find the best credit card NerdWallet named Money Magazine's Best Credit Card Website of 2010
Looking for business credit cards?

Just like personal credit cards, business credit cards can have low APRs or rewards. If you plan to finance your business using revolving credit, a small business card that allows you some flexibility in how you pay and gives you a break on interest rates is ideal. Otherwise, get rewards on your typical office purchases. Use the questionnaire on the left to get the best possible card for your small business! For a quick roundup, take a look at our picks for the best small business credit cards.

Results 1 - 5 of 40 Results per-page: 10 | 25 Page 1 of 8 | next >
Ink Cash℠ Business
Ranks #1 out of 40 cards, sorted by estimated annual Net Annual Rewards. Adjust rankings by using the menu to the left.
Net Annual Rewards
$485
of Cash
Reward Rate
1.00%
Annual Fee
$0
Signing Promo
$250 Cash Bonus after spending $5,000 - $100 after first purchase; another $150 when you spend $5,000 in the first 3 months*
Chase+ Ink+Cash+Business Credit Card

"...This is my go to card for restaurants all over Seattle, it gets me 3% back everywhere I've used it, whether at nicer restaurants like Canlis or more casual places like Paseo...." (see all 17 comments)
(4.5/5 - 207 Votes)
Rewards Calculation: Cash
Signing Promotion
($250)/2 yrs
$125
Estimated Annual Rewards
$21,600 * 1.67%
$360
Annual Fee, 2 yr avg
$0
Annual Rewards (Rewards less Fees)
$485
Card Details
APR, variable*
APR:
10.24%
Default:
29.99%
Cash Adv:
19.24%

Intro APR Promotions
Purchase:
0% for 12 mos
Transfer:
0% for 12 mos
More Info & APR Calculator for Ink Cash℠ Business
Ink℠ Classic
Ranks #2 out of 40 cards, sorted by estimated annual Net Annual Rewards. Adjust rankings by using the menu to the left.
Net Annual Rewards
$461
of Chase Ultimate Rewards
Reward Rate
1.00%
Annual Fee
$0
Signing Promo
25,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards Bonus after spending $5,000 - 10,000 after first purchase; 15,000 more after spending $5,000 in the first 3 months*
Chase Ink+Classic Credit Card

(3.5/5 - 135 Votes)
Rewards Calculation: Chase Ultimate Rewards
Signing Promotion
($250=25,000 points)/2 yrs
$125
Estimated Annual Rewards
$21,600 * 1.56%
$336
Annual Fee, 2 yr avg
$0
Annual Rewards (Rewards less Fees)
$461
Card Details
APR, variable*
APR:
10.24%
Default:
29.99%
Cash Adv:
19.24%

Intro APR Promotions
Purchase:
0% for 12 mos
Transfer:
0% for 12 mos
More Info & APR Calculator for Ink℠ Classic
Disclaimer: This content is not provided or commissioned by Chase Bank USA, N.A. Opinions expressed here are author's alone, not those of Chase Bank USA, N.A, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by Chase Bank USA, N.A. "Sponsored" above means this site may be compensated through the Chase Bank USA, N.A Affiliate Program.
Capital One® Spark℠ Cash for Business
Ranks #3 out of 40 cards, sorted by estimated annual Net Annual Rewards. Adjust rankings by using the menu to the left.
Net Annual Rewards
$453
of Cash
Reward Rate
2.00%
Annual Fee
$0 the first year, then $59
Signing Promo
$100 Cash Bonus after spending $1,000 - in the first 3 months
Capital+One Spark+Cash Credit Card

(4.5/5 - 152 Votes)
Rewards Calculation: Cash
Signing Promotion
($100)/2 yrs
$50
Estimated Annual Rewards
$21,600 * 2.00%
$432
Annual Fee, 2 yr avg
$30
Annual Rewards (Rewards less Fees)
$453
Card Details
APR, variable*
APR:
13.9%(V)
Default:
29.4%(V)
Cash Adv:
24.9%(V)

Intro APR Promotions
Purchase:
None
Transfer:
None
More Info & APR Calculator for Capital One® Spark℠ Cash for Business
Capital One® Spark℠ Miles for Business
Ranks #4 out of 40 cards, sorted by estimated annual Net Annual Rewards. Adjust rankings by using the menu to the left.
Net Annual Rewards
$453
of Capital One No Hassle Miles
Reward Rate
2.00%
Annual Fee
$0 the first year, then $59
Signing Promo
10,000 Capital One No Hassle Miles Bonus after spending $1,000 - in the first 3 months
Capital+One Spark+Miles Credit Card

(3.5/5 - 156 Votes)
Rewards Calculation: Capital One No Hassle Miles
Signing Promotion
($100=10,000 points)/2 yrs
$50
Estimated Annual Rewards
$21,600 * 2.00%
$432
Annual Fee, 2 yr avg
$30
Annual Rewards (Rewards less Fees)
$453
Card Details
APR, variable*
APR:
13.9%(V)
Default:
29.4%(V)
Cash Adv:
24.9%(V)

Intro APR Promotions
Purchase:
None
Transfer:
None
More Info & APR Calculator for Capital One® Spark℠ Miles for Business
SimplyCash® Business Card from American Express OPEN
Ranks #5 out of 40 cards, sorted by estimated annual Net Annual Rewards. Adjust rankings by using the menu to the left.
Net Annual Rewards
$360
of Cash
Reward Rate
1.00%
Annual Fee
$0
Signing Promo
None
American+Express SimplyCash+Business Credit Card

(3.5/5 - 169 Votes)
Rewards Calculation: Cash
Signing Promotion
$0
Estimated Annual Rewards
$21,600 * 1.67%
$360
Annual Fee, 2 yr avg
$0
Annual Rewards (Rewards less Fees)
$360
Card Details
APR, variable*
Min APR:
12.24%
Max APR:
19.24%
Default:
27.24%
Cash Adv:
21.24%

Intro APR Promotions
Purchase:
0% on purchases for 6, 9, or 12 months
Transfer:
N/A*
More Info & APR Calculator for SimplyCash® Business Card from American Express OPEN
Disclaimer: This content is not provided or commissioned by American Express. Opinions expressed here are author's alone, not those of American Express, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by American Express. This site may be compensated through the American Express Affiliate Program.

1 2 3 ... - next

Not sure what to look for?

Choosing the Best Business Credit Card

Like personal credit cards, business credit cards fall into one of two categories: low interest and rewards. Which is best depends on what you plan to use it for.

Cards for financing and working capital:

If you’re looking to use your credit card to finance your business, you should look for a low interest credit card that will allow you to carry a balance month-to-month without bleeding your bank account.

The American Express Plum card offers a lot of flexibility in this area. You get up to 2 months of revolver with 0% interest: when times are tight, if you pay 10% or more of the balance of new activity plus all of the previously deferred amounts, you have until the end of the next billing cycle to pay the remainder without incurring interest or fees. Should you decide that you don’t need that flexibility, you can get a 1.5% discount on your balance when you pay within 10 days.

If you need to borrow more money than a credit card revolver can supply, you should probably consider getting a bank loan rather than using your business credit card as a financing source, since the interest rate is often lower.

Cards for maximizing rewards:

If you don’t carry a balance, you can choose a card that earns rewards on typical business purchases, travel and more. The best card for your enterprise is the one that most closely matches your spending habits, of course. A number of cash back credit cards and gas credit cards have business counterparts, which often give even better rewards rates than personal cards. Among the perennial favorites:

  • The AmEx SimplyCash, which gets 5% cash back on wireless services, 3% on gas, and 1% elsewhere. You can also save 3-10% automatically when you use FedEx, Hertz, OfficeMax and others with the OPEN Savings program. Like most AmEx cards, it’s simple, has no annual fee and lets you earn unlimited rewards.
  • The Capital One Venture Business, which earns a flat 2% back on all purchases and has a signup bonus of 10k No Hassle Miles, plus an additional 5k if you sign up an employee within 60 days. This is a great international credit card, as it charges no foreign transaction fee.
  • The Starwood credit card, which pays out in Starpoints (useful only if you’re a frequent guest). We estimate that it has an effective 2.3% rewards rate, on top of the 10k Starpoint signup bonus, worth ~$2,300.
More from our blog:
  • Jkm1317

    Please allow business cards to go higher on the monthly spending.  I find this 10k limiting, I believe 100k per month (or at least 30k) would be more fitting maximum value for small businesses and certain cards would move up the list if you spend much more.  E.g. the Fifth Third Bank card shows rewards at 2% for over 100k.  If you put 120k as annual max this card would not stand out, if you have 500k as annual spend, this card quickly becomes number 3 or 4 on the list.  Otherwise, GREAT tool!

    Thanks!

    • http://www.nerdwallet.com/ Tim

      Thanks JKM, that’s actually been on our to-do list for some time now.
      Perhaps it’s time to move it up the list…

  • Paul H

    Capitol One Venture for Business is a joke. Well the limit is a joke. My company does $20M in revenue and we spend around $20K per month now on a Mastercard. The MC limit is too low. I applied with Cap One and was given a whopping $5000 credit limit. Guess Amex Platinum it is.

  • Tim

    1) Are there cards which offer the safeguards found in the Credit CARD Act be extended to any card featured on this site?

    2) Are there small business cards available which safeguard against unauthorized use?

  • Erica T

    Erica
    I had a student loan debt since i relocated to two different states, I have recently secured the debt now i am trying to get a credit card for my small cleaning business and I cant seem to get any breaks. Can anyone help?

    • http://www.nerdwallet.com/ NerdWallet

      Erica, we have a few credit cards listed here that may be able to help you. These are geared towards people who have trouble getting other credit cards:

      http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/2011/credit-cards-bad-credit/

      Be careful, most cards that are meant for people in your position will try to take advantage of you with outrageous fees and rates. These are a few that we think are less predatory.

      Hope that helps!

    • Excellence2012

      Does anyone really respond to these postings

  • Not Dumb, Just Ignorant

    I just watched an infomercial on YouTube that says that it is very bad to use your personal credit to obtain a business credit card. After 4.5 years of sweating, making product to sell, we incorporated, and I used my personal information in conjunction with my business information on a Capital One online application for their Spark card. It was approved, but now I have buyer’s remorse. The guy on infomercial says that, once my personal info is mixed in with the business info, it’s impossible to undo. Is this true? I also learned today that I have a DUNS number, and I got a glimpse of my report, but I did not carefully check the fields that were shown. I have not yet received the Spark card in the mail, and I am already stressing out. Did I screw up? If so, what can I do to fix?

    • http://www.nerdwallet.com/ NerdWallet

      This is something you should probably discuss with a lawyer or accountant if you are worried.

      However, for small businesses it is typical (and maybe even mandatory), for credit cards to be backed by the credit of the business owners. This is called “personal liability”. Bigger companies typically get to enjoy credit cards backed by the corporate entity, rather than the business owners, but these are expensive and harder to come by for small businesses.
      I haven’t seen this infomercial, but I would imagine that they are warning you against using your personal credit card to make business purchases, or your business credit card for personal purchases, because that does cause a lot of headaches, both legally and for tax purposes.

      The Spark card is a great card, so if you need a credit card for your business, you should keep it and be satisfied with your decisions.

      Hope that helps!

    • http://www.hawkeyemgmt.com/ Tom Gazaway

      If you are a small business owner then you’re going to need to PG (personally guarantee) your business credit card. The problem is that you’ve chosen the wrong business card. Capital One business credit cards automatically report to your personal credit report each and every month. The translation here is that it’s really no different from a personal credit card from a credit perspective. The problem is that 30% of your FICO score is determined by your utilization. Utilization is the balance in relation to the credit limits on your revolving accounts that show up on your personal credit profile. As you use your Capital One business card it will hurt your FICO scores by increasing your utilization. You would be much better to choose a business credit card that does NOT report to your personal credit report each and every month. Then you would not suffer any negative credit damage as you continue to build your business and use your business credit card. I would love to see the link to the youtube video you are referencing.

      • Jaibuduvin

        Thanks Tom. I did ask repeatedly if this was the case with a Capital One custumer service representative via their online chat tool. The agent was evasive just enough to induce me to apply for their business credit card. Just now, I called again, feigning to want to open a business credit card account, and the agent was again, evasive. So I decided to use the online chat again, so that everyone here could get the benefit of determining what the truth is:

        Hi and welcome to our Capital One chat service! One of our Account Specialists will be right with you.

        You are now chatting with *******

        *******: Thank you for visiting Capital One. I’d be happy to help you with your account questions.

        *******: Whom do I have the pleasure of chatting with today?

        *******: Hello.

        you: Hi , I have a question.

        you: Does my business credit card account get reported to personal credit bureau?

        *******: I am sorry to say but we do not have any information related to credit report. I suggest you to please contact credit bureaus to get the information. Shall I provide you the contact numbers of them?

        you: No, I can find the numbers if I want.

        you: But this is a question for Capital One, not them.

        you: If I open a business credit card account, will it get reported to personal credit bureau?

        you: It’s a question that has a YES/NO answer.

        *******: I would like to inform you that all types of credit cards are reported to credit bureaus.

        you: Which credit bureaus? Business Credit Bureau or Personal Credit Bureau?

        you: or both?

        you: or, let me ask the same question in a different way. If I open a business credit card account, will it affect my personal credit profile?

        *******: No, not at all.

        *******: Both will count as different accounts.

        you: I am being told by a credit card expert the opposite of what you are currently telling me.

        you: Could you do me a favor and verify with you supervisor? I need to know this before I open an account.

        *******: Let me explain you in a better way.

        *******: Let us take an example.

        *******: If you have one personal credit card and one business card.

        *******: Then whatever activity you made on personal credit card will report to credit bureaus as it is.

        *******: And whatever activity you made on business credit cards will also report to credit bureaus as it is.

        you: So my question is simple: If I open a business credit card account with Capital One in January, and pull my personal credit report, using my social security number in September, when I look at my personal credit report in September, will I, or will I not, see the account on my personal credit report for the business credit card?

        you: yes or no?

        *******: Just to confirm, do you have business credit card with you?

        you: Why does it matter whether I already applied or not?

        *******: I would like to inform you that whenever you will apply for a new business credit card , Capital One will check your personal credit report with the credit bureaus.

        you: Hm…that’s the not my question.

        you: My question is: When I pull my personal credit report, will I see an entry on my personal credit report for the business credit card with Capital One?

        *******: No, you will see individually both reports.

        you: So you are saying that, if I pull my personal credit report, there will not be an item that references the Capital One business credit card account?

        you: If you are not sure of the answer, I do not mind waiting while you verify with your supervisor.

        you: This is an important question whose answer I would like to be certain of, before I apply for a business credit card with Capital One.

        *******: I understand that you need help from our account specialist. I am afraid this request cannot be processed through Chat. However I can definitely give you the number of the team who can assist you with this. Is that okay ?

        you: Yes.

        *******: Thank you for considering to call.

        *******: You would need to contact 1-800-955-7070. A Customer Service Representative is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and will be happy to assist you with this request.

        you: Thank you.

        *******: You are welcome.

        *******: My goal today was to provide you with outstanding customer service. I hope I was able to meet that goal for you. If you’d like to provide feedback about your experience with us today, please click the button that reads “End Chat” at top right to answer a few quick questions.

        • http://www.hawkeyemgmt.com/ Tom Gazaway

          This is very interesting but it’s also – unfortunately – not surprising. You could be mad at Capital One for their evasive and incorrect information…but you’re going to find that customer service agents from all the other major credit card companies are not really prepared to answer detailed questions like yours about the impact on credit profiles. You could obviously see from their evasiveness that they didn’t wan to answer the question, then wanted to answer a totally different question…I hope your experience makes it clear that they do not truly know the answer to this important question. As they say, the “proof is in the pudding”. I’ve blogged about this as well. It’s actually not anything new. They started reporting business card activity to personal credit a couple years ago. I personally have a business card from Capital One (obtained from them BEFORE they began to report to personal) and we have scores of clients who come to us and since our pre-qual process not only asks about current business cards and debts but also involves a credit check we see it every day.

          I can assure you that you’ll find similar experiences from other lenders about this topic. Unfortunately, they just are not trained to know this. It’s similar to working with a mortage lender who writes mortgages and pulls credit reports all the time. Try asking that mortgage lender how FICO scores work, what the FICO scoring range is, how many scorecards are part of the latest FICO model, and which FICO model is current being used and endorsed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. See if they can answer any of these questions. They deal with credit everyday but they are not trained on the details.

          I wish you the best in your quest but you’ll do better to search elsewhere for a better business credit card. You’re headed in the right direction by wanting to use a business card for your business instead of a personal card but the foundation of that is to separate your business and personal credit so, unfortunately, you won’t accomplish that goal with Cap One.

      • Jaibuduvin

        Hi Tom,

        Here is the link to the YouTube infomercial about keeping bussiness credit separate from personal credit:

        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILGy7oqWec

        1:00 mark is where the salient statement is located.

  • Jaibuduvin

    I just spoke to yet another Capital One agent who was very quick to inform me, as you said Tom, that in fact, my personal credit report *will* contain an entry for the Capital One business credit card account.

    I guess you already know my next question: How would I go about finding a business credit card that completely separates business reporting from personal reporting?

    • http://www.hawkeyemgmt.com/ Tom Gazaway

      I hope it’s not a violation of the forum policies onl this site but we could go offline if you want to get into details. My email is tom@hawkeyemgmt.net.