Small Business Credit Cards

How A Business Credit Card Can Improve Your Business

Business credit cards are certainly becoming the way to go these days. Ever wonder if they might know something that you don’t. Many businesses are using them, and it may be time that you look at what it might be able to do for your company. This article will show you a few ways that you can benefit from using either a regular business credit card or a small business credit card in order to benefit your business overall.

It is good to know that competition between the credit card companies has caused them to come up with some really original ideas about how to get new customers, and with hundreds of companies to choose from, there are also a great number of possible benefits available. Here are a few of those ways.

Keep Business Separate From Personal Records

This has got to be a major reason for getting a business credit card. With yourself, or others in your business possibly using their own personal cards, the possibility of losing receipts, or having duplicate records, or transactions being lost, or even double reimbursements, etc. increases. By issuing business credit cards to those individuals who may need them, the records of all pertinent financial transactions remains centralized in your monthly credit card statements.

Keep Records In One Place

While this was mentioned in the point above, this is especially helpful to the small business owner. Getting your own small business credit card and making your purchases with it enables your transactions and record keeping to become simplified. Another great feature is that if receipts are lost or misplaced, it really does not matter so much, also making it easier at tax time. Some credit card companies may even put all your employees business credit card transactions on the same bill. Another great feature of this plan allows your accountant to write far fewer checks.

Select Card For Its Benefits

This is where a business credit card can really bring some profit. Of course, all of it is based on the amount of spending that your business has. You will want to look over all of the various options that are offered to business credit card owners, and then match the offer with the benefits (s) needed.

Receive Travel Benefits

Whether the company has employees that travel on the ground or in the air, benefits can be received in the way of air miles, gasoline credits, or just plain monetary rewards. Some of the better cards may even give you as much as 20,000 air miles – just for signing up.

High Cost and Bulk Discounts

By making repeat purchases, your company can save some real money in terms of rewards given. An example of this could be where your fleet of vehicles buys its gas. Using the same credit card for all of your vehicles through the same gasoline company can bring some real savings to your business.

Rewards In Office Equipment

Other credit cards give rewards in terms of occasional computers and other office equipment. These kind of options, of course, make it wiser to get all of your companies’ business credit cards from the same company, too.

If you are in need of a small business credit card, it certainly will pay to look around before you make your move to sign up with any particular company. Without the card, it goes without saying, could you get, 5% cash back on your purchases, or air miles, or the convenience of single monthly financial reports? How about free equipment, and so many other things. The rewards are yours for the taking, and so is the convenience, and the simplicity.

Finding the Perfect Business Credit Card

The economy was a rough one this year, and the upcoming year looks like it’s going to get a little better, but if you’re thinking about opening up a small business, or maybe you already have one, you’re probably looking for ways to fund your business. Today, I wanted to show you who you can get the necessary means by a credit card. You don’t necessarily have to apply for one, and get approved, and spend $25,000 right off the bat, but rather, I want to show you how it’s a great short term fix.

Look for 0% for 12 months: Credit cards are out there, and as long as you have a great payment history, and your credit score is good, you can count on getting approved. It’s going to be that simple. What you’re going to want to do is find a card that’s going to offer 0%, and what you’ll want to do after that is make sure that you pay it off by the end of 12 months. You’ll want to have a budget.

Let’s say that you want to borrow $10,000 over that year. Make sure that you save at least $800-$1,000 each month on average to pay it back. What you’re going to want to do is write out a plan, and know how you’re going to get that money. You’re going to want to set it aside, and have a plan. As long as that money is going to come in the next few years, you should be on the right path. It’s really that simple.

Know your rewards: I have a business card, and it’s great because I get rewards every time I use it. You’ll want to find one that does the same thing for you. Make sure that you’re getting a reward point every time you spend a dollar, or maybe you’ll get cash back. For example, my card gives me a nice 5% cash back bonus at the end of the year if I spend the right amount. This card alone has saved me over $1,500 just for using it. That’s a lot of money!

I, of course pay it off in full each month just to take advantage of the rewards. You can do this too, and get free money at the end of the year. It really isn’t that hard, and what you will find out is that as long as you can manage your finances, you will be able to pay your card off, and reap the rewards. If you don’t pay your card off in full, you will find out that the interest will eat up your rewards, unless it’s 0%, which will generally run out after a year or so.

Follow these tips, and you should be well on your way to a perfect small business credit card. What you’re going to find out that there’s always one out there. Check your bank, do the comparisons, and apply! This will be the first step to funding your business.

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Business Credit Cards – Bookkeeping Made Simple

A small business credit card has a number of advantages.  In addition to being able to help with start up costs and providing special rewards that are meaningful to business owners, business credit cards can make bookkeeping much easier.  In fact, using a business credit card can take nearly all of the headaches of keeping track of expenses out of your hands, giving you time to focus on company growth.

Business Expenses

To help keep bookkeeping a snap, you can place all of your business expenditures on your business credit card.  By having a separate personal credit card and business credit card, you don’t have to worry about sorting through your credit card statement to determine which were for your business and which purchases were for personal reasons.  In addition, this helps keep the liability for repayment on your business rather than on you personally, which is particularly important if you form any type of business configuration other than a sole proprietorship.  In the eyes of the law, other business formations, such as LLCs, are their own entity.  Therefore, you are not held personally responsible for the business expenditures because the company is responsible.

Itemized Statements

Generally, business credit cards also provide the cardholder with itemized statements. These may be monthly, quarterly, or annually, depending on the card.  Therefore, when you compare business credit cards, you should inquire about how often these statements are issued and choose the one that best suits your business needs.  This feature is quite helpful because it frees you from having to keep track of all of your receipts.  Instead of sorting through numerous receipts at tax time, you can simply use your itemized statement or take the statement to your accountant.  To help make things easier, some of these itemized statements will even categorize your purchases into different areas needed for filing taxes, such as Office Supplies, Entertainment, and Postage.

Earning Rewards

In addition to assisting you with bookkeeping, business credit cards can also help you save money.  Many offer travel rewards, special business related discounts, or cash back rewards.  When you compare business credit cards, be sure to look at the various incentives they offer in order to find the one that best suits your business.  If you purchase a great deal of office equipment, for example, you will want a card that provides points or cash for making such purchases.  

If your business requires you to travel frequently, you might want to get a business credit card that provides airline mile rewards.  These cards typically offer other benefits that are attractive to the traveling businessperson, such as baggage protection, travel insurance, rental car insurance, and discounts at hotels.  Again, these cards take away some of your bookkeeping hassles because you don’t have to worry about acquiring these forms of extra protection on your own.  Simply use your business credit card and you are covered.

Carrying a Balance

If you anticipate carrying a balance on your credit card from one billing cycle to the next, you should definitely look into acquiring a business credit card with a low APR.  Some offer special introductory rates that can last for up to a year depending on the credit card and your credit history.  Take full advantage of these cards to get your business up and running and work toward being capable of paying the balance off at the end of each billing cycle.  For some businesses, however, carrying a balance is inevitable.  Sometimes, paying the balance depends on customer invoicing and customers may not always be reliable about paying their invoices on time.  Or, your business may have slow periods where more cash is going out than coming in.  In these cases, it is best to acquire a card with a low APR, but that still provides you with all of the desirable bookkeeping features.

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