Creditcard3

The small business credit card market is a rapidly growing market in the financial services industry. If you are planning to apply for small business credit cards, see how your reasons compare with those of other business credit card holders:

Business credit cards provide credibility and legitimacy to your business. It is an intangible benefit, but when the business credit card company approves a business credit card for your small business, it gives a signal to other merchants that your business has good, sound credit. A business credit card is a very credible imprimatur.

For the start-up small business, or one which has a tarnished record, a business credit card allows your business to build or rebuild a credit history. By ensuring that this credit history remains consistently positive, you will establish the foundation for securing a business loan or line of credit should you decide to expand the business in the future. The business credit card is your guaranteed line of credit for now.

Monthly business expenses are easier to track with a business credit card. The monthly business credit card account statement helps with the reconciliation of the purchases you make on behalf of your business.

The usefulness of the business credit card statement is not limited to tracking business expenses. It can also be used as a reliable and acceptable alternative documentary proof when you prepare your books and your financial reports for income taxation purposes.

Business credit cards and personal credit cards have similar benefits and rewards. When you have a business credit card, you will have a separate opportunity to enjoy discounts, cash back and rewards points on purchases of the goods and services necessary for your business.

When you have business credit cards issued to your employees, they can make purchases on behalf of your company without advancing their own funds, or use the business credit cards when they travel for business. Their use of the business credit cards makes it easier to account for expenses.

When you charge purchases to business credit cards, you get the chance to enjoy cash discounts. Companies that supply business-to-business products normally give significant discounts when the purchase is paid for in full upon purchase. If the purchase is on credit, the discounts are smaller and calibrated according to the financed period. Charges to your business credit cards always count as cash purchases, since your business credit card issuer will take care of paying them shortly afterwards.

The purchases you make on your business credit cards may qualify for special insurance protections from the business credit card company. In case something turns out wrong with the item you bought by means of your business credit card, and the merchant is not willing to return your money, the insurance protection will cover the amount.

There is rightful concern about the high interest rates on business credit cards. Suffice to say that these are still lower than rates on merchant credit. If you make effective use of the float period, then pay off your balance in full each month, you actually avoid paying any interest at all. If you plan to carry a balance, make sure you find the business credit card with lower interest rates.

The rewards business credit cards give great benefit when you do a lot of travel.

In short, it makes good business sense to have a business credit card or two at your disposal.

Make Your Customers Happy – Allow Them to Pay With Business Credit Cards

Small business service contractors, like plumbing services, computer technician services, cleaning services and the like, are not usually given to accepting business credit cards from their small business customers. The jobs performed normally require the payment of fairly large sums of cash or issuing of large checks; something the customer may well not be in favor of doing. Everything would be much more convenient and lucrative – if you allowed your customers to pay for these services with their business credit cards.

Using business credit cards benefits both parties. Naturally the customers are the most important part of the equation, and here is how they (and you) stand to benefit:

Power of Convenience If these were not convenient, business credit cards would never have become as popular as they are today. One of the attractions of paying with business credit cards is that your customer does not need to have cash on hand. Accepting their business credit cards means that the job can proceed there is no need to wait until they have withdrawn the necessary amount of cash to fund the repair. This also means that they are not inconvenienced by having to put up with time delays and you are likely to end up being viewed as efficient. The power of convenience afforded by business credit cards makes them appealing to customers, and this is why business credit cards should – in real terms – also appeal to you.

Purchasing Power The other obvious benefit to your customers is that business credit cards afford them the ability to have the needed work done immediately. We all know that repairs have the insufferable tendency to become urgent at the most inopportune times. It could come when your customer does not exactly have enough cash to immediately pay for the repair. When you accept their business credit cards, you give the client the power to immediately purchase those goods and services that they need.

Who knows, by affording them the opportunity to use their business credit cards, you could well end up doing some extra business with the client by being given additional incidental repair or maintenance work during the same service visit. For the client, having everything done at the same time, normally works out cheaper. If you do not accept business credit cards, the incidental repairs or maintenance work may have to be left for another day. This could represent a lost opportunity to you in the long run.

Flexibility When you allow customers to pay with business credit cards, you give them the power of flexibility. They can choose whether to pay the full amount on their business credit card statement when it falls due, or whether to pay in installments instead.

Bonuses Business credit cards offer all kinds of incentives to business credit card users. Some business credit cards offer frequent flier miles, others rewards points, and others still cash back. Customers may want to use their business credit cards to earn these incentives. If you deny their business credit cards, you also deny them the chance to receive that bonus.

Accepting business credit cards empowers your customers. Eventually, youll realize that accepting business credit cards empowers you too: It enhances your ability to do more business with the same client; it supports your efforts to hold on to your existing clients; it also improves your ability to effectively compete for additional business against rivaling businesses in your sector.

All of this makes accepting business credit cards, a worthwhile consideration.

Discover Card now offers its own version of business credit cards. Discover Card has been known for their customer service, and this dedication for service continues in their business credit cards product. Whenever you need to contact them, Discover Card assures you that business credit card specialists will always be on hand, that they will take your telephone calls quickly and that your queries will be attended to promptly. Discover does not treat this availability as a benefit, but rather view it as a service commitment to their Discover Card business customers. There is a wide range of benefits to be had on your Discover business credit cards though. Here follows a few of these:

Cash Back Bonus Business Credit Cards
Using your Discover Rewards business credit card, will entitle you to 5% discounts on office supply purchases, 2% on gas, and 1% on other miscellaneous purchases. This could translate into significant savings for your business, especially because this business credit card also enables you to earn valuable Rewards points

If you opt to redeem your business credit cards cash back bonus in the form of gift cards or e-certificates from their participating 70 brand-name partners, you will have the opportunity of doubling your points. This means that you can get gift cards or certificates to use for a variety of different items and should that be your choice, even a Cruise.

If, on the other hand, you elect to redeem in cash, you can nominate how the payment should be issued and into which account it should go. This could be in the form of a check, an electronic deposit to the bank account of your choice, or as a credit on your business credit card account.

Travel Miles Business Credit Cards
If your business requires frequent travel, the Discover Miles Business Credit Cards will come in useful. Your business credit card account earns up to one mile for every pound in usual purchases, double miles on your gas (at the pump or in the station) and double miles for travel purchases (plane tickets, car rentals, hotels). There is a limit of 5,000 imposed in terms of the amount you can accumulate on the business credit cards double miles feature, but when all is said and done, that is still a substantial amount.

You wont have to wait long before you can start redeeming the miles on your business credit cards. You can redeem the miles as gift cards from 50 brand-name participating partners in a graduated manner: 5 for 1,000 miles, 25 for 3,500 miles and 50 for 6,000 miles. Once you reach 5,000 miles, you can start redeeming these miles as cash back rewards.

Other Benefits
There are also other, standard benefits for business credit cards. You will get quarterly and annual statements that summarize all expenses charged against your business credit cards; the summaries are already categorized to make your bookkeeping simpler, and you can receive statements online ready for download into popular accounting software applications.

You can customize your employees spending limits on their business credit cards online, and when you use your business credit card to pay for travel, youre automatically covered for accident insurance and car rental insurance. A new benefit is that you can purchase checkbooks with your Discover business credit card, thereby enabling payments to those companies that dont accept business credit cards yet.