before making your purchase.
One of the easiest ways to maximize the return on your computer purchase is checking shopping portal comparison sites like EVRewards.com or CashBackMonitor.com, which scan online shopping portals for the best return on a given retailer. A quick search for Apple via CashBackMonitor.com displays returns as high 3x British Airways Avios per dollar if you click through the portal to make your purchase.
Final Thoughts
Whether you’re purchasing a single computer for use at home or a dozen for employees at the office, you can earn thousands of extra rewards points via rewards cards and shopping portals. And the icing on the cake is often found in receiving stronger purchase protections and extended warranties than paying cash or using traditional financing.
Bear in mind that if you intend to carry the balance of the purchase on your credit card, rather than pay it off straight away, the interest will quickly wipe out any value gained in rewards, and you’re better off using a card with 0% intro APR if you intend to pay it off over time.
For rates and fees of the cards mentioned in this post, please visit the following links: The Business Platinum Card® from American Express (Rates & Fees), The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express (Rates & Fees), and American Express® Business Gold Card (Rates & Fees)
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Just in time for my computer purchase.
I use my ink bold with online hosting providers like linode and aws. The weird thing is i get 5x on linode but not on aws.
Any recommended personal cards for this spending category?
I’d probably go with the Freedom Unlimited.
I wonder how the credit card companies make the money back in schemes not yet known to us while they offer loads of cash back (refunds) 🙂
Through additional customers who use their cards more regularly would be my guess.
great way to rack up miles
Extended warranty is an important consideration for these types of purchases.
I need to get that ink business card!
good to mention the portal linkage
Great summary. Just bought a MacBook for my soon to be college freshman and wondered how best to do it. FYI, Apple pushes the Barclay card linked to Apple for free financing (in our case 18 months) – not a bad deal, but rewards are strictly paid in Apple credits. Not sure what rate they pay at, since we didn’t ultimately go this route.
Great tip on cashbackmonitor, wish I’d seen that and known about the Discover portal that kicks back 5% on Apple!
Also be sure to use a shopping portal which can be combined with your credit card promotion.
thanks for the highlights for us small business owners!!
It always depends on the merchant and what it codes as. If office supply, then definitely Ink Cash. Otherwise, I will probably use my Double Cash for the purchase/price protection and 2%.
Thanks for the article!
I never use the cash back portals, but I do try to get the most from in store purchases here I do most my shopping. This is useful. Thanks
It is VERY interesting that there are even strategies for such purchases 🙂
Very well done, thanks for this amazing list
Thank you for adding in about the warrantees, etc. When purchasing I think we get into points mode and forget to think about any price protection and warrantees.
So much to think about! We purchased our last computer with Freedom Unlimited, since we were making the spend requirement for that. Apparently I need to pay attention to a lot more next time, unless I’m trying to meet a spending requirement again ;o)
Great article, I’ve now bookmarked cashbackmonitor, a great tool.
Thank you for the reminder about purchase protections and warranty extenders. It can make a difference depending on the product and the purchase price point.
I guess I should get a business card.
Thanks. I guess my BOA Premium Rewards card with preferred status is still the best for me, with 3.5% back at warehouse stores (plus supermarkets), and 2.625% back at other retailers. Sometimes, really good deals show up, like Microsoft’s cash back shopping portal, which ended a dozen years ago gave me 25% back at Walmart, where I bought my OOMA, an Ebates $50 back + the regular % cash back on any $250 Microsoft Store purchase coinciding with last year’s Black Friday specials, where I got a decent HP laptop really cheap, available, at least when I checked out after midnight, or occasional AMEX offers. ALso check RetailMeNot for coupons and an occasional offer. Coupons not on the shopping portal’s site invalidate the cash back or miles, but it works sometimes, so you have to balance the benefits.
I need that card. Is it fee-free?
Yes, it is.
Really good deals indeed. Nice job on the cashback and promotion stacking!
I’m really surprised by the amount of 2% cash back on everything cards these days. I wouldn’t mind trying out that Capital One Spark card for my side business purchases.
Maximum rewards is usually my goal, and therefore, I would generally go for the 5x route with the Ink Cash, but this post does give me pause to consider that perhaps fewer points with more protections is the better way to go.
I’m planning on a new computer purchase soon. I have an Amex Offer for Bestbuy. So though I’d normally use my Blue for Business, this time it will be the Business Platinum to take advantage of the offer and I’ll buy it through the United Shopping portal to earn the back-to-school bonus.
Good information for business owners.