Business credit cards are a great way to separate your business and personal finances as a small business. These credit cards typically come with higher spending limits than personal cards, and the best options offer tools to help you build your business.
In this article, we cover everything you should know about high limit credit cards and review some of the best high-limit business credit cards on the market today.
Are business credit card limits higher?
Business credit card limits are usually higher than personal credit card limits because a business spends more than an individual. Card issuers assess a business's creditworthiness based on its revenue, credit history, and financial stability when determining the credit limit for a business credit card. If your business has a good credit history or is bringing in a lot of monthly revenue, you may qualify for a higher credit limit.
Some business cards come with preset spending limits that can be customized for different vendors and categories. So, cardholders can spend more on eligible purchases within certain spending categories, like office supplies or car rentals, up to the predetermined limit. If your monthly expenses increase, you may be eligible for a limit increase.
What credit card has a $100,000 limit?
On our list, the Ramp Corporate Card and the Chase Ink Business Premier Preferred Credit Card offer the best opportunity to access a $100,000 credit limit. Ramp determines your spending limit based on factors like your cash-on-hands and monthly expenses, while Chase uses creditworthiness to calculate your credit limit. It’s unlikely that you’ll get a high credit limit on a traditional credit card without a high business credit score.
How to get a high limit on a business credit card
Having a strong credit score, substantial revenue, and minimal debt will let you access higher limits on business credit cards. Here’s a list of factors credit card issuers will use to determine your limit:
- Business credit history: A track record of on-time payments and responsible credit use is a crucial factor that providers use to assess your business's ability to manage credit. With a brand new business or bad credit, it’ll be difficult to get approved for higher limits.
- Personal credit score: Even for business credit cards, your personal credit score is usually considered, especially if you provide a personal guarantee. Excellent credit and minimal debt will enhance your business’s creditworthiness.
- Business revenue: Consistent and substantial revenue, along with profitability, demonstrate that your business has the means to handle a higher credit limit.
6 best high-limit business credit cards
Each business credit card comes with its own fee structure, perks, and membership rewards.
We’ve narrowed it down to the 6 best business credit card offers with high credit limits to help you make an informed choice.
How to build business credit with business credit cards
If you haven’t established any business credit, opening a business credit card can help. Once you’ve done so, the credit card company will begin reporting your activity to business credit bureaus. Over time, making on-time payments and maintaining a low credit utilization will help you qualify for a higher limit.
You can also build your business credit by doing the following:
- Offer a personal guarantee: Many lenders may require you to make a personal guarantee that if your business can’t pay its bills, you’ll personally pay the business’s credit card debt.
- Take advantage of sales-based underwriting. Ramp offers sales-based underwriting, so as long as your company generates meaningful revenue, you’ll likely be approved for an account.
- Open a secured credit card: With a secured business credit card, you’ll place a security deposit with the lender that becomes your credit limit. As long as you use your card responsibly, you’ll get your security deposit back in a predetermined time frame.
Getting your credit card is the first step. Next, it’s important to use it responsibly. Follow the tips in the section below to use your new credit card to build your credit score.
How to use high-limit business credit cards responsibly
High-limit business credit cards are effective financial tools to help you build your business, but if misused, they can harm your growth. Follow the best practices below to ensure your credit card helps your business succeed.
- Keep spending in check: Having a high credit limit doesn’t mean you should use it. In fact, a common best practice for credit cards, business or personal, is to keep your spending below 30% of your credit limit. Going above this threshold may have a negative impact on your credit score. Moreover, keeping your balance low and manageable will make it easier to pay the bill on time.
- Pay more than the minimum: Minimum payments typically only cover interest and a very small percentage of your balance. When you make minimum payments, you can expect to be in debt for a long time, paying substantial interest in the process. Instead, try to pay your credit card off each month to avoid interest entirely. If you can’t pay it off each month, always make more than your minimum payment to keep debt—and the interest that comes with it—at bay.
- Understand how payments are applied: If you have more than one business credit card, minimum payments are applied to the lowest interest balance first. When you make higher-than-minimum payments, the excess is applied to your highest interest rate balance first. This is another reason why it’s important to pay more than the minimum whenever possible.
- Stay in the know: Pay attention to your monthly statement to keep tabs on your debt load. Also, read every transaction to catch any potential fraud early. Reading over every transaction also gives you information about your spending that can help you better manage your business.
Get Ramp to access higher credit limits
Ramp is a corporate card and spend management platform that offers credit limits up to 30 times higher than our competitors. That’s because we use factors like cash-on-hand and sales data to determine spending limits, rather than looking at your credit score.
Here’s a few features you can expect from Ramp:
- Sales-based underwriting: You don’t have to have a business credit history to get Ramp. Take advantage of sales-based underwriting for easier approvals.
- High credit limits: Ramp offers credit limits that are up to 30 times higher than traditional credit cards.
- Cash back rewards: You’ll get 1.5% cashback on purchases, redeemable as a statement credit.
- Business-building tools: Ramp comes with spend management tools that help you optimize spending, ultimately helping you grow your business. You can give your employees spending power with unique rules and limits—alleviating the need for costly employee reimbursem*nt programs.
