Business credit cards: How are they different from personal cards and what benefits do they offer?

Business credit card is a card which caters to the self-employed professionals and corporates, and used for the purpose of incurring business expenditure whereas a personal credit card, as the name suggests, is used for making personal expenditure only. This credit card is given to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), corporates and even self employed professionals.

Since these credit cards are given for the business purchases, they enable users to claim discounts on purchases of software using these cars. Business credit cards also provide cashbacks and rewards to the credit card holders.

Businesses are entitled to earn rewards, cashback, or points for the money spent and these rewards can be redeemed for travel, office supplies, or statement credit. Some business credit cards offer category-specific rewards for expenses such as travel, dining, and fuel.

Some of the key features of business credit cards:

1. Separation of business expenses: Business credit cards enable users to keep personal and business expenses separate, making it easier for accounting, tax filings, and budget tracking.

2. Credit limit: Business credit cards usually give higher credit limits when compared to personal credit cards to accommodate larger business expenses and cash flow needs.

3. Employee expense cards: Employers can issue supplementary cards to employees with predefined credit limits, allowing for controlled and monitored spending.

4. Business-oriented benefits: These credit cards give offers and discounts on business-related expenses such as travel, hotel bookings, office supplies, and fuel surcharge waivers.

5. Building credit history: These cards can help build a business credit score, which is essential for future borrowing and funding requirements.

6. Travel and insurance benefits: The business cards provide complimentary airport lounge access, travel insurance, and concierge services to assist frequent business travellers.

Some of the popular business credit cards are as follows:

I. HDFC Bank

This private lender offers a number of options among business credit cards which include Biz Black (metal edition), Biz Power, Biz Grow and Biz First.

These are some of the key features of these business credit cards: i) upto 55 days interest free period. ii) Access to airport lounges iii) reward points on bill payments iv) fuel surcharge waiver

II. ICICI Bank

A. ICICI Bank Business Advantage Black Card: This business credit card offers cashback on recurring business expenses which include from air travels to car rentals to professional services payments and much more. Over and above earning cashback on your business expenses, you earn additional cashback on your Credit Card payments as well. 

The card has ₹1,000 annual fee. The card offers concierge services, access to airport lounges and personal insurance cover.

B. ICICI Bank Business Advantage Blue Card: It offers cashback on your recurring business expenses – from air travels to car rentals to professional services payments (accounting services, advertising and marketing etc.) and much more. Over and above earning cashback on your business expenses, you stand to earn additional cashback on Credit Card payments too. 

The card has ₹500 as joining fee and ₹500 as annual fee. The card offers concierge services, access to airport lounges and personal insurance cover.

C. ICICI Bank Business Ascent Card: The card has ₹2,000 joining fee and ₹1,500 annual fee. There is a joining bonus of 3000 ICICI Reward Points on payment of first month bill statement and annual bonus of 2000 ICICI Reward Points on payment of annual fee

III. Axis Bank

Axis Bank MyBiz Business credit card: It gives 4 reward points for every ₹200 on categories of travel and tour operators and domestic airlines, direct marketing/ advertising. The card also enables cardholders to avail 3 reward points on every ₹200 international spend.

IV. Kotak Mahindra Bank

Kotak Biz Card: You stand to earn four reward points for every ₹100 on categories such as travel and tour operators and domestic airlines, direct marketing/ advertising services, supermarket, lodging – hotels, motels, resorts.

You stand to earn one reward point for every ₹100 on all other spends. It can be applied by someone who is self-employed, proprietors and partners of partnership firms with minimum income tax return of ₹4.8 lakh and above. The joining fee of credit card is ₹299 and annual fee is ₹499.

(The above list is indicative and not exhaustive.)