Business credit cards offer solo entrepreneurs, partnerships and large corporate organizations a wide array of benefits that can help them to maximize their spending. These include cash-back rewards, travel benefits and, most importantly, a safety net for unplanned expenses. We’ve ranked the best business credit cards in Canada, so you can start maximizing your margins.
When determining a rating for individual credit cards, the Forbes Advisor Canada editorial team factors in an exhaustive list of data points. With business cards, the scoring model used takes into account factors such as, but not limited to, annual earnings, earn rates in various business purchase categories, welcome bonus and other rewards and benefits. Keep in mind, what may be best for some people might not be right for you. Conduct informed research before deciding which cards will best help you achieve your financial goals.
The CIBC Aeroplan Visa Business Plus Card is a premium travel card for business owners with a generous welcome bonus and plenty of travel perks.
Rewards: Get 2 points per dollar spent with Air Canada, 1.5 points per dollar spent on travel, transportation, dining and business services and 1 point per dollar on all other purchases.
Welcome Offer: Earn 10,000 Aeroplan Points on your first purchase, 20,000 points on $3,000 in eligible purchases during the first four months and 30,000 points for spending $35,000 in the first year.
Annual Fee: $120
Other Benefits and Drawbacks: For $120 in annual fees (waived the first year), you will also receive four guest passes to Air Canada’s Maple Leaf Lounge and free checked bags for primary cardholders, secondary cardholders and up to eight travel companions for Air Canada flights. This card covers most travel insurance benefits except emergency medical care, so you will need to pay extra for this while travelling.
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With a high earn rate, generous welcome bonus and valuable travel benefits, the TD Aeroplan Visa Business Card is a great option for small business owners looking to maximize rewards on their everyday business expenses and save on travel costs.
Rewards: Earn 2 points for every dollar spent on eligible purchases made directly with Air Canada® including Air Canada Vacations®, earn 1.5 points for every dollar you spend on eligible purchases for travel, dining and select business categories such as shipping, internet, cable and phone services made on your card and earn 1 point for every dollar you spend on all other eligible purchases on your card.
Welcome Offer: Earn a welcome bonus of 10,000 Aeroplan points when you make your first purchase with your new card, an additional 20,000 Aeroplan points after spending $5,000 in the first three months of account opening and earn up to 10,000 Aeroplan points by setting up new recurring bill payments (maximum two). This offer is not available to residents of Quebec. † Terms and conditions apply.
Annual Fee: $149
Other Benefits and Drawbacks: Cardholders can collect points twice on purchases with Aeroplan partners and earn 50% more points at Starbucks.The $149 annual fee is a bit more steep than other comparable cards, but you get additional travel insurance categories like emergency medical care, hotel/motel burglary and emergency travel assistance. Mobile devices are also automatically insured up to $1,000 for loss, damage, theft or mechanical breakdowns.
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The CIBC Aventura Visa Card for Business Plus is the ideal choice for those who can benefit from additional bonus categories for fuel and transportation services.
Rewards: Collect 2 points for every dollar spent on travel purchases through the CIBC Rewards Centre, 1.5 points for every dollar spent on fuel, travel and transportation services and 1 point per dollar on all other purchases.
Welcome Offer: Get 25,000 Aventura Points when you make your first purchase and 35,000 points for spending $35,000 during the first year.
Annual Fee: $120
Other Benefits and Drawbacks: In addition to high earn rates on fuel, travel and transportation, primary cardholders can pool points from business and personal accounts to boost earning potential. While this bonus category is capped at $80,000 in annual spending, you can have 15 additional cardholders to maintain the momentum on the base rate.
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The CIBC Aeroplan Visa Business Card is best suited for business owners who incur expenses on shipping, cable, internet, phone services, travel and dining.
Rewards: Earn 2 points per dollar spent with Air Canada, 1.5 points per dollar spent on business services, travel and dining and 1 point per dollar on everyday purchases.
Welcome Offer: Get 10,000 Aeroplan Points for the first purchase, 20,000 points when you spend $3,000 in the first four months and 30,000 bonus points after spending $35,000 during the first year.
Annual Fee: $180
Other Benefits and Drawbacks: This card offers strong earning potential on common business expenses and one of the lowest interest rate options on the market. That said, annual fees are $180 and cardholders must make at least $35,000 in personal annual income to apply.
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The CIBC Aventura Visa Card for Business offers a basic rewards structure with decent returns on fuel and a range of travel and transportation services.
Rewards: Get 2 points for every dollar spent on travel with CIBC Rewards Centre, 1.5 points per dollar on travel, gas and transportation services and 1 point per dollar for all other purchases.
Welcome Offer: Receive 25,000 Aventura Points for your initial purchase and an additional 35,000 points for spending $35,000 during the first 12 months.
Annual Fee: $120-$180
Other Benefits and Drawbacks: The primary bonus category earns 1.5 points on an extensive list of travel and transportation purchases that drops to the base rate when you hit $80,000 in a calendar year. Aventura lets you apply points as statement credits, but the redemption value falls flat compared to booking flights that cover the full cost of airfare, fees and taxes.
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The Scotia Momentum for Business Visa Card allows cardholders to increase returns on eligible business expenses and recurring bill payments.
Rewards: Collect 3% cash back on fuel, dining, office supplies and recurring bills and 1% on everyday purchases.
Welcome Offer: 2.99% interest rate on balance transfers for the first six months (19.99% after that).
Annual Fee: $79
Other Benefits and Drawbacks: Cardholders will collect 3% on eligible expenses up to $50,000 per year. After that, all purchases will earn 1% cash back. Travel benefits are limited to emergency medical coverage and rental car collision loss/damage. However, frequent travellers will benefit more from a point-based system or a cash back card that includes travel rewards.
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The Business Platinum Card® from American Express is a good fit for regular business travellers with bigger budgets to cover the $799 annual fee.
Rewards: Earn 1.25 points per dollar on all purchases.
Welcome Offer: Earn up to 120,000 bonus Membership Rewards® points. Earn 80,000 Membership Rewards® points after spending $15,000 the first 3 months. Plus, earn 40,000 points after making a purchase between 14 and 17 months of card membership.
Annual Fee: $799
Other Benefits and Drawbacks: This card has no pre-set spending limit and comes with $100,000 employee misuse protection for each additional cardholder. The high annual fees are offset with enhanced travel insurance and exclusive access to flight discounts, hotel upgrades and over 1,300 airport lounges. You can choose a flexible payment option that has a regular APR of 20.99%-28.99%, but the Due In Full balance charges you 30% APR for delinquent payments.
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The Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite Business Card eliminates the pain of foreign transaction fees, saving cardholders at least 2.5% on international payments.
Rewards: Earn 1.5 points per dollar on eligible business purchases.
Welcome Offer: Collect 30,000 Scene+ Points on $5,000 in eligible purchases made in the first three months and 10,000 bonus points after spending $60,000 during the first year.
Annual Fee: $199
Other Benefits and Drawbacks: On top of eliminating foreign transaction fees, cardholders will receive six lounge visits per year and access to Visa Infinite concierge services, luxury hotels, restaurant venues and the Visa Infinite wine program. All purchases earn a flat rate of 1.5 Scene+ Points. This is a pretty decent return, but other cards with similar earn rates offer transferable points and higher redemption values.
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The American Express® Aeroplan®* Business Reserve Card may be worth the $599 annual fee for heavy travellers who can squeeze the value out of its premium features and rewards.
Rewards: Earn 3 points per dollar on Air Canada purchases, 2 points per dollar on hotels and car rentals and 1.25 points per dollar on all other purchases.
Welcome Offer: Receive 65,000 Aeroplan points after spending $10,500 in purchases on your Card within the first 3 months, Plus earn an additional 25,000 Aeroplan points when you spend $3,500 in purchases in month 13 (90,000 total points).
Other Benefits and Drawbacks: In addition to generating Aeroplan Points, cardmembers receive premium travel insurance and priority privileges for check-in, boarding, baggage handling, standby, airport upgrades and security. The only drawback beyond the hefty annual fee is that American Express cards aren’t as readily accepted by Canadian retailers.
Data research and analysis by Tia Duncombe and Debra Toews.
A business credit card is a credit card meant to be used by a business for business expenses, rather than by an individual for personal expenses. It is essentially a revolving credit line that a business owner and any authorized employees can use, pay off and then use again when they need to make a purchase for the business but don’t have the cash immediately to do so. A business credit card allows businesses to purchase the things needed to foster success in the business and gives the business owner the time they may need to be able to pay for it.
Business credit cards can raise a business owner’s personal credit score because it allows them to separate their business expenses from their personal expenses. Business credit cards can also make adding authorized users easy because you can often add more people than you would be able to with a personal credit card for free, rather than paying the typical authorized user fee that comes with a personal card. Plus, you don’t have to be a traditional business to get one, sole-proprietorships also count. You will also find that rewards and earn rates are more lucrative than personal credit cards and you will likely have a higher credit limit on a business credit card than you could ever qualify for with a personal one.
A small business owner can get a business credit card as well as the heads of major departments in larger corporations. It may not seem like it initially, but even a person who does business under their own name and works for themselves can qualify as long as they can demonstrate that their business generates income as a sole-proprietorship and that they can manage a credit card responsibly by paying off the balance regularly.
Business owners should get a business credit card if they want to separate their business expenses from their personal expenses. If they want to qualify for more lucrative rewards and benefit from higher earn rates for the business expenses they’d be paying for anyway and if they want to establish a credit history for their business to increase their borrowing potential for larger loans, commercial mortgages and business lines of credit.
They should also get a business credit card if their employees have regular expenses that they purchase on the business’s behalf. It releases the business owner of having to purchase everything themselves and yet they can still monitor what’s being purchased and more easily keep track of their business expenses.
There are different types of business credit cards an applicant can get depending on the type of business they need it for. The two most common variants of business credit cards are the following:
Small business credit cards typically allow for a smaller number of employees to be authorized users and come with expense tracking support that is limited to one online banking platform (similar to what you might see with most personal cards). They typically qualify for a smaller or mid-size credit limit compared to corporate cards, gain rewards on more typical office expenses only, such as office supplies and some recurring bills like internet or cable. The biggest variable though is the fact that the small business owner is liable for paying off any debt, interest and fees. Also, it is the business owner (considered the primary cardholder) who gets any rewards from the credit card account.
Corporate credit cards allow for much higher credit limits, higher earn rates in expense categories when collecting rewards and enterprise solutions when it comes to expense tracking. Corporate credit cards also allow for many more authorized users at no additional fee and it’s the company that’s responsible for any debts, fees or interest payments, not the individual cardholder or business owner. Also, in the case of rewards redemption, it’s the company that keeps the rewards, not the business owner or even any individual cardholder.
If you’re in the market for a business credit card to help pay for your business expenses, you may be wondering how to choose one. Thankfully, there are several common variables you can compare against each other to find the business credit card that’s right for you.
It may be easier to qualify for a business credit card than you may think. Sure you will need to show that you have a business, based in Canada, that generates income. However, your business doesn’t necessarily have to have a long, extended credit history or any credit history at all to qualify because the personal credit history of you, the business owner, will also be taken into account.
That being said, this means your personal credit score will likely be taken to account and there will be cards you will and won’t qualify for based on the credit score range the credit card issuer requires. Depending on your credit score, there may be certain credit cards you may want to apply for and some you may want to avoid. The same goes for income requirements, some cards look for a certain level of annual business income before they will grant you access, so use income requirements as a point of comparison as well.
Just like personal credit cards, business credit cards can come with annual fees. A point of comparison for anyone looking for the right business credit card could be how much that fee is on an annual basis. Just like with personal credit cards, the higher the annual fee, the greater the number of perks and the higher the rewards, but, also like personal credit cards, there are some business credit cards available in Canada with no annual fee, so that could always be an option if you’re looking to keep costs reasonable.
Probably the biggest factor to consider in choosing a business credit card are the interest rates, especially if your business is likely to carry a balance often. Plus with interest rates — whether it be for purchases, balance transfers or cash advances — there also come fees. Balance transfers usually carry a fee that’s 3% of the balance and if you’re buying a lot of items from other countries, you have to be mindful of the 2.5% rate that usually comes with foreign transactions. Plus, cash advances carry fees for performing them that’s usually the greater of $10 and 5% of the amount you are receiving in advance. Depending on your business needs and spending capacity, you may be looking for business credit cards with lower interest rates to save costs.
Just like with personal credit cards, different business credit cards can come with different credit limits depending on the business’s credit score and whether its a credit card for a sole-proprietorship, an incorporated business or a corporation. Of course, credit is not an exact science, so different issuers will likely offer more or less credit according to the particular alchemy of criteria that makes up your business’s application status. As a business owner, you are well within your rights to shop around to different issuers according to the credit limit they can offer your business.
A secondary consideration when selecting a business credit card, over and above interest and fees, is always rewards and benefits. Typically corporate cards will have access to more rewards than those offered to small businesses, but even as a small business, rewards and benefits vary by card. You may want to look at what your business spends money on most and try to find a credit card that has a high rewards earn rate within that purchase category.
If your business requires you or employees to travel frequently, you probably will want to select a card that gives a lot of travel rewards and has travel insurance options like emergency medical or trip interruption and trip cancelation. Rewards can make getting a business credit card in the first place truly worth it, so they are a huge consideration when comparing business credit cards.
If you need an enterprise solution for expense tracking, you’re likely searching for a corporate card, but what an issuer offers within their small business credit card portfolio can still matter, especially because business credit cards often have the purpose of making your life easier as a business owner when it comes to tracking your expenses. If this is why you’re in the market for a business credit card, then expense tracking tools will be a huge consideration for you. Of course, not all expense tracking tools are created equal, so what kind of tool you need and its various capabilities will be a large reason you select one business credit card over the other.
Just like with a personal credit card, business credit cards have application requirements, except those requirements are usually more extensive. After passing the basic qualifications to be eligible, you’ll be asked your minimum personal income, your minimum household income, your minimum business revenue and, in some cases, your minimum assets under management. They will then ask if you are one of the three types of businesses listed below:
Once you answer what kind of business you are, you will be asked information about your business, including what kind of business it is, whether it operates outside of Canada, whether it deals any prohibited goods and whether it is an import/export business, among other things. The application will then likely switch to you as the business owner, including where you live, whether you rent or own your home and your personal income. Once all that is done, you will be asked to go over the business credit card issuer’s terms and conditions and the details of your application before hitting “submit.”
To qualify for a business credit card, you must be a legal resident of Canada and the owner of a for-profit business operating there. Your business must also be currently operating and you must not have declared bankruptcy in the last seven years. You must then meet certain household income, a certain personal income, a certain amount of business revenue and/or a certain amount of assets under management.
You then can’t be dealing in certain prohibited goods, doing business in certain industries and operating in certain countries. The specifics can be found in the application itself. Plus, the income and revenue thresholds are also outlined on the application and determined according to the criteria outlined by the business credit card issuer.
There are several pros and a few cons that come with having a business credit card that you should be aware of before applying for one.
There are several ways to take advantage of a business credit card and maximize its benefits, rewards and overall potential:
If you’re a small business, you should only get as many credit cards as you can keep track of as far as where the money is going and when a payment is due.
For most small business owners, this is about one to three credit cards. If you are a mid-size business perhaps you can handle getting more credit cards, but only get as many as will benefit you and the business. Some business owners keep themselves organized by using an island approach where different business expenses are paid for using different business credit cards, especially if those cards have a high earn rate for rewards on that particular purchase category.
Of course, more credit cards may mean more rewards, but it also means more potential to get into debt, so whenever you or your business take on more credit, use caution and stay disciplined about your spending.
The purpose of a business credit card is to build a credit profile for future borrowing and separate business expenditures from personal expenses.
Approval for a business credit card is mainly based on your personal credit score. Most business cards require good or excellent credit — a credit score of 690 or higher.
You can build your business credit several ways, but to build it the fastest open a business bank account, apply for a business credit card with a low credit limit, use that credit card responsibly by paying off the balance in full every month and then apply for more credit as your business grows and your needs change. These don’t just have to be more credit cards, but business loans and commercial mortgages to help you diversify your business’s credit portfolio.
Yes. You can use your personal credit card for business expenses, but it’s not recommended for several reasons. The first being that paying business expenses on your personal credit card makes business expenses harder to track. Not only that, it makes it harder to track the expenses of any employee that works for you. If you run a corporation, personal credit cards come with weaker legal and liability protections than corporate cards. In addition, you may be missing out on more valuable benefits and rewards specifically tailored to the needs of businesses and business owners. For example, many business credit cards offer higher reward earn rates for office supplies and dining out because the issuers know you’ll be making those purchases as a business owner anyway and they want to reward you for your frequent spending in those categories. Plus, personal credit cards do not build a business’s credit history.
Credit card issuers typically require applicants to provide gross annual revenue from the previous year. In the absence of revenue, issuers might accept personal income and sales projections.
Getting a business credit card may be easier than you think, especially if you’re a sole proprietor as your personal income is considered in your application. You may only be asked to provide your trade name registration, if you have one. If you’re a corporation, you’ll be asked to provide additional documentation, such as articles of incorporation, trade name registration, annual report, etc.
Each financial institution has its own applications requirements, but one of the factors that goes into qualifying for a business credit card is your credit score, and the Business Platinum Card from American Express only requires a fair/good credit score. However, that card comes with a $799 annual fee.
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