We’re expanding our horizons! NerdWallet now lists a whopping 65 credit cards aimed at small business owners. So if you’ve got your own hustle, we’ve got a card for you.
We ran all of them through the NerdWallet calculators to see how they stack up in terms of (i) rewards, (ii) low APR deals, and (iii) lowering your working capital. Here’s some of the highlights.
( 1 ) Rewards Credit Cards
A quick rundown on different types of credit card rewards for your small business.
Base Rewards: The 1.5 – 2% Club
- Double No Hassle Miles Business from Capital One effectively pays 2% because of the double miles. It has a $39 annual fee and a high-teens APR.
- Business Card from Navy Federal Credit Union pays 1% for first $4,000 per year, then 2% after that. It has no annual fee, and an APR under 8%!
- Advantage Plus from Sam’s Club offers 1.19% cash back for the first $10,000 per year, then 2% thereafter. However, it is a Discover Card, which is impractical for most international travelers (except in China).
- The Plum Card from American Express offers 1.5% credited towards your next bill, when you pay off your bill within 10 days of statement closing.
Which to choose? The Plum Card and Sam’s Club card have lower reward rates, so you can probably do better. The other two are both Visa cards, and the Navy card has the lowest APR of any business card, plus no annual fee. The only catch is that to join the Navy Federal Credit Union, you or someone you’re related to has to be affiliated with the Department of Defense.
Bonus Categories
The most common bonus categories that pop up in this segment are office supplies (14 cards), gas (13 cards), dining (8 cards), wireless (3 cards), and travel. However, we can make things easy for you by pointing out only the really crazy ones that might move the needle in your decision making process.
- American Express Simply Cash Business gets you 5% on wireless service and office supplies. You also get 3% on gas for up to $12,000 per year in purchases.
- American Express Lowe’s Business Card gets you 3% on restaurants, office supplies, and your wireless bill. You also get 2% at Lowe’s.
- Discover Business offers has 5% on office supplies, for up to $2,000 in spending per month.
- Capital One Preferred No Hassle Miles for Business offers 3 points per $1 spent in your category of choice. Either travel, gas, building suppliers, computers & electronics, office supplies, or advertising & shipping.
- Bank of America’s Cash Rewards for Business gets you 3% on office supplies, groceries, and computer network services.
1% Base Rewards Plus Bonuses: Total Reward Rate Can Exceed 2%!
If you work the bonuses right, these cards can be a better deal than the 1.5 – 2% cards. Pull out that calculator to figure out if these bonuses will get you there, or better yet, let us do the math for you. Visit our business credit card page and sort by rewards.
- Costco’s TrueEarnings American Express Business offers 4% back on gas (limit $12,000 per year), 3% on restaurants, 2% on travel, and 1% everywhere else.
- Chase Ink Cash offers 3% back on gas, restaurants, office supplies, and home improvement stores. With no annual fee!
- Starwood Preferred Guest offers only 1 Starpoint per $1 spent, and comes with a $45 fee that is waived the first year. However, Starpoints can be worth a lot of money. At the very least they are worth 1.25 airline miles, because you can trade 20,000 Starpoints for 25,000 airline miles at most US carriers. The real upside comes when you redeem points for hotel rooms, but this requires a personalized assessment of the Starwood program on your part.
( 2 ) Low APR Credit Cards
This is a pretty straightforward analysis, best conducted by sorting our business credit card page by effective annual rate, which takes introductory APR periods into consideration.
The really notable cards out there rank well because of exceptionally long introductory APR periods, or because of low ongoing rates.
Best Introductory APR Deals
- Blue for Business from American Express, mainly due to its introductory APR period range of 0% for 6 to 15 months, depending on your creditworthiness.
- Bank of America’s Platinum Plus for Business and Platinum for Business both offer 0% introductory APR for 12 months.
- Capital One No Hassle Miles for Business includes a 0% introductory APR for 9 months.
Best Ongoing APR
There are many cards that offer APR ranges that start below 10%, but cap out in the high teens. We typically don’t consider cards that claim APR ranges from 9%-19% , because you can’t know you what rate you’ll get until after you’re approved. The cards below have one APR, rather than a non-specific range, so if you get approved, you get a great rate guaranteed.
- Navy Federal Credit Union’s cards stand in a category of their own. Their Business Card and Business Rewards Card have the two lowest APRs of any business cards.
- Business Platinum from Commerce Bank comes in third, with an APR of less than 11% at the time of this writing.
( 3 ) Lowering your working capital
This is a feature that isn’t widely publicized but could be a deciding factor for your business. The Plum Card from American Express offers a unique deal that may help you lower your business’s working capital.
The card gives you two options. Either you can pay your bill within 10 days of the closing date and get 1.5% back. Or you can take up to two months from your statement closing date to pay in full – without any charges – as long as you pay at least 10% of your balance on a “Please Pay By Date”. This feature could be huge if your small enterprise needs a bit more flexibility in managing its cash flow. However, note that the card comes with a $185 annual fee.
