Secured Business Credit Cards

Bank of America doesn’t offer secured business credit cards, only unsecured ones. But you don’t necessarily need a business card, you can use the BankAmericard® Secured Credit Card for business expenses instead.

Otherwise, a good alternative is the Wells Fargo Business Secured Credit Card, for which you can apply even with bad credit.

No, there aren't any Capital One secured business cards. The only Capital One secured card is the Capital One Secured for consumers.

Among Capital One's business cards, the Capital One® Spark® Classic for Business is the easiest unsecured Capital One business credit card to get. Small business owners with fair credit or limited can get approved. The other offers require at least good credit. The Spark Classic has a $0 annual fee and gives 1% cash back on all purchases.

If you have bad credit, the Capital One Secured, while a consumer card, is still an option for small business owners. It's good for building credit, due to its $0 annual fee. The card offers a minimum credit limit of $200 and requires a security deposit of $49, $99 or $200, depending on the specifics of your credit history. You may add money to your security deposit to increase your credit limit.

But if you'd rather have a secured business credit card, there are some available from other issuers. Some of these have the added advantage of offering business-specific features such as free employee cards with individual spending limits and more. So check out our editors' picks for the best secured business credit cards.

The biggest pros and cons of secured business credit cards are the chance for a business owner to rebuild damaged credit (on the upside) and the lack of serious spending power without an equal deposit (on the downside). There are not many secured business credit card offers to choose from, either.

All in all, secured business credit cards do offer an opportunity for business owners to rebuild their credit. But outside of some business-specific rewards and features, secured business credit cards don’t offer much that a regular secured credit card doesn’t also offer. The bottom line is, if you’re a business owner and can’t find a secured business credit card that meets your needs, don’t skip the consumer secured credit card options - they may be able to fit your business needs just as well.

Pros and Cons of Secured Business Credit Cards:

Secured business credit cards provide a solution for business owners who need a card for business expenses and also want to fix their credit. But they’re not the only available solution that fits the ticket. Consider general-consumer secured credit cards if you want more variety.

Consumer secured credit cards tend to have lower minimum deposits than secured business cards, while having similar fees and benefits. A business credit card isn’t required for business expenses. And there are far more consumer secured cards to choose from.

No, there is no secured business credit card from American Express. Amex doesn’t offer secured consumer credit cards either. In fact, the easiest American Express credit cards to get require at least good credit for approval.

Amex is not the end of the road for those who want a secured business credit card, however. The Wells Fargo Business Secured card is one of the best options. It gives 1.5% cash back for every $1 spent, and it charges a $0 annual fee. The minimum deposit is $500, and whatever amount you deposit becomes your credit limit. It’s also one of the only secured business cards that reports to the business credit bureau Dun & Bradstreet. That can help if you’re trying to build your business’s credit history, though business credit reports aren’t as influential as personal reports.

Secured business credit cards are an option for business owners with bad credit or limited credit history. But business owners don’t need to get a secured business credit card for company expenses. You’ll find lots more secured credit card offers for individuals than businesses. Personal secured credit cards also generally come with lower minimum deposits than secured business cards, and the best ones have no annual fee.

The best secured consumer credit card out right now is the Discover it Secured card because it has no annual fee and gives 1 - 2% Cash Back on purchases. And all the cash back you earn in the first year will be doubled. Considering many secured credit cards don’t even offer rewards, it’s a nice cherry on top.

Secured business credit cards can report to some business credit bureaus to build business credit, but some don’t report directly to business bureaus. And much like unsecured business credit cards, each card issuer has their own policy about what they report to personal credit bureaus. For example, the Wells Fargo Business Secured Credit Card does not report to personal credit bureaus, so it won’t build personal credit. On the other hand, it reports business credit information to the Small Business Financial Exchange, which then licenses that information to business credit bureaus.

Most people with secured credit cards are using them to rebuild damaged credit. If you want a secured business card to build your business credit, it’s advisable to call and ask about the card issuer’s business credit reporting policy. Keep in mind that business credit is built differently than personal credit, and you may need to take extra steps to effectively build credit for your business.

On the other hand, if you are looking to rebuild your personal credit score with a secured business credit card, you should call the card issuer to make sure they report to personal credit bureaus. Or just use a general-purpose secured credit card.

All of the secured business credit cards currently available build business credit, including the Wells Fargo Business Secured Mastercard, the BBVA Compass Business Secured Credit Card, and the Metro Credit Union Secured Business Credit Card. All three suggest on their websites that they make information available to business credit bureaus and help build business credit.

Building business credit is different than building personal credit. The major business credit bureaus - Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, and Equifax - compile information about businesses differently than credit bureaus do about consumers. So there may be additional steps to take in order to build business credit, such as opening a business bureau credit file for your business, or encouraging your vendors to report your payment information to business bureaus.

It’s worth noting that business credit scores aren’t nearly as important as personal credit scores as far as getting approved for business funding, trade credit accounts, and credit cards. But if you want to build business credit, secured business credit cards can help.

All secured business credit cards can build credit quickly if you always pay the bill on time and keep your credit utilization low. There are two types of credit that a secured business credit card could build, however, and it may not address both equally. Secured business cards can help build business credit, but they don’t all build personal credit.

Much like unsecured business credit cards, each secured business card issuer will have their own consumer credit reporting practices. Some may not report to consumer agencies at all. So, business owners looking to rebuild damaged personal credit may want to consider a secured credit card branded for personal use. They work just as well to separate business expenses from personal expenses; they all report to consumer credit bureaus; and there are far more consumer secured cards available than business ones.

It’s also important to remember that business credit scores aren’t built the same way as personal credit scores. Building a business credit score may require more effort, and business credit scores don’t matter nearly as much as personal credit scores when it comes to securing business funding or credit cards. So, secured business credit cards generally can help build business credit, but that isn’t always as helpful as you might think.

Small business credit cards without a personal guarantee are very rare. A representative of the company almost always has to agree to personally pay any balances the business cannot. Large corporations with tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue can get corporate credit card accounts using their assets as collateral. And there are a handful of outliers available to smaller companies, half of which work only at specific gas station chains. But most small business owners will have to give their personal guarantee to get a business credit card. When you apply for most major business credit cards, you will have to list your own Social Security number as well as your company’s Tax Identification Number. The terms and conditions will state that both you and your business are liable for balances. And the issuer will review your credit history, as well as that of your company, before making a decision.

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The only secured business credit card that reports to D&B is the Wells Fargo Business Secured Mastercard. It offers 1.5% cash back on all purchases, charges an annual fee of just $25 and requires a security deposit of at least $500.

There are just two other secured business credit cards available right now: the BBVA Compass Business Secured Visa and the Metro Credit Union Visa Secured Card. Those two report to the three major consumer credit bureaus – Experian, Equifax and TransUnion – but not to D&B, at least not directly. Dun & Bradstreet often incorporates information from the other bureaus’ reports.

Here’s what you should know about secured business credit cards that report to D&B:

• 1 of the 3 available secured business credit cards reports to Dun & Bradstreet: Wells Fargo Business Secured Mastercard.
• All major secured credit cards report to the three consumer credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.
• D&B, Experian and Equifax are the three major business credit bureaus.
• Dun & Bradstreet reports are geared more to credit agreements with vendors, bank loans and annual revenue data.
• Your personal credit history is much more important than your business’s credit history when it comes to getting approved for a business credit card.
• Small business owners are personally liable for debt on nearly all business credit cards.

Although opening a credit card is the easiest way to build credit personally, it’s not as efficient with business credit. 

If you want to build business credit, your first step to be to register for a D-U-N-S Number from D&B. This will get you on Dun & Bradstreet’s radar, at the very least. You should also open a business bank account using your Employer Identification Number. That will help establish a financial identity for your company that’s separate from you as an individual. And then you need to ask your vendors to report your payment history to D&B using your D-U-N-S. 

That’s at least what Dun & Bradstreet recommends. Tracking so-called trade credit is one of the most important things business credit reports do that personal reports don’t.

Chase does not offer secured business credit cards, but other credit card companies do. For example, the Wells Fargo Business Secured credit card has a low annual fee of $0 with a minimum deposit of $500. And the BBVA Compass Business Secured credit card actually waives its $40 annual fee for the first year you have the card (the minimum deposit is $500).

That said, you don’t necessarily need a business credit card to use for your business. There’s no law against using a regular, personal credit card for business expenses. And there are lots more options for personal secured credit cards than there are for secured business credit cards, so you might find a better deal.

If you get a secured personal card instead of a secured business card, you’ll generally have a lower annual fee and lower minimum deposits. For example, if you get the Capital One Secured Mastercard, there is a chance your card could be partially secured – meaning you’ll only need to deposit a fraction of the credit line up-front.