Best Business Credit Cards for Real Estate Investors
What are the best business credit cards for real estate investors?
In today’s post we’ll unpack how business credit cards can help you operate your real estate business more efficiently and effectively.
One powerful way to use business credit cards as a real estate investor is to earn cash back or points on your everyday purchases. You can rack up serious points if you also use it to purchase materials, appliances and fixtures for rehab projects.
The money you save can increase your working capital while providing more value to your bottom line.
Why use business credit cards offer for real estate investing?
First and foremost, with a business credit card you can easily separate personal and business expenses. This makes it easy during tax time since all your real estate related purchases will be on your business credit card. 
Secondly, you can separate personal and business credit history with certain types of business credit cards. Ideally, you want to acquire business credit cards that solely report payment activity to the business credit bureaus. This protects your personal credit since your company’s revolving debt does not report to your personal credit reports.
Additionally, many card issuers offer 0% financing for 6-18 months on purchases. This interest free money can be a real powerful tool if used properly. For example, let’s say you have a rehab with $20k in renovation costs that you put on your business credit card with 0% APR for 6 months. You complete the renovation and sell the property at a handsome profit in six months’ time. In this example, you used $20k in credit with no interest to renovate the property.
Another benefit from acquiring multiple business credit cards for real estate investing is in establishing multiple banking relationships. Each relationship you establish with a bank card issuer may lead to other benefits such as future credit limit increases, targeted business credit offers, and other funding opportunities.
What are the benefits using business credit cards in real estate?
- Preserve your cash (OPM)
- No longer use personal credit cards
- No longer impact personal credit
- No longer impact credit utilization
- Keep FICO® scores intact
- Get sign up bonuses, cash back and/or rewards
- Build business credit
How do you use business credit cards as a real estate investor?
There are many types of business credit cards that meet specific expenses and needs for a real estate investor. For example, if you are a fix and flip investor you may want to consider the Lowe’s Business Rewards card from American Express.
This particular card offers 5% cash back on purchases at Lowe’s for the first 6 months of account opening. After that, it offers 2% cash back with no annual fee.
Here are some purchases you can make using business credit cards in real estate investing:
- Materials
- Supplies
- Appliances
- Cabinets
- Fixtures
- Fuel
- Soft costs
Example: $20,000 in rehab costs 
- 0% APR for 9 billing cycles
- Get $300 statement credit
- 1% cash back ($20k X 1% = $200) Total $500
*spend $3k in first 3 months to earn bonus
Use to access cash for real estate deals
- Cash advance
- Digital payment system
- *Cash liquidation service
Example:
$20,000 via wire transfer to Title Company before closing (Plastiq)
- 0% APR for 9 billing cycles
- Get $300 statement credit
- 1% cash back ($20k X 1% = $200)
- Plastiq Fee 2.9% = $580
Note: spend $3k in first 3 months to earn bonus
*Cash liquidation service is only available to our business credit card funding clients
Pay in cash using business credit cards
How to Get Cash from Business Credit Cards
Digital Payment Systems Plastiq and Melio
- Pay contractors in cash
- Pay title companies via wire transfer
- Pay vendors in cash
- Pay suppliers in cash
*Plastiq and Melio have a processing fee (generally 2.9%)
Steps to Pay in Cash from Business Credit Cards
- Set up a Plastiq or Melio Account (free)
- Connect business credit cards to use
- Set up ability to send wire transfers
- Enter recipient details (Title Company, etc.)
- Initiate wire transfer
- Provide any required info
- Complete
How do you use business credit cards in real estate investing?
- Business purchases and expenses
- Renovation projects – materials, appliances, cabinets, fixtures, etc.
- Paying contractors, suppliers, vendors and service providers
- Cash for down payments, closing costs and/or soft costs
What should you do before you apply for business credit cards?
Before you apply for any business credit card it’s crucial to be prepared. First, know your FICO® Scores with all three major credit bureaus; Equifax, Transunion and Experian.
To order your 3-bureau credit reports and FICO® Scores for $1 for 7 days go to http://knowmycredit.org
Second, determine what ways you plan to use a business credit card(s) for real estate investing. Are you going to use it for day-to-day expenses, renovation projects, paying contractors, purchasing real estate, etc.?
Once you know your credit scores and how you plan to use business credit cards for real estate, the next step is to identify which cards to apply for. Below are some business credit card recommendations for real estate investing.
Business Credit Cards for Real Estate
Issued by American Express
Blue Business Cash™️ Card
Blue Business® Plus Credit Card
- 0% intro APR for 12 months
- 1-2% cash back / 1-2X points
- $250 statement credit / 15k points
- No annual fee
Note – Spend $3k in first 3 months to earn bonus
Issued by Chase
Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card
Ink Business Cash® Credit Card 
- 0% intro APR for 12 months
- 1.5% cash back / up to 5% cash back
- $750 cash back bonus
- No annual fee
Note – Spend $6k in first 3 months to earn bonus
*Be under 5/24 rule before you apply for any Chase cards
How to Get Business Credit Card Funding
Rather than apply for business credit cards on your own, consider our business credit card funding program.
This is a done-for-you business credit card funding program where we acquire 4-5 business credit cards for your business at 0% APR for 6-18 months. Each of the cards acquired report solely to the business credit bureaus enabling you to build business credit while protecting your personal credit.
To find out how much we can acquire for your real estate business, we offer a free pre-qualification review. This review does not conduct a hard pull on your credit, since you are supplying a recent copy of your credit report for us to review.
It takes approximately 24-48 hrs. for us to conduct a review and we will contact you with projections and next steps to move forward once the review is complete.
Free Pre-Qualification Review
- Up to $150k in total credit limits
- Reports only to business credit reports
- Processing time 14-20 days
- No upfront fee
Pre-Qualify Now => http://businessfundingreview.com
Additional benefits:
- Access to cash liquidation service
- Liquidate up to 90% of credit limits
- 0% APR for 6-18 months
- No cash advance fees
- No high cash advance APR
Ready to build your business credit? Become a member of my Business Credit Insiders Circle and gain access to a proven step-by-step business credit building system. A system that provides you access to vendor credit, retail credit, gas cards, business credit cards with and without a PG, funding sources and lenders that report to all the major business credit bureaus. Submit your name and email below for details and receive our Business Credit Insiders Newsletter and business credit audio seminar ($497 value) =>
To Your Success in Business and in Life!
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About the author
Marco Carbajo is a business credit expert, author, speaker, and founder of the Business Credit Insiders Circle. He has written articles for Dun and Bradstreet, the SBA.gov, Business.com, About.com and AllBusiness.com. His articles and blog; Business Credit Blogger.com, have been featured in ‘Fox Small Business’, ‘American Express Small Business’, ‘Business Week’, ‘The Washington Post’, ‘The New York Times’, ‘The San Francisco Tribune’, Alltop, and Entrepreneur Connect.