6 Best Business Prepaid Cards 2020

Prepaid business credit cards are designed for small business owners who can’t qualify for or don’t want a typical business credit card. They require fewer qualifications than business cards while also limiting the owner’s risk. The best business prepaid cards can help small business owners manage employee expenses. However, they don’t help build business credit.

The best business prepaid cards of 2020:

• Bento for Business: (Best overall) Best free business prepaid debit card
• Netspend Small Business Prepaid Card: Best for issuing 10 or fewer cards
• PEX Prepaid Visa: Best for using multiple cards for a large or growing business
• Emburse Prefunded Mastercard: Best for employees or contractors who work off-site
• PayPal Business Debit Mastercard: Best for opening only one card
• Wells Fargo Business Secured Card: Best for a prepaid debit card alternative

For more details on how we evaluate business credit cards and prepaid credit cards for this list, see our methodology.

Bento for Business: Overall Best Prepaid Business Credit Card

Bento for Business is the best overall prepaid card option for small business owners because you’ll pay no monthly fee on your first two cards. We also found that Bento can be the most affordable option for businesses with 11 to 25 cardholders as the monthly cost per card could be as little as $2.76—the lowest on our list.

Bento for Business Costs

• First two business prepaid cards: Free
• 3-10 cards: $29 per month
• 11-25 cards: $69 per month
• Unlimited cards: $149 per month
• Setup fee: None
• Domestic ATM fee: None, but you may pay operator fees
• Signature/PIN purchase transaction fee: None

Bento for Business waives monthly fees if you spend more than $20,000 per month. Compare these costs to the Netspend Small Business Prepaid Card.

Bento for Business Balance Requirements

• Minimum balance: The minimum opening deposit is $10, but there are no minimum balance requirements.
• Maximum balance: There is no maximum account limit, although there is a default daily load limit that can be adjusted upon request.

Compare these balance requirements with Netspend.

How to Load Funds With Bento for Business

Bento for Business can only accept fund transfers from an existing, verified checking or savings account via an automated clearing house (ACH) or wire transfer. Transfers may take two to three days to complete, and your bank may charge an outgoing wire transfer fee. This wait is similar to other prepaid business cards.

Bento for Business Daily Limits

Bento for Business has one of the least restrictive load limit policies among cards on our list―there is no limit―and a higher daily spend limit than most cards of $25,000 per day.

Load Limit

The Bento for Business prepaid card places no daily limits on transfers made via ACH or wire transfer. Funds should be available within two to three business days.

Spending Limit:

• Card purchase: $25,000 per day, although the account holder can lower the limit on individual cards or set category spending restrictions
• ATM withdrawal: $500 per day
• Cash back at the point of sale (POS): $500 per day

Compare these balance daily limits with Netspend.

Bento for Business Additional Features

The card also comes with benefits seen on small business credit cards and corporate credit cards:

• Auto rental collision damage waiver: Receive primary rental coverage when you rent a car for business. You may be reimbursed for up to the actual cash value of the vehicle in case of collision or theft. If the rental is for personal reasons, coverage is supplemental to your personal automobile insurance.
• Purchase protection: When you use your Bento for Business prepaid debit card, and your purchase is stolen or damaged within the first 90 days, you’re covered up to $10,000 per claim and $50,000 per year. The item will either be repaired or replaced, or you will be reimbursed.
• Accounting system export: Enjoy real-time sync with QuickBooks or other software.

Learn more: Bento for Business reviews

Netspend Small Business Prepaid Card: Best for 10 or Fewer Cards

We like the Netspend Small Business Prepaid Card because it’s the cheapest option on our list for small businesses that need between three and 10 cards. You can load up to $25,000 to your account daily using direct deposit, check, ACH or wire transfer, or via a physical reload station. Employees can spend up to $5,000 per day per card.

Netspend Small Business Prepaid Card Costs

• Setup fee: None
• Monthly fee: $9.95 for the first card; $1.95 for each additional card up to 10 cards
• Domestic ATM fee: $2.50, plus any operator fee
• Signature/PIN purchase transaction fee: None

If you’re looking for a cheaper option and only need two cards, compare these costs to Bento for Business.

Netspend Small Business Prepaid Card Balance Requirements

• Minimum balance: None
• Maximum balance: $25,000 per account, regardless of the number of cards your company has

If your firm needs spending flexibility higher than $25,000, consider other options like Bento for Business or the Emburse Prefunded Mastercard.

How to Load Funds on the Netspend Small Business Prepaid Card

• ACH or wire transfer
• More than 130,000 participating load stations, where a fee may be assessed
• Direct deposit
• Mobile check deposit

You can add and remove funds easily from individual cards and track activity with transaction alerts when spending occurs.

Netspend Small Business Prepaid Card Daily Limits

Prepaid credit card issuers may set daily load and spending limits as a way to protect your business from fraud. Netspend is one of the few prepaid debit cards that sets a per-card spending limit, which is yet another way to control employee access to company money.

Load Limit

• $15,000 per day for unverified businesses
• $25,000 per day for verified businesses

Verification is optional for sole proprietorships but is required of all other business types within 30 days of card activation.

Spending Limit

This prepaid business card has a daily spend limit of $5,000 per card. Remember, the maximum balance per account is $25,000, which means your daily spending limit may be significantly lower if you have multiple cards. Compare this spending limit with the PEX Prepaid Visa.

Netspend Small Business Prepaid Card Additional Features

• Processing services: Your business can use this feature to accept checks, credit cards, and debit cards as payment.
• ProPay: With ProPay, you’ll pay no annual fee, 2.7% for swiped transactions, and 3.5% and 15 cents for keyed transactions. You can apply for a ProPay account after opening your card.
• Mastercard Easy Savings program: This program makes your business eligible to receive rebates on qualified purchases at participating Easy Savings merchants. No coupons or codes are necessary.

Learn more: Netspend business prepaid card reviews

PEX Prepaid Visa: Best for Scalability

PEX Prepaid Visa is great for large businesses as it offers 100 or more employee cards per account, well more than some of the other cards on our list. Further, PEX offers an unlimited number of daily loads and transactions. However, it charges a $49.95 setup fee and a monthly fee of as much as $200.

PEX Prepaid Visa Costs

• Core package: $75 per month, includes up to 20 cards; additional cards cost $4 each after your 20th card. The $75 subscription fee is waived when you spend $50,000 in one month.
• Pro package: $200 per month, includes up to 100 cards; additional cards cost $2 each after your 100th card. The $200 subscription fee is waived when you spend $50,000 in one month.
• One-time setup fee: $49.95
• Domestic ATM fee: There is no cash access with the PEX Prepaid Visa from ATMs or POS devices
• Signature/PIN purchase transaction fee: None

PEX Prepaid Visa also offers its Core account on a per-card basis for smaller businesses starting at $8 per month. Compare these costs to Bento for Business to get a business card that is most affordable for your business.

PEX Prepaid Visa Balance Requirements

• Minimum balance: There is no per-card minimum balance requirement, but you must keep at least $50 in your PEX account.
• Maximum balance: The maximum per-card balance is $25,000. There is no account maximum.

Compare these balance requirements to Netspend.

How to Load Funds on the PEX Prepaid Visa

The PEX Prepaid Visa only allows you to transfer funds via ACH transactions or wire transfers. This means that it’ll take between two to three days to load funds onto the card and might cost a wire transfer fee. These loading options are similar to the Bento for Business card.

PEX Prepaid Visa Daily Limits

PEX Prepaid Visa is the least restrictive card on our list when it comes to both load and spending limits. There are no load or daily spend limits.

Load Limit

The PEX business prepaid card lets you load an unlimited amount of cash into your account daily. However, PEX puts a $25,000 cap on individual load transactions.

Spending Limit

The PEX Prepaid Visa is one of the few business prepaid cards without a daily spend limit. This means that you and your employees can spend an unlimited amount per card as well as per account. Keep in mind the $25,000 card balance limit.

PEX Prepaid Visa Additional Features

PEX Prepaid Visa offers numerous spending controls that allow owners to limit spending on individual cards by merchant categories or specific hours of the day and reject purchases based on your settings.

PEX reports transactions in real-time, and the PEX application programming interface (API) can integrate with existing business systems to give firms a custom, automated payment platform that’s able to process millions of transactions a day. PEX transactions also can be downloaded in the following formats: QuickBooks Online file for QuickBooks Desktop, open financial exchange (OFX) file for Xero, and comma-separated values (CSV) file for other accounting software.

Learn more: PEX Prepaid Visa reviews

Emburse Prefunded Mastercard: Best for Companies With Remote Workers

The Emburse Prefunded Mastercard is ideal for companies with many distributed employees or off-site contractors because it offers both virtual and physical cards, unlike other prepaid business debit cards on this list. If your employees need online spending solutions only, this card could be a good fit. Fees start at $7 per user.

Emburse Prefunded Mastercard Costs

• Starter: $50 per month, includes up to 10 cards
• Business: $7 per user, includes between 10 to 100 cards
• Setup fee: None
• Domestic ATM fee: There is no cash access with the Emburse Prefunded Mastercard from ATMs or POS devices
• Signature/PIN purchase transaction fee: None

With the Business account, users can add as many cards as needed for free. However, several features are user-specific, including purchase requests, shared budgets, and deductions. Compare these costs to Bento for Business.

Emburse Prefunded Mastercard Balance Requirements

• Minimum balance: None
• Maximum balance: None

Although there is no minimum or maximum balance, Emburse sets a maximum transaction limit of $100,000. However, there are no daily load or spend limits on this card.

How to Load Funds on Emburse Prefunded Mastercard

The Emburse Prefunded Mastercard comes with two options for funding: prefunding and invoice-based funding. With prefunding, Emburse works like a PayPal or Venmo account, where funds live in an intermediary account. Funding your Emburse account may be done through ACH only. This is more restrictive than Netspend or PEX, which also allow wire transfers.

Emburse Prefunded Mastercard Daily Limits

Emburse Prefunded Mastercard doesn’t have a daily load limit or daily spending limit. However, there is a $100,000 transaction limit.

Load Limit

Emburse Prefunded Mastercard does not have a daily load limit. It may take up to three days for funding to appear in your account after authorization.

Spending Limit

Emburse Prefunded Mastercard does not have a daily spend limit like most of the other cards on our list. However, it does have a $100,000 transaction limit.

Emburse Prefunded Mastercard Additional Features

Like the other business debit cards on our list, the Emburse Prefunded Mastercard offers tools to automate bookkeeping and account for employee expenses, including:

• Integration with several types of accounting software, including Expensify, NetSuite, QuickBooks, and Xero
• Data can be exported to CSV or Excel and imported into other types of accounting software
• Set spending limits, category and time restrictions on virtual cards
• The ability to turn cards on and off with just one click

Emburse also offers wire transfers on an emergency basis, virtual and physical cards, single sign-on (SSO) for easier adding and removing of employees, and split billing. Split billing allows accountants to split expenses into multiple transactions for different cost categories. Finally, Emburse offers a free 60-day trial. Other cards on this list do not offer this option.

PayPal Business Debit Mastercard: Best for Sole Proprietors

The PayPal Business Debit Mastercard is ideal if you already use PayPal to process your business’s card payments—or you’re open to this vendor—and you don’t need more than two prepaid business debit cards. The card charges no monthly fee, but this is the most limited option among the choices on our list, which makes it an ideal pick for a sole proprietor.

PayPal Business Debit Mastercard Costs

• Setup fee: None
• Monthly fee: None
• Domestic ATM fee: $1.50, plus any operator fee
• Signature or PIN purchase transaction fee: None

This card is the cheapest of the cards on our list, but also the most limiting in terms of the number of cards since you can only get two. All other cards allow more cards.

PayPal Business Debit Mastercard Balance Requirements

• Minimum balance: None
• Maximum balance: There is no maximum balance, although PayPal sets a maximum spend limit of $3,000 per day, which could make accumulating a large balance unnecessary.

How to Load Funds on PayPal Business Debit Mastercard

• A no-cost direct deposit service
• Transfers from your PayPal Business Account to your card account
• Add money at more than 130,000 Netspend Reload Network locations; however, this option may come with a fee

Compare these options to PEX and Bento for Business, which also allow for ACH and wire transfers.

PayPal Business Debit Mastercard Daily Limits

PayPal Business Debit Mastercard doesn’t limit daily loads, but it does have a daily spending limit, unlike PEX Prepaid Visa.

Load Limit

There are no daily load limits.

Spending Limit

PayPal Business Debit Mastercard limits daily purchases to $3,000 and cash withdrawals to $400. The spending limit is the lowest among the prepaid business debit cards on our list. If you need to make regular large transactions, this might not be the card for you.

PayPal Business Debit Mastercard Additional Features

PayPal Business Debit Mastercard and the Wells Fargo Secured Business Card are the only two cards on our list with a rewards program. You’ll earn 1% cash back on the net amount of your eligible purchases each month, although PIN-based transactions do not qualify.

Your rewards will be calculated at the end of each calendar month and added to your PayPal balance. You’ll also need to activate the card online to qualify for rewards.

Wells Fargo Business Secured Card: Best Alternative to a Prepaid Business Card

The Wells Fargo Business Secured Card is not a prepaid business debit card, but it lets business owners build business credit. No other cards on our list allow for that. In all other ways, this card acts as a prepaid card, as your spending limit is equal to the amount of money you deposit in your account, up to $25,000. There’s no monthly fee, but you’ll be charged an ongoing variable annual percentage rate on unpaid balances.

Wells Fargo Business Secured Card Costs

• Credit line: Deposit $500 to $25,000 in a collateral account, which equals the amount of your credit line
• Ongoing APR: 16.65% variable, which adjusts with the prime rate
• Annual fee: $25 per card on up to 10 cards maximum
• Fees: Up to $39 if you pay late; you’ll pay no foreign transaction fee on purchases made outside the United States

This is a secured business credit card, so there are ongoing fees if you carry a balance, which is different than a prepaid business credit card, which charges no interest. The annual fee replaces monthly fees charged by the prepaid business credit cards on our list.

Wells Fargo Business Secured Card Additional Features

With the Wells Fargo Business Secured Card, you can earn cash back or points-based rewards:

• Cash back: Earn 1.5% cash back for every $1 spent on purchases; redemption is automatic as you’ll receive a statement credit, or the bank will deposit cash rewards in your eligible checking or savings account once per quarter.
• Points: Earn 1 point for every $1 spent on net purchases and 1,000 bonus points when your company spends $1,000 in any monthly billing period; points can be redeemed for gift cards, merchandise, or airline tickets.

It’s always crucial to choose a business credit card that offers additional features your business wants to receive. No other card on our list offers rewards.

Learn more: Wells Fargo business card reviews

How We Evaluated Prepaid Cards for Business Expenses

Your business is unlike any other. That’s why we searched for a variety of business debit cards that cater to different types of firms. There are four key criteria we focused on choosing the best prepaid credit cards: price, features, scalability, and liability. All of the cards on our list require no credit check. See the methodology in detail.

Bottom Line

Prepaid cards for business expenses are an excellent option for firms large and small that need strict employee spending standards and don’t want to take on the personal risk associated with small business credit cards. The best prepaid business cards charge low monthly fees and offer flexible loading and spending options.