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Best Business Credit Cards of 2018
Access to credit can be difficult to come by and expensive
for small businesses. Small business credit cards can be flexible, invaluable
tools for business owners facing short-term cash crunches. Interest rates can
be lower than they are for other convenient sources of credit, such as advances
against accounts receivable or credit card receipts and unsecured loans
available from small business lenders on the Internet. Thanks to credit card
incentive and rewards programs, it may make sense for business owners to route
as much of their normal expenses as possible through their business credit
card.
If you spend a significant amount on business expenses each
month, you should consider applying for a business credit card. However, it’s
important to understand the benefits and drawbacks of business credit cards as
well as the wide array of offerings on the market.
Best Business Credit Cards of 2018
U.S. News
researched 129 business credit cards from a variety of card-issuing banks and
evaluated them against the key business card criteria outlined below.
Benefits of
Business Credit Cards
Instant
capital
Business
credit cards provide business owners and entrepreneurs instant and convenient
capital they can use for any business need:
Operating
capital/Cash flow management: Credit cards can bridge a gap between the need
for a cash outlay and the receipt of payment by the customer.
Startup
capital: Business owners can use credit cards to pay for initial organization
and expenses, purchase signage and inventory and advertising.
Growth
capital: Businesses can use business credit cards to put capital equipment,
such as machinery, furniture or electrical equipment, into use now to generate
current income while paying off the balance over time.
Frank
Martien, managing partner and head of commercial payments with First Annapolis,
a consulting firm that advises card-issuing banks, describes a common situation
with seasonal businesses. “You could have a retail business in a tourist area,
with really strong cash flow in the summer – and for the summer, you just use
the card as a transactor,” he says. But in the off-season, the business carries
a balance – “maybe using it to build up inventory in March, April and May,
before the tourists show up.”
Interest
rates on business credit cards are high compared to the rates of some other
forms of financing, such as a traditional bank loan, but the credit cards are
very convenient. If businesses can pay off purchases before the end of the
grace period, the higher interest rate is a nonissue.
Separation of business and personal
assets
When used
correctly, business credit cards can help you demonstrate a strict separation
between your personal and business finances. This is critical to ensuring that
you and your family, along with your business partners, are personally protected
from business liabilities.
If you are
sued or go through bankruptcy, and your business records show that you have
routinely mingled your personal and business accounts or used business assets
for your personal benefit, you could endanger your limited liability
protection. Without the limited liability protection you gain by operating your
business as a corporation or limited liability company (LLC), your personal
assets are at risk.
“It’s not
what you have, it’s what you have at risk,” says Gerri Detweiler, author of
“Finance Your Own Business, The Ultimate Credit Handbook” and head of market
education for Nav.com, a San Mateo, California-based credit service for
business owners. “If you have a business that has incorporated, but they
continue to use personal credit cards to make personal purchases and business
credit cards to make business purchases, it could potentially lead to a
situation where the corporate veil could be pierced, and their personal assets
put at risk.”
To avoid
placing your personal assets at risk from business debts, use separate checking
accounts, and do not mingle personal and business assets, debts and purchases.
Detweiler suggests getting an early start at separating your business and
personal assets and maintaining your business as a separate and distinct
identity, wholly apart from both its parent company (if any) and its owners.
Bookkeeping and accounting features
Many
business credit cards include the following useful accounting and expense View
up-to-the-minute usage reports for each cardholder on the account
Set spending
limits on individual cards
Cancel or
suspend credit cards
Instantly
retrieve historical activity for each card
Set up
account alerts for individual cards
Adjust cash
advance limits
Reconcile
transactions against statements
Send
automatic data feeds to your bookkeeping/accounting software systems
Automatically
segregate expenses into categories to assist expense management
Access to
account controls via mobile devices
Tax benefits
Maximizing
tax deductions: Using credit to fund capital equipment purchases may help you
take advantage of tax planning opportunities. For example, if you fund an
equipment repair via a credit card before the end of the year, you may be able
to take advantage of a tax deduction in the current year while paying it off
later.
Tax
simplification: Many of today’s business credit cards come with souped-up
reporting and accounting features that make it easy to download detailed
reports of all expenses charged using the card. This information can be
automatically migrated to most prominent small-business accounting software
programs, such as Intuit and Peachtree. It’s easy to transfer or attach credit
card reports to a Schedule C and to store records of verified purchases in case
of an audit.
Business
Credit Cards vs. Personal Credit Cards
Business
credit cards differ from consumer credit cards in these important ways:
Business
credit cards typically have higher limits.
Business
owners can distribute cards to employees; however, the business owner retains
responsibility for repaying charges on each employee’s card.
Most major
business card-issuing banks report credit usage and payment information to both
personal and business credit bureaus.
Business credit cards are not subject to the same consumer
protection laws as personal credit cards under the Credit CARD Act of 2009.
This means that the card issuing bank could potentially make changes to grace
periods and your APR with little or no notice. However, some major issuers have
chosen to voluntarily extend some or all of the consumer protections under the
Credit CARD Act to their business credit card holders via their cardholder
agreements. Read your cardholder agreement and terms and conditions thoroughly
before applying for your business credit card.
Rewards and discounts cater to business owners, such as
discounts on FedEx shipping or office supplies, or generous bonuses for
frequent flying.
Many small business owners use personal credit cards to
finance their businesses. Personal credit cards are usually much easier for
owners of small and newly established businesses to qualify for, but they don’t
report to the business credit bureaus. Also, mixing business and personal purchases
on the same credit card could endanger your limited liability protection,
putting your personal assets at risk in the case of a lawsuit against your
corporation or LLC.
Before You Apply for a
Business Credit Card
Eligibility and requirements
There are lots of different business types and business
owners, and they may not always resemble a traditional view of a business. You
don’t need to have a storefront or warehouse or any major facilities or hard
assets to be issued a business credit card. If you have good personal and
business credit and otherwise meet the issuer’s criteria, you can get a
business credit card issued in any industry. So don’t be discouraged if you’re
self-employed or you fall into one of these non-traditional business categories:
Etsy sellers
Amazon sellers
eBay sellers
Freelancers
Independent contractors and consultants
Self-published
authors
You also do not have to be profitable or have years in
business under your belt before you can get approved for a business credit
card, says Detweiler. “You don’t have to have a strong business credit rating
or even necessarily have revenue for the business yet to be considered for one
of these cards,” she explains. “These decisions … are usually based on the
borrower’s personal credit, and whatever income is available.”
For new business owners, if your personal credit is bad, and
you can’t qualify for a personal credit card, you probably won’t qualify for a
business credit card either. You may, however, qualify for a secured business
credit card, where your credit is limited to whatever amount you have on
deposit with the bank.
While it’s a good idea to form a separate business entity
before applying for a business credit card, it’s not necessary. It’s possible
to obtain a business credit card even as a sole proprietor. However, those in
sole proprietorships and general partnerships place their personal assets on
the line in the event the business or even an individual business partner is
sued or files bankruptcy.
Building your business
credit history
Just as most of us have a personal FICO score, established
businesses generally have one or more business credit scores that lenders use.
Business credit scores generally range from 0 to 100, with higher scores going
to more creditworthy companies. Scores vary from credit bureau to credit
bureau.
Your business creditors will report your payment history to
one or more business credit bureaus, which collect your outstanding balance and
payment history from the following types of sources:
Banks
Business credit card issuers
Trade associations and organizations
Vendors
Manufacturers who provide merchandise or inventory in advance
of payment
One of the most prominent business credit bureaus is Dun
& Bradstreet, the developers and proprietors of the PAYDEX score. This
score compares businesses’ payment histories on credit accounts to credit terms
and rewards businesses for paying early. According to Dun & Bradstreet,
companies that have a track record of not just paying credit accounts on time,
but paying them 30 days or more ahead of schedule have the highest scores.
Like other business credit scores, the PAYDEX score ranges
from zero to 100, which Dun & Bradstreet characterizes as the following:
0-49 50-79 80-100
Significant to high risk of missed credit payments or default
Risk of late or missed payments on debts is moderate
Good to excellent business credit and payment history and
outlook; risk of future late payments or defaults low
Experian’s CreditScore Report is similar to Dun &
Bradstreet’s PAYDEX score, and is scaled from one to 100. Experian’s score
differs from Dun & Bradstreet’s score in that Experian looks beyond payment
history to include total lines of credit in use, new lines opened in the last
six and nine months, accounts in collections over the last seven years,
percentage of available credit used and the number of open credit lines that
are subject to terms other than net-30 days, which is a common loan term where
the payment is due in 30 days.
Regardless of your personal credit history, th
ere are some
things you can do to make yourself more attractive to business credit card
issuers when you are ready to apply:
Get a separate employer identification number (EIN): Not
every lender requires this, but many do. It also indicates to potential lenders
that you’re serious about treating your business as a separate entity from your
personal assets.
Develop a solid business plan, including a realistic monthly
budget: Your business plan helps tell creditors and other investors where your
business is going and lets them take a look at how realistic your assumptions
are and how detailed your planning is.
Start building a business credit history: Over time, as your
business demonstrates responsible credit usage, it establishes credit history
separate from your personal credit. The more established your business credit
history is, the less likely it is that lenders will require you to sign a
personal guarantee for your business debts.
Prepare beneficial owner information: Regulations require
that card issuers collect personal information for anyone who directly or
indirectly owns 25 percent or more of the business. Although their credit
information won’t be pulled, they will keep records for informational purposes.
You will need to provide names, birthdates, Social Security numbers, home
addresses and percent of the business owned.
Know your issuer’s
credit reporting policies
In order to establish a separate credit history for your
business, select a credit card issuer that reports your credit activity specifically
to the business credit bureaus: Dun & Bradstreet, Equifax, FICO SBSS and
Experian each maintain a business-specific database and sell credit background
screening to various lenders of all types. All major business credit card
issuers report information to at least one business credit bureau.
Additionally, some card issuers will report all activity on
business credit cards to your personal credit report. This can be good if your
personal credit is weak and you are building credit history with on-time
payments, but it can limit your access to personal credit if you have a very
high debt-to-income ratio.
Each card issuer has different credit reporting policies.
According to research by Nav.com, a company providing business credit report
tools, there are several card issuers, including American Express, Capital One,
Chase and Wells Fargo, that only report negative information to your personal
credit report.



