Best Secured Business Credit Cards

You need a credit score of 700 or higher to get the best business credit cards. Although the top business credit cards usually require at least good credit for approval, there are still options for small business owners with fair, limited, or bad credit. In other words, you can get a business credit card with pretty much any credit score, though the most attractive offers are reserved for the most creditworthy applicants.

Note that your personal credit score will still be taken into account, even though you’re applying for a business credit card. The higher your personal score is, and the more income you have relative to your debt, the better your chances of approval will be.

Popular Business Credit Cards by Credit Score Requirement

In general, good-to-excellent credit gets you access to the biggest sign-up bonuses, the highest ongoing rewards rates, and lots of options with no annual fee. People with lower scores will most likely have to choose between low fees and other perks.

Credit card companies rely on personal credit to evaluate business credit card applications because personal credit histories are usually longer. Therefore, they tend to be more predictive. Most credit card companies also consider a business owner’s personal finances to be intertwined with the business. That’s often true, since personal savings are the top source of start-up capital for new businesses.

The best business credit cards for bad credit help small business owners with credit scores below 640 save money while building credit. Very few business credit cards for bad credit are available at any given time, but there are personal credit cards for poor credit that business owners can consider as well (some cards may be from WalletHub partners). Below, you can check out WalletHub’s favorite credit cards for business owners with bad credit, which were selected from 1,500+ business and consumer credit card offers due to their reasonable approval requirements and solid terms.

It’s important to point out that using a personal credit card for business does not increase a business owner’s personal liability, as business credit cards hold users personally liable for unpaid balances, too. In addition, secured credit cards are the best type ofcredit card for business owners with bad credit because they give you control over your credit limit and have low fees. Secured credit cards also report information to the major credit bureaus each month, so on-time payments will help you build the kind of credit needed to qualify for a really good business credit card down the road.

Best Business Credit Cards for Bad Credit (February 2023)

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Secured business cards are always your friend. It saves you when you're financially in distress. But the thing is that you just have to be diligent in paying your obligation. And the company where you bought your item is assured that it gets paid still even if you failed to settle your obligation. But if you want to build your credit score, just pay your obligation on time. so Simple. The Bible says, "Owe no one anything except to love."- Romans 13:8. It doesn't mean that you don't incur any debt, but it means you pay your obligation on time.

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.

First National Bank of Omaha and Bank of America are among the banks that offer secured business credit cards. However, it is worth noting that secured business credit cards are pretty rare. Banks are far more likely to offer general-consumer secured cards or unsecured business credit cards.

Banks That Offer Secured Business Credit Cards

Even though there are so few banks that offer secured business credit cards to small business owners with bad credit, that doesn’t mean those are the only options. Standard secured cards like the OpenSky® Secured Visa® Credit Card can also work for business owners with a personal credit score of 300 or little-to-no borrowing experience.

Whether you’re approved for a secured business credit card or a consumer card, it’s important to pay your monthly bill on time and keep your spending in check. As long as you practice this type of responsible card use, you should be able to qualify for better business credit cards in the future.

No, Chase does not offer secured business credit cards, but other credit card companies do.  For example, a good secured business card is the Business Advantage Unlimited Cash Rewards Secured credit card, which has a $0 annual fee and offers 1.5% cash back on all purchases. This card requires a minimum deposit of $1000. 

What you can get instead of a secured business credit card:

Keep in mind that 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. Plus, there are lots more options for personal secured 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 Platinum Secured Credit Card, 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.

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.