If you run your own business and are often out and about meeting clients, then there are going to be times when you may need prepaid cards for business to:

1 – pay for entertaining customers, 2 – settle hotel bills, 3 – buy fuel for transport, 4 – get cash for incidental expenses.

Of course, you could do all these things on your own personal cards and claim the costs back, but you may run the risk of forgetting to claim back all your costs, or lose important receipts relating to a transaction, meaning that you cannot put a claim in for that amount.

You may spend money for your business on one of your personal cards and find that when you try and tally up your expenditure at the end of the month it all gets a bit blurred around the edges as to what is a business cost and what is a personal cost.

Prepaid cards for business may be the answer.

These may typically give you the freedom and flexibility you need to carry out your duties while giving you the peace of mind that you cannot inadvertently overdo things.

So how do prepaid business cards work?

These are cards that are preloaded with a fixed sum of money. They may carry a brand name – such as the MasterCard prepaid card – so they can typically be used wherever you see the brand name.

The difference is that they are not actually credit cards. There is a fixed value on them that cannot be exceeded. So you are in complete control of how much is being spent.

An additional characteristic of prepaid business cards lies in the fact that they can often be maintained online.

With some providers you may: 1 – have access to the card account and can see exactly what is it being used for, 2 – choose to receive a text or an SMS message each time that the card is used to pay for something, 3 – even be able to credit funds to the card online to top up the financial amounts available.

Of course, product terms and features can vary, so it may make sense to check out the small print so you understand exactly what your prepay card will offer.

In control

Prepaid cards for business may give you the flexibility you need to operate effectively whilst keeping it completely separate from your own personal financial arrangements.