Benefits of business and corporate credit cards

Because they’re designed for companies of different sizes and with unique needs, each card program offers different benefits.

How business cards can help companies 

With business credit cards, organizations can:

• Build credit: Using and paying off business credit cards can help increase a small business’s credit score, which could make it easier to obtain future financing.
• Access travel and purchase protections: These can include purchase protection, extended warranties and cellphone protection, among others.
• Earn rewards: Many business credit cards offer rewards that can be redeemed for cash back, gift cards and more.

How corporate cards can drive value

Corporate credit cards can drive value for businesses in several ways, including:

• Streamlined payment processing: Corporate cards can reduce expenditure-related administrative tasks and paperwork, which can save businesses time and money.
• Tracking and reporting tools: Corporate credit cards offer customizable spending controls and up-to-date records, which can help companies gain insights into their spending behaviors.
• Increased controls: Corporate cards include restrictions on transaction types and amounts, allowing greater visibility into spending and a reduction in fraud.
• Travel protections: Corporate cards generally offer extensive coverage for travel, emergency assistance and employee misuse.
• Rebates or rewards: With corporate credit cards, organizations can choose between rewards and annual rebates.

Switching from a business card to a corporate card

Before switching from a business card to a corporate card, ask yourself a few questions:

• How many authorized users do I have? The more authorized users you have on your business credit card, the more difficult it can be to track expenses. A corporate credit card program could help you better track and control spend through account and category limits and reporting features.
• What’s my spend volume? If your company is using a business credit card and consistently hitting its spending limit, a switch could help. Corporate credit card programs generally offer a higher spending limit, but they also require businesses to pay the full balance on a monthly basis. "If you spend over $3 million, it’s better to use a corporate solution with a higher credit limit and tiered rebate benefit—you can get rewarded based on spend you convert to card, and even capitalize on fraud reductions if leveraging card instead of check and other forms of payments.” Schier said.
• What kind of liability do I need? If your company has grown and expenditures have increased, you may not want to hold all the liability as the business owner.
• Is my business scaling and expanding? Corporate cards can grow in complexity as your company grows. Whether you have multiple divisions in your company, hundreds of cardholders, or are paying off numerous invoices per month, corporate cards can provide additional services to fit your needs.

The answers to these questions can guide your decision. “But you should work closely with your banker to determine when to move from a business card to a corporate card or other commercial card program,” Schier said.