How this page ranks business credit cards
Most comparison tables give marks out of five. We add up money instead. For each of the 15 UK business cards we track:
- Plus: a year of rewards on your spending mix
- Plus: any signup bonus, and the perks you would genuinely use
- Minus: the annual fee and any foreign-exchange charges
- Minus: interest, if you carry a balance
The result is a first-year value in pounds, with a separate ongoing figure for year two onwards, and the workings are shown for every card, including the losers. Every figure comes from the issuer's own published pages, each carrying its source and the date we last checked it, and a weekly automated run re-reads those pages and flags changes for review. The full method, including how we value points, is on the methodology page.
Who can get a UK business credit card
Published eligibility varies widely, which is why every card in the calculator shows its own criteria rather than a single generic list. The patterns worth knowing: the four high-street bank cards all require their own business current account first; fintech issuers publish turnover or trading-time tests instead (and one publishes no minimum trading period at all); Amex tests the applying director's personal income rather than the company's age. Many issuers also require a personal guarantee from a director. What no issuer publishes is an acceptance rate, so we never estimate your chances; we show the criteria the issuer publishes, your answer against each, and nothing more.
The kinds of card in this comparison
Four broad kinds, and the calculator prices all of them in the same units:
- Cashback cards pay a percentage back, sometimes with minimum monthly spend thresholds or capped intro offers that listicles tend to skip and the calculator prices in.
- Points and travel cards earn Avios or Membership Rewards. Points only rank in pounds if you value the point, so we publish the valuation we use and its source.
- Bank cards tied to a business current account often carry the lowest purchase rates, but reward narrowly or not at all.
- Charge and spend-management cards are built around paying in full, with modern pay-over-time options priced at their published rates.
Where a product cannot be honestly priced, because pricing is on application or in another currency, the card says so on its face rather than pretending.
How to choose: the five inputs that move the answer
Five things move the ranking more than everything else combined: how much you spend a month, where it goes (general spend, Amazon, advertising, travel), whether you pay the statement in full, the share of spend in foreign currency, and which perks you would genuinely use rather than admire. That is what the Personalise button asks, in eight questions, and the last one matters most: if you carry a balance, interest becomes the biggest number in the sum, and the cheapest card to borrow on beats the most rewarding one at every realistic spend level.
Common questions
Do I need to be a limited company to get a business credit card?
For this site, yes: our calculator covers cards for UK limited companies only, and asks up front. Some issuers do sell business cards to sole traders, but comparing regulated credit for sole traders is a different, FCA-regulated activity, so we do not rank or link those products for sole traders. A contractor or freelancer who trades through a limited company is exactly who this site is for.
How long does my company need to have been trading?
It varies more than most lists suggest. Capital on Tap publishes no minimum trading period at all. Funding Circle asks for at least one year of trading and £30,000 annual turnover. The bank cards publish no trading-time test but require you to already hold that bank's business current account. Amex publishes no trading requirement, but does require the applying director to earn at least £20,000 a year. Every card in the calculator shows its published criteria on the card itself.
What is the difference between the purchase rate and the representative APR?
The purchase rate is the interest actually charged on a balance you carry. The representative APR is the regulated headline: it includes the annual fee, assumes a £1,200 credit limit, and must be available to at least 51% of accepted applicants. They can be far apart. A card with a large annual fee can show a representative APR over 100% while charging a much lower purchase rate, and a card advertising rates 'from' or 'as low as' a figure is quoting its best case, not what a typical applicant gets. We show both numbers, labelled, wherever an issuer publishes them.
Do I need a business current account with the bank to get its credit card?
For the four high-street bank cards we track, yes. Lloyds, Santander, Metro Bank and NatWest or RBS all require an existing business current account with them before you can apply for the credit card. For a business that banks elsewhere, that requirement usually matters more than the card's rate or rewards, so the calculator displays it as a criterion on each of those cards.
What is the difference between a charge card and a credit card?
A charge card must be paid in full every month; a credit card lets you carry a balance and charges interest on it. The line has blurred: since January 2026, Amex's Business Gold and Business Platinum charge cards carry an optional pay-over-time facility with a published 29.1% purchase rate. The calculator flags pure charge cards as unsuitable if you tell it you carry a balance, and prices the Amex facility at its published rate.
Are there 0% interest business credit cards in the UK?
Among the cards we track, none publishes a 0% purchase period, and none publishes a balance-transfer offer. What business cards offer instead is the standard interest-free window on purchases, typically up to 56 days, which applies only while you pay each statement in full. If you expect to carry a balance, the ranking that matters is lowest cost, and the calculator switches to it when you answer the pay-in-full question honestly.
Will a business credit card application affect my personal credit score?
Usually the application involves a check on the applying director, and many issuers require a personal guarantee from a director, which puts you personally behind the company's debt. Whether ongoing card activity reports to your personal credit file varies by issuer and is often not published; the application terms are the place to check before you apply.
Figures are checked against issuer pages, with the source and last-checked date on every card above. This is a comparison service, not advice, and applications are made directly with the issuer, who will run their own checks. How we make money is explained on the methodology page.