Prepaid Business Cards: What They Are, Best Options

A prepaid business card is a type of debit card that requires you to preload money onto the card before you or your employees can use it. Prepaid cards can be a good solution for business owners who need to frequently manage one-off employee spending or don’t want to give broad access to a revolving line of credit.

The best prepaid business cards are easy to apply for, user-friendly and offer financial management tools — all without charging hefty fees (or any fees at all). Here are our picks, plus more about how prepaid cards work and potential alternatives to consider.

Best business prepaid cards

• Bento for Business Visa® Debit Card: Best overall prepaid business card.

• Dash Prepaid Mastercard: Best for no-fee prepaid debit cards.

• Emburse Prefunded Visa: Best for single-use and virtual cards.

• PEX Prepaid Visa: Best for businesses with high monthly spend.

• U.S. Bank prepaid business cards: Best for payroll disbursement.

Bento for Business offers several prepaid card options:

• Corporate debit cards, which your team can use on expenses you’d ordinarily reimburse, like travel.

• Fixed-value cards, which you can issue in place of petty cash. 

• Utility cards, which can only be used on specific expenses, like gas. 

Bento cards offer multiple ways to control spending, including setting spending limits and restricting spending to certain merchants or days of the week. Business owners have the option to withdraw cash at ATMs, but employees do not.

You can sign up online by providing basic information about yourself and your business, including the registered company name, employer identification number and Social Security number. Businesses must be legally registered in the U.S. and not operating in certain high-risk industries, like marijuana, online currency or adult content.

Credit check: No.

Fees: Start at $29 per month for up to 10 cards.

Free trial: Up to 50 prepaid cards for 60 days.

How to fund: Link and verify a bank account, then deposit funds to your Bento account.

Dash allows you to create an unlimited number of prepaid debit cards for your small business with no monthly or per-card fees. Dash’s features are straightforward: Business owners can add and suspend users, add funds and set up automatic fund reloading; employees can request funds when they need them; and you can export data for bookkeeping purposes.

Each debit card has a maximum limit of $10,000, and you can have no more than $100,000 total in your Dash account at any given time. The card servicer may require you to keep your balance above what you spent across cards the previous week. And Dash cards cannot be used to withdraw cash or check balances at any ATMs or POS systems, even by the business owner.

To sign up for an account, fill out an inquiry form on the Dash website and a representative will contact you.

Credit check: Not required, but Dash reserves the right to check your credit.

Fees: No recurring fees.

Free trial: N/A (no fees).

How to fund: Send an ACH transfer from your business bank account.

Emburse lets you issue an unlimited number of virtual cards and one-time-use cards. That makes it easy to immediately create cards for specific purposes. As with other prepaid cards, you can control spending by limiting each card’s budget, each transaction’s amount, transaction categories and the times at which cards can be used.

Emburse cards can’t be used at ATMs. And while the cards themselves are free, you’ll have to pay for a subscription to Emburse Spend, the company’s expense management platform. Emburse does not publish pricing information.

To get started with Emburse, request a demo online and work with a sales representative to set up an account. Plan to provide your business name, business banking information, company address, and Employer Identification Number, along with the Social Security number and other information for the person in charge of the account. Your business must be incorporated in the U.S. to qualify.

Credit check: No.

Fees: Custom depending on company size and features.

Free trial: N/A.

How to fund: Connect Emburse to your business checking account.

The PEX Prepaid business debit card has no maximum balance limit on the main account — a feature not offered by most prepaid business cards — so businesses with high monthly spending aren’t restricted by account limits. Individual cards may have spend limits, though.

As with other prepaid cards, business owners can monitor spending from a mobile app and designate spending limits, including restricting spending to certain merchants or certain days or times of day. Mobile receipt capture is available. Cash withdrawals are not.

You can sign up for a PEX Prepaid business debit card online. Be prepared to provide personal and business details, including the Social Security number of the primary account holder. Your account will typically be up and running within three business days.

Credit check: No.

Fees: The base plan has no monthly fee for up to five cards, then $8 per month for each additional card. The next plan costs $75 per month for up to 20 cards plus $4 for each additional card, though the monthly fee is waived if you spend more than $50,000 per month.

Free trial: 60 days.

How to fund: Send an ACH or wire transfer.

U.S. Bank offers a similar expense management prepaid card option to the other providers on our list. You can issue cards to employees, add funds, restrict spending and manage expenses online. When employees are finished, you can move unspent funds back into your primary account. Administrators also have the option to give cardholders access to cash.

But U.S. Bank stands out for offering a second option: Prepaid debit cards that you can use to administer payroll. The bank lets businesses load payments to employees — either paychecks, occasional stipends or bonuses — onto a prepaid debit card that your employees can use for personal expenses. You won’t have oversight of spending on these cards; think of them as a replacement for paper checks instead.

Payroll cards may be a good option for businesses that often pay contractors or occasional workers and want to reduce their reliance on checks. They can also be a good replacement for per diems in cases where you don’t need to track expenses.

You’ll have to talk to a U.S. Bank representative to learn more about the program.

Credit check: No.

Fees: Custom depending on company size and features.

Free trial: N/A.

How to fund: Expense cards can be funded immediately or via scheduled transfers. Payroll cards can be funded by ACH.

What are prepaid business cards?

Prepaid business cards are debit cards that draw on funds you load onto the card. These cards often come with digital tools for managing your staff’s finances, like mobile receipt capture and employee spending controls. Most companies price card services on a monthly basis — ranging from free to more than $100 a month for more features or large numbers of cards.

Prepaid cards are similar to regular business debit cards. However, instead of drawing money from a linked business checking account, prepaid cards have to be manually refilled.

If you already have a business debit card, your bank may let you issue copies of it to employees. But these ordinary business debit cards can lack the built-in spending controls of prepaid cards, so it's best to limit them to a few trusted team members. A prepaid debit card lets you exercise stronger controls over employee spending.

Who should use prepaid business debit cards?

Prepaid business cards work best as tools for giving your employees a fixed amount to spend on the business’s behalf. They can be a good substitute for per diems or petty cash, since you can strictly control how much cardholders spend. You can also issue them to employees that need to make transactions on your behalf.

Are prepaid cards the same as business credit cards?

No. Unlike business credit cards, prepaid debit cards don’t require a credit check and are funded from a linked bank account. You can only spend the money you add to your prepaid business debit card. Spending on a prepaid business debit card isn’t reported to credit bureaus and shouldn’t impact your personal or business credit scores.

With a business credit card, approval is based on the business owner’s personal credit score, among other factors. The card issuer assigns a credit limit, which you can spend up to without having the cash on hand. And business credit card use is reported to business credit bureaus, which means it can help your business build credit.

Secured business credit cards do function similarly to prepaid business debit cards — you pre-fund the card, and the amount you’ve paid serves as your credit limit. You don’t spend the money you deposited, though. Instead, the credit card company holds onto it as a kind of security deposit. Then, you put additional spending on the card and pay it back over time.

Often, as your credit score improves, credit card companies transition secured cardholders to traditional credit cards. At that time, you’ll get your deposit back.

» MORE: Who can get a business credit card?

Business credit cards vs. prepaid debit cards: How to choose

If you're simply looking to allow other team members to make purchases on behalf of your company, then a business credit card may be a better choice than a prepaid business debit card. Business credit cards typically provide employee cards with spending controls, just like prepaid debit cards. But they offer rewards and can help build your business credit over time, and you'll never have to refill them.

If you're managing a large team of people who need access to the company's funds occasionally, then prepaid cards might be the better choice. You can create cards as needed, including for one-time use, and ensure that employee spending stays within a budgeted amount.