8 Best Corporate Cards for 2023
This article is part of a larger series on Best Small Business Credit Cards.
Editor’s note: This is a recurring post with regularly updated card details.
Corporate cards are either charge cards or prepaid cards with functionalities designed for large companies with high revenues and hundreds of employees. Since large corporations have different financial needs than small businesses, the best corporate cards offer features and perks that address these needs, including high credit limits, robust tracking and spending controls, unique billing structures, and lucrative rewards.
Here are the eight best corporate credit cards for 2023:
- U.S. Bank Commercial Rewards Card: Overall best corporate card for cost-savings and earning rebates
- American Express® Corporate Gold Card: Best for frequent travel expenses
- Citi® Corporate Card: Best for global businesses
- Rho Card: Best for flexible credit terms with generous rewards
- Ramp: Best for straightforward rewards program
- Brex Card: Best for paid daily or paid monthly options
- Coast Fuel Card: Best for companies with fleets and frequent fuel expenses
- Emburse Spend Card: Best prepaid card with unlimited cash back
Best Corporate Credit Cards at a Glance
Best For | Annual Fee | Key Features | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
U.S. Bank Commercial Rewards Card | Best overall corporate credit card for cost-savings and earning rebates | $0 |
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American Express® Corporate Gold Card | Frequent travel expenses | $250 |
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Citi® Corporate Card | Best for global businesses | Undisclosed |
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Rho Card | Flexible credit terms with generous rewards | $0 |
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Ramp | Straightforward rewards program | $0 |
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Brex Card | Paid daily or paid monthly options | $0 |
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Coast Fuel Card | Companies with fleets and frequent fuel expenses | $0; only $2 per active card, per month |
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Emburse Spend Card | Prepaid card with unlimited cash back | $0 |
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U.S. Bank Commercial Rewards Card: Overall Best Corporate Card for Cost Savings & Earning Rebates
Apply for U.S. Bank Commercial Rewards Card
Why we like it: The U.S. Bank Commercial Rewards Card is our best overall corporate credit card, ideal for those looking for an all-in-one commercial card solution that provides cost savings. It doesn’t charge annual or platform fees, and you can save money on your expenses through rebates that require lower spend thresholds than most other traditional commercial cards. However, the rebate rates are undisclosed.
Other benefits:
- Scales with your business: This corporate card is designed specifically for middle-market businesses with $10 to $150 million in annual revenue and is built to scale with your company’s changing needs as it grows.
- Single, intuitive platform: You can access its expense and travel management platform powered by TravelBank, allowing your company to better manage cash flow and streamline your business’s expense procedures.
- Seamless accounting integration: It integrates with accounting platforms and provides built-in policies and card controls that can be customized to fit your business’s unique needs.
- Integrated policies: You can customize card controls and built-in policies for expense and travel to fit your business needs.
- Free to use: The card, including its card management and basic expense and travel platform, is free—no need to pay for annual or platform fees.
American Express® Corporate Gold Card: Best for Frequent Travel Expenses
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Why we like it: The American Express® Corporate Gold Card is a suitable option if you or your employees travel frequently. You can earn 5% Uber Cash on eligible rides with Uber and orders with Uber Eats and enjoy travel perks, like a $100 airline fee credit, a $100 LoungeBuddy credit, and either a $100 statement credit for Global Entry or $85 for TSA PreCheck®.
Other benefits:
- Hilton HonorsTM Silver status: As a Silver member, you’ll enjoy premium perks and rewards, such as up to 10 Base Points per $1 spent, plus a 20% bonus on all Base Points earned.
- Corporate rewards earning options: You can either:
- Allow your employees to enroll in the Individual Membership Rewards® Program so that they can use the rewards they earned; or
- Enroll the corporate card into the Corporate Membership Rewards® Program to pool rewards for business use.
- Online and mobile app account access: You can access your account online to monitor transactions and set limits.
- Concur® Expense: You can access Program Optimization reports for more in-depth expense reporting, allowing you to spot spending trends and saving opportunities. To be eligible, you need to meet certain conditions—your company must:
- Have 10 or more employees
- Have spent at least $250,000 in the last 60 days during the quarterly reporting period
Citi® Corporate Card: Best for Global Businesses
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Why we like it: If your company has significant travel and entertainment expenses and requires a global presence, the Citi® Corporate Card may be a good fit. It offers global account management and servicing support, making it ideal for companies and organizations with offices around the world.
Besides that, it supports more than 65 local currency countries and 47 currencies, making it the leading local currency issuer. It is best for businesses with employees who incur approved business expenses like travel, flights, hotel stays, dining, couriers, phone bills, and office supplies.
Other benefits:
- Access to CitiManager®: This is a comprehensive expense program and cardholder management tool that allows you to easily extract spend reports, manage spend limitations, and perform other administrative functions.
- Citi ThankYou® Rewards program: You can earn unlimited points on qualified purchases with no expiry, which you can redeem for travel, hotel stays, gift cards, or use to pay at checkout in selected merchants.
- Single data repository: This feature supports over 650 data fields and consolidates global data across Citi’s self-operated markets.
Rho Card: Best for Flexible Credit Terms With Generous Rewards
Why we like it: Rho is one of the few corporate cards that offer flexible credit terms with cash back—your cash back rate varies depending on your chosen payment term, as follows:
- Paid daily: 1.75% cash back
- 30-day term: 1.5% cash back
- 45-day term: 1% cash back
- 60-day term: no cash back
What’s more, Rho is essentially free to use. It charges no annual fee, and you can add as many employee cards as you want at no additional cost. It also offers a full-service commercial banking and accounts payable system that allows you to automate your bill pay.
Other benefits:
- Partner discounts and perks: You can access more than 230,000 partners and enjoy exclusive discounts and perks.
- Seamless built-in controls: With Rho’s streamlined platform, you can set custom limits and restrictions per card, monitor spending, and integrate with your accounting system.
- High deposit limits: You have up to a $250,000 remote check deposit limit—you can request a higher limit if your company needs it.
Ramp: Best for Straightforward Rewards Program
Why we like it: Ramp card lets you earn 1.5% cash back on all purchases. It does not charge annual, setup, or replacement fees and offers advanced financial management tools with its seamless platform. It also integrates directly with a variety of accounting systems, including QuickBooks, NetSuite, Xero, and Sage Intacct.
Other benefits:
- Unlimited corporate cards: You can get unlimited virtual and physical cards at no additional costs.
- Robust controls: With Ramp’s seamless platform, you can set spending controls on every card, block certain merchants, and monitor expenses in real time.
- Higher credit limits: Ramp checks your business’s potential at every angle—you could get up to 10 to 20 times higher credit limits compared to most other corporate or business credit cards.
Brex Card: Best for Paid Daily or Paid Monthly Options
Why we like it: Brex Card can be used either as a prepaid card or a charge card because you can choose to pay your bills daily or monthly. If you choose to pay daily, you need to set up a Brex Cash account, as your expenses will be deducted directly from your Brex Cash account balance. If you prefer to pay monthly, you only need to nominate a bank account which you want to deduct your payment from. What’s more, it comes with no annual fee, so you can save on credit costs.
Other benefits:
- Lucrative rewards: You can earn reward points on your purchases as follows:
- 7x points on rideshare
- 4x points on Brex travel
- 3x points on restaurants
- 2x points on software
- 1x points on everything else
- Built-in expense management system: This feature allows you to embed company policies, access automated expense reports and AI-driven insights, and manage global spending in real-time.
- Automated compliance: The Brex platform automatically collects itemized receipts compliant with IRS or local tax laws.
The Brex Card is also one of our recommended alternatives to secured business credit cards because of its flexible payment options and generous reward program.
Coast Fuel Card: Best for Companies With Fleets & Frequent Fuel Expenses
Coast Fuel Card
BEST FOR:
Businesses with small to large fleets
- Up to 6 cents off per gallon at 5,000 gas stations and 2 cents off per gallon everywhere else
- 1% back on non-fuel purchases
Pros
- Universally accepted fleet card
- 1% cash back on nonfuel purchases
- Doesn’t require personal guarantee
Cons
- Charges monthly fees to active users
- Balance is due in full each month
- Doesn’t support cash withdrawals
- Customizable controls
- Spend reports
- Exclusive discounts from large partner networks
- Integrations with Quickbooks, Fleetio, Samsara, Geotab, Verizon Connect, Azuga, etc.
- Up to 6 cents off per gallon at 5,000 gas stations and 2 cents off per gallon everywhere else
- 1% back on non-fuel purchases
Pros
- Universally accepted fleet card
- 1% cash back on nonfuel purchases
- Doesn’t require personal guarantee
Cons
- Charges monthly fees to active users
- Balance is due in full each month
- Doesn’t support cash withdrawals
- Customizable controls
- Spend reports
- Exclusive discounts from large partner networks
- Integrations with Quickbooks, Fleetio, Samsara, Geotab, Verizon Connect, Azuga, etc.
Why we like it: Coast Fuel Card is a corporate charge card designed for companies with small to large fleets and those with frequent travel expenses. You can enjoy 2 cents off per gallon anywhere you purchase gas and earn 1% cash back on all other purchases at merchants other than gas stations.
On top of that, you can benefit from exclusive discounts and perks at partner merchants, including Casey’s, Jiffy Lube, Discount Tire, and Honk’s. Note that while it doesn’t charge an annual fee, you need to pay a monthly fee of $4 per active user.
Other benefits:
- Coast spend management dashboard: Coast offers an easy-to-use and seamless platform that allows you to onboard new users and vehicles, order new cards, and set spending controls and restrictions.
- Software discounts: Aside from partner discounts, you get exclusive discounts for selected software, including Geotab, QuickBooks, Fleet Complete, and Whip Around.
- Intuitive reports and charts: This feature lets you track expense transactions easily with its expense reports and comparative charts.
Coast Fuel Card is also one of our leading business fuel cards due to its seamless platform, robust controls, and lucrative rewards.
Emburse Spend Card: Best Prepaid Card With Unlimited Cash Back
Why we like it: If your company has sufficient cash on hand to use as working capital and you don’t want to incur debt, then consider the Emburse Spend Card, which is a business prepaid card. It offers unlimited 1% cash back on all business-related purchases, regardless of expense categories. On top of that, you get to use its streamlined expense management system, which lets you approve or reject transactions, set spending controls, and monitor expenses.
Other benefits:
- No fees: It doesn’t charge annual, monthly, and per-transaction fees.
- High load limit: You can load the card up to $100,000—if you need an increase in load limit, then you may request for approval.
- Flexible card controls: The Emburse card management platform lets you automate your expense policy, issue one-time use cards or cards with recurring monthly limits and set spending limits and expense category restrictions.
Emburse Spend Card is one of our best business prepaid cards and leading purchasing cards because of its high load limit, unlimited rewards, and streamlined cash management software.
How We Selected the Best Corporate Cards
We considered corporate credit cards that offer features that are useful for medium-sized to large companies. These include the ability to add employee cards, streamlined expense management platforms, robust controls, and seamless integrations with other business tools.
We also prioritize cards that come at a low cost and offer rewards on purchases. When choosing the best corporate credit cards for your company, make sure to consider these factors and other functionalities that work best for your unique business’s needs.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
It is typically a charge or prepaid card that can be used for business-related expenses and offers functionalities that address the needs of large businesses. These include the ability to add employee cards, set spending controls, monitor and manage expenses, and integrate with other business tools.
Corporate credit cards are ideal for medium and large businesses needing the unique benefits they offer, such as a robust expense management system, rewards on purchases, business tools integrations, streamlined platforms, and protection coverages. Your business should be structured as an LLC or corporation to be eligible for most corporate credit cards.
Corporate cards allow you to streamline your company’s expenses with its cash management platforms, robust spending controls, and seamless accounting integration. You can also keep your business and personal expenses separate because corporate credit cards don’t require a personal guarantee, meaning you won’t be personally liable for your company’s obligations. What’s more, you can take advantage of rewards and exclusive perks, which vary depending on what the corporate card issuer offers.
The main difference between a corporate card and a business credit card is the payment scheme. Most small business credit cards allow you to carry a balance with APR, whereas corporate cards are either charge cards (which need to be paid in full each billing cycle) or prepaid cards (which need to be preloaded with funds).
Both can be used for business-related purchases and offer benefits such as rewards, protection coverages, and expense management platforms. However, since corporate cards are designed for large businesses with hundreds of employees, these generally come with more robust spending controls and expense reporting tools.
Bottom Line
Corporate credit cards are great for companies wanting to keep card liability within the business entity. The best corporate credit cards are those that come with streamlined expense management and reporting tools, ongoing rewards, exclusive perks, and low fees. Make sure that your business is registered as an LLC or corporation to qualify for most corporate credit cards. You may also want to check our roundup for the best small business credit cards for other options.