Friday, January 13, 2012

Business Secured Credit Cards

There are only a few banks that offer business secured credit cards, in fact, there is not a single major bank in the US that does so. The main reason is they are not profitable for the bank, & it is far more expensive to document business credit knowledge to the credit reporting agencies. Whether correct or not, the banks assume that you have poor personal credit & you are likely to never take advantage of their more expensive & profitable services.

Options to Business Secured Credit Cards

Personal Credit Card

There's some options as most business do need the ability to buy airfare, hotels, rental cars, & other services where a check card does not work well. Here are a few ideas that may work for you:

In the event you search around & look at the various programs available, you will find some secured cards that have excellent terms & offer lots of reporting features. This is helpful when you need to manage business expenses as lots of these cards even categorize expenses for you. Where feasible, you ought to try to get the secured card at the same bank your business accounts exist. Some people have luck getting a business banker to convert these in to a non-secured business credit card after as tiny as year.

When you are beginning out with a brand spanking new business, there is tiny chance you will ever get any credit without a personal guarantee. With that in mind, there is actual difference between a business secured credit card as well as a personal. The difference is the business, if it existed, would not document to your personal credit file & would presumably document to the business. From an accounting or tax point of view, it does not make a difference. option is to get a personal secured card & use it exclusively for business expenses.

Build Business Credit

Unfortunately, this option will document to your personal credit file. However, keep in mind that up until around ten years in business, everything will document to your personal credit file. The days of obtaining credit on the business name alone went away with the recent recession.

This won't be much help today, but it is never early to start thinking about your business credit file. One time you build credit & more importantly build a relationship with a bank, your chances of obtaining a traditional business credit card go up dramatically. In addition, building business credit is not impossible & with a few tips you can have a business file within a few weeks.

one. Ask your vendors for net 30 terms on every single purchase you make. They tend to only think about revolving credit, but somebody that extends you credit for even a day, is a creditor. Plenty of companies document this to the credit agencies. In the event that they do not permit net 30 terms, report you are trying to build your business credit file & ask for help. Often a business will work something out with you; perhaps 50% upfront & the remainder net ten or something similar. It doesn't matter as long as they are extending you some credit.

two. Receive a business phone line. This is a sure fire way of getting a business credit file created. Regrettably, this cannot be a virtual line so either put a traditional phone line in your home or office.

three. Convert your cell rings to business lines. Most mobile phone companies have a program for this & it is usually painless. You may must offer a personal guarantee, but in case you are an existing customer this should not be a controversy.

four. Apply for store credit cards. Plenty of of the massive office supply stores have credit card programs that are simple to get. The key to these is to make sure you have an actual business phone line before you apply. The limits are usually tiny, but they don't require a personal guarantee & update to all the credit reporting agencies.

Summary

There are plenty of other ways to go to build credit, but none are very effective these days. There was a time that you can buy an aged shell corporation & have business credit the very next day. However, this is no longer the case & the aged shell corp route is ineffective. By following the above tips, within around year you may get some offers in the mail, but you ought to be very cautious as they will mostly if not need a personal guarantee.

While secured credit cards for business doesn't exist at any mainstream bank, you can use the above methods to help manage your business finances & pay for items & services that are not available with a check card.

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