Unlock Extra Reward Points with Business Credit Cards

If you have a small business, the world of available credit cards includes a lot more options. Alongside the many “personal” travel and reward cards, are dozens of credit cards targeted at small businesses. Often, essentially the same credit card will be available in both a personal and a business version, allowing you to double-up on signup bonuses (or valuable certificates). And, there are some unique and valuable credit cards, that only available as business cards.

Business cards are available even to the smallest businesses. You don’t have to incorporated, it doesn't have to be your full-time job, and you don’t even have to be making any money yet. If you sell stuff on eBay, do a little bit of consulting, or do anything on the side to make money, or that might eventually make some money, you have a business, and are qualified for a business card.

Most people who have any kind of small business should take advantage of business credit cards.

Jump to

Benefits of taking advantage of business credit cards
You can get small business cards, even if you have a very small business
Once you get a business card, you can usually use it for non-business-related purchases
Business cards affect your credit differently, and have different protections

Double-up on your signup bonuses. For many cards, you can earn twice the amount of sign-up points, by getting both the personal and the business version of the cards. For example, you can apply for both the personal and business versions of the Marriott cards to earn a total 160,000 bonus points. This can be critical, when you are trying to gather enough points for a premium cabin international flight, or another redemption that requires a large numbers of points. .
Take advantage of the most lucrative general-purpose reward card. If you like to use your reward points for frequent flyer tickets, the Blue Business Plus Card is the best general-purpose reward card, earning 2x Membership Reward points on every purchase. But, it is only available in a business version. Note that if you aren't fully committed to dealing with the hassles of frequent flyer tickets, we recommend earning Ultimate Rewards or Cashback instead. Businesses can also get the Amex Platinum Business Card to open up the ability to get 1.54 cents per point, when using Membership Reward points to purchase certain airfares. Using the cards together, you can earn over 3% "cash back", with the additional upside of getting much more value from frequent flyer tickets. . Advanced Options for Everyday Spending.
Earn good reward bonuses for office supply stores and telecommunication services. Many business cards come with lucrative bonus rewards at office supply stores and on telecommunication services (usually including Cable TV). These bonus categories aren’t usually available for personal cards, and are particularly easy to take advantage of. If you want to optimize your credit card earning, you’d ideally want to have at least one small business card that earns bonus rewards in these categories.
More signup bonus options. If you’ve been burning through the best credit card signup offers for personal cards, you can access additional possibilities, when you apply for business cards as well.
Most business cards are not listed on your personal credit report. That means they don’t “count” for the Chase 5/24 rule. If you are going through a period of abstinence, so that you can once again become eligible for Chase 5/24 cards, you can still continue to get most business cards. Keep in mind, that opening a personally-guaranteed small business card will still generate an inquiry against your personal credit, and will result in a temporary drop of a few point on your credit report, without the accompanying boost to your credit utilization rate.

You can get small business cards, even if you have a very small business

Small business cards aren’t limited to owners of well-established businesses. If you conduct any independent business at all, such as selling stuff on Etsy, or doing occasional consulting work, or if you are in the process of starting a business, you are eligible for a small business card.

You (usually) don’t even need to be making any money yet. Most small businesses start out by spending money, before they ever earn their first dollar. It is natural to want to be able to use a business credit card for your start up purchases. The banks are eager to get your business—that’s what the signup bonuses are fundamentally about in the first place. You may not be able to get a huge credit line, but you can generally get approved for business credit cards, for a side business you are just setting up.

Amex requires that your small business generate over $1,000 in revenues. But, many people believe that the revenue question on their business credit card application represents a prediction of the future year's revenue, rather than a summary of the previous year's.

Your business doesn’t need to be incorporated. Many smaller businesses are simple sole proprietorships. If you have a sole proprietorship, you are personally responsible for the any debt, and your personal credit report will be pulled when you apply for the card. Instead of using a business Federal ID number, you can just enter your personal social security number into the Federal ID number box.

But it probably helpful to apply with an an Employer Identification Number (EIN) instead. You can very quickly go online and acquire a free EIN for your sole proprietorship.

Banks will ask for information about your business, such as your annual revenue, but most credit card companies don’t require you to send them any records or other information. Never lie about your business. If your revenue is zero, just put zero into the sign-up form. You’re still likely to get approved.
It is best to open a business checking account, and make sure you have any necessary business license, before you start applying for business credit cards. If you look around, you should be able to find a bank or credit-union that will give you a checking account without any monthly fees.

Once you get a business card, you can usually use it for non-business-related purchases

The thorniest issue with business credit cards is whether you can use them for personal spending. Either the credit card application process, or the terms of use, will almost certainly indicate that you are only allowed to use your business card for business expenses. If you have a very small business, you may not be generating enough legitimate business expenses, to meet the initial spending requirement, necessary to earn the card’s signup bonus. And if you were hoping to take advantage of the card’s travel benefits, or bonus reward rates, you probably want to use it for your personal travel and spending.

By law, business cards don’t have the same protections as personal credit cards. As a result, banks need to be sure that they can’t be accused of skirting the personal credit card regulations, by promoting small business cards for personal use. Therefore, you’ll never see any materials from the bank saying that you can put personal charges on a business card. And the official rules for the card will typically prohibit using the card for personal spending.

However, putting personal expenses on small business cards is very widely done, especially by people who like to collect points and miles. While keeping your small business expenses on your small business cards, and personal expenses on your personal cards, makes it much easier to keep track of your spending, when it is time to file your taxes, there are no laws that require you to do so.

You need to make a personal decision, about whether you are comfortable putting personal expenses on a business card. Conventional wisdom is that banks really don’t care—don’t ask, don’t tell. However, there is some risk to violating these terms. The worst-case scenario is that the bank will shut down the card, pull back the rewards points they gave you, and decline to do business with you in the future. Based on available information, this is very unlikely to happen, but conceivably possible.

Of course, if your business is large enough, that meeting initial spending requirements is not a problem, it is an easy decision. You want to get rewarded for your business spending, as well as your personal spending.

Business cards affect your credit differently, and have different protections

For most small businesses, your personal credit report will be used to determine whether you can get a business card. However, once you get the card, it will generally not be listed on your credit report. (While most cards are not included on your personal report, some business cards are—you can check this list at Doctor of Credit to see whether it will be listed or not.)

This means that business cards impact your credit score differently than personal accounts.

When you first get the card, you’ll experience the same 2 to 5-point drop in your credit rating (from the hard inquiry) that you would receive from any other card. As with personal cards, this will go away in a year.
Unlike a personal card, the credit limit of your new card won’t be get added to your “total credit”, and thus won't improve your credit utilization score.
However, any charges you put on the business card also won’t be included in the total of the amount of credit you are using, which will contribute to a better utilization score.

Business cards are also not subject to the “Credit Card Act of 2009”. The penalties for late payments can be more onerous than for a personal credit card. You always want to pay off your credit cards, in full every month, but the ramifications for not doing this on a small business card are worse.