Credit Cards > Business Credit Cards

Business Credit Cards

When you are a sole trader or run a small business it can prove difficult to obtain short term credit. A business credit card can assist with cash flow and make financial planning much easier. There are only a few credit card companies who allow credit card use for business. The two main contenders are MBNA business Credit Card and Barclaycard Business, both of whom offer an online application and fast acceptance decision.

What does a Business Credit Card do for me?

A business credit card account brings services and support to your business life. It’s like having a highly-valued employee —one that gives you back all the pleasures of owning and managing your own company. To see what it could bring to your business, you’re invited to look through the various card offers in this website.

Once you have secured a card account for your business, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without it. It can help you in almost every area of running your business from accounting to travel arrangements.

Business card accounts are also invaluable tools when you need to respond quickly to an unexpected opportunity.

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Do I need to have an account with the issuing bank to be eligible?

Some issuers require you to hold your current account with them in order to be eligible for their business credit card account. Others such as Barclaycard Business do not. Read the terms and conditions carefully.

Let the card work for you

A Charge Card can bring some unique benefits to your business. It has no pre-set spending limit so you get the flexibility you need to buy what your business needs. And provided you pay your account on time and in full every month, you often have almost two months (some up to 57 days) interest-free credit on card purchases. The exact number of interest free days varies according to the card issuer. But no matter the duration, they are very useful tools to help improve your cash flow.

Protection

Business Credit Card accounts come with no liability clauses for fraudulent use of your cards if they are lost or stolen- providing you notify the issuer as soon as it cannot be found. Some business credit card providers online guarantee; with more business travellers booking travel online, this guarantee can cover the business for any unauthorised e-commerce transactions.

Supplemental Cards

Business Credit Card accounts make it possible to add as many supplementary cards as your business needs. Some issuers charge a fee for additional cardholders and others don’t. Read the terms and conditions supplied by the card issuer carefully! This cost factor alone will make a big difference in the actual cost to your business of having the account.

Many issuers will wave the first year’s annual fee, regardless of how many cards you decide the business needs.

Experience the benefits of strong financial control

Whatever market your business operates in, current economic conditions dictate that one factor is common to its success: strong, focus financial control. If you’re running a small business, you should take immediate advantage of the increased control made possible by business card accounts.

Many issuers have designed specific business tools to make managing travel and entertainment expenses easier for all concerned. From employees through to the accounts department, a corporate charge card can help streamline processes, reduce the time spent interpreting expenses and assist with budgeting.

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Reduce financial management burdens

By providing staff with cards on your business credit card account you can minimise the amount of cheques your business raises and the needs to have petty cash on the premises. In addition it also replaces the need to organise traveller’s cheques and foreign currency when staff are travelling abroad. They can prove to be effective tools in minimising administration and the time spent reconciling expenses. They can also be helpful for budgeting and forecasting.

Help your staff make better use of chargeable time

Corporate charge cards help staff spend less time completing expense forms and more time concentrating on critical business activities. This is especially important, given that 28% of employees who incur expenses spend more than 30 minutes per month on the associated paperwork, according to the Henley report commissioned by Barclaycard Business. With a business credit card account, staff will do less paperwork, more accurately, thus boosting their efficiency.

Minimise the time administering expenses

Research carried out by the Henley Centre highlights the benefits of business card accounts. It not only reports that 95% of businesses using charge cards believe that they bring greater control over business spending, but also that business cardholders spend an average of 24% less time completing expense form than non-business card account users. Time saved on administration of expenses alone equates to around £302 per annum for the typical senior manager.

One key feature of business card accounts is that you control the individual spending limits for each cardholder. The spending limit of each card can be set, changed or cancelled at any time. You can even specify limits on different types of spend.

What’s more, the spending on all you cards appears on monthly and yearly statements. All you expenditure is tallied on one account so there’s only one monthly payment to make. Most issuers make it simple to pay your bill with one simple direct debit payment each month. This helps ease cash flow through the business.

Many business card accounts have added accounting features such automatic assignment of each transaction to an expenditure category. For example, the costs of Underground tickets and taxi fares will appear in the overall tally for the Travel expenses category. This feature is exceedingly helpful, allowing you to see your spending at a glance, saving you time and energy you would normally spend tracking expenditure.

A business credit card account will save you a lot of time and energy you would normally spend tracking expenditure. They provide monthly statements giving you a breakdown of spend on every card. So it’s easy to monitor your entire spend and make just one monthly payment. At the end of the tax year you’ll get a free annual management report that breaks down the entire year’s business expenditure by card and then category: travel, insurance, stationary, restaurants and so on. So there’s no need to spend hours trawling through old statements and searching for receipts. Some issuers even have special arrangement with the Inland Revenue such that VAT calculations and proof of purchase receipts are automated making paper copies unnecessary-- it’s all done for you! You’ll have:

• types of spending clearly segmented
• breakdown for every card on the account
• records of every individual transaction

This type of detailed information also enables you to negotiate supplier discounts as your are able to see where the business is spending most money. So with this amount of insight, financial control will become integral to expense management.

Get a quotation for a business credit card…

Discounts

When it comes to purchasing, a business credit card account can bring you discounts that are usually reserved for big business. A card account gives you big business discounts to your small business. You are already familiar. You can expect discounts of up to 30% off some products and services. See supplier deals page for more detailed information. Some card accounts also offer rebates every time you buy specified products or services such as petrol.

Everyone in your business you has a card will also have access to the worldwide services 24/7 such as travel and emergency assistance.

Issuers often have specially negotiated rates with car hire companies.

Reward yourself for spending on the account

Some card issuers will enrol you at no charge in award-wining membership reward programmes where you can earn points for virtually every £1 you spend. Spending on your card and those of your supplemental cardholders will be allotted to your business card account. Your reward account can be credited for all purchases made on all your company cards. This means that all your employees that have supplementary cards will earn reward points for you- imagine how quickly the points will add up! As the business owner, you can use your reward points for anything from flights to fine wines and weekends away.

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Travel

Business card accounts provide many extra benefits that you just don’t get with cheques, cash or personal cards. Some issuers have corporate travel packages that allow cardholders to arrange business itineraries, bookings and access help in emergencies through global assistance programmes.

Many issuers provide discounts and/or priority passes to the world’s largest independent airport lounge programmes.

What’s more, some issuers give you free personal travel accident insurance cover when you charge any kind of public transport ticket to you business card account. Some also cover payments you may incur if a flight is delayed or for replacing clothes if your luggage goes missing.

Some issuers have special deals with airlines making available upgrades and companion seats with leading airlines. Some also consider commission-free traveller’s cheques and highly competitive rates on foreign currency the right of every cardholder.

Many issuers have set up special deals with telephony providers who provide reduced rate national, local and international calls - whether you are home or away. This offers you the simplicity of dealing with one supplier, allowing staff to staff in touch, wherever their business takes tem in the world.

Summary

I encourage every business owner to take a few minutes to look through the various offers contained within this site and to fill in the online application form. Having a business card account is like getting a free employee who happily works for you 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Get a quotation for a business credit card…