8 best corporate credit cards for your business

Corporate credit cards let employees directly make on-the-job purchases with company funds, all while helping employers track expenses and tie out their books. Standout providers come with rewards programs that help companies earn points or cash back on business purchases. And your best options will also come with spending controls that help finance teams and supervisors monitor compliance with internal purchasing policies. 

This guide will unpack how to get a corporate credit card that best suits your business needs. It’ll  also demystify the subtle distinctions between different business-owned card types. 

What is a corporate credit card?

Companies issue corporate credit cards to employees for work-related expenses—like travel, events with clients, supplies, and any other purchases needed on the job. Also known as commercial credit cards, corporate credit cards relieve employees from dipping into personal accounts for business expenses. 

And since they’re owned and operated by businesses, standout corporate credit cards let companies manage spend by setting purchasing restrictions tailored to employee needs. 

How do corporate credit cards work?

Much like personal or small business credit cards, corporate credit cards come with spending limits, recurring billing cycles, and (usually) rewards programs. Companies need to regularly pay off a corporate credit card’s balance. And since corporate credit card issuers report to business credit bureaus, payment history, credit utilization, and account openings all impact a company’s business credit score. 

However, businesses, not individual cardholding employees, typically own corporate credit cards. Most issuers assign corporate liability to the cards—meaning companies make a “business guarantee,” assuming legal responsibility for paying off balances instead of employees. Corporate credit cards also typically come with support services (sometimes through software) that let companies set spending controls to restrict use—since the cards are only intended for business-related purchases and, without guardrails, are vulnerable to noncompliant transactions. 

Also keep in mind that liability criteria varies across different issuers and card types. Some cards allow individual liability, meaning employees pay the bill upfront and submit expense reports for reimbursement. In this case, card issuers will check individual employees’ personal credit with a “soft pull,” i.e., not  impacting their credit score, in order to issue the card.

Why use a corporate credit card?

Here’s a look at the biggest pros of using corporate credit cards, along with some cons of ineffectively managing them. 

Advantages of corporate credit cards

• Enhanced expense tracking and management: Corporate credit cards eliminate the drawn-out, manual expense reimbursement process that takes significant time for employees to file and managers to approve. Companies can consolidate employee spend and make bulk payments across cardholders instead of one-by-one. 
• Streamlined spending controls: Since businesses own and administer corporate credit cards, employers can typically set customizable spending limits and restrict purchases based on merchant, location, type of transaction, and more—ensuring responsible use across the workforce. Employers can also quickly lock compromised cards and revoke cardholder access to employees leaving the company. 
• Improved cash flow management: Corporate credit cards help finance teams better track spending patterns by department, vendor, and types of purchases, allowing them to build high-visibility reports that inform the budgeting process.  
• Access to rewards and incentives: Most corporate credit cards come with rewards programs like cash back or points on purchases, with special rates for travel, dining, and other business expenses. Employers can choose to pass perks from these rewards cards off to cardholding employees, so they can, for example, redeem airline miles accumulated on business for personal trips. While this boosts morale and helps companies attract and retain talent, businesses can also choose to keep rewards in-house and use them to save costs down the road. 

Disadvantages of corporate credit cards

• Risk of misuse: Doling out the same, no-strings-attached corporate credit card to multiple employees can be risky. According to a recent survey, 62% of company credit cardholders know of instances where corporate cards were misused for non-business purposes. 
• High fees interest rates: Corporate credit cards can come with high annual fees and interest rates—which often vary between 17% and 30%—as well as steep penalties for late payments.
• Administrative oversight: Finance teams and business leaders may be spread thin managing spend across all their corporate credit card holders. Without the proper controls in place, they may be unpleasantly surprised to see big-ticket, out-of-policy purchases at the end of the month that throws off cash flow. And the company may be held liable for paying off those unauthorized charges. 

What is a corporate card?

The terms “corporate credit card” and “corporate card” are often used interchangeably, but they have subtle differences that businesses should keep in mind when weighing their options. 

• Corporate credit cards: Offer revolving credit, meaning cardholders can make minimum payments one billing cycle and roll the remaining balance over to the next. Interest is typically charged on the outstanding balance. 
• Corporate cards: Also known as “charge cards,” corporate cards don’t allow balances to carry over. Businesses have to make payments in full by the due date every billing cycle.  

While corporate credit cards can offer more payment flexibility, they can incur steep interest rates for unpaid balances. Standout corporate cards, meanwhile, can come with tighter controls that help businesses pre-emptively block out-of-policy charges and set more restrictions on vendors and transaction amounts.

8 best corporate credit cards

Which corporate card is best? It depends on your business size, credit needs, and rewards wants (among other factors). Here are the standout options for top business credit cards. 

1. Best for travel rewards: American Express Corporate Platinum Card

Companies with busy corporate travel programs could benefit from the American Express Corporate Platinum Card, which offers access to more than 1,400 airport lounges, up to $200 in annual credits for incidentals on a designated airline, and credits for CLEAR memberships, Global Entry, and TSA PreCheck. Card administrators can set spending limits, monitor compliance, and use accumulated rewards points for company purchases. While this card membership comes with a breadth of travel rewards, its $550 annual fee is higher than industry average. 

2. Best sign-up bonus: Chase Ink Business Preferred

The Chase Ink Business Preferred credit card offers 90,000 bonus points if users spend $8,000 on qualifying purchases within three months. The preferred credit card doesn’t come with any foreign transaction fees, which helps cardholding employees who travel internationally for business, and has customizable rewards redeemable for cash back, gift cards (which teams can use for employee recognition), and travel. The card also offers bonus points for money spent on shipping and other business categories.

Chase also issues a similar Ink Business Unlimited credit card that offers $750 bonus cash back if you spend $6,000 within three months, as well as an Ink Business Cash card that offers $350 if you spend $3,000 within three months. 

3. Best for unlimited cash back: Capital One Spark Cash Select

This corporate credit card lets businesses earn unlimited 1.5% cash back that doesn’t expire on every purchase. It also doesn’t have an annual fee, offers free cards to every employee a business wants to issue a card to, and allows cardholders to earn extra cash back on hotel and rental car purchases made within its travel portal. You can also earn a $500 bonus if you spend $4,500 with the card within three months.  

4. Best for startups: Brex Card

Brex allows businesses to administer unlimited physical and virtual cards to employees and set customizable spending limits and controls tailored to different cardholders’ purchasing needs. The card comes with a rewards scheme that can help offset the cost of billboards, executive coaching, and team offsites—all while offering fraud protections and a mobile app that helps administrators manage spend. It also has less stringent eligibility criteria than most legacy corporate credit card providers, making it a good option for startups with limited business credit history. 

5. Best for simplified cash back: American Express Blue Business Cash Card

This American Express corporate credit card offers 2% cash back on eligible purchases for up to $50,000 spent within a year of the account opening. It also has 0% APR for the first year (after which a variable APR kicks in) and comes with damage insurance for car rentals. The Blue Business Cash credit card doesn’t have an annual fee, and businesses can assign an account manager to oversee transactions to monitor compliance with spend policy. American Express also has a similar Blue Business Plus Credit Card that offers 15,000 membership rewards points as a welcome bonus, in lieu of cash back. 

6. Best for low interest: US Bank Business Platinum

With a 0% APR for its first 18 billing cycles, this corporate credit card gives businesses more time than most competitors to pay off balances before high interest rates kick in. It also doesn’t come with an annual fee and allows administrators to set card controls based on time, place, and vendor amount. While this card can be helpful for small businesses who want extra time to pay off balances interest-free, it doesn’t come with a major rewards program. 

7. Best bonus categories: American Express Business Gold Card

Companies that spend big on specific business categories—like transit purchases or media advertising—stand to earn substantial rewards from this corporate credit card. American Express’ Business Gold Card offers 4x points on two eligible business categories for up to $150,000 annually, as well as bonus rewards for flights and hotels booked within the provider’s travel portal. The card also comes with up to $20 in statement credits for purchases at FedEx and office supplies stores, but carries a $375 annual fee. 

8. Best for everyday business spending: Capital One Spark 2x Miles

This corporate credit card earns double miles for every purchase, regardless of category, and five times the miles for hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One’s travel portal. Account managers can set spending limits and view purchasing data as soon as transactions go through. According to The Points Guy, a third party evaluator, its 50,000 mile welcome bonus is worth $925. There is no intro annual fee for this card, but it becomes $95 after the first year. 

How to qualify for a corporate credit card

Corporate credit cards can have stringent eligibility criteria. Some options, as the name suggests, are often reserved for established corporate entities—S Corps, C Corps, and LLCs—meaning small business owners and sole proprietors may want to look into a small business credit card instead. 

While the exact corporate credit card requirements vary by issuer, businesses typically need a high business credit score, strong annual revenue, 10 or more employees (some issuers set a minimum number of cardholders), and oftentimes credit card charges of $250,000 or more each year. 

Certain issuers work better for certain company sizes. While some cards only require business to have $75,000 in a business bank account (making it a solid option for startups), American Express requires at least $4 million in annual revenue. Chase’s corporate cards, by contrast, require annual credit card spend of $10 million. 

When applying for corporate credit card, expect to provide issuers with:

• Audited financial statements in line with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)
• Supplementary financial documents like bank statements, tax returns, and loan agreements
• Articles of incorporation (and other details about your business structure)
• An Employer Identification Number (EIN) and other tax information
• Business credit reports
• Contact information for an owner, president, treasurer, or other authorized officer

Businesses may need to meet additional requirements, like providing vendor references, a business address, and proof that the company is at least a year old. 

Effortlessly manage spend with Rippling’s corporate card

Most legacy providers’ corporate cards are siloed from the rest of a company’s employee data. Rippling’s Corporate Cards, by contrast, tightly integrates with the rest of your workforce management processes, allowing for automations that save significant time on tedious administrative work. 

For instance, you can automatically issue cards during onboarding and revoke them during offboarding, tee up hyper-customized policies that automatically block purchases based on the vendor, dollar amount, and expense category, and set access permissions that help teams run reports on their own slice of spend.

By connecting corporate card usage directly with employee data, Rippling gives you precise control over spending and policy enforcement, leading to better financial oversight with less administrative work. You can also use Rippling’s full Spend suite to consolidate corporate cards with Expense Management, Headcount Planning, Payroll, and Bill Pay for complete visibility and automated policy controls across every type of spend—saving you time and money in a single platform. 

Frequently asked questions

Can an LLC get a business credit card?

Yes, LLCs can qualify for a business credit card, which can help the entity organize expenses (which helps uphold limited liability protections), build business credit, and leverage rewards perks. An LLC may need good credit history and proven annual revenue to qualify. And the LLC owner may need to put up a personal guarantee to assume liability for any unpaid balances. 

Does opening a corporate credit card hurt your credit?

Corporate credit cards are usually issued to companies, not individual cardholders. While employees’ personal credit typically won’t be affected by corporate credit card use (unless they put up a personal guarantee), opening an account may impact business credit scores, since activity gets reported to business credit bureaus. 

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

Corporate credit cards and small business credit cards both have monthly billing cycles, credit limits, and rewards perks. But they differ in crucial ways. Here’s how they stack up:

• Corporate credit card: Owned by a business entity and used by its employees. Companies set spending controls and use expense reports to reconcile statements. Corporate cards are reserved for established corporations—C Corps, S Corps, or LLCs—that meet certain revenue criteria. 
• Business credit card: For small business owners, entrepreneurs, and independent contractors looking to separate business and personal expenses. They’re owned by individuals instead of business entities and typically have higher credit limits and more business-centric rewards programs than personal credit cards. This card often requires applicants to put up a “personal guarantee” to assume debt if their business can’t pay it off. The best business credit cards come with rewards programs and some spend management capabilities.

This blog is based on information available to Rippling as of November 26, 2024.

Disclaimer: Rippling and its affiliates do not provide tax, accounting, or legal advice. This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide or be relied on for tax, accounting, or legal advice. You should consult your own tax, accounting, and legal advisors before engaging in any related activities or transactions.