As a small or medium business owner, managing expenses and monitoring employee spending can be a daunting task. That’s where prepaid business expense cards come in, offering a solution that not only limits employee spending but also makes it easier for you to track expenses and generate reports.
In this article, we’ll explore the best prepaid business expense cards available to help you manage your expenses and provide your employees with the convenience of using a company card for their work expenditure.
Whether you’re considering opening your first business expense account or offering expense cards to employees for the first time, we’ve got you covered. So, let’s dive in and find the right card for your business needs!
Soldo business account
Soldo is a popular business expense card option that allows you to easily manage employee spending. This platform is particularly suitable for larger businesses with more complex expense management needs.
You can create custom spending limits and approval workflows for each employee, which gives you more control over expenses. Real-time dashboards let you monitor employee spending as it happens, and you can quickly add funds to the cards when necessary.
The Soldo mobile app makes it easy to manage employee expenses on-the-go. Additionally, Soldo integrates with popular accounting software, such as Xero and QuickBooks.
We love the temporary virtual cards feature. This is a great option for temporarily giving cards to employees for one off events or functions, without the hassle and security issues of having a physical card.
Soldo can be expensive for smaller businesses, but does have basic plans starting at £3 per card per month.
Soldo business account requirements
All businesses can apply for a Soldo account. To apply you’ll need to provide the ID and address of every director in the business, along with the company number, and in some cases proof of your businesses financial situation.
There are no credit checks with Soldo unless you specifically apply for credit facilities.
Pros:
- Customizable approval workflows for expenses and spending limits
- Real-time dashboard to monitor employee spending
- Prepaid cards help businesses avoid overspending
- Integrates with accounting software
- Offers a mobile app to manage expenses on-the-go
- Temporary virtual cards
- Low withdrawal fees
Cons:
- Can be expensive for smaller businesses
- Charges for recurring payments
- Need Premium for most useful features
Fees:
- Pro plan: £6 per card per month
- Premium plan: £10 per card per month
- Enterprise plan: custom pricing based on business needs
- £5 issuing fee per card (£1 for vitual cards)
Tide – best expenses card for small businesses
Tide is primarily a digital bank account aimed at small to medium businesses. Its expense cards are designed to integrate seamlessly with the Tide business current account to provide and all-in-one, expense management and banking solution.
The good news is that the most basic Tide account is free, so even if you do your banking elsewhere, there’s nothing to stop you opening a Tide account to use its expense cards.
As an employer you can activate or disable expensive cards, set spending limits, view insights and analytics, and track your employee spending. Employees also have the ability to activate their own card, check the pin, and freeze it when not in use.
Employers can also opt to receive instant notifications about expense card payments. While employees are able to handle their own expense admin, from uploading receipts, to assigning spending categories.
Adding expense cards to the account costs just £5 (plus VAT) a month for each card. The card fee is taken automatically from your Tide account, so there’s no need to top up or pay invoices to another platform.
If you have a paid Tide account such as Plus, Pro, or Premium, you get up to 3 expense cards included your monthly subscription.
The low barrier to entry, ease of setup, and simplified costs make Tide our top pick for small businesses only needing less than 5 expense cards.
Pros:
- Low cost
- Great interface
- No foreign transaction fees
- Instant spending notifications for both employer and employee
Cons:
- No suited to larger business
Fees:
- £5 per card – that’s it all other fees are as per the main Tide card
Pleo
Pleo is a spending solution and expense manage platform suitable for businesses of all sizes.
It offers both virtual and plastic business expense cards, and a friendly, interface for card management and analytics.
As well as employee expense cards, it also offers Invoice payments meaning you can manage and pay your business’ bills via the Pleo platform. On the subject of its web platform you can also centralise all business expenses, not just those made with Pleo cards.
As you’d expect, Pleo integrates with all major account software, and offers real-time notifications on spending. There’s also up to 1% on purchases on selected plans.
Pleo offers three main price plans. A free Starter plan that allows up to three users, an Essential plan at £39 a month, and an Advanced plan at £79.
The plans differ in the number of users, level of support, and features available. The free plan should only be considered by those with the most basic of needs, and who avoid any ATM usage at all.
Pros:
- Fast sign up
- Slick modern interface
- Accounting integration
Cons:
- Fees on withdrawals
- Fees on international transfers
Fees:
- £10 one-time fee for each additional physical card
- £5 ATM fee (Starter plan)
- 2% Foreign transaction fee
- £25 fee to withdraw funds from Pleo account
Wallester – best for businesses with euro expenses
Wallester is our slightly more left-field choice. It’s an Estonia fintech, but also operates in the UK.
The website might be a little ‘in-your-face’ but the company is serious a serious challenger in the business expenses space. It’s headline feature is its ‘free’ account. No monthly fees, or service charges.
Like the other providers in our list, it offers expense management and tracking via its web portal, with real-time control. Where it differs is the sheer number of cards allowed on the account. It’s literally unlimited when it comes to physical cards, and up to 300 virtual cards.
It also allows shared access to virtual cards and near instant card issuance, meaning cards can be issues for payments pretty much on the spot.
It’s worth noting that the cards/account is only available in euro. You can top up and spend in any currency you like, but will be charged a 2% conversion fee. As such, our opinion is that it is best suited to companies regularly travelling to or conducting business with EU companies. If your main business activity is in GBP, this is probably not the expense card for you.
Pros:
- Unlimited physical cards
- Hundreds of virtual cards
- Free price plan (Team Expense)
- Easy 10 minute setup
- API
Cons:
- Card and account is only available in euro
- Somewhat garish website
Fees:
- £5 card delivery
- £2 foreign ATM
- 2% currency conversion charge
>> Get a Wallester expense card
What are prepaid business expense cards?
Prepaid business expense cards are typically pre-paid Mastercard or Visa debit cards that employers can load with money, and employees can use to make business purchases.
Typically, these cards are linked to the company’s business bank account, but it’s also possible to have them linked to a sperate expense account that in itself requires topping up.
Proving employees their own expense card empowers them to make their own purchase decisions, without the need to bother their line manages, or worry about claim back expenses when out of the office.
The latter is a big concern, given the cost of living crisis at the moment, it is entirely possible some employees might have the liquid funds, to pay for transport and accommodation themselves while away on business, and claim it back later. Having their own business expense card eliminates that worry.
What are business expense and prepaid cards used for?
We’ve already touched upon this above, but in general they are used to allow staff to access company funds as and when required, without haven’t to track down the one or two company credit cards that might be floating around.
Typically, they will be used to pay for business expenses when out of the office, for example staff away at a convention, or exhibition. That may have to pay food and transport costs. Rather than staff pay for these expenses out of their own pocket, and claim them back at a latter date, an expense card allows them to pay for items directly, cutting out unnecessary admin and hassle.
They could be used by members of business trailing new software (as is common in digital marketing), each of these trails requires a credit card to sign up. Being able to put these on an expense card, means the digital marketing executive wouldn’t have to go looking for the company credit card each time they start a new trial.
How much do business expense cards cost?
Few things in business are free, and this expends to expense card. Some business bank accounts, might include a number of expense cards in the account’s monthly service fee, but typically they are a paid extra. Additionally, many expense cards come with transaction and other fees including:
- Delivery fees and activation fees
- UK ATM fees
- Foreign transaction fees and ATMs
What are the advantages and disadvantages of using prepaid business expense card?
Business expenses cards can simplify your admin, empower your employees, and actually save you money, but they also come with some challenges. Below we highlight the main advantages, and disadvantages of operating a business expense card scheme. Of course these will depend on your particular use and business operation, but do offer some food-for-thought.
Advantages
Convenience
Business expense cards offer a convenient way for employees to make purchases for work-related expenses, eliminating the need for them to use their personal funds, pester line managers or department heads for funds to make small purchases.
Given the increase in remote working, having their own business expense cards, also gives employees the ability to purchase items online or over phone, and reduces the time spent filling in reimbursement request were they to use their own personal cards.
Simplified Expense Management
Expense manage is improved by providing a clear paper trail of all transactions. Making it easier to review expenses and approve or deny requests. It also helps to simplify bookkeeping and accounting processes, as all transactions are recorded and easily accessible. Many accounts allow users to scan receipt directly from their phone, further reducing admin. We all know someone who wait until the end of the month, and hogs the photocopier scanning a ton of expense receipts they’ve accumulated over the month.
Security and Fraud Prevention
Hands up who’s worked in an office where business credit card number is written down somewhere, either physically or in an email.
Prepaid expense cards help eliminate this by providing each employee who requires one, a dedicate card that they can whip out searching for expense book that has an imprint of the company card on the back page. It’s just more secure.
Furthermore, prepaid cards limit employee spending (they can only spend up to the max limit you set) and provide detailed transaction records.
All of the expense cards in our list also have some form of fraud detection, which can alert administrators of suspicious activity.
Rewards and Discounts
Accounts like Tide Cashback, or Cashplus Business offer rewards or cashback on purchases, which can help reduce expenses over time. Linking expense cards to these accounts can save the business money that otherwise would have been lost if the employee used their own personal card and then reclaimed their expenses.
Disadvantages
Risk of Misuse
Some companies worry about the potential for misuse and abuse of company funds,
Without proper controls and oversight, a rouge employee (of course you don’t have any of those), could use the card inappropriately. There is a small risk of this happening, but with real time monitoring, this risk is limited. And as a pre-paid card, the amount that can be spent, and when it can be spent is also limited.
Fees
Monthly fees, transaction fees, or foreign transaction fees can add up quickly, especially for businesses with multiple employees using expense cards. It’s important to carefully review the terms and conditions of each card to understand the fees associated with them.
Recurring payments
In some rare cases employees might have recurring payments that best handled by direct debits, or standing orders. Typically, these can’t be set up on an expense card. Automatic recurring card payments can, but if you turn the card off at certain times (as a security measure) these payments may fail.
Credit Impact
Expense card linked to credit accounts can have an impact on your business’ credit history, but since all the cards we list in our article are prepaid ones, there’s no worry here.
For more on business banking, see our guide to the best business bank accounts