I have two posts about Advanta recently: Ideablob from Advanta and Small Business Network from Credit Card Issuers. Both of them introduced the pretty cool website from Advanta—Ideablob.com. Today I’m going to introduce the latest and most special credit card product from Advanta which is a dedicated credit card company for small business in US.

Advanta and Kiva.org just launched a new project named KivaB4B. Kiva.org is recognized as the world’s first peer-to-peer lending organization giving people the opportunity to help small businesses and entrepreneurs in developing countries through microfinancing loans. You should note that the purpose of the Kiva.org (nonprofit) is not to make money from the lending process but rather to lift the people at the developing countries from poverty. With the participation of Advanta, one of the largest business credit card issuers at US, I believe more and more people at developing countries will get the chance to get the money they need.

What’s the uniqueness of the KivaB4B project?

According to Jess at Advanta:

In recognition of their participation in the Project, Advanta provides the small businesses with resources to market their philanthropic activities to their community. Advanta also provides a financial incentive. If a small business owner uses an Advanta BusinessCard to make a grant to Kiva for an entrepreneur, Advanta matches the grant, dollar for dollar (up to $200 per account, per month).

This is amazing! If you are a small business owner and offer a loan through the KivaB4B program, Advanta will match your lending dollar for dollar up to $200 per month! It costs you nothing and the small businesses at developing countries will get doubled amount of what would get in the past!

Here is the details on how it works:

1. Select an inspiring business owner
2. Make a grant to Kiva using your Advanta business card
3. Advanta makes a matching grant through Kiva
4. Kiva distributes funds
5. As your funds are prepaid to Kiva, they are deposited into your Kiva account
6. Funds go to the people who need them

At the same time, Advanta released a new credit card product—the Kiva Business Card. We know that business card market is very competitive. Many big credit card issuers like Chase, Bank of America, Citi, American Express and Discover are promoting their business credit card products. However, most of their products are just regular-offer cash back, discount or sign-up bonus. The appearance of the Kiva Business Card gives you a chance to change the life of a people at the planet. It offers you an opportunity to help other people in the world as a business owner at US. This is a really smart strategy and will attract many business card members.

This Kiva Business Card also offers a 5% rebate on the first $1,200 of Bonus Qualifying transactions, and up to 1% on other purchase. The $1,200 is not that much but really a chance to help others and earn cash back.

If you are a small business owner and willing to help on this planet, the KivaB4B is a great chance.

Today I received a pretty nice T-Shirt from Advanta innovative team for blogging about their very special website: www.ideablob.com. (”Small Business Network from Credit Card Issuers“) As I indicated in my previous post, the ideablob is an active online community for entrepreneurs and small business owners. People can submit their ideas to the community and get some comments or advice from community members and advisers. At the same time, every month, the community votes on the best idea. The winner will get $10,000 to help their idea grow. Because of its uniqueness, I’d like to give an brief review on ideablob which I think is of great help to those small business owners.

I like the idea to share the business ideas at a social networking site. Imagine there are 30 million small businesses in the United States, but there is not a good way to bounce their ideas off each other. In a nurturing environment like ideablob, you will have the opinions from many other small business owners and entrepreneurs. They will bring their experience, insights and help to your idea. Compared to other business networks, the ideablob is without the question the most unique and helpful site.

If you are not a business owner yet, you can still participate in the online community and share your opinions with others. This is a great learning process on how to form a great idea and put it into practice. You should always remember that great ideas always come from daily life!

Let’s see previous monthly $10,000 winners and their ideas:

Elizabeth Dehart, Organic Vending Machine, July 2008 Winner

Jessica Hammock, Develop Astronomy Curriculums for Underprivileged Youth, June 2008 Winner

Alex Eaves, STAY VOCAL, May 2008 Winner

Matt Allison, Portable Personal Trainer, April 2008 Winner

John Studer, No Sweat Apparel, March 2008 Winner

Aaron Fleishman, Mashavu, February 2008 Winner

Naomi Bar-Yam, Mothers’ Milk Bank of New England, January 2008 Winner

Chris Elam, Misnomer Dance Theater, December 2007 Winner

Marci Schankweiler, Crossing the Finish Line, November 2007 Winner

Tom Krieglstein, Red Rover, October 2007 Winner

If you are an Advanta cardholder like Matt, you will receive another 1,000,000 bonus rewards points which are equal to $10,000！That’s $20,000 total bonus!

How can you participate in the online community?

First, anyone over 18 can participate in the community. No matter what’s your job! All you need is your passion and wisdom! Once you register and activate your membership, you can submit your ideas (no limit!) and leave comments on other ideas. For official Q&A, you can go to here.

According to Jennifer at Advanta innovative team, ideablob has created an RSS feed of ideas from their system. This is very considerate! You can now choose to subscribe to specific industries ideas or tags.

I seldom mention Advanta in this blog because its customers are generally small business owners. Advanta is one of the nation’s largest credit card issuers in the small business market. The two credit cards: Advanta Life-of-Balance Platinum Business Card and Advanta Platinum Business Card with Rewards Options are my top rated business cards. If you are a small business owner, you can apply for one of those.

You might have already observed that I seldom introduce some credit card issuers like Capital One, WaMu, and Advanta. The most frequently mentioned credit card issuers are Citi, Chase, American Express, Discover and Bank of America. I think the reason is Citi, Chase, American Express, Discover and Bank of America often offer some great promotions. Some small credit card issuers can’t afford the costs to get a new customer through promotions. So they seldom offer some great deals. However, we can’t ignore the fact that Advanta is a great small business card issuer. Hereby I will briefly introduce two credit cards offered by Advanta.

1. Advanta Life-of-Balance Platinum Card

This card would be a great substitute for those who often carry credit card balance. This card offers 2.99% APR on balance transfer for life! Of course, you have to make the balance transfer process in 3 months after you get approved. More importantly, there is not balance transfer fees associate with this card! If you need some emergency money, this card would be your great choice. Besides the great balance transfer offer, you can still get up to 6% cash back on certain places at your choice.

Up to 6% Cash Back on Gasoline and Diesel Fuel and Up to 2% Cash Back on all other purchases or

Up to 6% Cash Back on Utilities and Telecommunications and up to 2% Cash Back on all other purchases or

Up to 6% Cash Back on Computers and Office Supplies and up to 2% Cash Back on all other purchases or

Up to 6% Cash Back on Dining Expenses and up to 2% Cash Back on all other purchases or

Up to 6% Cash Back on Building Supplies and up to 2% Cash Back on all other purchases

You can choose one of the above mentioned rewards program by calling customer service. Or you can also enroll in a free travel rewards program! This card is really awesome!

2. Advanta Platinum Business Card with Rewards Options

This card also offer great balance transfer offer—0% APR on balance transfer for up to 15 months! After that the rate is fixed at 7.99% APR. Plus you can earn up to 5% cash back on certain purchases (Cash Back rewards are also earned on Bonus Qualifying purchases, which include purchases in the following categories: “gasoline and diesel fuel,” “computers, computer supplies, electronics and office supplies,” “online advertising services,” and “utilities and telecommunications.”) However, you can only earn 5% cash back on the the first $1200 that spent on above categories. You may also choose the no fee travel rewards program and earn unlimited rewards.

Advanta Business Cards are rated as the best business cards by the SmartMoney Magezine in 2006. Advanta was ranked among the “America’s Most Admired Companies” by Fortune magazine.

AS I mentioned previously, everyone can apply for business cards although you don’t own a business entity. You can choose “proprietorship” at the “business type” and put in your own name as your “business name”. You can also transfer balance from your own personal cards to Advanta Business Cards. One thing I should point out is their credit check is a little bit trick. You must have 2 years solid credit history.