Personal Business Cards » Small Business Credit

How to Manage Business Credit Card Debt Properly

admin — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 03:46:58 +0000

Starting up a business involves expenses. For most new entrepreneurs, a loan is a must in order to get the business started. Aside from business loans, additional support may be necessary in keeping up with the production and operating costs. Small business credit cards often provide this much-needed financial assistance to business owners.

Why Get a Business Credit Card Debt

Some people may be skeptical about obtaining cards for business because they are afraid that credit cards may lead to uncontrolled spending and debt. However, business credit cards can be great tools not only in keeping a steady cash flow but also in separating your business and personal finances. With the help of business cards, monitoring your expenses is also a lot more convenient and easy. How can you get the most from your business credit card? How can you avoid credit card debt?

Obviously, proper management and control is needed to avoid the risk of card debt. For instance, some entrepreneurs may be prone to charging their personal expenses on their business credit card but such a habit can easily lead to uncontrolled debt. As a business owner, you need to make sure that your business credit card is exclusively used for official business purposes.

Submitting your credit card payments on time is also crucial if you want to stay away from trouble. It could be tempting to pay only the minimum due even if you have the cash to pay your balances in full. But carrying over your balances from month to month also means paying for the additional interest charges. Thus, to avoid unnecessary costs, make it a point to completely pay off your charges each month.

Business Credit Card Debt Consolidation

But what if you’re already stuck in card debt? What can you do about it? A business owner has two options to solve this problem. One is by acquiring a debt consolidation loan to pay off all existing balances and stop the interest rates from accumulating further. By combining his credit card debts into a single loan, the interest rate is reduced and monthly payments are significantly lowered.

Another way is by getting a balance transfer credit card with low interest or zero interest. This would enable you to pay off all the balances you transferred at a low rate or zero interest. However, take note that the 0% APR is only applicable for a limited time, so you must take advantage of this opportunity by completely paying off all the debts you’ve transferred within the zero interest period.

Any of these two card consolidation options can work but in order to be effective, a business owner needs to ensure that he/she can pay bills without a single delay or miss. It would also be wise to avoid incurring new debts while still working on your repayment. Finally, once you’re done with your repayment, you need to a lot more careful about using your business cards to avoid falling in the same debt trap again.

By: Pamela Williams

Small Business Credit Cards in Today’s Recession

admin — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 11:45:21 +0000

Today’s recession has had an impact on personal and business credit cards. Over the past 1-2 years many any people are receiving letters from their credit card lenders informing them of an increase in interest rates or a decrease in the credit limit.

Small business credit cards can be an additional source of financial income. They also help in keeping other lines of credit open. Using this type of credit card can ensure that suppliers are paid on time while giving the business an interest-free period (float) in order to obtain enough money to pay off the credit card debt. As the recession has begun to deepen, businesses have found that obtaining credit cards for their business has become much more difficult.

The worst thing a new business owner can do is to use their own personal credit card to finance their business purchases. This makes it very difficult to separate business and personal finances, but also makes the individual responsible for the debt of the business. Not a good thing!

Some businesses are using business even credit cards to pay their tax bill, which is tempting as it avoids any fines for late payment. There is however a fee for doing so. Usually, this fee is significantly lower than the penalty would be for not paying taxes on time.

There are still plenty of opportunities out there for small businesses who have good credit record to take advantage of their business’ credit cards. Even though lenders are stricter in their acceptance criteria than in previous years, you should not give up. Before applying for credit make sure that you meet all the requirements for acceptance. Every time your credit is check, the credit score goes down. As a result, only apply for cards when you feel confident that you will be accepted.

By: Ron Lerman

Credit Cards for Small Business

admin — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:43:41 +0000

When you decide to start a small business, you find out pretty quickly that it takes more than skills and dedication in your respective area of work. Besides being good at what you want to do, you also need to known your accounting and financing issues, no matter how annoying and boring these may be. And the credit card problem for small businesses needs careful handling, just like that of a regular, personal credit card.

Choosing the right type of credit card is vital for the success of a small business. Even if you don’t have access to a corporate credit card, a small business card can be a major tool on the path to success. When you apply for a small business credit card, lenders will analyze your request from a variety of points of views. While their evaluation of the risk may vary according to various local factors, they will all take into account the “five Cs”: capital, capacity to make the payments, collateral, conditions and character.

Capital, meaning your personal investment in the business, outlines not only the size of the business, but also how much risk you are willing to take. Balance risks carefully – too much means you will be rated reckless, too little, and the lenders may think you are not serious about this. The capacity to repay the loan is, of course, critical for the lender and will be carefully analyzed. The collateral or the guarantees will show that you have a backup plan for returning the loan, in case things go wrong. The conditions represent the general situation in your geographical area and your respective line of business – mostly things that you cannot control (but you can make them look better in carefully planned business plan). Last but not least, character is the impression you make on the lenders – how trustworthy and business-oriented you appear to them.

If you take all these into account, your application is more likely to be successful right from the start. Of course, you also need to consider, carefully, which type of business card suits your needs.

Many small businesses rely on cash flow to pay for suppliers or contractors, because they need to purchase materials and services before their own clients pay up. You need to calculate the difference between the date when you purchase the materials and the date when the clients pay you back. If this is shorter than 30 days, go for a card that doesn’t charge you interest for the respective period. If it is two, three months or longer, go for a low interest card.

Also, you should think of how often you will have to travel for business-related purposes, and how a special type of credit card can help you with this, or how you will handle unprepared emergency situations that hustle small businesses constantly.

Some of the offers for credit cards for small business include Blue for Business Card – no annual fee, 0% intro APR for the first 9 months, credit line of up to $50,000 or Blue Cash for Business Credit Card – up to 5% cash rebate, no annual fee, 0% APR for up to 15 months. Advanta Platinum with Rewards, featuring cash back bonus, offers 0% intro APR for balance transfers, up to 50,000 credit line and various types of rewards for the things you buy most often (gas, office supplies and so on), bonus miles or cash back.

The CitiBusiness card has 0% APR for purchases for the first 6 months, no annual fee, a generous credit line and additional cards for the employees, with a credit limit set by you. The Platinum Business Credit Card from American Express has no annual fee and 0% APR for the first nine months on purchases and balance transfers.

Other options include Business Green Rewards Cash – no fees for the first year and no pre-set spending limit, and the Business Cash Rebate from OPEN: the Small Business Network, with up to 5% cash rebate, no annual fee, 0% APR for the first six months, no limit for cash back and no minimum spending requirements.

By: Jeremy Zongker

Small Business Credit Card Fraud

admin — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 01:52:42 +0000

An easy and short definition of small business credit card fraud states that it is a fraudulent transaction that is conducted by stolen small business credit card or stolen card information. Such fraud usually results in illegitimate purchase of goods and services.

A sophisticated definition of small business credit card fraud defines it (sometimes referred to as Credit Fraud) as an illegitimate operation using personal or small business credit cards or card information that is used for paying for the fraudulent transaction. The ultimate objective of such transaction is buying products without actually paying for them or illegally transferring funds to the account.

If you think that you are a victim of small business credit card fraud, the first thing you should do is report to your card issuer and even block your card, if necessary.

In USA out of $1 trillion that consumers have available on their cards only $2-3 billion is estimated to be fraud loss. This makes a tiny fraction of one percent that may seem that alarming. However the consequences of fraud may be extremely disturbing for the victims. Although in USA victims are insured towards financial loses, however the costs are the inconvenience, higher interest rates and fees by which banks cover losses.

There are several ways how credit thieves get access to victim’s account to get engaged in credit fraud and use available cash for fraudulent purposes. Card thieves can:

1. Steal victim’s card (including stealing from the mail box)

2. Stealing victim’s credit card information (looking over the shoulder, examining victim’s trash, looking at personnel records in an organization)

3. Taking over victim’s account (through false e-mail, unauthorized telephone conversation)

Internet is a main source of credit fraud. When a customer makes a purchase through Internet, a sales person does not have possibility to physically inspect the small business credit card; therefore he/she relies on provision of credit card information by mail, phone or online form. This creates a fertile ground for credit fraud, since delivery companies are not required to check identification of the receiver of the good. The only thing that merchant can do is that he/she may require delivery of goods to the address approved by cardholder. Besides small transactions are not controlled if fraudulent transactions are conducted carefully, their detection becomes less likely.

By: Elliot Clark

Business Credit Card Applications

admin — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 06:37:13 +0000

If you’re thinking about starting up a new business, that’s great! You’re going to want to get your business plan running, and if you don’t have enough money, you’re going to want to get a line of credit as well. Just like a personal credit card, you’re not going to want to spend more than what you can afford, because you’re just looking for disaster!

So, if you’re looking to apply for a business credit card, I’m going to show you what you should look out for, when you’re looking for the perfect small business credit card.

Look at the rewards – The main thing that I look for when it comes to business credit are the rewards. Since I don’t spend that much and I love getting something for what I spend, I love getting rewarded for using my card. I’ll exchange my points for things such as airline tickets, hotels, and gift cards. It’s well worth it.

The fees – If you’re going to use this card a lot, you’re going to want to find a card that has no fees. A card with higher fees may be worth it if you use it a lot, but when I say use it a lot, I’m talking six figures a year. Those reward based cards are great, but can hurt you in the fee department. I recommend a fee-free card, but it’s up to you.

When it comes to applying, this is all I recommend. I know it sounds simple, but that’s about it. There are cards out there. Go out there, and apply to see what you can get!

By: Tom Tessin