Best no PG business credit card options

Panna Kemenes

09.12.22 (updated more than 1 year ago)

6 minute read

Credit cards are useful financial tools for many businesses, and essential for some transactions. Many business credit cards require a personal guarantee. This helps the card provider mitigate their risk. But the individual becomes personally responsible for any debt.

It makes sense that some businesses want to avoid this. A “no personal guarantee” credit card allows this, but comes with other challenges and restrictions.

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No PG business credit cards: Quick overview

Card	Great for
Ramp corporate cards	Larger business with strong balances, wanting a simple well rewarded account.
Brex business credit card	Business with low balances (using a daily paid card).
Stripe corporate card	Strong option for business with a Stripe account, with good rewards and additional discount.
Divvy credit card	Businesses of any size with high domestic travel spend
Office Depot® Business Credit Account	Companies with significant spending at Office Depot stores, and in need of credit.
Sam’s Club® Business Mastercard®	Sam’s Club company members, and typically large companies that want credit facilities.

Best no PG business credit card options

Ramp corporate cards

The Ramp Corporate card is a straightforward, simple to use card with no fees. It is a charge card (not a credit card), so you cannot hold a balance and must pay off the card in full.

There is no credit check required to take out the card and, of course, no personal guarantee needed. It must be linked to a business bank account. The credit limit is set based on the balance (minimum business balance is $75,000).

There is no annual fee, no fixed interest chargers, and no fees for foreign currency transactions (the mid-market rate is offered in partnership with Wise).

The card also awards a simple 1.5% cash back reward on all spending, with no differences between categories.¹

✅ Pros	❌ Cons
No annual fee, or interest charges	As it is a charge card, no balance can be carried
No credit check required	No other card benefits or bonus earning categories
1.5% cash back reward on all spending	Only available to non-individual liability corporations in the US
A high credit limit possible (based on linked account balance)	Linked account must carry at least $75,000
No fees on foreign exchange
Can restrict (or block) spending with particular retailers
Good range of additional software and service discounts (including Slack, AWS, Xero, and WeWork)

Brex business credit card

Brex offers two business cards with no personal guarantee required. These are both charge cards, and must be paid off in full without carrying a balance. The difference between them is that one card must be paid off monthly, and the other daily.

Both cards work in a similar way. They have no annual fee, no interest charges applied, and no foreign exchange fees. They must be linked to a business account, which is used to determine the credit limit.²

Brex offers a good value, but complicated, rewards program. All spending receives at least one point per dollar spent as rewards.

Points can be redeemed at a rate of one point per cent for flights and hotels, or transferred to several airline partners. Several categories offer rewards of up to 8 points per dollar (including travel, restaurants, and software).

✅ Pros	❌ Cons
No annual fee or interest charges	As it is a charge card, no balance can be carried (daily or monthly depending on card)
Valuable points earning system with several bonus categories	Minimum $50,000 account balance needed for monthly payment account
Sign up offer for initial spending
The daily paid card has no minimum required linked account balance

Stripe corporate card

The Stripe Corporate card is another simple to use no personal guarantee card. It’s currently only possible to join by invite, and is in limited beta for US-based companies.

There are no annual fees, no foreign transaction fees, and no late fees to pay.

The card offers a straightforward 1.5% cash back on every business purchase, across all categories. In addition to this, there is a range of valuable discounts and credits for common business tools and software.³

✅ Pros	❌ Cons
No annual fee	All card accounts subject to credit approval
1.5% cashback on all spending
Offers a range of discounts on corporate services (including Slack, Google Ads, AWS, and Notion).
Set spending limits by cardholder and by category

Divvy credit card

Divvy offers a no personal guarantee card that has several differences from other cards. Like many others, it’s a charge card that must be paid monthly.

The Divvy no PG business card has no annual fee.⁴ It does, however, charge a fee for late payments of 2.99%. While many cards in the market now offer no foreign transaction fees, Divvy adds a fee of 0.2% to 0.9%. These details are not available on the Divvy website, but have been confirmed by MerchantMaverick.⁵

The card has a potentially very good value reward points program. The minimum earning for all spending is one point dollar (redeemable for travel at a rate of one cent per point). There are bonus rates for various categories that increase the earlier the account is paid.

The highest rewarded category, restaurant spending, increases to four points per dollar if paid twice monthly and seven points for dollar if paid weekly.

✅ Pros	❌ Cons
No annual fee	Has late payment fees
Potentially high rewards rate for early payers (up to 7%)	Charges foreign transaction fees
Various discounts and offers on corporate services (including AWS, Google Ads, FedEx, and Verizon)	Low rewards if opting for monthly payment
Small businesses are eligible
International companies can apply (if one owner with at least 25% share is a US Citizen)

⚠️ Two other “no personal guarantee” cards have more limitations, but are still worth considering for some businesses:

Office depot business credit card

The Office Depot business credit card is a card that is limited just to spending at US Office Depot stories. This is a credit card, so it is possible to carry a balance (with an APR interest of 20.80% to 29.99% applied).⁶

There is usually a sign-up offer of an Office Depot discount, and up to 2% cashback offered on some spending areas.

Sam's Club business credit card no PG

The Sam’s Club Business Mastercard is an interesting option for companies that qualify for membership of Sam’s Club stores. It is a no personal guarantee credit card,

The card has no annual fee (although there are fees for joining Sam’s Club stores), and charges no foreign transaction fees. As a credit card you can carry a balance, with an APR of 19.9% to 25.9%.⁷ There is a good rewards program too, with cashback of up to 5% at Sam’s Club, 3% on dining, and 1% on everything else.⁸

It is only for larger businesses though. To take out the card with no personal guarantee, businesses must have more than 10 employees and an annual sales revenue over $5 million.

Qualifications for no PG business credit card

A no personal guarantee card carries no link or liability for any individual. Instead, it is linked to the business. As such, the business will be assessed for suitability for a card.

There are different ways that companies assess business suitability:

Checks on the business. The card provider will look at the business history, time in operations, size, and sales revenue.
Link to a business account. Many card providers will require details of one or more business accounts. Card suitability, and credit limit, will often be determined based on this. Having operational cash flow is very important for most cards – at least to secure a good card limit.

Pros and cons of a business credit card with no PG

Benefits

There is no personal liability. In the event that you can't pay off your card, your personal assets cannot be seized to pay the debt.
If the business fails, the card provider can only claim for losses against the company.
Convenient for businesses with several card users to control spending.
Many cards offer cashback or rewards on all spending.

Disadvantages

There are limited options for cards in the market.
Cashback and other card benefits tend to be more limited than those offered by standard business credit cards.
Most cards will impose strict business criteria, and require sizable deposits in bank accounts.
They are rarely available for small businesses or sole proprietors.
Credit limits are often variable, and based on business accounts.
Most no guarantee cards are charge cards, so balances cannot be carried over.

No PG business credit card alternatives

The appeal of a convenient card that has high limits but no personal guarantee for debt is clear. However, there are many restrictions with such cards and many businesses will not qualify. Fortunately, there are alternatives.

One popular alternative is to use a business debit card. These will likewise not carry any personal guarantee, with liability limited to the business. Such cards are easier for businesses to obtain, and available to small businesses and sole traders too.

They will likely not offer rewards or cashback to the same extent as credit cards. Rember, though, that such offerings are usually quite limited with no guarantee credit cards anyway.

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Sources:

All sources checked December 9, 2022.

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