The top 5 best credit cards for small businesses

If you own a small business then you will likely be bombarded with adverts and leaflets for competing business credit card offers, each claiming to be the best option for your type of enterprise.

Skip ahead to the top 5 credit cards

Do small businesses need a credit card?

As a small business owner, your path to growing your business will involve many important decisions, one of which will be whether or not to get a business credit card for your company. Let’s dig into the benefits and drawbacks of having a business credit card to better understand how it might be a good decision in the long run to get one.

The benefits

Rewards

Many business credit cards will offer a range of benefits and rewards for loyal customers and businesses that spend regularly on their company card. This may take the form of a points system that can be redeemed through purchases or gift cards, or through useful freebies for your business such as accounting software.

Often the system of rewards for business customers will be structured a little differently to those of a personal credit card, with greater emphasis on rewards and benefits that suit your company such as business travel, office supplies or software.

Build credit score

One of the major benefits of responsibly using a credit card for your business is that it can help build up your company credit score. This means that in future, you may find it easier to borrow money from major banks to help grow and expand your business, with easier access to future credit and better rates of borrowing.

You should, however, be wary that if you fail to pay your credit card bills on time, then your credit score will be negatively affected.

Tracking spending

Using your company credit card to make purchases makes the process of tracking your company spending a little easier, with monthly reports and all your outgoings in one place.

Eases cash flow

Because credit, by its nature, means that day to day you are not spending your company’s own money, you are less dependent on maintaining a steady and even cash flow each week. As long as you’re able to pay your monthly credit bill, then the card helps you even out your cash flow and manage larger purchases each month.

The drawbacks

Fees and interest

The nature of credit means that every option for a business credit card will involve some element of interest on your repayments, except for charge cards that have ot be paid off in full each month. This does mean that in the long term, you will have to repay more than you borrowed in most circumstances. However, many card issuers offer periods of zero-interest for repayment within a specified timeframe.

Personal guarantee

Not every business credit card application will require this, but the smaller and newer your business, the greater the chance you will be required to offer a personal guarantee to secure your business credit card. In simple terms, this means that by taking out the credit card, you will personally be liable for any debts to the card issuer should your company default.

Less purchase protection

Unlike personal credit cards, which offer a high degree of purchase protection, most business credit cards do not offer much in the way of protection for purchases. This can leave business owners with difficulty returning goods, correcting billing errors or reversing fraudulent charges made to a credit card.

How to choose the best card for your business

There are three primary areas to consider when picking your business credit card.

Interest rates

This is one of the big areas in which the best business credit cards differentiate themselves. Always check out what is known as the representative APR (annual percentage rate of interest) to see how much interest you would be charged, on average for a year of borrowing, excluding any interest-free repayment periods. This can vary significantly depending on the card you choose.

Annual fees

Annual fees are another area where you could save money. Some card issuers will not charge any fees at all for their service, but you can expect to receive less in the way of benefits and rewards if you opt for a zero-fee card.

Cashback and benefits

The flip-side of the annual fee question regards what benefits and rewards you can receive by being a user of a specific credit card. You will usually find that the rate of APR, the annual fees and rewards and benefits trade off each other in the different offers you will find across the market.

The top 5 cards for small businesses

Low rate of representative APR – Barclaycard

The Barclaycard Select Cashback card offers one of the lowest rates of representative APR (variable) on the market at 21.9% amongst cards that do not charge an annual fee. The Barclaycard Select cashback also does not require a personal guarantee.

Representative APR	21.9%
Annual fee	£0
Credit limit	£25,000
Rewards	Free access to FreshBook’s accounting software
	10% cashback on AXA Health business health insurance

No fees and high credit limit – Capital On Tap

The Capital On Tap Business Credit Card is one of several options in the market that includes no annual fees at all, and is specifically geared towards small and micro businesses.

Representative APR	29.9%
Annual fee	£0
Credit limit	up to £150,000
Rewards	1% cashback or Avios points
	Up to 66% off AA Business Breakdown Cover

Sustainably made – Cashplus

The Cashplus business credit card is the only business credit card out there that is made entirely from sustainable, recyclable plastic, as well as offering a whole host of other benefits, including 56 days’ interest free credit and no annual fees.

Representative APR	29.9%
Annual fee	£0
Credit limit	£3,000
Rewards	1% cashback on purchases

Ease of use in Europe – Metro Bank

The Metro Bank Business Credit Card prioritises ease of use for small business customers. If you need to conduct any business in Europe, you’ll not have to pay any transaction fees in the continent, and if you misplace your card, you can walk out of a Metro Bank branch with a new one that day.

Representative APR	14.9%
Annual fee	£0
Credit limit	Not specified
Benefits	Free transactions in Europe

Member benefits – American Express

The American Express Gold Card comes with some of the most extensive member rewards and benefits of all the major business credit cards.

Representative APR	N/A - Amex is a charge card
Annual fee	£175 (£0 in first year)
Credit limit	Not specified
Benefits	See below

Rewards

You earn 1 membership point for every £1 spent on your card or any employee cards on your account, plus 10,000 points for every quarter you spend £20,000 or more. You can redeem points on:

• Gift cards for employees to spend at House of Fraser, M&S, Laithwaite's Wine, Molton Brown, and SpaFinder Wellness 365
• Statement credit to boost your bottom line
• Business travel with British Airways, Marriott Bonvoy, and Virgin Atlantic

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