Best Business Credit Cards in 2026
Looking for a business card? A working guide for UK limited companies and LLPs comparing rates, cashback, limits and eligibility.
The card that suits your business depends on three things: whether you clear the balance every month, which bank you already use, and whether the cash back or bonuses are the sweet spot or the lowest rates.
SMEmoney.co.uk is a platform for businesses to find funding. We are not a lender, we are not a card issuer. We introduce your enquiry to our funding partners or platform, which reaches a wide range of lenders and funding products, and the platform specialists do the searching, quoting and discussing. We serve businesses only. Limited companies and LLPs borrowing for business purposes are welcome at any amount, and sole traders and small partnerships are welcome where the borrowing is £25,000 or more and wholly or predominantly for business purposes.
Why Use a Business Credit Card
A card is the cheapest short-term funding most businesses will ever hold, provided the balance clears each month. Up to 56 days of interest-free credit costs nothing at all, and it covers exactly the gap that hurts a growing business, the one between paying a supplier and being paid by a customer.
Free credit if you clear monthly: pay in full and on time and the APR never costs you, whatever the headline rate says.
Cashback on spend you were making anyway: 1% uncapped is now the standard on no-fee cards, and higher rates apply on fuel, EV charging and trade supplies with some issuers.
Expense control across a team: employee cards with per-card limits, real-time visibility and a direct feed into Xero, Sage or QuickBooks remove most of the expense claim process.
A separate credit profile: spending and repaying on a business card builds a business credit history distinct from the director's own, which matters when you come to borrow properly.
Rates, Cashback and Limits Compared
All rates, fees, cashback rates and credit limits in the table below are correct at the time of publishing and are subject to change. Representative APRs are variable. A representative APR is the rate offered to at least 51% of successful applicants, so up to 49% are offered something higher, and your own rate, fee and limit depend on the issuer's assessment of your business. Check the current figure on the issuer's own page before you apply.
Card | Access | Rep. APR (variable) | Annual fee | Cashback / reward | Credit limit | Interest-free |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lloyds Bank Business | Lloyds Business Account required | 15.95% (14.9% purchase rate) | £32 per cardholder, waived yr 1 and at £6k+ annual spend | 1% fuel and EV charging, 0.5% other eligible spend | Up to £25,000 | Up to 56 days |
Metro Bank Business | Metro BCA, apply in branch | 18.9% | £0 | None | Up to £25,000 | Up to 56 days |
HSBC Business | HSBC BCA required | 22% (15.9% purchase rate) | £32 per card, waived yr 1 only | None | Up to £25,000 | Up to 56 days, 38 if paying by direct debit |
Santander Business Cashback | Santander 1|2|3 BCA required | 23.7% (18.9% purchase rate) | £30 per account, covers all cardholders | 1% on all spend | £500 to £25,000 | Up to 56 days |
NatWest Business | NatWest BCA required | 24.3% (16.9% purchase rate) | £30 per cardholder, waived at £6k+ spend | None | Up to £25,000 | Up to 56 days |
NatWest / RBS Business Plus | NatWest or RBS BCA | 29% | £70 per cardholder | 3% fuel and EV, 2% trade supplies, 1% travel, 0.5% other, capped £600 a year | Up to £25,000 | Up to 56 days |
Barclaycard Select Cashback | No bank account needed | 25.5% | £0 | 1% uncapped on monthly spend above £2,000 | Set on assessment | Up to 56 days |
Barclaycard Premium Plus | No bank account needed | 54.3%, inflated by the fee; underlying purchase rate around 18% to 19% | £150 per account | 0.5%, capped £400 a year | Set on assessment | 6 months 0% on purchases, then up to 56 days |
Capital on Tap Business | Any UK business account, Ltd/LLP/PLC only | 34.65%, floor 13.86%; average offered 46.05% in Q4 2025 | £0 | 1% uncapped, no FX fee | £1,000 to £250,000 | Up to 42 days |
Capital on Tap Pro | As above | 110.33% | £299 | 1% uncapped plus 1.25% on preloaded spend, Avios or Virgin Points, lounge access | Up to £250,000 | Up to 42 days |
Funding Circle Cashback | Any bank, Ltd only, 1 yr trading, £30k turnover | 34.9% | £0 | 2% for 6 months capped at £2,000, then 1% uncapped | Up to £250,000 | Up to 42 days |
Funding Circle FlexiPay | Any bank, Ltd/LLP, 1 yr trading | 0% interest, from 1.99% per transaction when spread | £0 | None | Not published | Fee-free if repaid in one instalment, else 1 to 12 months |
iwoca Business | Any bank, no minimum trading history | 35.40%, floor 14.99% | £0, no FX or late payment fee | 1% | Up to £250,000 | Up to 42 days |
Amex Business Gold | Ltd/LLP only since Jan 2026 | Charge card; Flexible Payment Option at 29.1% for new applicants | £0 yr 1, then £195 | 1 Membership Rewards point per £1, 2x on Amex Travel | No pre-set limit, moving ceiling set by Amex | Pay in full monthly |
Amex Business Platinum | Ltd/LLP only | Charge card with FPO | £650, plus £295 per supplementary card | MR points plus 10,000 bonus per £10,000 monthly spend | No pre-set limit | Pay in full monthly |
BA Accelerating Business Amex | Sole traders, partnerships, Ltd, LLP | Charge card | £250, no yr 1 waiver | 1.5 Avios per £1, plus 10,000 bonus Avios per £20,000 spend up to 30,000 a year | No pre-set limit | Pay in full monthly |
Pros and Cons of Business Credit Cards
Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Cost of borrowing: if you clear the balance every month the APR is irrelevant and the card is effectively free credit for up to 56 days. Bank cards are also genuinely cheap to revolve on by card standards, with Lloyds at a 14.9% purchase rate and HSBC at 15.9%. | Cost of borrowing: the open-access cards are expensive if you carry a balance, with representative rates of 34% to 35% on the fintech cards. . |
Access and speed: the fintech cards need no change of bank and can issue a virtual card on approval, and iwoca will look at businesses with no trading history at all. Soft-search eligibility checks are widely available so you can test approval without a footprint. | Access: all five high street bank cards, Lloyds, HSBC, NatWest, Santander and Metro Bank, require you to already hold a business current account with them, so if you bank with Starling, Tide or Monzo the cheapest rates are not available. Applications usually mean a hard search on both the personal and the business credit file, visible to other lenders for 12 months. |
Limits: the fintech cards go far beyond what a bank will offer, with published ceilings of £250,000 at Capital on Tap, Funding Circle and iwoca. Amex charge cards have no pre-set limit at all. | Limits: the five bank cards cap at £25,000 per card with no exceptions, and the advertised ceiling is not the opening offer. A limited company with £200k turnover and clean credit might see £5,000 to £15,000, a sole trader on £50k turnover more like £1,000 to £5,000. |
Rewards: 1% uncapped cashback is now the market standard on the no-fee fintech cards, and Funding Circle opens at 2% for six months. Fee-paying cards can pay for themselves at volume, with Amex Gold earning roughly £360 in points on £3,000 a month against a £195 fee. | Rewards: many are capped or conditional. Barclaycard Premium Plus caps cashback at £400 a year, NatWest Business Plus at £600, and Barclaycard Select pays nothing on the first £2,000 of monthly spend. Amex is not accepted as widely as Visa or Mastercard in the UK, so most businesses end up holding a second card as well. |
Control and admin: employee cards with per-card limits, real-time visibility and direct sync to Xero, Sage or QuickBooks remove most of the expense claim process. Spending on the card also builds a business credit profile separate from the director's own. | Control and admin: the platforms that do this well are priced per user, so cost scales with headcount rather than spend. Most business cards require a personal guarantee, making the director personally liable if the business cannot pay, and Section 75 generally does not apply to unregulated commercial agreements, leaving only voluntary chargeback. |
Eligibility for limited companies: a limited company with a year of filed accounts and clean credit has the run of the market, and can hold a low-rate bank card alongside a high-limit fintech card. | Eligibility for everyone else: sole traders have the fewest options. Capital on Tap, Funding Circle, iwoca and Moss exclude them, and American Express closed Business Gold and Platinum to sole traders and partnerships in January 2026. Newer businesses face higher rates, lower limits and more paperwork. |
Choosing the Right Type of Card
The market splits into four structures that behave very differently, and the choice is driven by whether you need to carry a balance rather than by the reward on offer. Revolving credit cards let you carry a balance and charge interest on whatever you do not repay. Charge cards must be cleared in full every month. Flexible payment products sit between the two, spreading a purchase for a flat fee rather than interest. Spend management platforms are software with a card attached, sold on subscription.
A Closer Look at Your Options
Revolving Credit Cards This is the standard product and the only one that lets you carry a balance from month to month. You get a set limit, an interest-free window of up to 56 days on purchases, and a rate that applies to anything you do not clear. It suits businesses with lumpy income, where the supplier invoice lands before the customer pays and the balance genuinely needs to roll. The gap between issuers here is wide enough to matter: on a £5,000 carried balance the difference between a 15% and a 35% rate runs to roughly a thousand pounds a year. The catch is that the cheapest rates are almost all locked behind a business current account with the issuing bank, so your existing banking relationship decides your realistic shortlist before rate enters the picture.
Charge Cards A charge card gives you the same interest-free float but no ability to carry anything, because the full balance is collected by direct debit each month. It suits businesses that clear monthly anyway and want the discipline plus the rewards, and the reward programmes here are the strongest in the market. There is a risk most guides skip: missing a payment on a charge card does not just cost interest, it can suspend the account that pays your suppliers, and reinstatement can carry a fee. Before you commit, be confident your account can always cover the full balance on collection day, in the month a client pays you late.
Flexible Payment Products These let you spread a specific purchase over a fixed period, typically one to twelve months, for a flat percentage fee rather than interest, and they are often fee-free if you repay in one instalment. They suit a business with an identifiable large purchase to spread rather than a general need for revolving credit, and the cost is transparent because it is a stated fee on a stated amount. They are not a substitute for a card, since there is usually no revolving line and no cashback programme, and they generally require at least a year of trading.
Spend Management Platforms These are expense software with physical and virtual cards attached, built for teams issuing multiple cards. You get per-card spend rules, automated receipt capture, transaction coding and a live feed into your accounting software, which removes most of the month-end reconciliation work. The trade-off is that the cost is a per-user subscription rather than a rate, so it scales with headcount rather than with spend, and the underlying card is often a charge or prepaid product rather than a credit line. Worth it above roughly five active cardholders, hard to justify below that.
The Tax Position
Interest and fees on a business credit card used wholly for business purposes are generally an allowable business expense, and cashback is usually treated as a reduction in the cost of the underlying purchase rather than as income, though the treatment depends on how the card is structured and used. Mixing personal spending onto a business card muddies all of this and can breach the card's own terms. Your own position depends on your accounts and your structure, so please speak to a qualified accountant before relying on any of it.
The SMEmoney Process
Start the enquiry: request a quote or apply through SMEmoney, giving as much or as little detail as you have to hand.
Details passed on: your information is passed securely to our funding partner.
Platform invite: you receive an invite to the funding platform.
Fill in the picture: you add more detail there, including your turnover, trading history and what you need the facility for, and you see the quotes and options that fit your profile. The more complete the picture, the more tailored the result.
A specialist call: a funding specialist calls you to talk the options through properly.
Your decision: you decide whether to proceed, and your chosen application goes to the provider.
Approval: full acceptance, documents, and your facility going live.
Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly is SMEmoney? We are an introducer for businesses. We are not a lender, not a card issuer, not a broker, and not FCA authorised. We introduce your enquiry to our funding partner platform, which reaches a wide panel of lenders and funding products. Using our calculators and our introduction service is free to your business, because we are paid by our funding partner rather than by you.
Who can you actually help? Limited companies and LLPs borrowing for business purposes, at any amount. Sole traders and small partnerships where the borrowing is £25,000 or more and wholly or predominantly for business purposes. We cannot help with anything for personal, household or consumer use, and we cannot help sole traders or small partnerships borrowing under £25,000.
Which card is best? There is no single answer, and we do not advise, so we cannot pick one for you. The three questions that decide it are whether you clear the balance monthly, which bank you already hold a business account with, and what structure you trade as. Work through those in that order and the field narrows quickly.
Are the rates on this page the rates I will get? No. They are the issuers' published representative and headline rates at the time of publishing, and they are subject to change. A representative APR is the rate offered to at least 51% of successful applicants, so a meaningful minority are offered more, and floor rates advertised as "from" are often well below what a typical applicant is actually offered.
Do I need a business bank account? For most high street bank cards, yes, and specifically an account with that bank. Barclaycard and the fintech issuers do not require an account with them, though most still want to see a UK business current account somewhere. If you bank with a challenger, expect several of the cheapest cards to be unavailable to you.
What limit will my business get? Less than the marketing page suggests. High street bank cards generally cap at £25,000 per card, and the fintech cards publish ceilings up to £250,000 but set the actual figure algorithmically on turnover, trading history and credit profile. A limited company with a couple of hundred thousand in turnover and clean credit commonly opens somewhere between £5,000 and £15,000.
Will I have to give a personal guarantee? Frequently, yes. Most business cards require one from a director or a significant shareholder, which means the balance is personally backed even though the card is in the company's name. Read that clause in the credit agreement before you sign it, not after.
How quickly can a card be in place? The fintech issuers can give an instant decision with a virtual card available immediately. A high street bank card usually takes from a few working days to a couple of weeks, depending on the bank and how quickly you return documents. Treat any timescale as indicative and confirm it with the issuer.
Can a new business get one? Sometimes. Most issuers want six to twelve months of trading, though at least one fintech will look at businesses of any age. Expect a higher rate, a lower limit and a personal guarantee. It is not guaranteed and some new businesses will not be approved anywhere.
Is a card the right tool at all? Not always. If the need is a one-off asset purchase, asset finance or a term loan will almost always be cheaper than revolving on a card. Cards earn their place on short-term working capital, distributed team spend and the gap between paying suppliers and being paid. If you are carrying a balance month after month, that is a sign the underlying need is a facility rather than a card.
Does Section 75 protect my purchases? Usually not on a limited company card, because Section 75 only covers regulated credit agreements and most company cards are unregulated commercial agreements. Where it does not apply, your recourse is chargeback through Visa or Mastercard, which is a voluntary scheme rather than a statutory right and carries different time limits.
Does it cost anything to enquire? No. Our calculators and our introduction are free to your business. Any fees charged by a provider or by our funding partner will be set out to you before you sign anything, and you are free to walk away at any point.
