6 best company credit cards for your employees in November 2024

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.

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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.

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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?

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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:

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• 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.

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With Ramp, we don’t ask for a personal guarantee or check your credit score. Our requirements to apply are as follows:

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• 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

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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.

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Ramp’s corporate cards help you streamline your cash flow and automate expense management:

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• 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.‍