6 best company credit cards for your employees in October 2024
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As a small business owner or startup, it’s nice to know you can trust your employees to make wise spending decisions on your behalf. That may include spending petty cash on office supplies when necessary, booking a hotel for business travel, or expensing client dinners.
While giving your employees the ability to spend on behalf of your business offers a level of convenience, it also opens the door to headaches. Managing the employee reimbursement process is time-consuming, and spending in multiple areas without automated tracking is an accounting nightmare.
That’s one reason your business may want to transition to company credit cards for your employees. In this article, we review what these credit cards are, why they’re beneficial, and the best business credit cards to consider.
What is an employee credit card?
Employee credit cards can help eliminate the need for reimbursements and make it easier to track business transactions. Some business credit cards, like corporate cards, include other features like custom spending limits and vendor restrictions. These cards also come with expense management features that allow you to automate expense reporting and tracking.
How to choose the best company card for your employees
There are plenty of benefits of business credit cards. Here’s what you should look for when you choose a new company card:
- Unlimited cards: Look for options that offer free unlimited physical and virtual cards for authorized users. Some providers charge fees for each additional card.
- Spending controls: Some cards allow you to create employee spending limits and vendor or expense category restrictions. These limits can reduce your business expenses by ensuring cardholders follow your company’s spending policy.
- Real-time tracking: Some providers let you track spending on corporate credit cards in real time. This means you always have an accurate view of how your actual spend is tracking against projected budgets.
- Additional perks: Many business credit cards come with extra perks, like travel benefits, cashback, or rewards points. These perks help you get the most bang for your buck as you spend to grow your business.
6 best corporate credit cards for employees
How to qualify for a corporate credit card for your employees
To qualify for a corporate credit card, you’ll need to have a registered business with an EIN number. Depending on the credit card issuer, your business credit score may or may not be taken into account. If it isn’t, you’ll need to be generating substantial annual revenue. In some cases, you may have to put up a personal guarantee, making you as the business owner personally liable for any outstanding debts.
With Ramp, we don’t ask for a personal guarantee or check your credit score. Our requirements to apply are as follows:
- Be a registered business in the United States
- Be a corporation, limited liability company, or LP (including nonprofits). We’re not currently accepting individuals, sole proprietors, or unregistered businesses.
- Have at least $25,000 in cash in any US business bank account attached to your application
- Have most of your operations and corporate spend in the US
If you run an ecommerce business, you may also qualify for a higher credit limit compared to other cards with Ramp’s sales-based underwriting.
Getting a business credit card as an employee
Getting a company credit card as an employee isn’t the same as getting a personal credit card. To get an employee credit card, your company needs to issue it to you directly. Your eligibility for a corporate card usually depends on your role, responsibilities, or other criteria based on your company’s expense policy. With employee credit cards, companies usually set a spend limit at the employee, card, or department level to control spending and effectively manage expenses.
Ramp: Unlimited physical and virtual corporate cards
A corporate card should do more than just let your employees spend to a specific limit. That’s where Ramp comes in.
Ramp’s corporate cards help you streamline your cash flow and automate expense management:
- Automated receipt matching: With Ramp, the days of matching receipts to expense reports are behind you. Employees can submit receipts via mobile app the instant they make a purchase. Ramp matches those receipts to your expense reports for seamless accounting.
- Pay bills in seconds: You can pay vendors via card, ACH, or check. When you’re done, let Ramp streamline your accounting process by automatically categorizing expenses and syncing them with your accounting software.
- Close books faster: Ramp’s automatic expense categorization and accounting integrations help businesses close their books eight days faster on average.
- Real-time expense tracking: Track every expense you have in real time. You can even analyze spending by department, location, merchant, and more.
FAQs
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- Corporate card and spend management platform
- Unlimited employee cards with custom spending limits
- Cashback rewards on purchases
- Offers an average savings of 5% by identifying cost-saving opportunities
- Assists with software price negiotations
- No annual fees or interest
- Custom spend and vendor controls
- High credit limits
- Automatic receipt matching and expense categorization
- Not available to sole proprietors
- As a corporate charge card, balance can't be carried monthly
- Must have $25,000 in a business bank account to qualify
- Offers a $900 bonus after spending $6,000 in the first 3 months
- Provides 5% cash back on office supplies and telecom services (up to $25,000 annually)
- 2% back at gas stations and restaurants (up to $25,000 annually)
- 1% on all other purchases
- Offers 0% intro APR for 12 months
- 3% foreign transaction fees
- The card comes with a welcome bonus
- You can request as many employee cards as you need at no additional cost
- You have to spend $6,000 within the first 3 months after opening your account to qualify for the welcome bonus
- The rewards program can be difficult for some cardholders to navigate
- $25,000 annual limits put a cap on your largest cash-back earning categories
- Offers between 1% to 5% cashback on eligible purchases
- Not all purchase categories qualify for rewards
- Comes with an introductory 0% APR period followed by a high variable APR
- Annual $100 statement credit for recurring software subscription expenses
- Bonus cash-back categories
- No annual fees
- Introductory APR period on purchases and balance transfers
- Requires good/excellent credit
- Cash-back rewards program is difficult to navigate
- Business credit card tailored for travel expenses
- Spending requirement of $4,500 in the first three months to qualify for its welcome bonus
- Annual fee of $95, which is waived only for the first year
- Credit for Global Entry/TSA PreCheck
- Rental car coverage and airport lounge access
- Option to transfer miles to different airline and hotel partners
- Unlimited 2X miles on purchases across categories
- Unlimited 5X miles on rental cars and hotel bookings made through Capital One Travel
- Introductory offer of 50,000 miles
- High $95 annual fee
- No introductory APR period
- Fewer perks than other business cards
- Designed for frequent business travelers who prefer flying with Delta Airlines
- Offers travel perks specifically for Delta, including Medallion Qualification Miles
- 3x miles on Delta purchases and 1.5x miles in specific categories after $150,000 annual spend
- Includes a 110,000 bonus miles offer after spending $6,000 in the first 3 months
- Complimentary Delta Sky Club access, priority boarding, and baggage insurance
- High earning potential on Delta purchases
- Valuable travel benefits with Delta, including lounge access and priority boarding
- No foreign transaction fees
- The rewards program can be difficult to navigate
- You’ll have to pay an annual fee to have this card
- Many applicants find it difficult to be approved for American Express business credit card offers
- Business credit card with travel and purchase protections
- Card comes with a $10,000 minimum credit limit, with the opportunity to raise it
- 2% to 2.5% cashback rewards on purchases
- Free employee cards with custom spending limits
- Welcome bonus of $1000 if you meet spending requirements
- No foreign transaction fees
- "Flex for Business" provides payment flexibility on eligible purchases
- You have to spend $10,000 in three months to qualify for the welcome bonus
- High annual fee
- High interest rate if you carry a balance