Best Small Business Credit Cards for Legal Consulting Firms
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 legal consulting firm, a different type of card may fit your situation better than another.
We’ll cover the top small business credit cards for legal consulting firms, how to qualify for the card you want, and why a credit card makes sense for you and your company.
Recommended: Visit Divvy to apply for their easy-approval business credit card for legal consulting firms and get a decision within days.
Top Small Business Credit Cards for Legal Consulting Firms
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 legal consulting firms. If you know your credit isn't stellar, check out our Top 4 Cards For Building Credit.
Gas Rewards
Being in the legal consulting business often requires that you spend a lot of hours on the road and a lot of money refueling. A gas rewards card offers business owners a higher rate of cash back for fuel purchases when compared to other cards that feature standard cash back rates.
However, some gas rewards cards only offer cash back benefits at specific gas stations. To maximize your savings, make sure that you can conveniently use the card at eligible stations.
AMERICAN EXPRESS SIMPLYCASH PLUS
Ideal for: Business owners who don’t travel overseas but have sizable fuel, cellular, and office supply expenses, and who would appreciate the ability to occasionally spend over their limit.
This card also offers 3% cash back on a category of your choice, including gas stations, for the first $50,000 per year. After hitting this limit, the cash back falls back down to 1%.
This card’s 0% intro APR offer lasts nine months, and American Express issues all cash back rewards as a statement credit—two key factors you should consider as you decide which card is best for your business. Finally, this card carries a 2.7% foreign transaction fee, making it a costly choice if you have a lot of international expenses.
REWARDS AND BENEFITS (TERMS APPLY)
- 0% intro APR on purchases for the first 9 months after opening an account
- 5% cash back at U.S. office supply stores and U.S. wireless telephone services, up to $50,000 per year (then 1% afterward)
- 3% cash back on a category of your choice (e.g., U.S.-based gas stations, restaurants, shipping services), up to $50,000 per year (then 1% afterward)
- 1% cash back on other purchases
- Ability to buy over your credit limit
FEES
- No annual fee
- No balance transfer fee
- No cash advance fee
- 2.7% foreign transaction fee
Airline Miles & Benefits
Many legal consultants need to be on call to better serve their clients. If you fly often to keep up with your appointments, you may benefit from using a business credit card that offers a higher rate of cash back on travel purchases. The more often you fly, the more cash back you can earn each year.
In addition to cash back rewards, many of these business credit cards offer additional perks like travel upgrades, discounts on hotels, and special rental car pricing. You can even find cards that offer fraud protection and insurance for your personal items as well.
CAPITAL ONE SPARK MILES FOR BUSINESS
Ideal for: Business owners who don’t travel regularly and have a steady cash flow to pay their full balance each month.
Capital One offers an attractive package of rewards and benefits that helps you earn miles quickly and protects your business purchases. It also provides extremely flexible rules for redeeming miles across multiple travel categories, and your miles won’t expire while your account remains active. However, with high cash advance and penalty rates, you’ll need to be able to pay down your balance every month or risk incurring steep additional charges.
REWARDS AND BENEFITS (TERMS APPLY)
- One-time bonus of 50,000 miles—equal to $500 in travel—once you spend $4,500 on purchases within the first three months of opening an account
- Unlimited 2x miles per dollar spent on all purchases with no blackouts, seat restrictions, or minimum to redeem
- Zero fraud liability and automated fraud alerts via text, email, or phone
- Free employee cards
- Redeem miles on flights, hotels, and vacation packages—or transfer miles to one of Capital One’s 10+ travel partners
- Purchase protection for eligible items in the event of theft or damage within 90 days of purchase
- Free additional warranty protection on eligible purchases, up to one year past the manufacturer's warranty
- Visa SavingsEdge: Allows you to save up to 15% on eligible purchases at participating merchants (e.g., 12 percent off HyperOffice, a cloud collaboration service; 10% off Standard Legal, a do-it-yourself legal document service; and 5% off hotel rooms at La Quinta Inns & Suites)
- Downloadable purchase records
- Auto rental damage waiver
- Travel and emergency assistance services
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)
0% Introductory Rate
A 0% intro APR card can help you make some of the big purchases that you need to boost profits. You could use your card to buy computer hardware and software, online advertisements, and other essential items to reach new customers. After you’ve increased your revenue, you can pay the card balance off before your purchases accrue interest.
The 0% APR intro period for most cards lasts 12 months, but this can vary. Check the terms of your card to be sure that you can pay the balance off before interest starts to accrue.
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.
