4 Best Business Credit Cards With No Personal Guarantee - NerdWallet (2024)

The vast majority of business credit cards require a personal guarantee, which allows creditors to go after your personal finances to recoup unpaid debt. If that’s a risk you aren’t willing to take, a few business cards are available without a personal guarantee.

These cards come with their own tradeoffs — you may not be able to carry a balance or maximize rewards, for instance. Consider other business credit cards for those perks. But if limiting personal liability is your priority, here are our picks for cards without a guarantee.

Best business cards with no personal guarantee

The following business cards do not require a personal guarantee, provided you meet other requirements, including revenue and minimum years in business. Most of these cards are available to only incorporated businesses, leaving few options for sole proprietors.

Ramp Card

Best overall business card with no personal guarantee

The Ramp Card is easier to obtain than other business cards available without a personal guarantee — you don’t need professional funding, for example, or several million in annual revenue. But the cash-on-hand requirements are still steep: You need at least $75,000 in a business bank account to qualify. If you can meet Ramp’s requirements, you’ll get unlimited cash-back rewards and card-level spending controls with no annual fee.

Ramp is a charge card, so you can’t carry a balance. Instead, anything you charge is automatically debited from your business account on the same day each month. Read our review.

Rewards: Earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on all purchases.

Welcome bonus: None.

Annual fee: $0.

Additional perks: Spending controls, forecasting tools and automatic receipt matching.

Brex Card

Best for generous rewards with no personal guarantee

The Brex corporate card offers a welcome bonus and a generous, but complicated, rewards structure. Brex cards come in two varieties: paid daily or paid monthly. There’s no option to carry a balance. You need professional investors and a business account balance of at least $50,000 to qualify for monthly payments ($1 million if you're self-funded). Read our review.

Rewards: Earn points on every dollar spent with industry-leading multipliers: 7x on rideshare, 4x on Brex Travel, 3x on restaurants, 2x on software subscriptions and 1x on all other transactions. Earn 3x Brex Rewards points on all eligible Apple purchases through the link or your Brex dashboard.

Welcome bonus: Get 10,000 points when you spend $3,000 on a Brex Card within your first 3 months.

Annual fee: $0.

Additional perks: Deals and discounts at various vendors that startups may find appealing, including Amazon Web Services, Google Ads, WeWork, Indeed, Zoom and more.

Sam’s Club Business Mastercard

Best wholesale club card with no personal guarantee

Incorporated businesses that meet certain criteria — including having more than two years in business and at least $5 million in annual sales or revenue —can get the Sam’s Club Business Mastercard without a personal guarantee. Though this card offers rewards, including up to 5% back on gas, they are earned as Sam’s Cash and can be used only at Sam’s Club.

Rewards: Up to 5% back on gas, 3% on dining and takeout and 1% on other purchases.

Welcome bonus: Receive a $30 statement credit when you make $30 in Sam’s Club purchases in the first 30 days from opening your account.

Annual fee: $0.

Additional perks: Sam’s Plus members earn an extra 3% back on Sam’s Club purchases (on top of the 2% earned with your Plus membership).

Charity Charge Nonprofit Business Card

Best no-guarantee card for nonprofits

Charity Charge is available to nonprofits and other entities with tax-exempt status, provided your organization has been operating for at least five years and generates $100,000 or more in annual revenue. (Organizations operating for at least two years can qualify with annual revenue of at least $500,000.) This is a charge card, so your balance must be paid in full each month.

Rewards: Automatic rebates on travel, fuel, business services and more at participating vendors via Mastercard Easy Savings.

Welcome bonus: None.

Annual fee: $0.

Additional perks: 24/7 customer support via phone or email.

Editor's note, March 10, 2023: An earlier version of this article highlighted the SVB Innovators Card, but this card has since been removed in light of recent news about Silicon Valley Bank's financial status.

Who can get a business credit card with no personal guarantee?

Large businesses and smaller companies with high cash reserves and significant revenue can often get a business credit card with no personal guarantee. These attributes indicate that a business is in a strong financial position to pay off its credit card debt, taking on the role played by the personal guarantee.

Why are personal guarantees on business credit cards necessary?

Businesses are risky bets for credit card issuers. About 20% of new businesses close within a year, and just 34% make it to their 10-year anniversary, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Personal guarantees help mitigate the risk that issuers take on when extending credit to your business.

Drawbacks to business cards with no personal guarantee

You can minimize personal risk by getting a business card that doesn’t require a personal guarantee, but there are definite disadvantages.

For starters, these cards are typically corporate credit cards, which are available to only incorporated businesses with strong annual revenue and a healthy bank balance (think $20K or more in a business checking account). And many are charge cards, meaning you must pay your balance in full each month.

Business credit cards that don’t require a personal guarantee also don’t offer the same generous welcome bonus and cash back or travel rewards that you see with a traditional business card. If your personal credit is strong, consider applying for a cash back business credit card to earn rewards or one with a 0% annual percentage rate period for some flexibility with your cash flow.