7 Best Business Prepaid Cards for 2023
This article is part of a larger series onBest Small Business Credit Cards.
Editor’s note:This is a recurring post with regularly updated card details.
小型企业的最佳业务预付费卡es have reasonable fees and offer convenient ways to reload your balance. To find a prepaid card fit for your business, consider your spending habits and how many cards you’ll need for your employees. Choose one that provides access to an online and mobile dashboard and lets you control your employee cards and company expenses. Prepaid cards aren’t credit cards and require no credit check, so you can be approved for one easily.
Here are the seven best prepaid business cards:
- Bento for Business Visa®Debit Card:Best overall business prepaid card
- Emburse Spend Card:Best for earning fixed-rate cash back on all purchases
- dashTMPrepaid Mastercard®:Best for low daily spend limits with no setup and monthly fees
- Brink’s Business Expense Card:Best for free starter package
- PEX业务预付:Best for custom payment platform
- Netspend Prepaid Debit Card:Best for earning cash back through payback rewards
- Mesh Card:Best for high balance limit and earning a welcome bonus
Bento for Business Visa® Debit Card: Best Overall Business Prepaid Card
Why we like it:The Bento for Business Visa® Debit Card is our best overall business prepaid card because of its straightforward fee structure and high maximum spend limit of $25,000 per day. It may be used at any merchant that accepts Visa debit cards and for international transactions—with no foreign transaction fees. What’s more, you can try Bento for free for the first 60 days with no setup and debit fees.
Apply for Bento for Business Visa®Debit Card
You can add or transfer funds to your Bento account through the following:
- Bento transfer:Once your card is linked to your business bank account, you can transfer funds from the bank account to your Bento account online. To complete a Bento transfer:
- Click the “Bento Transfer” on the Funds tab, then enter your desired transfer amount.
- Click the “Add Funds” button to initiate a transfer from your linked bank account into your Bento account.
- Automatic deposits via Bento transfer:You can also schedule reloads on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Plus, you can set up a low-balance reload to initiate a funds transfer once your Bento card’s balance meets the threshold.
- 安排自动存款,登录到你的Bento online account, click “Schedule Reload” from the Funds tab, and enter the desired deposit amount.
- To set up an automatic low-balance reload, click “Low-balance Reload” from the Funds tab, set a balance threshold, and enter your desired deposit amount.
- Bank transfer:You can initiate a funds transfer via your bank’s ACH transfer service. Your bank may offer this option through their website, phone, or in-branch services.
- Select “Bank Transfer” from the Funds tab, then note the banking information provided.
- Contact your bank to process an automated clearing house (ACH) transfer using the provided banking information.
- Your bank will process the transfer, and your funds will be available within one to two business days.
- Wire transfer:You can also transfer funds through your bank’s wire transfer service.
- Select “Wire Transfer” from the Funds tab and note the banking information provided.
- Contact your bank to initiate a wire transfer using the banking information.
- Your bank will process the wire transfer, and funds will typically be available the same or next business day.
- Spend controls:With Bento for Business Visa® Debit Card, you can activate or deactivate the card or your employees’ cards anytime online. You can also set up flexible spending amounts, limit spending to work days only, and restrict merchant categories. Plus, it lets you activate international use only when needed and allows online and telephone purchasing.
- Analytics & Reporting: You can take advantage of real-time visibility into your transactions. Additionally, you’ll see an overview of your cash flow, allowing you to manage your budget effectively.
- Accounting integration:Bento is integrated with a variety of accounting software, including QuickBooks, FreshBooks, Oracle, and Xero. Plus, you can check the transactions page using two different views: the simple reporting view shows the basic information, while the accounting-focused view allows for enhanced functionality.
- Invoice payments:Bento features Bento Pay™, which lets you pay invoices digitally using only your vendors’ email addresses. Vendors don’t need to sign-up for Bento—plus, they can choose when and how they get paid. This feature allows business owners to send business-to-business (B2B) payments at any time while tracking all payments and payees in one place.
Emburse Spend Card: Best for Earning Fixed-rate Cash Back on All Purchases
Why we like it:Emburse Spend Card lets you earn an unlimited 1% cash back and doesn’t charge monthly fees and local transaction fees. You can load your card up to a maximum of $100,000, but you can request for an increased limit, subject to additional review and approval. On top of that, the card has a streamlined expense management system, which lets you approve or reject transactions made by your employees.
You can transfer funds to your Emburse Spend card through:
- ACH:From the “Bank Account” tab in your Settings page, you can automatically connect to the following banks:
- Bank of America
- Chase
- Citi
- Wells Fargo
- U.S. Bank
- USAA
- Charles Schwab
- Capital One
- TD Bank
- Navy Federal
- SunTrust
- Account and routing number:If your bank isn’t on the list above or you want to connect your bank manually, follow the steps below:
- Select “Connect to any US bank manually” in your Settings page
- Find your bank account and routing numbers at the bottom of a check in your checkbook or your online banking profile
- Business apps:Emburse offers a portfolio of business apps, such as Emburse Spend and Emburse Abacus. See ourEmburse Abacus reviewfor its detailed features and pricing.
- Unlimited rewards:Earn 1% cash back on all purchases, regardless of spending categories.
- Expense management system:Emburse Spend is available on iOS and PC (Windows and Mac). You can track real-time expenses, categorize vendors, and approve or reject transactions. The system is free to use if your company has fewer than 100 employees, but it also has a premium version—request a demo to ask for more information.
The expense management system can help prevent policy violations, identify anomalies, and keep all expenses compliant with the company standards. You can also set limits on both virtual and physical cards, capture receipt and expense details for immediate reconciliation, and manage transactions with enterprise resource planning (ERP) and accounting integrations to NetSuite, Intacct, QuickBooks Online, and Xero.
dashTMPrepaid Mastercard®: Best for Low Daily Spend Limits With No Setup & Monthly Fees
Why we like it:If you anticipate the daily spend of each card to be under $1,000, the dashTMPrepaid Mastercard®may be the best choice for your business because it has a maximum spend limit of $1,000 per day. With no setup and monthly fees, it’s essentially free to use, as the provider takes a percentage of each sale from the merchant. Plus, there’s no limit to the number of cards you can order. It even integrates with QuickBooks and other major accounting software.
Apply for dashTMPrepaid Mastercard®
dashTMfeatures the “Company Vault,” which is where your company’s funds are securely stored. To deposit funds into it, you need to add your checking or savings account as a funding source to dashTM. Then, you can transfer funds quickly and securely online when your balance gets low.
- Funding requests from employees:Team members can request funds by simply entering an amount and providing a description or reason for the request. The account administrators will receive the request and review it for approval. This feature allows you to approve or reject expenses before they happen. If you approve the request, the funds will be available on the team member’s card. You can also set limits per employee to allow automatic approval if the load requests are just within their limit.
- Paperless receipts:Every transaction is captured in the dashTMapp with the merchant’s name, category, and date of purchase. Users can add additional expense details, such as expense categories, receipt photos, and purchase details.
- Daily summaries:With daily summaries, you’ll stay on top of transactions, card balances, and deposits via email or text. You can also opt for push notifications with every transaction for real-time reporting. In addition, you can be notified when the company vault’s account balance is low.
- Robust control:Company owners have full control over the company’s funds by adding team members, approving requests remotely, removing funds, and suspending users. All of these can be done via the dashTMapp.
Brink’s Business Expense Card: Best for Free Starter Package
Why we like it:If you don’t need more than two prepaid cards for your business, the Brink’s Business Expense Card is a great option, as its starter package offers free cards for the business owner and a team member. You get a 60-day free trial and no setup fees and can choose between two cards: fixed value and spend limit. Fixed value are pre-funded cards that are ideal for per-diems or one-time spend requests, while spend limit cards are suitable for regular day-to-day expenses.
Apply for Brink’s Business Expense Card
You can add money to your Brink’s Money Prepaid Mastercard through:
- Brink’s transfer:You can load your Brink’s account by navigating to the Funds tab on your mobile app. Then, click the Brink’s transfer icon, enter the amount, and select “add fund.” The maximum deposit limit is $10,000 per day. Funds transfers may take up to three business days.
- Automatic deposit via Brink’s transfer:你可以安排一个重载每日、每周或monthly. Just go to the Funds tab, click “Scheduled Reload,” enter the amount of your desired deposit and its frequency, and save the transaction. Additionally, you can schedule an automatic reload if your account balance meets a certain threshold. To do this, go to the Funds tab, click “Low-Balance Reload,” enter the desired deposit amount, set the balance threshold, and save the transaction.
- Bank transfer:You can transfer funds from your bank through ACH transfer. Your funds will be available in your Brink’s account within one to two business days, but some banks offer same-day ACH functionality.
- Wire transfer:You can contact your bank to initiate a wire transfer. Funds are usually available the same day or the next banking day when transferred through wire.
- Real-time dashboard:You will have access to a centralized dashboard, so you can track top-spending employee cards and detect suspicious transactions. It also allows you to monitor expenses by spend categories, employee cards, and date ranges.
- Automatic transfers:With automatic transfers, you don’t need to worry about having a low card balance. You can schedule reloads to your Brink’s account at a specific frequency (daily, weekly, or monthly) or when your available balance reaches a certain threshold.
- Real-time notifications:You can opt to receive real-time alerts for any potential fraud activity and turn any card off if used outside of your expense policy. Plus, you can receive notifications for declined transactions, whenever a transaction exceeds a specific amount, or when your card balance reaches a certain limit.
- Virtual cards:Brink’s allows you to create and access virtual cards instantly. Your information will be readily available as soon as you create a virtual card. What’s more, your card information is securely stored, and you have the option to create either single-use virtual cards or cards for recurring purchases.
PEX Prepaid Business Card: Best for Custom Payment Platform
Why we like it:If you need to customize your business’s spending per department, employee, and merchant category, the PEX Prepaid Business Card is a great option. It offers a 60-day free trial, and you can choose from a variety of monthly packages depending on your needs. You can also set the time and days when the card can be used. PEX’s platform instantly approves or declines transactions based on your settings.
Apply for PEX Prepaid Business Card
To fund your PEX account, you can transfer directly from the bank account through online funds transfer, automated clearing house (ACH) credit, and outgoing ACH transfer. You may also add funds to your PEX account through a wire transfer from your business checking account or initiate a debit of the funds from your bank account via the PEX ACH Service. Typically, most banks take around one to two business days to process the fund transfer completely; however, this may also vary from bank to bank.
- Account management and reporting:You can track your company spending anywhere because PEX reports transactions in real time. Cardholders can submit receipts and accounting codes through a mobile app while administrators can manage card restrictions online or via mobile app.
- Physical and virtual cards:With PEX Prepaid Business Card, you have the option to use physical or virtual cards. You can distribute physical cards to employees and use virtual cards for online purchases and subscriptions.
- Accounting integration:You can integrate your PEX account with QuickBooks and other major accounting software to provide an automated payment platform based on your needs.
Netspend Prepaid Debit Card: Best for Earning Cash Back Through Payback Rewards
Why we like it:Netspend预付借记卡,你可以赚的cash back rewards on some of your purchases through its Payback Rewards feature. Netspend will provide reward offers that are personalized based on your spending habits—you can visit its rewards page to see customized offers. The card allows you to choose between the monthly and pay-as-you-go plan, which is best if you don’t want to commit to using the card for the long term.
Apply for Netspend Prepaid Debit Card
There are several ways to load funds onto the Netspend Prepaid Debit Card:
- Direct deposit(ACH deposit)
- Cash reload at a Netspend reload network location(subject to reload fees up to $3.95)
- Bank account transferfrom any United States bank account
- PayPal
- Transfer moneyfrom another debit or credit card
- Tax refundsvia direct deposit to your Netspend card account
- Mobile check load:Through the Netspend mobile app, you can fund your Netspend prepaid account with your checks using your phone. To do this, download the latest version of the mobile app, select “Mobile Check Load” from the menu to the left, and then follow the instructions provided.
- Anytime Alerts™:You can get notified of your transactions with Netspend’s Anytime Alerts feature, which will notify you through text and email. Plus, you can manage your preferences to only receive the alerts that are important to you and customize how often you want to get notified. Alerts can be sent daily, weekly, or with each individual transaction, including transaction details, deposits, declined transactions, spending limits, and available funds.
- Online account management:The card allows you to manage your account online—you can see your transaction details, set up direct deposit, and activate your payback rewards. It also offers online budgeting tools that allow you to set spending limits and set up Anytime Alerts™ to get notifications when you almost reach your limits.
- Payback Rewards℠:Netspend Payback Rewards lets you earn cash back on some of your everyday purchases. This offer is personalized based on your spending habits, and the rewards that you redeem will be automatically credited to your account at the end of the following month.
Mesh Card: Best for High Balance Limit & Earning a Welcome Bonus
Why we like it:The Mesh card offers a high balance limit of $10 million, which is the highest among all cards in this guide. Moreover, it’s the only business prepaid card on this list that offers a welcome bonus. You can earn $200 when you spend at least $3,000 on a Mesh card and get an additional $300 when you link recurring marketing or cloud expenses to Mesh within your first two months. What’s more, you can earn rewards for every transaction, starting at 1% cash back. Plus, the Mesh platform is completely free.
You may add funds to your Mesh card at any time via reload locations. You may also load your card through a direct deposit by providing Mesh’s routing number and the account number to your bank. Note that you cannot load your card by check or money order.
- Cash back with every payment:For every transaction you make using your Mesh card, you can earn 1% cash back. You can enjoy saving on your expenses without having to pay any fees.
- Smart virtual cards:Mesh allows you to create unlimited virtual cards free of charge. You can easily set up your virtual cards online, assign cards to employees, and set controls on your virtual cards based on the amount, vendor, number of transactions, and other custom filters.
- Plug & Pay™ cards:Mesh Plug & Pay™ cards are physical cards that have all the benefits of virtual cards. These cards are numberless, making them more secure and safe to use. Additionally, you can track all your payments in real-time using one platform.
- Spend visibility and optimization:Mesh Card features one centralized payment platform. This allows you to manage your company expenses from one centralized hub and monitor your financial transactions in real time. Moreover, it connects directly to your business tools, including QuickBooks, Xero, and Okta.
How We Selected the Best Business Prepaid Cards
To determine the best business prepaid cards, we considered cost, load limits, spending limits, and convenience. We also looked at additional features and the process of loading funds to the card. Prepaid cards that offer rewards are a plus.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How do prepaid business cards work?
Prepaid business cards work like regular business credit cards—you can use them to make purchases and pay for other business expenses. Unlike credit cards, you need to load funds to your prepaid card to be able to use them. When you make purchases, the amount of your purchase will be deducted from your card’s balance automatically.
These are easier to qualify for than business credit cards since there’s no credit check. Once approved, there are often several ways to load funds onto the card. The most common is to transfer funds from your bank account directly to the card. Using the issuer’s online or mobile dashboard, you can set spending limits, select which merchants can be paid with the card, and freeze cards in case of fraud.
Keep in mind that most prepaid cards don’t offer rewards, and there are often fees associated with account setup, monthly maintenance, and withdrawing funds from ATMs. To learn more, read our article aboutwhat prepaid business cards areand how they work.
What are the alternatives to prepaid business cards?
You have the following options as alternatives to prepaid business cards:
- Small Business Credit Cards:Small business credit cards allow you to float expenses while growing your business. Grow your credit score, and save money with low introductory and ongoing interest rates and relevant rewards. See our guide to thebest small business credit cards.
- Purchasing Cards (p-cards):Purchasing cards are for business-to-business purchases. Like a charge card, the balance must be paid in full monthly. Our roundup of thetop purchasing cardsis a good place to start looking for one that fits the bill.
- Secured Business Credit Cards:Secured business credit cards are a good option for those who cannot qualify for a non-secured card due to poor or low credit or no credit history, as you only need to make a security deposit to qualify. In time, with consistent on-time payments, you can grow your credit score and qualify for a non-secured card. For options, check out our list of theleading secured business credit cards.
Bottom Line
The best business prepaid cards give your organization the freedom to skip the paperwork of expense reports, purchase orders, check reimbursements, and petty cash. As long as you have cash on hand to continuously reload the cards, prepaid cards are a convenient method of paying for business expenses for both you and your employees.