Business and Corporate Credit Cards
Credit card companies have developed a variety of cards with businesses in mind with lines of credit starting at $50,000 or more. To help you understand the different options and to help you avoid the confusion of terms and details, we provide some helpful information.
Small Business Credit Cards
Credit cards for small businesses are offered to the general population through advertisements on the Internet or as pre-approved invitations you receive in the mail. These offers are more 'what you see is what you get.' Granted, you can shop around for the business card offer that best meets your needs but there is little customization offered. The owner's name is found on the front of the card.
The responsibility for paying the credit card debt for small business credit cards lies with the business owner. If the account is defaulted on, the negative results will impact the personal credit history of the owner.
Corporate Credit Cards
On the other hand, corporate credit cards are not as readily available through the mass media. These cards are targeted to a specific group, organization, or corporation and can be highly customized. The reason for this increased flexibility comes down to revenue. With the potential of millions of dollars in transactions, corporate card holders are given much more say in how their accounts are set up.
Corporations generally have a greater need to structure their finances in a specialized way to help review, approve and keep track of expenditures. Reimbursement accounts are also vital to large corporations and can easily be tracked with a company card. Specialized software is designed for corporate credit card accounts that will interface with human resource departments. A corporate credit card will have the corporation name on the front and usually the name of the authorized user, which also helps in tracking individual spending.
Take the time to consider your options regardless of which business card fits your needs. Seek out lenders that offer the services and perks that work best for your business or corporation.
Corporate Credit Card
Benefits For Business Travel Program
who can benefit
Great conglomerates whose employees come across a variety of business expenses will find the Corporate Credit Card valuable in streamlining purchases and expense management, as will employees of city and state government agencies, school districts and universities.
Features :
%u2022Manage Travel More Effectively
%u2022Allot cards to person or branches with unpredictable controls, such as cash per month and per transaction or transactions per day and per month.
%u2022 Adjust obtaining authorization and spending criterion hurriedly and easily.
%u2022get back all-inclusive daily, monthly, quarterly or annual financial reports that break down spending by commercial, price category, business unit, and other criteria
%u2022 Integrate Credit Card data into your existing accounting and ERP systems and other prefferable units.
%u2022 Easily account for international standards including value-added taxes and foreign exchange.
%u2022 Have the benefit of consummate Global Acceptance and Purchasing Flexibility
%u2022 Accepted at millions of locations worldwide.
%u2022 Access to cash at over maximum ATM and branch locations worldwide.
%u2022 Insure and Protect Your Business
%u2022 Provide quick access to the information
%u2022 Enable the information to be timely - easy to update.
%u2022 Change purchasing authorization and spending criteria quickly and easily.
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Imposing Policies for Corporate Credit Card Usage
A business that plans to apply for a corporate credit card may also provide individual cards to their employees. Most employees think that their credit cards are just like money, they tend to buy stuffs and pay off their personal debts.
But, this mentality may bring great danger to the company. Continuous usage of corporate credit cards for personal reasons may tend to let the company end up paying many debts. Plus, if great debts will be deducted to the employees' salary, what will they receive during payday? Over use of corporate credit cards by the employees can also pose great danger to the employee's salary.
For this reason, employers must put rules, protocols or policies regarding the employees' usage of their corporate credit cards. A corporate credit card should be used to buy stuffs that the company or the employee needs, which should be related to their work. If not, then an employee must not use it otherwise. This is the main purpose of getting a corporate credit card.
Nevertheless, it is hard for your employees not to use their corporate credit cards, which is why it is imperative to make a policy regarding its usage and impose this policy.
Imposing a policy and making sure that those who violate it will suffer (suspension, warning/memo, salary deductions and etc.) may prevent them from ever using their individual cards for their own purpose. This may seem a bit harsh, but if you really want to prevent them from ever using this for personal interests, you need to impose it.
In addition, the employer should do this because primarily, most credit card issuers hold the employer as the one who's liable for all charges on the corporate credit card account. In spite of the any verbal or written agreement between the employer and the employee, the issuers still consider the employer as responsible for any charges on the said account, since he is the primary cardholder.
Putting up a policy on credit card usage may establish the procedure for the use of corporate cards, even the protocol. This will also help the employees in better understanding the liabilities and accountabilities regarding their use of the cards. The employer must see to it that the employees have read the policies before handing them out. However, these policies must be unbiased between the company and the employees.
If the employer wants to be fair, he or she can put a limit as to how much personal charge an employee can put on the card. Or, the employer may also provide a policy which is beneficial for both parties. This may be hard; however, doing so will make the company fairer and more unbiased in the eyes of the employees.
Thus, the employees will happily oblige themselves into following the company's corporate credit card policies. This may also with an opportunity to improve the relationship between the employer and his or her employees.
What Makes Small Business Credit Cards Different From Corporate Cards
The major credit card companies designed business credit cards purposely to address the needs of these small and medium sized companies. Wherever you look - on the Internet, radio and broadcast media, newspapers and other print media - you will find the card issuers advertising these business credit cards, and that the adverts specifically target small to medium enterprises. The point: to inform their target market about the features and benefits of their specific business credit card offerings.
So, how did the business credit card companies design their small business credit cards? Although there are variations from one business credit card package to the next, the basic features generally cover cash discounts for purchases of business-related supplies, a wide array of opportunities for rewards, travel privileges, frequent flier miles, and very low annual percentage rates for balance transfers in their introductory periods. The small business credit card holder also receives periodic reports as rule, which summarizes purchases made on the business credit card account. These reports can normally be viewed online and can be downloaded into a QuickBooks file.
Like small business credit cards, large corporations have equivalent corporate business credit cards. These are markedly different because corporate business credit cards (or simply corporate credit cards), are specifically designed for the corporation itself and not for the individuals inside the corporation. Once a corporation decides to apply for a corporate credit card, the officers enter into negotiations with the credit card issuers to hammer out the specific features of the card and how the business credit card will integrate with the company's finances and financial systems.
The corporate business credit cards are usually distributed to employees to use for those expenses they would normally incur on behalf of the company. Like small business credit cards, corporate credit cards also track the expenses incurred by each cardholder and individual reports are submitted to management. Because of the different, and often more complex, expenses incurred by large corporations, the system of reporting generally requires a specialized software application to resolve these financial complexities.
The single most significant difference between small business credit cards and corporate credit cards is the mode of payment. Generally, for small business credit cards, the credit card is the responsibility of the primary individual applicant who is also responsible for paying the balances or installments due. In the case of the corporate credit card, the credit card is issued in the name of the corporation. Primary responsibility for payment thus resides with the officers of the corporation.
The process of issuing a corporate business credit card is much more complicated than that of a small business credit card. For the small business owner who wishes to apply for a business credit card, it is quite simple actually; there are even websites where you can compare the different business credit cards and submit online applications once a choice is made. This is a luxury that a large corporate in need of a business credit card account, simply does not have.
