4 Best Business Credit Cards With No Personal Guarantee
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The vast majority of business credit cards require a personal guarantee, which allows creditors to go after your personal finances to recoup unpaid debt. If that’s a risk you aren’t willing to take, a few business cards are available without a personal guarantee.
These cards come with their own tradeoffs — you may not be able to carry a balance or maximize rewards, for instance. Consider other business credit cards for those perks. But if limiting personal liability is your priority, here are our picks for cards without a guarantee.
Best business cards with no personal guarantee
The following business cards do not require a personal guarantee, provided you meet other requirements, including revenue and minimum years in business. Most of these cards are available to only incorporated businesses, leaving few options for sole proprietors.
Ramp Card
Best overall business card with no personal guarantee
The Ramp Card is easier to obtain than other business cards available without a personal guarantee — you don’t need professional funding, for example, or several million dollars in annual revenue. But the cash-on-hand requirements are still steep: You need at least $75,000 in a business bank account to qualify. If you can meet Ramp’s requirements, you’ll get unlimited cash-back rewards and card-level spending controls with no annual fee.
Ramp is a charge card, so you can’t carry a balance. Instead, anything you charge is automatically debited from your business account on the same day each month. Read our review.
Rewards: Earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on all purchases.
Welcome bonus: None.
Annual fee: $0.
Additional perks: Spending controls, forecasting tools and automatic receipt matching.
Brex Card
Best for generous rewards with no personal guarantee
The Brex corporate card offers a welcome bonus and a generous, but complicated, rewards structure. Brex cards come in two varieties: paid daily or paid monthly. There’s no option to carry a balance. The paid-daily version comes with a Brex business account, making it more akin to a debit card. To qualify for monthly payments, you need professional investors and a business account balance of at least $50,000 ($1 million if you're self-funded). Read our review.
Rewards: Earn points on every dollar spent with industry-leading multipliers: 7x on rideshare, 4x on Brex Travel, 3x on restaurants, 2x on software subscriptions and 1x on all other transactions. Earn 3x Brex Rewards points on all eligible Apple purchases through the link or your Brex dashboard.
Welcome bonus: Get 10,000 points when you spend $3,000 on a Brex Card within your first 3 months.
Annual fee: $0.
Additional perks: Deals and discounts at various vendors that startups may find appealing, including Amazon Web Services, Apple, QuickBooks and more.
Sam’s Club Business Mastercard
Best wholesale club card with no personal guarantee
Incorporated businesses that meet certain criteria — including having more than two years in business and at least $5 million in annual sales or revenue — can get the Sam’s Club Business Mastercard without a personal guarantee. Though this card offers rewards, including up to 5% back on gas, they are earned as Sam’s Cash and can be used only at Sam’s Club.
Rewards: Up to 5% back on gas, 3% on dining and takeout and 1% on other purchases.
Welcome bonus: Receive a $30 statement credit when you make $30 in Sam’s Club purchases in the first 30 days from opening your account.
Annual fee: $0.
Additional perks: Sam’s Plus members earn an extra 3% back on Sam’s Club purchases (on top of the 2% earned with your Plus membership).
Charity Charge Nonprofit Business Card
Best no-guarantee card for nonprofits
Charity Charge is available to nonprofits and other entities with tax-exempt status, provided your organization has been operating for at least five years and generates $100,000 or more in annual revenue. Organizations operating for at least two years can qualify with annual revenue of at least $500,000. (Nonprofits that don't meet either criteria can apply for a secured business credit card with Charity Charge.) This is a charge card, so your balance must be paid in full each month.
Rewards: Automatic rebates on travel, fuel, business services and more at participating vendors via Mastercard Easy Savings.
Welcome bonus: None.
Annual fee: $0.
Additional perks: 24/7 customer support via phone or email.
NerdWallet rating 5.0 /5 | NerdWallet rating 5.0 /5 | NerdWallet rating 4.6 /5 |
Annual fee $0 | Annual fee $150 | Annual fee $0 |
Regular APR 18.49%-24.49% Variable APR | ||
Intro APR 0% intro APR on Purchases for 12 months | Intro APR N/A | Intro APR 0% intro APR on purchases for 12 months from the date of account opening |
Recommended credit score | Recommended credit score | Recommended credit score |
Who can get a business credit card with no personal guarantee?
Large businesses and smaller companies with high cash reserves and significant revenue can often get a business credit card with no personal guarantee. These attributes indicate that a business is in a strong financial position to pay off its credit card debt, taking on the role played by the personal guarantee.
Why are personal guarantees on business credit cards necessary?
Businesses are risky bets for credit card issuers. About 20% of new businesses close within a year, and just 34.7% make it to their 10-year anniversary, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Personal guarantees help mitigate the risk that issuers take on when extending credit to your business.
Drawbacks to business cards with no personal guarantee
You can minimize personal risk by getting a business card that doesn’t require a personal guarantee, but there are definite disadvantages.
For starters, these cards are typically corporate credit cards, which are available to only incorporated businesses with strong annual revenue and a healthy bank balance (think $20K or more in a business checking account). And many are charge cards, meaning you must pay your balance in full each month.
Business credit cards that don’t require a personal guarantee also don’t offer the same generous welcome bonus and cash back or travel rewards that you see with a traditional business card. If your personal credit is strong, consider applying for a cash back business credit card to earn rewards or one with a 0% annual percentage rate period for some flexibility with your cash flow.
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