Best Business Credit Cards: Help Your Business Grow

When it comes to owning a business, expense management may be hard. To keep everything organized and easier to handle, a good business card comes pretty handily. It helps manage cash flow, keeps track of short-term expenses, and spreads costs.

Fortunately, there are a lot of cards out there to choose from. However, let’s face it: some are better than others, and choosing the best is no easy task. In this review, we will get into the best business credit cards out there for your small or not-so-small business. Let’s get started!

Capital One Spark Cash Credit Card For Business

Our first card, the Capital One Spark Cash Credit Card, has no annual fee during the first year of use and a $95 fee every year after this. This card’s reward program gives you back 2% flat cash on everything that you buy.

In addition to this, there is a welcome bonus which will give you a $500 prize. To earn this you will need to spend $4,500 during the first 3 months after opening an account. For a business, this is a pretty reasonable spending floor.

Some of the additional benefits of this card are purchase protection and an extended warranty. There are also no foreign transaction fees, making this card perfect if you need to take it out of the country and use it abroad.

That being said, you do need to have excellent credit to get this card. While there are no hard written rules for getting approved, Capital One doesn’t grant this card to anyone. As such, having a lot of inquiries or new accounts may not benefit you in the process of approval.

It’s also important to know that since October 20th of this year, any new accounts opened are not going to report to your personal bureau. This may have been a downside in the past when this did occur, but not anymore.

This makes the card way more customer-friendly, especially for freelancers and also for any proprietor out there. It keeps things organized and your business out of your personal life and spendings.

As you can see, this is definitely a card that warrants being on our list of best business credit cards. However, there are still other options you might want to consider, so keep reading!

Chase Ink Business Preferred Credit Card

The Chase Ink Business Preferred Card is Chase’s number one business card. This card allows you to earn the highest amount of points in some extremely valuable business categories. This makes it a great option for every business. Let’s start with some of its specifications:

This card has a $95 annual fee and offers a welcome bonus opportunity of 100,000 points. To earn them, you need to spend $15,000 on new purchases in the first 3 months after the account opening.

Small businesses with multiple employees can request unlimited free employee cards to help meet the spending requirement if needed. The card also gives you access to some very useful business expense reporting tools.

Now, let’s get into the everyday benefits and reward system this card offers. In the shipping category, you will get 3 points per dollar spent. You will also get 3 points per dollar on internet, cable, phone services, and travel.

The next category will benefit your business greatly if social media is a tool you frequently rely on. You’ll get 3 points per dollar on ads on social media and/or search engines. Last but not least, you’ll get 1 point per dollar on any other type of purchase with this card.

Now that you know all the categories the reward system works with, you may be asking yourself: “what does Chase consider travel?” Well, this includes motels, hotels, airlines, limousines, parking lots, car rental agencies, campgrounds, taxis, and highways.

The points on this card can be redeemed as cash, meaning the 100,000 bonus points you could potentially get in the first 3 months equals $1,000. On the other hand, these points could also be redeemed for travel on Chase’s ultimate rewards portal and get a 25% boost on them, making the thousand dollars $1,250 (in travel).

U.S. Bank Cash Reward Business Mastercard

The U.S. Bank Cash Reward Busines Mastercard is a no-annual-fee card, meaning you won’t be having to pay to keep it in your financial toolbox. Compared to some of the annual fee cards, this is a starting advantage that definitely makes it one of the best business credit cards.

This card offers a bonus opportunity for $500 if you spend at least $3,000 in the first 90 days or 3 months after opening the account. This figure is more on the attainable side if your business doesn’t spend much.

This card offers the following rewards:

• 3% cash back on gas and gas stations.
• 3% on office supplies.
• 3% cash back on cellular services and equipment.
• 1% back on all purchases.

Keep in mind that cash back rewards will expire at the end of the calendar month, 36 months after the billing cycle. To be eligible to earn them, your account must be open and in good standing. These rewards can be redeemed through online banking.

This card also includes the Real-Time Rewards. This feature allows you to choose your favorite or most purchased redemption categories to redeem rewards more easily. When active, your rewards will be redeemable without having to use the Rewards Center. It’s instant!

American Express Blue Business Cash Card

The American Express Blue Business Cash Card is a solid pick for business owners seeking simplicity. It has no annual fee, which is very important, especially if you are a new business. After all, every penny counts when you are just starting.

The card also comes with a 0.0% introductory APR on purchases for 12 months from the date of your account opening. You also get 2% cash back on up to 15,000 dollars per calendar year. If the cashback isn’t your preferred reward, you can instead choose 2x points per dollar.

The card comes with a bonus opportunity of a $250 statement credit after you spend $5,000 on qualifying purchases within the first 6 months of getting the card. 

In addition to this, there is another bonus of $500 if you spend $10,000 during the first full year of Card Membership.

This card does require at least good credit for approval, so unless your credit score is 700 or more, it may be difficult for you to get it.

Finally, you can spend beyond your credit limits if you are found eligible for the expanded buying power benefit. Your eligibility for it will be based on your payment history, credit records, and financial resources.

This feature doesn’t make your spending ability unlimited and is modified by the factors previously discussed.

American Express Platinum Credit Card

The American Express Platinum card gets more to the expensive fee side with a $595 annual fee. However, it makes up for it with great benefits and rewards.

This card will offer you a welcome bonus of 100,000 points after you spend $15,000 on eligible purchases. As with other cards, this will only apply during the first three months of opening the card account. The approximate value of this bonus is anywhere from $600 to $2000 on average.

This card has many benefits, such as allowing you to earn 5 points per dollar on flights if booked via AmexTravel.com. You can also receive 5 points per dollar on hotels when they are pre-paid via this same portal. This makes paying for business travel expenses a profitable matter.

You’ll also receive 1.5 points per dollar on purchases that are $5,000 or more, with a limit of 1 million points per calendar year. Any other purchases will get you 1 point per dollar.

When it comes to redeeming the points, there are a variety of ways to do so and different ratings for each. Redeeming on travel while using Transfer Partners will get you ¢2.0 per point on average. Doing it through the portal will get you ¢0.7 for hotels, car rentals, cruises, vacations, and ¢1.0 for other flights.

Finally, you will also receive ¢1.54 per point for flights in 1st Class or Business Class on any airline or any fare class with your preselected airline. If you prefer to redeem the points as Cash Back (Statement Credit), you’ll receive ¢0.6 per point.

If your spending habits align with this card’s reward points system categories, you will be able to accrue points with the card very quickly!

Conclusion

As you can see, there are several options when it comes to the best business credit cards. Whether you prefer a point or cashback system, spend a lot on the supplier or traveling, or any other preference… There is a card that will fit your needs.

Choosing the right card for your business will allow it to grow at a faster rate, all while providing you with ease of mind. After all, growing businesses need high liquidity, which a good credit card can provide!

Now that you know what each of these cards has to offer, it is time for you to choose. Will you go with a better welcome bonus? Ease of use? No annual fees? Maybe all of the above? It’s up to you to decide!