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Best Business Credit Cards for a New Business
Business credit cards aren’t reserved for enterprise owners with glass-tower offices and hundreds of employees: In fact, many freelancers, sole proprietors, and even new business owners are excellent candidates for these financial instruments.
Not only can owning one or more business credit cards for your new business help you draw the line between your personal and business finances, but these cards can also come in handy when building a credit score or covering cash flow issues. At the same time, they’ll save you time and money through numerous perks, rewards, and bonus opportunities.
The business credit card market is highly competitive, and looking for the right option can be a daunting prospect. To help you make a quick but educated decision, we’ve compared dozens of offers and made a list of our favorite credit cards for startups and new businesses.
Best Business Credit Cards for New Businesses in December 2024
Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card
Fortunly's Rating: Our editorial team determines the rating based on a set of evaluation criteria developed for each product and service category.
Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card
- This card has an unmatched welcome offer that rewards you with a whopping 100,000 bonus points
- The reward rate is a generous 3x for the first $150,000 for select purchases
- Chase allows you to take out employee cards at no additional cost
Capital One® Spark Classic for Business
Fortunly's Rating: Our editorial team determines the rating based on a set of evaluation criteria developed for each product and service category.
Capital One® Spark Classic for Business
- The Capital One Spark Classic for Business is one of the rare new business cards that has no minimum credit requirement
- There are no annual membership fees to pay with this card
- The 1% cashback flat-rate rewards rate is very profitable for high-spenders
Top Business Credit Cards for New Businesses - Our Picks:
- Ink Business Preferred Credit Card - Best for Business Perks
- Capital One Spark Classic for Business - Best for Fair Credit
Delta SkyMiles Gold Business American Express Card - Best for Frequent Flyers
How We Evaluate Credit Cards for New Businesses
If your business is newly-established and you’re looking for a credit card to match your spending style, this article is for you. The following are the most important factors to take into account while looking for a suitable card:
Bonuses and Rewards
The credit card market is highly competitive and issuers often have trouble with enticing their target audience. Thanks to that, business credit cards usually include generous welcome offers.
For example, a sign-up bonus is a relatively quick way to earn a few hundred (if not more than a thousand) dollars with your business credit card within a few months of account opening. Still, keep in mind that the largest bonuses have the largest spending requirements, as well. In other words, make sure that you opt for a realistically attainable offer.
Most cards have some sort of bonus point, bonus mile, or cash back scheme in place, giving you an opportunity to earn something back each time you make a purchase within a certain spending category. Some options offer flat-rate rewards, while others have tiered rewards-earning systems.
No matter which solution you opt for, make sure that you understand its redemption policy. The leading business credit cards offer flexible ways to redeem your rewards.
APR and Fees
While generous welcome bonuses and lucrative rewards programs may grab your attention, remember to look at the rates and fees you’ll be charged as a cardmember before deciding between the best business cards for your needs.
Credit Score Requirements
Not many credit cards are created specifically with newly-established businesses in mind. Most financial instruments have wide target audiences and the chances of getting approved for any of them largely depend on the business owner’s personal credit profile. In other words, most credit card issuers won’t consider your application unless your credit score reflects a series of good financial decisions in your past.
However, this doesn’t mean that having no credit history makes you ineligible. Although your choice may be limited to cards with high APRs and modest rewards programs, you should still be able to find a source of revolving credit for your business, and build up your score along the way.
In addition to the APR charged on purchases, cash advances, and balance transfers, there will probably be penalty annual percentage rates to think about. Make sure to understand when such charges apply.
On the plus side, some business credit cards offer a 0% introductory APR on all transaction types for a limited period, usually 12 to 15 months.
As far as fees go, the most important ones are those for annual card membership, foreign transaction fees, balance transfer fees, cash advance fees, penalty costs for late and returned payments, and over-limit fees.
Additional Benefits
This list varies greatly, not only from issuer to issuer, but also from card to card. Still, there are three main perk types to consider in most cases:
- Expense management tools that help you organize and keep track of your business finances, along with security features
- Travel-related bonuses which include flight upgrades, airport lounge access, free hotel stays, roadside assistance, and different travel insurance types
- Shopping-related benefits, such as purchase protection and extended warranty
Some business cards won’t offer as many features, so you’ll have to prioritize those tailored to your needs.
Detailed Reviews of Credit Cards for New Businesses
Offering one of the market’s most generous sign-up bonuses and rewards opportunities on a variety of business-related purchases, the Ink Business PreferredⓇ credit card is a robust new-business credit card.
Thanks to its long list of perks, even annual fee-averse consumers can easily justify getting one. If your business involves a lot of travel, advertising, and shipping expenses, this Chase credit card may be the perfect fit.
Bonuses and Rewards
Quite a few unique features make the Ink Business PreferredⓇ card attractive for both new and established business owners. However, it’s the huge welcome bonus that makes it stand out: Ink Business Preferred offers new cardmembers 100,000 bonus points if they spend $15,000 within three months of account opening.
This card also gives you a chance to earn $1,250 in rewards if you redeem your points through the Chase Ultimate Rewards program.
It won’t disappoint you in terms of ongoing bonuses, either. Cardholders earn three points per dollar on the first $150,000 spent on purchases in select spending categories each year.
Eligible categories include travel, shipping purchases, phone, cable, internet services, and advertising purchases made with search engines and social media sites. Ink Business Preferred also lets you earn unlimited 1x points on all other purchases.
You can redeem your rewards for travel, cash back, statement credit, gift cards, or merchandise. The points are worth 25% more (1.25 cents per point) when redeemed for travel-related expenses. There is no redemption minimum and the rewards you’ve accumulated won’t expire as long as you keep your account open.
APR and Fees
The Ink Business Preferred has a variable APR that ranges between 15.99% and 20.99% based on the cardmember’s creditworthiness. This credit card also charges a 24.99% cash advance APR and a penalty APR that can go up to 29.99%.
The card has an annual membership fee of $95, a cash advance fee of either $15 or 5% of the amount of each transaction, and a balance transfer charge of either $5 or 5% of the transfer amount. There are no foreign transaction fees, but late payment and returned payment fees will set you back $39 each.
Additional Benefits
Ink Business PreferredⓇ comes with a few additional perks. The list includes the opportunity to get employee cards at no extra cost and to monitor and protect your business with features such as purchase protection, fraud protection, and personalized alerts.
The Bottom Line
The Ink Business PreferredⓇ is a great all-round small business credit card. Not only does it provide an unmatched sign-up bonus opportunity, but its generous rewards policy is nothing to sneeze at, either.
This Chase card lets business owners add employee cards and set their spending limits at no extra charge. On the downside, the card charges an annual fee and above-average cash advance and balance transfer costs.
Reasons to Apply
- Remarkable sign-up bonus
- High rewards rate
- Free additional employee cards
Capital OneⓇ Spark Classic for Business comes with a long list of features a business owner would appreciate.
The lack of an annual fee, a straightforward cash-back rewards program, and several payment-management and protection features make this card a solid choice for business owners with fair or average credit scores.
Bonuses and Rewards
Unfortunately, New Capital OneⓇ Spark Classic for Business doesn't come with a welcome bonus. On the plus side, there’s an admirable rewards program. Users earn unlimited 1% cash back on every purchase they make.
Compared with the market’s other offers, this rewards policy may seem underwhelming, but the flat-rate cash back on every purchase actually means you won’t have to worry about meeting a threshold in a particular spending category.
Capital OneⓇ Spark Classic for Business lets you generate a flow of cash back while helping you build your credit to eventually qualify for more generous credit card offers, and it also doesn’t impose any redemption minimums.
You can get your cash back in the form of a paper check, request general statement credit or statement credit for a particular purchase, or purchase gift cards. Capital One also lets you set up automatic redemptions once or twice a year, or each time your balance reaches a particular threshold.
APR and Fees
It should come as no surprise that this card has no introductory APR offer. The ongoing rate for purchases and cash advances is 26.99%, although it may vary based on the Prime Rate. If you make a late payment, you’ll face a penalty APR of 29.4%.
On the other hand, what makes the Capital OneⓇ Spark Classic for Business appealing to new business owners is that it doesn’t charge annual membership, balance transfer, or foreign transaction fees.
The only potential additional costs include cash advance fees (either $10 or 3% of the amount of each cash advance) and late payment fees - up to $39 per item.
Additional Benefits
Although marketed to those looking for easy approval, Capital OneⓇ Spark Classic for Business is far from lacking when it comes to additional benefits.
In addition to the standard travel- and protection-related perks such as roadside assistance, $0 fraud liability, extended warranty, security alerts, and card lock, this card also comes with several business-specific features.
These include free employee cards with spending limits, itemized year-end reports, purchase records, and due-date flexibility.
The Bottom Line
We can highly recommend the Capital One Spark Classic to business owners with limited or fair personal credit. It offers a solid rewards program and the opportunity to build your credit as long as you use it responsibly.
Moreover, there are no annual membership or foreign transaction fees - even more appealing!
Reasons to Apply
- Flat-rate cashback rewards
- Automatic cashback redemptions
- No annual fee
Things to Look for in a Business Credit Card
By now you probably know that business cards are among the best tools to access the revolving credit you need for growing your business, while also enjoying valuable benefits that may help your new company thrive. In addition to making sure that you can qualify for one of the business credit cards for new business ventures, we suggest you look for the following specific features when weighing your options:
An Introductory 0% APR Offer
Intro 0% annual percentage rate offers are particularly useful for business owners who plan on making large purchases within the first months after opening their account. If you opt for a credit card with this feature, your credit card balances won’t carry any interest for a while - usually 12 to 15 months - as long as you make on-time minimum payments.
A Business-Optimized Rewards Program
The right credit card for a new business should include a business-related rewards program. In other words, you should opt for a card that will earn you the highest rewards in spending categories such as travel, dining, advertising, purchasing office supplies, and buying equipment.
An Easily-Attainable Sign-Up Bonus
No matter how great a welcome offer may sound, it won’t do you any good if you’ll need to change your business’s spending patterns just to be able to claim it. Make sure that you opt for a card with a spending threshold that you can meet comfortably.