Best Small Business Credit Cards for Italian Ice Businesses
Moving your expenses to a small business credit card is one of the best ways for your company to start getting more out of every dollar spent. Depending on the size and scale of your Italian ice business, a different type of card may fit your situation better than another.
We’ll cover the top small business credit cards for Italian ice businesses, how to qualify for the card you want, and why a credit card makes sense for you and your company.
Recommended: Visit BILL to apply for their easy-approval business credit card for Italian ice businesses and get a decision within days.
Top Small Business Credit Cards for Italian Ice Businesses
Depending on your business’s expenses and cash flow, you should be able to use the different reward systems strategically to maximize the benefit to your bottom line.
Note: In most cases, small business credit card applications are based on your personal credit score. Be sure to know if you qualify before you apply for a new card.
These are the top three cards available right now for Italian ice businesses. If you know your credit isn't stellar, check out our Top 4 Cards For Building Credit.
Cash Back
Cash back cards allow business owners to earn cash back for every purchase made with their business credit card. You can use your card to make most of your business purchases, including inventory, kitchen supplies, insurance, and fuel. The more you use the card each month, the more money you’ll get back in cash rewards.
Most cash back cards offer a 2% flat rate of cash back on purchases. For example, if you were to make $50,000 worth of purchases in a year, you would get $1,000 cash back. Many small businesses use these essential credit cards to make most, if not all, of their monthly purchases to maximize the card’s benefits.
CAPITAL ONE SPARK BUSINESS
Ideal for: Business owners who want the highest rewards for the least amount of effort, and who don’t mind an annual fee.
Talk about straightforward: You earn 2% cash back on all purchases—and without any spending caps. There’s also a nice early spend bonus that eclipses the $95 annual fee that kicks in the second year.
REWARDS AND BENEFITS (TERMS APPLY)
- Early-spend bonus of $500 after you spend $4,500 within three months of opening an account
- 2% cash back on all purchases
- Free employee cards
- Quarterly and annual spending reports
FEES
- Waived annual fee for the first year, then $95.
- No balance transfer fee.
- No foreign transaction fee.
- 3% or $10 cash advance fee (whichever is greater per transaction).
No Annual Fee
If you don’t plan to use a credit card very often but still want the security of having a line of credit available if you need it, a no-annual-fee card might be a good option for you. Some popular business credit cards that offer robust rewards programs also come with an annual fee — an expense that might be difficult to justify if you aren’t going to make many purchases with the card and earn those rewards.
Some no-annual-fee cards do actually offer rewards to cardholders, but they aren’t usually as generous as cards that come with a fee.
AMERICAN EXPRESS BLUE BUSINESS PLUS
Ideal for: Businesses that don’t run up a lot of expenses and don’t travel overseas.
The Blue Business Plus card is perfectly suited for freelancers and new owners. That’s because its 12-month 0% intro APR offer works well for those with irregular cash flow. The double points for the first $50,000 spent aren’t bad, either.
One drawback: A rather steep foreign transaction fee. At 2.7%, it’s one of only two on this list. A foreign transaction fee charges you for every purchase that has to pass through a foreign bank. What perks do you get for this charge? Nothing. So, avoid foreign transactions when possible, because it’ll cost you.
REWARDS AND BENEFITS (TERMS APPLY)
- 0% intro APR for 12 months
- 2x points on business purchases, such as office supplies and client dinners
- 2x points per dollar spent on the first $50,000 for every calendar year, 1x point per dollar spent after that
- Spend Manager: Use the American Express mobile app, which helps add receipts and notes to transactions
- Up to 99 employee cards for free
- Spend beyond your credit limit
- Exclusive access to ticket pre-sales and cardmember-only events in your city
- Complimentary ShopRunner membership: Provides two-day shipping at participating retailers
- American Express personal loans: Apply for a pre-approved loan of $3,500 to $25,000
- Access to Quickbooks to label and transfer your transaction data from American Express
FEES
- No cash advance fee
- 2.7% foreign transaction fee
- 3% or $5 balance transfer fee (whichever is greater per transaction)
0% Introductory Rate
A business credit card with a 0% introductory APR period makes it easy to finance big-ticket purchases that you need right now to bring in more revenue. You could use a 0% intro APR card to buy new kitchen equipment that would allow you to make more Italian ice and increase your profits. Once you start bringing in more revenue, you can payoff the card’s balance before your interest-free introductory period ends.
Remember that every 0% APR card has a specific introductory period. This period usually lasts for 12 months, but term lengths can vary between lenders. So, be sure to verify your intro period length to avoid paying hefty interest fees on your purchases.
AMERICAN EXPRESS BLUE BUSINESS PLUS
Ideal for: New business owners, and those with irregular cash flow, who don’t travel overseas.
This card’s 0% intro APR offer lasts 12 months, one of the longest on this list. That makes it an ideal card for brand-new businesses and those whose cash flow is temporarily unpredictable.
What is predictable: If you use this card overseas, you’ll pay an extra 2.7% foreign transaction fee, which is a surcharge if your purchase passes through a foreign bank. Unlike, say, annual fees that are often offset with upgraded rewards and benefits, you get nothing but the fee for your trouble. If you travel out of the country for business, this isn’t the card you should use.
REWARDS AND BENEFITS (TERMS APPLY)
- 0% intro APR for 12 months
- 2x points per dollar spent on the first $50,000 of every calendar year
- 2x points on business purchases like office supplies and client dinners
- 1x point per dollar spent after that
- Spend Manager: American Express mobile app. Helps add receipts and notes to transactions
- Get up to 99 employee cards for free
- Spend beyond your credit limit
- Exclusive access to ticket pre-sales and cardmember-only events in your city
- Complimentary ShopRunner membership: Provides two-day shipping at participating retailers
- American Express personal loans: Apply for a pre-approved loan of $3,500 to $25,000
- Access to Quickbooks to label and transfer your transaction data from American Express
FEES
- No annual fee
- No cash advance fee
- 3% or $5 balance transfer fee (whichever is greater per transaction)
- 2.7% foreign transaction fee
Cards For Multiple Uses
Most businesses start with one card that fits their largest need and transfer most or all of their expenses to that card. Once you get to a certain size, however, it may make sense to have different cards with specific rewards programs catering to the different types of expenses you have. Most larger businesses use multiple cards to optimize for rewards.
Remember, you aren't limited to just one credit card, just be careful not to overextend yourself for unnecessary purposes.
How to Qualify for Small Business Credit Cards
Unless your business has a positive credit history of its own, your eligibility will be based on your personal credit rating. If you have a new or existing business that has never had a credit card or loan before, it’s likely that your business has no credit history.
Since your personal credit will be measured when you apply for a business credit card, it’s wise to have a good idea of what your credit score is.
If you don’t know your credit score, check out our article: How To Find Your Credit Score.
Once you have your score you can make a decision on which card to apply for. If you have good, great, or excellent credit, then go for one of the cards at the top of this article! If your credit isn’t quite there yet, check out our article: What Business Credit Card Can I Get With My Credit Score?
The great thing about credit scores is that they can be improved over time! We have a great article on the Best Business Credit Cards To Build Credit.
A rejected credit application can have a negative effect on your credit score, so act with responsibility and make careful decisions when deciding to apply.
Recommended: Learn How to Build Business Credit to help establish your business's fundability, get lower interest rates on loans, higher lines of credit, and sign up for all of this in your business's name, instead of yours.
Why You Should Get A Small Business Credit Card
There are many reasons why a company would want to have a business credit card. Depending on the type of business you operate, the strategies you employ may be different than one another, but we will describe the basic benefits of small business credit cards.
Separates Personal And Business Expenses
No matter the size of your company, you should keep all of your business finances separate from your personal finances. This means paying any bills you have in the business from a business account and paying for all personal expenses from a personal account.
This separation accomplishes two main tasks:
- Simplified Accounting - Keeping your accounts separate will allow you to fully understand the numbers of your business. If you have personal dollars in a business bank account or vice versa, it will be more difficult to understand how much you are spending, how much your revenue is, and therefore, your bottom line.
- Prevents Commingling - Commingling funds is one of the most basic and damaging errors a small business can make. Separating your funds, along with operating your business in a structure such as an LLC, will create your corporate veil. A corporate veil works to keep your personal assets safe if your business is ever sued.
There should never be a reason to mix your business and personal money, even if you run a small sole-proprietorship. The risks are too great, and there are no benefits.
Before you get a small business credit card, if you haven’t opened a business checking account for your company, you should do that right now.
Recommended: Read our Best Banks for Small Business review to find the best national bank, credit union, business-loan friendly banks, one with many brick-and-mortar locations, and more.
Smooths Inconsistent Cash Flow
Some businesses, such as those with long sales cycles, can often go a few months without revenue, then see a large spike when a sale is finalized.
While it’s exciting to see large numbers come in all at once, it can be stressful in the meantime to pay bills, salaries, and other expenses with little to no income.
Credit cards offer business owners the ability to spend money that they haven’t made yet, capitalizing on future sales right now.
While you absolutely need to be careful about spending money you don’t have, this is a method that businesses can use to keep the doors open between sales cycles.
Credit Card Rewards
There are two main types of business credit card rewards: cash back and travel rewards.
Cash Back Rewards
There are multiple ways a small business can get the most out of cash back rewards programs.
For each dollar that your small business spends with these credit cards, you can get some money back. Some cards even have higher rates for specific purchases.
For example, businesses that do a lot of road travel can maximize their driving costs with a card that offers cash back on gas purchases.
Other businesses may require a lot of office supplies and can find a cash back or points program that rewards them for these costs or others like telecommunications, advertising, shipping, and more.
Finally, most cash back cards offer a flat percentage rate back on general purchases.
Travel Rewards
On the other hand, businesses that fly to visit conferences, do on-site visits with clients, or any other activities that usually involve airline trips or hotel stays can benefit from general or brand-specific travel rewards.
These usually come in the form of points or mileage rewards, where for every dollar you spend, miles you fly, nights you stay, or any other qualifying action you take, you’ll get rewarded. These build up and can be spent on upgrades, free nights and flights, and more.
Finally, there are typically premium versions of these cards that cost more in terms of annual fees but have more luxurious rewards such as access to airport lounges, events, and activities most people wouldn’t have access to.
