Many or all of the products featured here are from our partners who compensate us. This may influence which products we write about and where and how the product appears on a page. However, this does not influence our evaluations. Our opinions are our own. Here is a list of our partners and here's how we make money.
While less-than-perfect credit may limit your choices, there are a handful of business credit cards available to entrepreneurs with a personal FICO score of 630 or higher. Some of our top picks include:
- Best overall business card for fair credit:Capital One® Spark® Classic for Business.
- Best for LLCs:Capital on Tap Business Credit Card.
- Best for building personal credit:Capital One QuicksilverOne Cash Rewards Credit Card.
250+ small-business products reviewed and rated by our team of experts.
95+ years of combined experience covering small-business and personal finance.
Objective comprehensive business credit card ratings rubric (Methodology).
NerdWallet's business credit card content, including our ratings, reviews and recommendations, is overseen by a team of writers and editors who specialize in business credit cards. Their work has appeared in The Associated Press, Washington Post, MarketWatch, Nasdaq, Entrepreneur, ABC News, MSN and other national and local media outlets. Each writer and editor follows NerdWallet's strict editorial guidelines to ensure fairness and accuracy in our coverage. We independently evaluate and rate dozens of small-business credit cards, scoring them on fees, rewards rates, bonus offers and other features to help you choose the best business card for your company.
Note: Some of our selections can be applied for through NerdWallet, and some cannot. Below, you’ll find application links for the credit cards from our partners that are available through NerdWallet, followed by the full list of our picks.
Many or all of the products featured here are from our partners who compensate us. This may influence which products we write about and where and how the product appears on a page. However, this does not influence our evaluations. Our opinions are our own. Here is a list of our partners and here's how we make money.
While less-than-perfect credit may limit your choices, there are a handful of business credit cards available to entrepreneurs with a personal FICO score of 630 or higher. Some of our top picks include:
- Best overall business card for fair credit:Capital One® Spark® Classic for Business.
- Best for LLCs:Capital on Tap Business Credit Card.
- Best for building personal credit:Capital One QuicksilverOne Cash Rewards Credit Card.
250+ small-business products reviewed and rated by our team of experts.
95+ years of combined experience covering small-business and personal finance.
Objective comprehensive business credit card ratings rubric (Methodology).
NerdWallet's business credit card content, including our ratings, reviews and recommendations, is overseen by a team of writers and editors who specialize in business credit cards. Their work has appeared in The Associated Press, Washington Post, MarketWatch, Nasdaq, Entrepreneur, ABC News, MSN and other national and local media outlets. Each writer and editor follows NerdWallet's strict editorial guidelines to ensure fairness and accuracy in our coverage. We independently evaluate and rate dozens of small-business credit cards, scoring them on fees, rewards rates, bonus offers and other features to help you choose the best business card for your company.
Note: Some of our selections can be applied for through NerdWallet, and some cannot. Below, you’ll find application links for the credit cards from our partners that are available through NerdWallet, followed by the full list of our picks.
Here are the best business credit cards for fair credit
| Best for | NerdWallet rating▼ | Annual fee▼ | Rewards rate | Intro offer | Learn more |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Best for LLCs Capital on Tap Business Credit Card Apply now on Capital on Tap's website | 3.8/5 | $0 | 1.5% | N/A | Apply now on Capital on Tap's website |
Corporate card for business owners with fair credit Ramp Card Apply now on Ramp's website | 2.8/5 | $0 | 1%-1.5% Cashback | N/A | Apply now on Ramp's website |
Startups with professional investors Brex Card Apply now on Brex's website | 3.2/5 | $0 | 1x-7x Points | 10,000 Points | Apply now on Brex's website |
Sole proprietors with fair credit (personal card) Capital One QuicksilverOne Cash Rewards Credit Card Apply now on Capital One's website Rates & Fees | 4.7/5 | $39 | 1.5%-5% Cashback | N/A | Apply now on Capital One's website Rates & Fees |
Corporate card with soft credit pull BILL Divvy Corporate Card Apply now on BILL Spend & Expense's website | 2.7/5 | $0 | 1x-7x Points | N/A | Apply now on BILL Spend & Expense's website |
| Best for | NerdWallet rating▼ | Annual fee▼ | Rewards rate | Intro offer | Learn more |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Best for LLCs Capital on Tap Business Credit Card Apply now on Capital on Tap's website | 3.8/5 | $0 | 1.5% | N/A | Apply now on Capital on Tap's website |
Corporate card for business owners with fair credit Ramp Card Apply now on Ramp's website | 2.8/5 | $0 | 1%-1.5% Cashback | N/A | Apply now on Ramp's website |
Startups with professional investors Brex Card Apply now on Brex's website | 3.2/5 | $0 | 1x-7x Points | 10,000 Points | Apply now on Brex's website |
Sole proprietors with fair credit (personal card) Capital One QuicksilverOne Cash Rewards Credit Card Apply now on Capital One's website Rates & Fees | 4.7/5 | $39 | 1.5%-5% Cashback | N/A | Apply now on Capital One's website Rates & Fees |
Corporate card with soft credit pull BILL Divvy Corporate Card Apply now on BILL Spend & Expense's website | 2.7/5 | $0 | 1x-7x Points | N/A | Apply now on BILL Spend & Expense's website |
Discover business products tailored to your needs
Monitor your business credit score, manage your cash flow, and get curated recommendations to drive your business’s growth.
I'M INTERESTED IN:
Our pick for
Best for LLCs
Capital on Tap Business Credit Card
Read Review
Apply now
on Capital on Tap's website
Annual fee
$0
Rewards rate
1.5%
Intro offer
N/A
The Capital on Tap Card offers 1.5% cash back on all purchases, no annual fee and the potential for a big sign-up bonus. Best of all, it’s available to business owners with a personal FICO score of 670 or higher, provided you meet other requirements. Note: This business card is not available to sole proprietors.
Annual fee
$0
Rewards rate
1.5%
Intro offer
N/A
The Capital on Tap Card offers 1.5% cash back on all purchases, no annual fee and the potential for a big sign-up bonus. Best of all, it’s available to business owners with a personal FICO score of 670 or higher, provided you meet other requirements. Note: This business card is not available to sole proprietors.
Pros
- Earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on all purchases
- 24/7 customer service
Cons
- Not available to sole proprietors, charities or nonprofits
- Must enroll in automatic payments
- 1.5% rewards on all spend, no caps or restrictions
- $0 annual fee
- No foreign exchange fees
- APRs range from 18.49% to 35.99% variable
- Unlimited cards for your employees
- Capital on Tap Business Credit Cards are issued by WebBank
Our pick for
Corporate card for business owners with fair credit
Ramp Card
Read Review
Apply now
on Ramp's website
Annual fee
$0
Rewards rate
1%-1.5% Cashback
Intro offer
N/A
The Ramp Card comes with a lot of perks: cash back (rate varies), spending controls, forecasting tools and automatic receipt matching. Plus, there's no credit check or personal guarantee, making it a good option for business owners with fair credit but ample business cash reserves. But since it’s a corporate card, it’s only available to businesses registered as corporations, LLCs and limited partnerships.
Annual fee
$0
Rewards rate
1%-1.5% Cashback
Intro offer
N/A
The Ramp Card comes with a lot of perks: cash back (rate varies), spending controls, forecasting tools and automatic receipt matching. Plus, there's no credit check or personal guarantee, making it a good option for business owners with fair credit but ample business cash reserves. But since it’s a corporate card, it’s only available to businesses registered as corporations, LLCs and limited partnerships.
Pros
- No annual fee or foreign transaction fees
- No personal guarantee or credit check
- Direct integrations with popular tools and card-level spending controls and alerts
Cons
- Balance must be paid in full each month
- Not available to sole proprietors or unincorporated businesses
- Rewards rate varies and is determined for each customer by Ramp.
- No annual fee or foreign transaction fees.
- No personal credit check or personal guarantee required.
- Issue unlimited virtual cards and physical cards for each employee.
- Prevent out-of-policy spending with built-in controls, including spend restrictions by category or merchant.
- Ramp is a corporate charge card powered by Visa. Businesses are required to pay the monthly balance in full by each statement period.
- Must have at least $75,000 in cash in any U.S. business bank account to qualify.
- Must have most of your operations and corporate spend in the US (although Ramp does support international transactions and will waive all related transaction fees).
- Ramp is only available to corporations, LLCs and limited partnerships. Individuals, sole proprietorships and unregistered businesses are not eligible.
Our pick for
Startups with professional investors
Brex Card
Read Review
Apply now
on Brex's website
Annual fee
$0
Rewards rate
1x-7x Points
Intro offer
10,000 Points
The Brex Card doesn't require a personal credit check, making it a good option for those with fair or average credit. You can earn a welcome bonus and ongoing rewards with bonus categories. Monthly repayment terms are reserved for business owners with professional funding and a healthy bank balance, though, and this charge card isn’t an option for sole proprietors.
Annual fee
$0
Rewards rate
1x-7x Points
Intro offer
10,000 Points
The Brex Card doesn't require a personal credit check, making it a good option for those with fair or average credit. You can earn a welcome bonus and ongoing rewards with bonus categories. Monthly repayment terms are reserved for business owners with professional funding and a healthy bank balance, though, and this charge card isn’t an option for sole proprietors.
Pros
- No annual fee
- New cardholder bonus offer
- Qualify with limited/bad credit
- Bonus categories
- No foreign transaction fees
- No personal guarantee
Cons
- Complicated rewards structure
- High capital requirement for approval
- Daily repayment may be required
- Not available to sole proprietors
- Get 10,000 points when you spend $3,000 on a Brex Card within your first 3 months.
- No personal guarantee needed – Brex does not ask for a personal credit check or security deposit during the application.
- Credit limits 10-20x higher than traditional small business corporate cards.
- Minimum bank balance of $50,000 from professional investors may be required to qualify for Brex.
- Exclusive signup offers from the best products and tools for your business (e.g. AWS, Google Ads, WeWork, Salesforce) worth up to $150,000 in value.
- Earn points on every dollar spent with industry-leading multipliers: 7x on rideshare, 4x on Brex Travel, 3x on restaurants, 2x on software subscriptions and 1x on all other transactions.
- Earn 3x Brex Rewards points on all eligible Apple purchases through the link or your Brex dashboard.
- Miles transfer program to 7 airlines (including Singapore Airlines, Qantas, Air France, and more) and their loyalty programs, giving Brex customers access to book travel across all of the major global airline alliances - Star Alliance, Oneworld, and SkyTeam.
- 30-day charge card running on the Mastercard network. Enjoy global acceptance with no foreign transaction fees.
- Build business credit: Brex partners with Dun & Bradstreet and Experian to report your on-time payments.
- Make employee expenses seamless - automated receipt-capture and expense matching and reconciliation via text, email, and mobile app. Instantly add new users and set spending limits.
- Contactless pay with Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay.
- Simplify reconciliation with built-in integrations with QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite, and more.
Our pick for
Sole proprietors with fair credit (personal card)
Annual fee
$39
Rewards rate
1.5%-5% Cashback
Intro offer
N/A
Sole proprietors can use a personal card like the
Capital One QuicksilverOne Cash Rewards Credit Card
to build credit and earn rewards before upgrading to a business card with better perks.Pros
- Qualify with average credit
- High rewards rate
- No foreign transaction fees
Cons
- Has annual fee
- High APR
- Earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase, every day
- No rotating categories or limits to how much you can earn, and cash back doesn't expire for the life of the account. It's that simple
- Be automatically considered for a higher credit line in as little as 6 months
- Enjoy peace of mind with $0 Fraud Liability so that you won't be responsible for unauthorized charges
- Help strengthen your credit for the future with responsible card use
- Enjoy up to 6 months of complimentary Uber One membership statement credits through 11/14/2024
- Earn unlimited 5% cash back on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel, where you'll get Capital One's best prices on thousands of trip options. Terms apply
- Monitor your credit score with CreditWise from Capital One. It's free for everyone
- Check out quickly and securely with a contactless card, without touching a terminal or handing your card to a cashier. Just hover your card over a contactless reader, wait for the confirmation, and you're all set
View Rates & Fees
Our pick for
Corporate card with soft credit pull
BILL Divvy Corporate Card
Read Review
Apply now
on BILL Spend & Expense's website
Annual fee
$0
Rewards rate
1x-7x Points
Intro offer
N/A
The BILL Divvy Corporate Card features a robust spend management platform and is more accessible than most corporate cards. For starters, BILL Divvy is one of the few corporate cards available to sole proprietors. And you may be able to qualify with a bank balance of just $20,000. Bill Divvy is a charge card, though, and Its rewards are more complicated than most business cards.
Annual fee
$0
Rewards rate
1x-7x Points
Intro offer
N/A
The BILL Divvy Corporate Card features a robust spend management platform and is more accessible than most corporate cards. For starters, BILL Divvy is one of the few corporate cards available to sole proprietors. And you may be able to qualify with a bank balance of just $20,000. Bill Divvy is a charge card, though, and Its rewards are more complicated than most business cards.
Pros
- No annual fee
- Card-level spending controls
Cons
- Complicated rewards structure with limits on redemption
- Balance must be paid in full each billing cycle
- Not available to sole proprietors.
- Earn up to 7x rewards on restaurants and 5x on hotels with weekly billing. Terms apply.
- Credit lines up to $15 million but based on revenue, cash balance, business history and personal and business credit score.
- No annual fee or foreign transaction fees.
- Unlimited free virtual cards.
- Spend management platform allows business owners to easily set and adjust individual and team budgets.
Select the card name to read our review. Before applying, confirm details on the issuer’s website.
Capital One QuicksilverOne Cash Rewards Credit Card
Our pick for: Sole proprietors with fair credit (personal card)
NerdWallet star rating:
4.7
Sole proprietors with fair credit lack business card options. But this personal card is a suitable alternative, assuming you don’t need employee cards. The Capital One QuicksilverOne Cash Rewards Credit Card is for people with fair or "average" credit but it pays the same cash-back rate as the regular Quicksilver card, which targets people with excellent credit. The key difference is that this version charges an annual fee while the regular one does not (see rates and fees). Learn more and apply.
Capital on Tap Business Credit Card
Our pick for: LLCs
NerdWallet star rating:
3.8
The
Capital on Tap Business Credit Card
issued by WebBank offers 1.5%
cash back on all purchases, no annual fee and the potential for a low APR. And while it's available to business owners with fair credit, Capital on Tap Card says applicants with a FICO score of 670 or higher have the best chance of approval. One important note: This card is not available to sole proprietors, which excludes the majority of businesses. Learn more and apply.Brex Card
Our pick for: Startups with professional investors
NerdWallet star rating:
3.2
Unlike most cards designed for entrepreneurs, the
Brex Card
doesn't require the cardholder to personally guarantee the debt on the card. Instead, Brex determines creditworthiness by evaluating a company's cash balance, spending patterns and investors. It's a good option when a business owner has a thin credit file but is well-capitalized. The card earns rewards, too. Learn more and apply.Capital One® Spark® Classic for Business
Our pick for: Business card for sole proprietors with fair credit
NerdWallet star rating:
3
The Capital One® Spark® Classic for Business is one of the few business credit cards available to sole proprietors with fair credit. There aren’t many perks to speak of, but the card has no annual fee and can be a useful tool to build your business credit score.* Learn more.
Ramp Card
Our pick for: Best corporate card for business owners with fair credit
NerdWallet star rating:
2.8
The
Ramp Card
is a corporate charge card available to incorporated businesses that have strong revenue and at least $75,000 in a business bank account. There's no personal guarantee or credit check. Plus, Ramp offers unlimited cash-back rewards and card-level spending controls with no annual fee. Learn more and apply.BILL Divvy Corporate Card
Our pick for: Best corporate card for business owners with fair credit
NerdWallet star rating:
2.7
The
BILL Divvy Corporate Card
is available to business owners with a personal FICO score of at least 650. Similar to the Ramp Card
, it offers card-level spending controls and cash back — though BILL's rewards program is much more complicated. However, it also has a lower barrier to entry, with a requirement of only at least $20,000 in a business bank account. Learn more and apply. Bank of America® Business Advantage Unlimited Cash Rewards Mastercard® Secured Credit Card
Our pick for: Business card for sole proprietors with fair credit
This card is not rated by NerdWallet.
The Bank of America® Business Advantage Unlimited Cash Rewards Mastercard® Secured credit card can help you build your business credit profile while earning 1.5% cash back on all purchases. The card has a minimum security deposit of $1,000, which is equal to your credit limit and subject to credit approval. Bank of America® will periodically review your secured card and may upgrade you to an unsecured card if and when you qualify. This card has no annual fee.
Make sure to consider these factors when comparing business credit cards that cater to owners with fair or average credit.
FICO score: It's a good idea to check your personal credit before applying for any business card — but especially so if you think you have some room for improvement. There are many services that offer free credit scores, including NerdWallet. Applying for credit can temporarily shave a few points off your score. By knowing where you stand in advance, you can better target your search so you avoid the double whammy or not getting a card and lowering your score.
Eligibility: Your business structure and annual revenue will determine eligibility for many of the business card options for fair credit. Corporate cards like Ramp and Brex, for example, are not available to sole proprietors. Business credit card preapprovals are rare; however, if an issuer offers pre-qualification via what's known as a "soft credit pull," that can let you know if you're likely to qualify without dinging your personal credit score.
APR: A lower credit score often translates to a higher interest rate, which can make carrying a balance quite costly. Take care to compare APR ranges for available cards to determine your best option.
Repayment terms: Many of the business cards available to owners with fair credit are charge cards, meaning they don’t let you carry a balance. This can have advantages. For starters, you won’t pay interest. Paying bills on time and in full can build your business credit score. But automatic monthly payments (or daily payments, in the case of Brex) can strain your cash flow if you aren’t diligent about expenses.
Sole proprietors with fair credit will have more options if they add personal credit cards into the mix. These cards report to consumer credit bureaus and can be used to build your personal credit score, assuming you practice good credit card hygiene. A higher personal credit score will help you qualify for a better business credit card — with more perks and better bonuses — down the road.
Personal cards aren’t an option for other business entities, though. If you run an LLC, partnership or corporation, you’ll need to build your personal credit separately. Alternatively, there are a few card issuers that report to both business and consumer credit bureaus.
*Information for the Capital One® Spark® Classic for Business not reviewed by or provided by Capital One.
Last updated on July 19, 2024
Methodology
NerdWallet's Credit Cards team selects the best credit cards for small business based on overall consumer value, as evidenced by star ratings, as well as their suitability for specific kinds of small-business operators. Factors in our evaluation include annual and other fees, rewards rates, the earning structure (for example, flat-rate rewards versus bonus categories), redemption options, bonus offers for new cardholders, introductory and ongoing APRs, and other noteworthy features such as special financing arrangements, free cards for employees or tools for managing business expenses. Learn how NerdWallet rates credit cards.
Frequently Asked Questions
Business owners with poor personal credit (a score below 630) will have a hard time qualifying for a standard business card. Instead, consider a secured card while you work to build your credit score. A secured personal card can help you build your personal FICO score, assuming you use it responsibly. A secured business credit card, on the other hand, can help you build your business credit.
While most business credit cards are geared toward people with good-to-excellent credit (a score of 690 or higher), a few cards are offered for those with fair or average credit. Your options include the Capital One Spark Classic or, if you have strong business revenue, a corporate card like Ramp or Brex. The Capital One QuicksilverOne Cash Rewards Credit Card is another good option for sole proprietors who don’t need employee cards. This personal credit card offers flat-rate rewards for a small annual fee.
