Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Finding Your Top Alternative to a Chase Secured Business Credit Card

If you’re a business owner who’s looking to build credit and who also happens to bank with Chase, you might be asking yourself, “Is there such thing as a Chase secured business credit card?”

The short, simple answer to this question? Well, no.

But even though there’s no Chase secured business credit card, you’ve still got some pretty stellar choices for building credit or spending with a Chase business credit card. Unfortunately, you just can’t have both.

Ready to explore your very best alternatives to a Chase secured business credit card?

Let’s check and see what they have to offer:

TL;DR: Finding Your Top Alternatives to a Chase Secured Business Credit Card

Even though Chase doesn’t offer a secured business credit card—a card meant for building credit, whose credit limit is secured by a refundable security deposit—you’ve got a lot of great alternatives to choose from.

If you’re hoping to build credit, you should consider spending with the Spark Classic—an unsecured business credit card available to business owners with a personal credit score of 550 or above—or the Capital One Secured MasterCard—a secured personal credit card that will help you build credit so that you can access an unsecured business credit card in the future.

If you want to work with Chase specifically, you can look to their Ink Business suite. Their two Ink business credit cards are the Ink Cash—which will reward your spending with cash back—and the Ink Preferred—which will reward your spending with rewards points that are redeemed at their highest value for travel.

What Is a Secured Business Credit Card?

First thing’s first, if you’re not familiar with the concept, you might be wondering what a secured business credit card even is.

Before we dive into your top options as alternatives to a Chase secured business credit card, let’s tie down exactly what we mean when we talk about a secured business credit card.

Essentially, a secured business credit card is a credit card whose credit limit is secured by a security deposit. This security deposit—which usually ends up being 90% to 100% of your credit limit—mitigates much of the risk that a credit card issuer takes on by extending your business a credit line.

chase-secured-business-credit-card

Because of this lessened risk, secured cards are much easier for business owners with less-than-stellar credit to qualify for. And this makes the secured cards the perfect opportunity for business owners to build or rebuild their credit history.

One complication that you would want to keep an eye on? Even when you apply for business credit cards, the main qualification that card issuers will take into consideration is still your personal credit score.

As such, we recommend that any business owner—even if they want to improve their business credit card options—build credit using a personal secured credit card.

Your Top Alternatives to a Chase Secured Business Credit Card

So, your first step toward finding your perfect alternative to a Chase secured business credit card is asking yourself why you were hoping for a Chase secured credit card in the first place.

Perhaps you’re looking to build credit in order to improve your future, unsecured business credit card options. Or, maybe you’re looking to do your business spending specifically with a Chase business credit card.

Either way, you’ve certainly got some great cards to choose from.

Depending on what brought you to want a Chase secured business credit card in the first place, let’s take a look at your top alternatives:

For Building Credit, Try the Spark Classic or the Secured MasterCard

For starters, you might have started your search for a Chase secured business credit card with the intentions of building credit in order to access better business credit card offers in the future.

Luckily, even though a Chase secured business credit card doesn’t exist, you’ve still got some pretty great options to choose from for building credit.

Let’s take a look at the very best credit cards for business owners who want to improve their credit:

The Capital One Spark Classic

The Spark Classic is the very best unsecured business credit card that’s available to business owners with average credit.

If you have a personal credit score of at least 550, you’ll be able to access the Spark Classic. And with it, you’ll not only gain an opportunity to improve your personal credit—Capital One will report your activity on the Spark Classic to personal credit bureaus—you’ll also gain access to an unsecured credit limit to free up your business’s cash flow.

Even better?

You’ll earn unlimited 1% cash back for every dollar you spend with the Spark Classic, so you’ll be earning as you improve your credit by spending responsibly with this card.

To top it all off, you can access everything the Spark Classic offers for no annual fee at all.

The Capital One Secured MasterCard

Don’t quite have the personal credit score to qualify for the Spark Classic or any other unsecured business credit card?

Not to worry—you’re just one step away from the more lucrative business credit card offers in your future.

The most efficient way to get your credit score to reach that 550 threshold? Spend responsibly with a personal secured credit card.

chase-secured-business-credit-card

The best personal secured card out there is the Capital One Secured MasterCard. This secured card offers up some of the most flexible and transparent terms available.

With the Secured MasterCard, you’ll be able to enjoy the following freedoms:

  • A security deposit of as little as 25% of your credit limit, depending on your creditworthiness
  • The opportunity to pay your security deposit in installments, as long you pay it in full within 80 days
  • No annual fees or hidden fees to hinder your building credit

You won’t be able to find this kind of flexibility with any other secured credit card on the market.

For a Chase Business Credit Card, Consider the Ink Cash or the Ink Preferred

On the other hand, you might be looking for a Chase secured business credit card because you want to do your business spending specifically on a Chase business credit card.

Though you might not be able to access the Chase Ink Business credit cards if your credit is on the lower side—both require excellent personal credit of above 660—you’ll just have to build or rebuild your personal credit with your first two business credit card options before accessing Chase’s business credit cards.

To be sure, the Chase Ink Business credit cards will be well worth any credit building you’ll have to do to access them.

Let’s take a look at what the Ink Cash and the Ink Preferred can offer your business:

The Chase Ink Business Cash

If you’re looking to be rewarded for your business spending in the form of cash, then one of your very best options is the Ink Cash.

This Chase business credit card will reward your spending with the following cash back rates:

  • 5% cash back on the first $25,000 spent on combined purchases at office supply stores and on cell phone, landline, internet, and cable TV services annually
  • 2% cash back on the first $25,000 spent on combined purchases at gas stations and restaurants annually
  • 1% cash back on all other card purchases with no limit to the amount you can earn

You’ll also gain access to one of the longest 0% intro APR periods on the market—for your first 12 months after opening your Ink Cash account, you’ll be able to carry interest-free balances as long as you make your minimum monthly payments on time.

After these 12 months, your APR will set in at a rate that will vary with the market prime rate, so be sure to see the issuer’s terms and conditions for the latest APR information.

Not to mention, you’ll also have the opportunity to access a welcome bonus of a $300 statement credit if you spend $3,000 within three months of opening your account.

The best news yet?

If you qualify, all of these perks that the Ink Cash boasts can be yours for no annual fee at all.

The Chase Ink Business Preferred

Finally, if you want a Chase business credit card that will reward your spending with rewards points rather than cash back, look to the Chase Ink Business Preferred,

This business credit card offers one of the most generous signing bonuses on the market—if you spend $5,000 within your first three months from opening your account, you’ll earn a whopping 80,000 bonus points.

For reference, if you redeem these rewards points on Chase Ultimate Rewards, you’ll end up earning $1,000 worth of free travel.

And that’s not even close to where the rewards end with the Ink Preferred. When you spend, you’ll earn rewards at the following rates:

  • 3x points for every dollar—for up to $150,000—you spend on:
    • Travel
    • Shipping purchases
    • Advertising purchases made with search engines and social media sites
    • Internet/cable/phone services
  • 1x points for every other dollar spent

Be sure to note, though, that—unlike the Ink Cash—the Ink Preferred will come with an annual fee. You’ll have to pay $95 a year to access this business credit card. That said, when measured against the potential earnings the Ink Preferred could bring your business, this annual fee seems like small change.

Finding Your Best Alternative to a Chase Secured Business Credit Card

Though you won’t be able to find a Chase secured business credit card, you will be able to find some pretty great alternatives out there for your business.

Whether you want to build credit or you want to spend with Chase specifically, you can find something out there for you.

Unfortunately, if you want to both build credit and spend with a Chase business credit card, you don’t really have many options. Both Chase business credit cards require excellent credit for you to qualify for them. That said, if you spend responsibly with either the Spark Classic or the Secured MasterCard, you’ll be well on your way to accessing all the perks that come with being a Chase business credit cardmember.

 

The post Finding Your Top Alternative to a Chase Secured Business Credit Card appeared first on Fundera Ledger.



from Fundera Ledger https://www.fundera.com/blog/chase-secured-business-credit-card

No comments:

Post a Comment