Business Credit Cards

If you are either the owner or Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of a business and do not have business credit cards, then the following 10 reasons might make you want to rethink your business credit card strategy:

1. Interest-free credit: with cash-flow of businesses being subject to payments from clients, cash-flow can sometime be tight. Using a credit card for your business needs means your company can take advantage of interest-free credit for a limited period;
2. Separation of expenses: sometimes it is difficult for you separate your personal expenses from your business expenses – just ask yourself how many times you’ve had to pay for a business dinner on your personal credit card if you need evidence of that. With business credit cards this task becomes much easier.
3. Expense managed report: allows you the option to get periodic reports that section your business expenses. In addition, your accounting department no longer has to manually account for all you business expenses as the card comes with itemized monthly statements.
4. Staff cardholders: you can nominate members of staff who you want to have a business credit card so that they can meet their business expenses without having to pay for them personally. Not only should this make your staff happy, but it also streamlines your accounting system as you should no longer need to refund staff for business expenses.
5. Online payments: with the Internet access option you can now pay for all your business expenses online. This quick and easy payment method should help to save your accounting team plenty of time and effort – making them more productive in other areas.
6. Insurance: if you use business credit cards to pay for any business travel expenses your staff members should not only get free travel insurance but also any other travel benefits that are associated with the card. This should save your business the expense of having to pay for the insurance separately.
7. Higher credit line: ordinarily credit card companies are willing to give business credit cardholders a higher level of credit than individuals. This should mean that your business never need worry about how to pay for entertainment, stationary or travel expenses again.
8. Rewards: most business credit cards come with the same rewards packages, e.g. airmiles, cash back, etc., that you find with individual credit cards. If your staff do a lot of travelling, the airmile rewards package could be very rewarding.
9. Hotels: as a member of a business card program you may find that the card issuer has a special relationship with a hotel that gives you preferential bookings at hotels close to where you need to be – so no more long travel journeys from hotels to meetings.
10. Billing: finally, billing of your business credit card can be arranged so that you pay the entire balance each month or carryover a balance to the next statement period, as suits your business needs, much the same way individual credit cards do.

More information:

• Credit Card Types
  Credit cards have evolved from their early days into flexible financial tools for most types of spenders – and savers. But with so many types of credit cards on offer it can be somewhat overwhelming.
• APACS - The UK payment association
• Choosing and Using - a free credit information site from APACS