August 25th, 2009 | Posted in Small Business Credit Card
Business Credit Card Find the Perfect one for Your Business
You may have a long banking relationship with your present bank and they can happily provide you with a credit card facility. However, it is good to make an assessment of your needs and look around for various options.
There is severe competition in the market of business credit cards. It is obviously to your advantage. Before you select a particular business credit card provider, look for the following points:
1. Your choice of payment – The offers from various card issuers differ on interest charges and fees. You should decide whether you are in a position to pay the outstanding balance at the end of the cycle in full. If yes, then you can select a charge card. Most of the charge cards will not have any spending limits. However, if you are unable to pay the balance within the stipulated time, then it’s a different story. Then you have to study the interest and penalty structure for different credit cards.
2. Taking the benefits of rewards – This will depend on the nature of your business. If you are traveling frequently, cards offering generous travel rewards will be good to you. There may be discounts offered by some cards on purchase of specific merchandise. AT&T Universal business rewards card offers extra points for each dollar spent on purchases at many office supplies merchants, at gas stations and for professional services.
3. Balance transfers – If you already have some credit card, many card issuers will provide soft terms for transferring the balance. The low rate of interest will be offered for initial period of about 6 months. This will be a good opportunity to get some temporary relief. At the same time, you need to check out the long-term rates also!
4. Welcome bonus points – Some card providers offer huge bonus points on joining them. These points can be redeemed for your business needs.
5. Free additional cards for your employees – Within the limits set for you, you can apply extra cards for your employees. This is very convenient if you want to give your employees this facility.
6. Acceptability of cards – Check out with your suppliers which cards they usually prefer. You may be using your card regularly with them and their preference is important to you.
7. Time taken for approval – You can get a decision on American Express cards within sixty seconds! This is not very important issue, but sometimes it helps.
You need to make an assessment of major cards in the market in order to find out which one suits to your needs. Remember, offers made by card issuers are available for a very short time and they change frequently.
Your needs may be different – you may be just starting your business or you may be expanding. Examine these options before deciding on a card.
Finance is a big worry for many small businesses. Business credit cards can provide a solution. But all cards are not equal in benefits. Which one suits to your business? How to select the best? Continue reading »
July 7th, 2009 | Posted in Secure Credit Card, Small Business Credit Card
Secured Small Business Credit Card
The web is one place where all transactions need to happen on credit cards. It is because of these that maximum websites trying to sell their product has introduced the credit card payment option. Small business owners may find it difficult to introduce the option of credit card payment, but unless they do so there is very little chance they can enlarge their customer base on the web. The money transaction is complete within 7 days at the most. Sometimes small business owners take the help of third party processors who handle the complete processing of these businesses. This is always a good option for small business holders since they are likely not to have much cash flow at all times. The other option available is to opt for secured small business credit cards. However, these cards involve quite a high processing fee such as about $200 for a small volume account (standard fee schedule) and about $20 as monthly processing fee.
The relevant questions regarding secured small business credit cards are those ranging from what the thing is, how it helps expanding business and its differences from a regular credit card. These questions are no doubt, very pertinent ones, which you absolutely need to know all about before you apply for a business credit card. Hopefully this article will answer all of these questions.
Secured small business credit cards are those that allow the card holder credit against assets, both personal and business. The reasons why business men might have to choose it are: firstly, the record of the particular small business in question may not be all that good. So lenders, dealers and suppliers otherwise reluctant to allow credit to this particular business, shall feel secured to allow the same. Secondly, the business might be new and unable to establish a credit of its own by now. This phenomenon is too common now. Small business, with the help of secured small business credit cards would be able to develop a relationship of faith and confidence with the lender and increase its profit margins in business arena to accumulate capital. The cards help you in getting rid of any preexisting debts that one might have had, expanding your business, increasing your stock of inventories, etc.
The improvement of credit ratings or scores is a big advantage that secured small business credit cards can offer. Companies facing serious financial crisis including crucial loan shortages and bankruptcies can be successfully rehabilitated through the credit card. Suppliers and vendors are always more wiling to allow a business credit once they have to themselves the assurance of a secured credit card.
Secured small business credit cards offer the owner many advantages like credit rating improvement and facilitate trust between the proprietors and lenders, much of which has been dealt earlier in the article. It also helps a faltering business to regain much of its past goodwill in course of its career of transacting in the market. So secured small business credit cards are instrumental in restoring small businesses to their very best of functioning condition and improve them.
June 30th, 2009 | Posted in Prepaid Credit Card, Small Business Credit Card
Prepaid Business Credit Cards
Prepaid credit cards became increasingly popular in the late 1990s. A lot of people are using them today. One might pertinently ask what prepaid business credit cards are and how they differ from traditional credit cards. Over the years credit card companies have faced the problem of tackling customers who don’t meet the credit requirements to use their cards. Again among the people who do qualify many cannot pay back the debts and file bankruptcy. Naturally this means huge losses for credit card companies.
So, secured cards were offered by credit card companies to customers, who could use them without fear of incurring debts. Once a customer established his reputation of paying up on time, credit card companies slowly increased his credit limit.
This was the precursor to the prepaid business credit cards in circulation today. The main difference being that, users are offered credit for purchases made via these new cards. You have the freedom to set the limit of credit on the card by depositing the necessary funds into the account.
This very simply means that you decide beforehand what your spending limit will be. If you deposit 100 dollars against your card you can spend only up to 100 dollars through your card.
Does this sound restricting? Well in some ways it is restricting, since it does not allow you to get carried away by a whim and spend on anything that catches your eye. You have to judiciously purchase each item constantly keeping in mind the credit limit. Thus it does restrict your spending. But it also offers you great flexibility and freedom.
A prepaid business credit card can you give you freedom and great joy while spending for the following reasons:
* You can shop with a light heart knowing that you have already paid the bill.
* You can shop at your heart’s content knowing that you have set a limit as to much you can spend.
* If you have a habit of splurging beyond limit and then being inundated with debt problems, this card is perfect for you.
* In short it can be exhilarating to know that you can shop all you want without having to deal with adverse consequences later.
Prepaid credit cards don’t depend on actual credit for spending. So the mandatory credit reference checks are waived.
Of course to avail of such a specialized service you will have to shell out cash. That seems to be the only drawback. Companies charge an application fee for issuing the card. Other companies charge subscription fees on a monthly basis. Loading the card, making purchases, withdrawing cash-all this may be charged. In case your card gets lost/stolen you have to pay for replacement of the card. Also when the existing card expires you may have to pay renewal fees.
So keep this one con in mind when weighing the multiple pros of prepaid business credit card. You have to decide how much you are willing to pay for a service that benefits you and your family.
June 5th, 2009 | Posted in Small Business Credit Card
Small business credit cards will save you a fortune..
In time and money as well! We all know time is money right? Well saving those precious minutes, hours and seconds is exactly what small business credit cards can do for you. In addition to this small business credit cards supply much better benefits than regular credit cards, making sure more money stays in your pocket.
The IRS demands that you separate personal expenses from business expenses. Now, you can see that using different credit cards for personal and business makes perfect sense right? Now that you think about it I guess it might even feel obvious.
Instead of plowing through hundreds of lines of different purchases and singling out which is which, simply get two completely different reports. They will be completely separated and you will have two different, separate bank accounts.
Even if you do not own a small business, a small business card should be used when traveling for your company, or making purchases on behalf of your employer online.
But what’s different about having one small business credit card and one regular?
The main purpose of having a small business credit card is to save money. They offer neat benefits such as lower annual percentage rates, larger credit lines than normal and last but not least the incredibly convenient prolonged grace period.
How does this save you money? Well, you pay less, you can keep the debt without debt increase for a longer period of time, and you pay less interest when you finally have to.
It’s not that easy.
Although it sounds easy, it’s not the effort equivalent of taking a step, or clicking a single link. Acquiring the perfect small business credit card is the tricky part of the solution, of course learning about the cards themselves are not exactly half the way.
There are many ways to start searching for the right credit card. Google, or use your favorite search engine, and search for the term “small business credit cards”. Slowly work your way through each and every of the significant looking results, separate the honest from the self serving recommendations, check each and every feature and benefit of the different programs and calculate what works best for you.
Or, you can quickly find out what people recommend, check the numbers of those major and/or minor credit card providers, quickly find out which would be best for you, verify that their service is on the right side of the law and that their licenses and other legal information is correct.
One quick step on the road to complete 100% verification of the legibility of the credit card provider, is to simply search for “[credit card provider] complaint” or “[credit card provider] is a scam”. If there are many recommendations and there are signs that it has been around for quite some time, you can proceed.
But make sure you proceed with caution, if anything causes you to be the least bit suspicious, search harder, ask other people, check databases that store complaints and confirmed scams for the provider’s name. Only when you are completely sure proceed, order the credit card and prepare for a lifetime of savings, in time and money.
