BEST SMALL BUSINESS CREDIT CARD 2019

Since we opened up our businesses recently (Danny bought an existing dental practice and I started working from home reviewing contracts for people), we’ve been on the hunt for the best small business credit card. Instead of taking other people’s word for it, I read the fine print on the most popular small business credit cards and came up with a conclusion on my own. Here is, in my opinion, the best small business credit card for 2019.

[Related: Buying a Dental Practice When You’re in Debt; and Our Student Loan Debt Story]

SHOULD I USE A CREDIT CARD FOR MY SMALL BUSINESS? 

First, you may be wondering, should I use a credit card for my small business? The short answer is YES. There are so many benefits to using a credit card for your small business. Unless you simply cannot control yourself and your business spending, you should have a business credit card. (And if you can’t control your spending, you may consider tackling that problem before starting a business imo).

Rewards. 

First and foremost, THE REWARDS. There are many opportunities for rewards with a small business credit card. Think about it. You could have thousands, maybe even tens of thousands (or more! depending on your business) of business expenses each month.  And with the best small business credit card, you can earn 3x’s the rewards on many or your business (or travel) purchases. Plus you’ll earn 80,000 (basically $1,000 towards travel rewards, hello Hawaiiiii) just for signing up/meeting spending requirements in the first couple of months.

Financial Protection. 

Business credit cards give you a nice cushion when you aren’t certain about cash flow– this is especially true in the beginning when you are starting or taking over a business and there are many unexpected expenses. Obviously business credit cards are just like regular credit cards with high interest rates and fees, so you’ll need to make timely payments. In other words, when I say “financial cushion” what I mean is like a 30 day cushion before your bill is due, then I highly recommend paying it off in full each month if you can. You’re also more protected using a credit card versus a debit card or paying with a check in terms of security if your card is lost or stolen (it’s much easier to get your money back with a credit card). You can also dispute illegitimate transactions if you get charged for something you shouldn’t have been charged for.

Build Credit. 

Business credit cards also help you build credit with your business which may or may not be important. If you intend to take out a business loan in the future then having a business line of credit will be helpful.

BEST SMALL BUSINESS CREDIT CARD

Now that you know that you almost certainly should be using a credit card for your business, it’s time to figure out which one is best. After looking closely at the major 2019 business credit cards, I am convinced that the Chase Ink Preferred offers the most bang for your buck. Here’s why.

Best Bonus Points

You’ll get 80,000 points when you spend $5000 in the first three months of card membership. Spending $5000 the first three months may sound like a lot to you, but remember that business spending isn’t like personal spending. A business can quickly rack up $5000 over three months. The average spending for our dental practice is over $50,000 per month, just to give you context.

3x’s the Rewards points

On your travel and most of your business spending, you’ll earn 3 points per $1 that you spend on the first $150,000 that you spend EACH YEAR. In other words, each year resets the limit, so you have the ability to earn 3x the points on your first $150,000 of the year. Any other purchases are 1 point per $1 spent.

Serious Protection

Cell phone protection:

The Ink Preferred card is one of the only credit cards out there that offers cell phone protection. If you or an employee listed on your phone bill damages your phone or an employee phone, you are covered for up to $600 per claim.

Purchase protection:

If you buy an item for either personal or business use, you’re covered up to $10,000 per claim if that item is stolen or damaged.

Travel Protection:

Baggage insurance – If you book a flight with your business card, you’ll get up to $3000 (per person) for the loss of checked or carry on baggage. You’ll also be covered up to $500 for essential items when your baggage is delayed for more than 6 hours.

Rental car insurance– If you pay for a rental car with your business preferred card, you’ll be covered with their rental car insurance, which will cover physical damage to the car, towing, theft, and loss of use charges. You won’t even have to bother filing a claim with your auto insurance company.

Trip cancellation/delay- You can get up to $5000 if your trip is delayed or canceled for a covered condition (i.e. illness, bad weather, etc).

Travel accident insurance- You’re covered up to $500,000 for any accidental death or dismemberment for you and your travel companions.

Other benefits:

Combine Points from other Chase Cards – one of my personal favorite benefits of the best small business credit card is that you can combine your points from other Chase cards that you might use. For us, we have a personal Chase card, so when we travel, we combine those points with our business card points for maximum pointage!

No foreign transaction fees – another benefit to the Chase Preferred Ink card is that you’ll score no foreign transaction fees when you travel.

Add employee cards for free – You can also add employees to your card if you have employees taking care of some of your business purchases.

It’s pretty easy to see that the Chase Preferred Ink card is the best small business credit card out there. Click here to start scoring all of these amazing benefits!

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Here at Deeply in Debt, we offer tons of personal finance advice based on our own journey paying off $650k of student loan debt. If you have student loan debt and aren’t sure where to start or what to do, I highly recommend the CFA’s over at Student Loan Planner to help you put together a solid financial plan for your student loan debt. We personally used them and it literally saved us over $200,000 on our student loans. You can check out the Student Loan Planner here.