Own A Business? You Should Have A Business Credit Card!

If you own a business you should ABSOLUTELY have a business credit or charge card. Whether that business is building houses or selling them, you would be amazed at what truly qualifies you as a business in the eyes of issuers. Keep in mind that in Florida you must actually be registered as a business with Sunbiz, however once you have your Employer Identification Number(Federal Tax Identification Number) you can submit for your business card and start earning rewards! Let’s look at why you should have a business credit/charge card and my top recommendations for business credit/charge cards.

Why You Should Have A Business Credit Card

Business credit cards are great for both earning points on spend but also for tracking business expenses. From a tax/spend tracking perspective, it makes it extremely easy to submit your entire year end AMEX report for all business related expenses, assuming that the only expenses on your business card are truly tax deductible for business. Business credit cards, such as the American Express Business Platinum and American Express Business Gold, allow you to also add authorized users for employees and significant others. These cards can have preset spending limits and authorization requirements, allowing you to not give your card information to your employees, but allowing them to make business critical purchases while earning you additional points!

Recommended Business Credit/Charge Cards

The recommendation for which card to get is typically going to fall into two different categories:

1. Your spend is typically more than $5,000 at a time and you want travel benefits
2. Your spend is more staggered and you don’t care about travel benefits

If you are someone who is spending large amounts of money for your business and are looking to maximize your travel benefits, I highly recommend the American Express Business Platinum. I recently had a former fraternity brother reach out to me for a recommendation as he was looking to maximize his points and provide completely paid for trips and gifts to his employees… What an amazing boss! I recommended the American Express Business Platinum to him based on his spend and what he was looking to do with his points, as the majority of his points would be spent using the AMEX portal. The American Express Business Platinum comes with a $595 annual fee but provides you with a 120K sign up bonus after $15K in spend in the first three months($2400 value), a $179 CLEAR membership, a $200 annual Dell credit, a 35% bonus when booking flights via amextravel.com, free TSA PreCheck or Global Entry, Global Lounge Collection, Hilton Gold Status, Marriott Gold Elite Status, extended warranty, purchase protection, and much more!

If you fall under the second category, I highly recommend the American Express Business Gold card. I am fairly certain that the majority of businesses reading this blog are going to fall into this category, as your spend will be more wide spread and in lower volume. The American Express Business Gold is a great card that I personally have with a lower annual fee($295); offering a 70K Membership Reward bonus for $10K spend in the first three months($1400 value) along with a rotating 4X multiplier on the two categories that you spend the most on from the following:

• Airfare purchased directly from airlines
• U.S. purchases for advertising in select media (online, TV, radio)
• U.S. purchases made directly from select technology providers of computer hardware, software, and cloud solutions
• U.S. purchases at gas stations
• U.S. purchases at restaurants
• U.S. purchases for shipping

Both of these business cards are great options that are “technically” charge cards but allow you to use a pay over time feature(credit). Keep in mind that these APR’s are going to be higher than many other credit cards, however the benefits quickly make up for that.

Are you a business without a business charge/credit card? If so you are MISSING OUT ON FREE MONEY! Make sure to click the link above and select “View all cards with referral offer, then looking for a business card”