The easiest way to get a business credit card is to base it on your personal credit history. A business credit card is extremely useful in purchasing items throughout the month that your business needs, or for tracking employee expenses and avoiding leaving petty cash on site, but if you don’t have the personal credit to get a business credit card, then you may have to go with a different option. A secure business credit card works the same way as a conventional card with all of the benefits listed above, but does not require credit to get because it is secured with a cash deposit that you make to the credit card company.

A secured business credit card works like this. You deposit an amount, let’s say $1000, with the company to secure your credit card, and you get a line of credit in that amount. Then you receive the card in the mail, and you begin using it. At the end of the grace period you pay off what you have charged on the secured business credit cards and the secured credit card company reports to the credit bureaus that you, as a business entity, have paid your bills on time and you begin to build credit for your business name.

Secure business credit cards can come in many different amounts from about $500 to $50,000 depending on which company that you go through. You can find websites that offer them, but make sure that the credit card secure application that you are filling out isn’t going to a broker of information that will simply take your name and address and sell it to a thousand companies that want to sell you some financial product. Make sure that you are actually working with a secured credit card company before you begin to provide them with personal information.

If you pay your credit card bills on time and don’t have any problems it is very likely that after a year or two the credit card company will refund your cash deposit and allow you to have the credit card unsecured at that point. Of course you could also probably apply for a regular credit card at that point under your business name after making good payments for a year or two. Either way, you now have a credit card that is totally unsecured and will continue to build credit in your business name so that you can finance larger things in the future.

When you look for your secured card keep three things in mind. First, make sure that your secured card company reports to as many credit bureaus as possible and that they report as a credit card and not as a secured credit card. You’ll want to make this revolving line of credit look as good as possible and a secured credit card that is being paid on won’t impress a lender very much. Also, make sure that the fees that you pay to get the card and the annual or monthly fees aren’t ridiculous. Third, make sure that the card will eventually refund your deposit if you pay on time and are responsible with your secured credit card.