Choosing a credit card for your business presents a lot of different options. Whether you want cash back, airline points, hotel points, low interest rates, high credit limits, and many other factors play a part in which card is the right choice for you. We’ve reviewed some of the most popular business credit cards for 2021 and outlined their benefits below.
Capital One Spark
The Capitol One Spark line of cards has a variety of options. You can choose between cash back and miles, and between zero percent introductory APR’s, or higher percentage returns in cash or miles. For example, The Spark 2% Cash card offers 2% cash back on all purchases, but has a 20.99% APR. In contrast, the 1.5% Cash Select card offers 1.5% cash back, but has an introductory APR of 0% for 9 months, which is beneficial if you have balances you want to roll over. The 2X miles vs the 1.5X miles cards make a similar tradeoff. They also offer a 1% Classic card for people who have less than excellent credit.
American Express Blue Business
The AMEX Blue Business Cash Card has no annual fee and offers 2% cash back on purchases up to $50,000 a year, and 1% cash back after that. There is no annual fee and an introductory APR of 0% for 12 months. It’s such a simple card there’s not much else to say about it, other than it’s a great choice for cash back. Its sibling, the Blue Business Plus Card, offers 2X points on all purchases up to $50,000 a year, and 1X points after that.
Chase Ink
The Ink Business Preferred Card has a very generous sign-up bonus, where you get 100,000 points if you spend $15,000 within three months. You earn 3 points per dollar up to $150,000 a year in select categories, including travel, and 1 point per dollar in all other categories. The annual fee is $95. You receive 25% more if you book travel rewards through Chase directly. There are no foreign transaction fees and employee cards come at no added cost.
Chase’s other Ink card, Ink Business Cash, is better if you are more interested in cash back than points. You receive 2% cash back on the first $25,000 in card spending per year in gas and eating expenses, and 1% on everything else. There is also 5% cash back on select office expenses, such as Staples or Office Depot, cable bills, and phone bills. You also receive a $750 cash bonus after spending $7500 in the first three months. There is also no annual fee.
American Express Business Platinum
The Cadillac of business travel credit cads, the AMEX Business Platinum card has an 85,000 point sign up offer, once you spend $15,000 in three months. There are also 5X bonus points in office categories in the first free months, on things such as phone bills, office supplies, and gas. You also earn 5X points on travel when booking through AMEX. You also receive access to the prestigious Global Lounge Collection when travelling. There are other travel-specific benefits, such as reimbursement of Global Entry or TSA Pre-Check fees, a 35% airline bonus for airline fares booked through AMEX, and gold status with Marriott Bonvoy and Hilton Honors. Due to the high rate of points awarded, the card has a $595 annual fee.
Brex
The Brex card is a good charge card for startups, that doesn’t put your personal credit on the line. In addition, there are a variety of attractive rewards, including 5X points on travel, 4X on restaurants, 3X on recurring software payments and Apple purchases, and 1X on everything else. The card requires you to have $100,000 in the bank, as it is a charge card and not a credit card, requiring monthly payoff of balances.