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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.

All the major business credit card issuers have set their eyes on the growing small business credit card market and are trying really hard to get a bigger slice of the pie. They have also realized there is a strong segment of the small business credit card market that could equally benefit from the features of small business credit cards: the group of small contractors and construction companies.

The business credit cards designed for contractors have the objective of inducing them to do away with invoice-based payments by check and to rather shift to more frequent use of their business credit cards. An industry study has shown that less than 5 percent of all spending in 2006 was done by charging the expense to the business credit cards of business owners. The business credit card issuers would prefer small business owners to think of using their business credit cards for everyday business-related expenses and not just for travel and entertainment.

MasterCard launched its industry-specific business credit card designed for construction companies last year. This card also allows longer payment cycles than usual. A similar program for business credit card holders is offered under Chase Contractor Visa Business credit card program. These programs give access to promotional financing and enjoy a strong rewards package. There is no pre-determined limit on spending. This enables contractors to pay bigger-ticket business expenses by using their business credit cards instead of writing checks. Purchases of construction materials amounting to at least 1,000 will be subject to a longer 60-day payment term; purchases below 1,000 will not qualify for this promotional financing benefit.

There are limitations that you should bear in mind, especially if you are angling for the rewards points and discounts. The bonus points are earned only on net purchases that are made with contractors that have classified their merchant locations to the company as contracted building services, building and construction materials, and landscaping services.

There is a limit to the bonus points that can be earned in the categories mentioned above: 20,000 points per month. That is equivalent to 20,000 worth of purchases on your business credit card. However, there is no maximum number of base points that can be accumulated. You will need to distinguish between the two point types.

The business credit card holder should examine the fine print closely to inform him- or herself with the particular services, materials and products that will qualify for rewards points if paid with their business credit cards. The qualified merchants may not be quite as confined as those of the usual branded business credit cards, but still there are limitations.

Your business credit card has no pre-determined limit on spending. But that does not mean you can spend indiscriminately. If a particular purchase amount will result in your business credit card account going over your credit limit, only the portion that falls below the limit will qualify for the rewards points. Beyond that, every charge that causes a breach in your credit limit will be subject to evaluation before it is authorized; the evaluation will take into account both your spending pattern and payment history.

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.