Business Credit Cards: Three Solutions To Business Difficulties

Posted by Nick Niesen on October 29th, 2010

Business credit cards can be one of the easiest ways for a new company to acquire needed financial capital, as well as an excellent way for existing companies to ease the transition into the Internet-age by simplifying the company purchasing process, making travel and expense accounting by employees all the easier. However, there are a number of other benefits to a good business credit card that companies can take advantage of in order to improve their financial stability and level of customer support still more, including rewards programs, variable credit limits, and multiple cards with fixed limits for different employees with different needs.

The most common business credit card rewards programs involve frequent flier miles, cash back rewards for gas and other travel expenses, and sometimes even office supplies or construction materials. This makes business credit cards ideal for virtually any type of business: investment firms can save a certain amount of money on the constant flights and travel necessary to attend faraway meetings. Furthermore, savings can be found as well on simple purchase items such as paper, toner, binder clips and other office supplies needed to keep any good corporate office running. But with the right kind of business credit card, even a small construction, landscaping or delivery firm can take a significant chunk out of their monthly gas or materials needs. The cash back isn't spectacular, with something like 1% - 3% cash back on purchases being the general standard. But if your business spends the entirety of a $10,000 credit limit in a month and receives a $300 rebate check over the course of that month,those savings can add up in a big way over time.

Variable credit limits are another advantage of a good business credit card. Often startup companies aren't sure, no matter how good their business plans, about exactly how much money they'll need in a given month, and in the case of certain industries (notably travel and tourism), business is tends to be a seasonal affair. At certain times, a $15,000 credit limit may be practical, but during the off season, you may find yourself with only $7,500 worth of expenses that need to be paid in credit. With a variable credit limit, you can spend however much or however little you want in a given month, as long as you're able to pay off the interest. Variable credit limits do come with a monthly fee for use, of course, but with the standard monthly fee falling somewhere in the $100 range, this should be an easily absorbable business expense, and an easy way to use business credit cards to make your accounting procedures and general operations run that much smoother.

Finally, business credit cards frequently allow multiple cards for use on a single account, each with an individually-defined credit limit. This allows you to allot only a certain amount of purchasing power to certain trusted employees, and is a very good way to control your company's purchasing operations and travel expenses without having to give each employee the same access to a single, high-limit credit account. Although you should always make sure that your employees can be responsible for their particular credit limit (since, in the case of startup businesses, a business credit card is most often placed in the name of an individual cardholder rather than in the business's name), business credit cards can help make your employees more autonomous, fostering a better work environment and requiring less time spent in tedious financial arrangements and year-end accounting crunches.

There are more advantages to business credit cards, but any employer willing to do business in a world of frequent travel and online purchasing should find just these three features helpful. It can be difficult to run a business at any level, from a three-man mechanic operation to a multinational conglomerate, but with a good business credit card in your employees' pockets, some of the most difficult things about business become that much simpler.