Banks are underselling one of their most important small business products. While they emphasize rates and fees, business owners are looking for something far more valuable: tools that help them run their businesses more effectively.
While these features are undoubtedly important, focusing on them alone overlooks what many business owners value more—credit cards as powerful tools for managing finances effectively.
Since a credit card is often the first product a business owners pursues, banks are missing a critical opportunity to establish deeper, long-term relationships when they fail to communicate this broader value.
As Ian Benton, Senior Digital Banking Analyst at Javelin Strategy & Research, explored in the Winning the Upgrade to the Business Credit Card report, many banks need to fundamentally rethink how they position credit cards to small business customers. Too often, financial institutions focus on acquiring new business owners, even though many of these customers are already embedded within the bank’s existing ecosystem.
The First Business Product
To better understand current approaches, Benton examined the websites of leading U.S. issuers. While there were some bright spots, most messaging still centered on financial benefits rather than operational value.
“That’s all well and good, but a lot of the times they’re missing an opportunity to communicate the operational value of a credit card,” Benton said. “You can separate your business and personal finances, you can help build your business’s credit score, you can delegate responsibility, and you can control payments for employee cards—all these benefits that are great justifications for upgrading to a business credit card.”
Among these advantages is the ability to integrate business spending into cash flow analysis tools, giving owners a more holistic view of performance.
Reconciliation is another major challenge as businesses scale. Credit cards make it easier to match transactions with receipts or invoices—saving valuable time for businesses that are still reconciling manually, or not at all.
Business credit scoring is also frequently misunderstood. Even when business owners know their creditworthiness is being tracked, many don’t fully grasp the implications. This creates an opportunity for banks to educate customers on how credit cards can help build credit and establish trust with suppliers and lenders.
Additionally, business credit cards enable owners to delegate spending authority to employees while setting individual limits—an important operational control as organizations grow.
Taken on their own, each of these advantages is compelling. Collectively, they reinforce a broader value proposition. Still, one of the overriding reasons business owners adopt credit cards is to separate business and personal expenses—especially for those transitioning from freelance or gig work. Supporting customers at this critical stage is crucial.
“The business credit card is often the first business product that somebody ever opens—even before a business checking account—so it’s articulating the value of even having a business product in the first place,” Benton said. “A lot of people are probably just operating a small business on their consumer personal accounts; they’re commingling spending and that becomes complicated come tax time.”
Spurring the Upgrade
Since many small business owners begin with personal accounts, there is a high likelihood that banks already serve these customers—without realizing it.
“A lot of the marketing and communication is designed for new customers to the bank, when in reality the majority of people who opened a business credit card already had an account with the bank, whether that’s a personal account or a business account,” Benton said. “It’s about putting into context how this can support the broader relationship.”
With a growing share of new business owners coming from millennial and Gen Z demographics, banks must also align with their expectations. These digital natives demand choice, speed, and seamless experiences across digital platforms.
This makes it critical for financial institutions to communicate the operational benefits of business credit cards on public-facing websites. However, given that many of these customers are already within their ecosystem, banks should rethink how they deliver messaging within authenticated digital experiences.
“A lot of banks know who the businesses are that are operating on personal accounts. They can see volumes or if they’re sending certain types of payments, so it’s using the authenticated environment to sell the upgrade as well,” Benton said. “For instance, I’m a personal banking customer of Bank of America and they have an inline advertisement saying, ‘Would you like to open a business credit card or a business account?’”
“It’s little nudges like that, or maybe even a bit more,” he said. “It’s saying, ‘Separate your personal business finances with a business credit card,’ and using the in-app or authenticated website environment where they’re already managing their personal finances—and probably managing some business finances—to help spur that upgrade.”
Holding Within the Institution
Improving how business credit cards are positioned is increasingly important. The digital economy has expanded the range of options available to small business owners. While fintechs have long challenged banks in consumer banking, fewer players have focused on small business banking.
However, those fintechs operating in the corporate credit card space recognize that these products deliver far more than access to credit at competitive rates—they are comprehensive financial management tools.
“Some of those companies like Brex and Ramp are aimed at high-growth businesses; they want to be their corporate credit card as they grow,” Benton said. “If you look at those websites, they’re selling operational benefits rather than financial benefits. It’s about getting out in front of that and saying, ‘We can help you as your business grows, and there’s also this benefit of holding all these things within the same institution.”
