What Is a Corporate Credit Card?

Some providers produce summaries of transactions per month, quarter or annum. Others also send out alerts in real-time when an unusual transaction has been detected. Getting a business credit card is a relatively simple process, typically requiring information you have readily in hand. Even very small businesses and sole corporate credit card meaning proprietors can get business cards, and this can give them more flexibility than relying on personal credit cards, especially for startup expenses or stocking up for holiday sales. However, a business credit card may affect your personal credit score, and you can be personally liable for the balance on the card.

Pluto has adopted a KYB & KYC (know your business and client) process that allows us to onboard customers in minutes. After you set up your account, you can start issuing virtual cards and continue your work without halts or limitations. Although there is no physical card, virtual credit cards are great as they are flexible, convenient, and controllable. Beyond the base four cards, Amex also offers a corporate card program built for startups. Bankrate.com is an independent, advertising-supported publisher and comparison service. We are compensated in exchange for placement of sponsored products and, services, or by you clicking on certain links posted on our site.

It’s not necessarily ideal for employees, who may not have the cash or credit available to pay for large charges until their expense report is processed. Both corporate and small business cards offer conveniences such as the ability to set limits on employees’ spending and to restrict spending to certain categories. Corporate credit cards offer features small business cards don’t (and vice versa). But they’re generally available only to businesses with at least several million dollars in annual revenue. Another way to manage employee spending through corporate cards is by setting custom limits for each card. You can easily do this for each physical and virtual card that you have issued through our platform.

Spending limit is reached or almost reached every month.

Pluto does not charge FX fees, making it the perfect choice for companies or businesses that frequently transact in foreign currencies. If there are any fees, you can typically waive them by spending a certain amount per year. Our unbiased reviews and content are supported in part by affiliate partnerships, and we adhere to strict guidelines to preserve editorial integrity. The editorial content on this page is not provided by any of the companies mentioned and has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.

• That means all transactions are being fed into the system, allowing the employees and finance auditors or managers to review without any barriers.
• For example, Company ABC currently processes purchase orders of around $250,000 each year and generates $4 Million in annual revenues.
• Each corporate card has its own eligibility requirements relating to things like business size, cash on hand, and number of employees.
• When you open a corporate credit card, be ready to talk to your employees about your company’s new credit card policies, as well as how to use their company cards.
• If there are any fees, you can typically waive them by spending a certain amount per year.

The biggest perk attached to corporate cards is the ease of tracking employee spending. Rather than having employees make personal charges and submit expense reports or receipts for reimbursement, the company can easily manage spend limits, track budget needs and manage fraud risk. Most corporate cards offer detailed analytics all in one system regarding where and how company money is being spent. Most importantly, great value could be unlocked with a rewards program, cash back rebate or earnings credit rate. The great part about our corporate card program is that you get to choose how many employees get a company card.

Employee Drawbacks of Using a Corporate Credit Card:

Without proper spend management strategies, company revenue could be easily sabotaged by overstuffed budgets, inefficient spending, and a lack of expense tracking that hurts your bottom-line. No, the company cannot force you to put business expenses on your credit card, but it is sometimes easier for everyone. So, if you agree with that, and the company agrees to reimburse you – it is not a problem. Credit cards primarily draw from an approved loan balance, while corporate card programs are just an extension to a dedicated corporate account. With a corporate credit card, the time may vary, but the chances are that you will need to wait more than 5 business days before you get approved. In the case of small businesses, a personal credit score will play an important role in credit limit approval.

These types of credit cards are not usually issued to businesses that are start-ups or have few employees. Rather, corporate credit cards are designed for large corporations, governments or non-profits, each with established business history, many employees and significant revenues. Using corporate credit cards to make your business expenses means that your employees don’t have to make out-of-pocket expenses and wait around for reimbursement. With designated cards for business expenses, you can also set spending limits, have multi-level approval policies, and earn rewards to cut back on your spending. A corporate card is a credit card issued by a company that is provided to its employees.

The ability to issue virtual cards with no limitations helps you manage expenses in a versatile way as per your needs. A corporate card is a special type of charge card issued to businesses that meet strict eligibility requirements related to business size and type, cash on hand, and number of employees, among other things. Corporate cards typically require users to pay off their balance in full, and your credit limit may be linked to the amount of money your business has in the bank. If you’ve decided that a corporate card is the right approach for your business, your next step is choosing the right card to apply for. Start with our list of the best corporate credit cards available, comparing rewards, eligibility requirements, and more to decide which corporate card suits you best. Brex offers what it calls a financial operating system for businesses, with business cash accounts, expense tracking, instant revenue, and venture debt financing all under one roof.

The Bottom Line On Corporate Credit Cards

The card issuer will likely check each employee’s credit before providing them a credit card, but it’s a soft credit pull so their credit score likely won’t be affected. Also, individual account controls can be used to oversee corporate credit card spending by limiting the maximum amount, frequency and geographic location of purchases made by the employee cardholder. Sometimes, additional controls can be implemented to provide a secondary approval for a corporate credit card charge that might be above a certain threshold value or made to a vendor that is foreign to the company. A corporate card is not the same as a credit card, though they work similarly.

However, if you were granted a business card — which is connected to your personal credit history — closing down that line of credit would reduce your available credit limit and increase your credit utilization ratio. Corporate credit cards also prevent potential frauds that could come out of giving the spending autonomy to the employee. The company simply has to download the billing statements, making it nearly impossible for the employee to tweak the receipts.

This gives a good insight into whether the budget forecasting was accurate or tweaks need to be made in the future. If you feel like your card data has been compromised due to entering it on a site, then you can temporarily freeze or permanently block the card through the Volopay dashboard. This way, no money from your budget will be at risk of further fraudulent activity. All feedback, positive or negative, helps us to improve the way we help small businesses.

How to manage corporate card expenses?

Please review our list of best credit cards, or use our CardMatch™ tool to find cards matched to your needs. Justin Resuello shares how to save money, travel better and unlock the hidden value of cash back rewards, airline miles and hotel loyalty programs. Justin is a banking and investments industry veteran, enjoys writing about personal finance and is eager to share his learnings with others. While making sure that all your employees are aware of the guidelines in your company expense policy, you don’t get real control unless you can enforce these rules.

Now you know the main difference between business and corporate cards, but let’s investigate some of them in more detail. “Many people want to use their own cards because they can earn rewards,” Harzog says. With a corporate card, those rewards points just get funneled back to your employer instead. Other financial institutions like Citibank, UOB, or American Express also incorporate analytics tools into their systems, including a policy compliance monitor, an expense tracker, and reports.

What is the difference between a business and a corporate credit card?

From flight tickets and local public transportation to meals and hotel accommodations, business-related expenses can be a headache once you need to do the paperwork for them. Other credit cards like AmEx also allow employees to convert their transactions in expenditure via an expense management app. This is done by reconciling transactions with their respective expenses based on a host of predetermined factors such as the amount or date of purchase. Corporate credit cards can be an effective tool for businesses looking to streamline, track, and control employee expenses, but there can be some disadvantages if you’re not careful. Corporate credit cards are especially helpful for organizations who need to manage business-to-business purchases, such as office equipment, supplies and computer hardware or software. They are also useful for controlling travel and entertainment expenditures that employee cardholders incur as they conduct business on behalf of their company.

While most businesses, including sole proprietorships and DBAs, can get a small business credit card, corporate cards (as the name implies) are reserved for corporations. That means the company must be structured and registered as an S or C corporation to be eligible. Corporate credit cards are like a souped-up version of traditional business credit cards. While providing financial flexibility for employees, corporate credit card accounts can help businesses closely manage spending.

Corporate credit cards vs. small-business credit cards

Before you apply, improve your chances of success by reading our top tips on how to get a business credit card. Instead of carrying a balance from month to month, users must pay off their card balance in full regularly. Capital One’s One Card program provides companies with real-time expense management, automatic payments, and Mastercard’s standard benefits package. Corporate cards can be a great choice for certain businesses, offering good benefits and flexible spending, but there are definite pros and cons to these credit cards. While we adhere to strict
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this post may contain references to products from our partners. The content on this page is accurate as of the posting date; however, some of the offers mentioned may have expired.

The editorial content on this page is based solely on the objective assessment of our writers and is not driven by advertising dollars. However, we may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. Volopay provides your business with a hassle-free credit line that you can easily apply for online. Our seamless application and approval process helps your company start using credit instantly for all your corporate card expenses and money transfers. Your company’s financial controller or whoever is an admin on the Volopay platform can easily access, update card settings, and approve requests from both a desktop as well as our mobile app.

Accuracy, independence and authority remain as key principles of our editorial guidelines. For further information about automated content on CreditCards.com, email Lance Davis, VP of Content, at A customer success executive will be assigned to your account who will help you with the entire process. This ensures that you face no hiccups to avail credit and always have someone from our side to clarify any doubts or queries. Since every expense is tracked and recorded, you can constantly check the difference between planned budget utilization and the actual amount that is being used.