Small businesses need a simple way to pay for day-to-day costs — supplies, subscriptions, client meals, and more. But relying on a founder’s personal credit card blurs the boundaries between personal and business expenses, and when employees pay out-of-pocket↗, it means more expense reports and more paperwork for finance. Neither approach is ideal.
Choosing the right company credit card gives small business owners control over spending, better oversight, and lesser financial burden.
This article explores the best company credit cards for 2026 and how to choose the right one for your business. Plus, we’ll show how smart corporate cards from Moss link to its spend management platform so you can track and manage team spending in real time.
What is a company credit card?
A company credit card is a card issued directly to a business. It allows authorised employees to make purchases exclusively for business purposes, simplifying accounting and bookkeeping. With a company credit card, it’s easier to manage spending limits and gain visibility into team purchases.
Company credit cards with automation features help optimize operations and make life easier for finance teams via:
- Clear separation between personal and business spending
- Custom spending limits for different employees
- Digital receipts that create an audit trail for tax purposes and HMRC↗ reporting, making compliance easier
- Integration with spend management platforms that automatically categorise transactions
- Cash flow management features that extend a line of credit to cover business expenses while waiting for incoming payments, acting as a bridge between accounts payable and receivable
Business credit cards vs. corporate credit cards
While business and corporate credit cards↗ are often used interchangeably in the UK, there are important distinctions between the two. To choose the right option for your business, you need to understand the differences in their ownership structure, liability control, and spend management features.
Typically, smaller businesses and sole traders start with a business rewards or cash back credit card, with the owner’s personal guarantee usually backing this type of small business credit card↗.
As companies scale — more employees, more transactions, multiple departments — they tend to graduate to a corporate credit card. Benefits include liability shifting to the business itself, a central management platform, and automation so you have time to focus on running your company.
Upgrading from a business card to a corporate card↗ model, such as Moss smart corporate cards, helps streamline admin tasks, ensuring finance teams are not bogged down by expense management.
Here’s a quick summary of the main differences:
Feature | Business credit cards (traditional cards) | Corporate credit cards (modern spend management) |
Primary liability | - With the business owner - Personal guarantee needed - Owner’s personal funds used to pay off the credit, if business defaults | - With the business itself - No personal guarantee - Personal funds not tied to the credit |
Eligibility | - Requires lower company revenue - Based heavily on the owner's personal credit history | - Requires higher company revenue - Based on strong business income and credit history |
Card limits | - Lower, fixed limits - Issued to only one or two main people in the business | - High, flexible limits - Issued to multiple people with granular controls |
Automation | - Minimal - Manual expense reports and receipt matching | - Built-in real-time automation - Instant expense tracking and policy enforcement (e.g., Moss) |
Best company credit cards for 2026
When comparing the best company credit cards↗ for your business, you need to look beyond cash back and rewards. Think about how a credit card with a spend management platform can automate employee expense↗ tracking so you can clearly assess cash flow and see who’s spending what and where.
Moss Smart Corporate Cards
Moss goes beyond basic credit cards. Its fully automated card solution offers custom credit limits, real-time reporting, and integrated expense management in one platform. Corporate cards↗ let you set spend limits by employee, and Moss’ dashboard allows you to monitor spending in real time, eliminating month-end surprises.
Moss’ cards are best for scaling teams that want a high degree of automation and real-time control over employee spending, all visible in a centralised dashboard.
American Express Business Gold Card
The Amex Business Gold Card↗ offers premium customer support and a strong rewards system that allows you to convert points to travel perks, such as air miles. However, the annual fee can be steep and Amex’s relatively strict approval process considers the director’s personal credit history.
This card is best for companies that spend considerably on travel. These businesses would benefit from its Membership Rewards program and well-regarded customer support.
Barclaycard Select Cashback Business Card
The Barclaycard Select Cashback↗ Business Card has become popular with UK small businesses due to its simplicity and no annual fee. It offers up to 56 days of interest-free business purchases and unlimited 1% cash back after you spend £2,000.
This card is best for small business owners who want only the basics: some cash back and no membership charge, without real-time insights and automation.
Capital on Tap Business Credit Card
Capital on Tap↗ also provides 1% cash back and boasts the potential for extending high credit limits of up to £250,000. It has a simple rewards structure — choose between cash back or Avios points — and a companion savings account that pays interest.
This card is best for growing small businesses, such as limited companies, that can utilize the card’s relatively high credit limits for much-needed working capital.
Pleo Smart Cards
Pleo↗ offers prepaid cards, expense tracking and digital-first user experience for startups and tech-forward teams. Though Pleo focuses heavily on per-employee spending controls and an intuitive interface, it's card offering is generally less well rounded than Moss, which includes integrated expense management and advanced approval workflows.
Pleo cards are best for startups and small tech firms that want to extend prepaid credit to employees and streamline invoice processing with the automatic receipt capture feature.
How to choose the right company credit card
Having a card that offers cash back is nice, but for growing businesses, it might not be the best perk available. When comparing company credit cards, focus on your growth stage as it relates to your finance workflow. Find a solution that offers more than a business credit card, with automation, integration, and features that fit your current accounting stack.
Match the card to your growth stage
Early startups with less than 10 employees often need only the basics, such as spending with employee limits and basic cash back. In this case, a simple company credit card can work. But as small businesses scale, they need automation and control to manage a high volume of expense reports and invoices. At this stage, a centralised platform like Moss is ideal because it offers corporate cards that enable comprehensive spend management with precise controls.
Prioritize automation and control
Automation and control means more than just setting employee spending limits. It includes:
- Applying hard credit caps by vendor or expense category
- Eliminating manual entry with features like automated receipt matching in the mobile app and streamlined reimbursement approvals and payouts that eliminate paperwork
Moss’ corporate credit cards take this further by giving you real-time spending visibility and automated policy enforcement. Instead of finding out about errant spending after the fact, you can use the platform controls to stop it before it happens.
Compare integration and reporting features
Your chosen credit card and spend management platform must integrate with your current accounting systems, such as Xero↗, Sage, and QuickBooks. Look for real-time synchronisation and detailed reporting features with automated data entry so you can focus on analysis instead of admin.
How Moss helps businesses modernize company spending
The right credit card for your business depends on company size, goals, and structure. But your search must extend beyond the traditional sell of rewards or cash back.
When your finance teams spend most of their time sending repeated emails reminding employees to gather receipts and submit expense reports, your focus should be cutting down that hassle vs. accumulating travel miles.
Moss eliminates the pain points of traditional company credit cards and spend management: lost receipts, unauthorized spending, and delayed visibility. Moss’ corporate cards come with built-in automation that enables real-time tracking and customizable limits.
No chasing paperwork, no messy month end. Moss helps address issues before they affect your business. Simplify day-to-day accounting↗ and close your books accurately every time with Moss.
