Corporate Cards
Corporate Cards: The complete guide beyond the traditional business credit card
A payment method built for how businesses actually spend, not for how banks issue credit.
62%
less time spent by finance managers on claims, after switching from corporate credit cards to Soldo
50%
less time spent reviewing company spend against budgets
80%
less time spent approving monthly
expense reports, once cards sync automatically to accounting software
26,000+
businesses already use Soldo corporate cards instead of traditional corporate credit cards
Chapter
What a corporate card actually is
A corporate card is a payment card issued by a business, to an employee, a team or a project, with spending rules set by the business at the point of issue rather than checked afterwards by a bank statement. That’s the entire difference between a corporate card and a corporate credit card: not the plastic, but when the control is applied.
Where a corporate credit card checks spending after the money has moved, a prepaid corporate card like Soldo's is loaded with the rules before it can be used at all: a spending limit, an approved category, a time window, a specific supplier. Some are issued to individuals for everyday work costs. Some are single-use, issued for one purchase and retired the moment it's made. Some are shared across a team or ringfenced to a project budget. All of them carry the same underlying principle: the rule travels with the card, not with the statement.
'Corporate card' and 'company card' are used interchangeably throughout this guide and in the market generally, both refer to the same broad category. A different term, 'business card', usually means something else entirely online, the paper card with someone's name and contact details on it, so we've avoided leaning on it as a label here. Within the corporate card category, corporate credit card refers specifically to a card drawing on a revolving credit line from a bank, distinct from the prepaid and debit-linked cards, issued directly by the business rather than underwritten against its credit history, that make up the rest of this guide.
Chapter
The modern corporate card landscape, an insider's view
To understand why so many companies now offering ‘corporate cards’ aren’t banks, it helps to know how card issuing actually works underneath the branding.
Why any business can issue corporate cards now, not just banks
Issuing a Visa or Mastercard has always required scheme membership and a banking licence, or e-money authorisation, to legally hold and move cardholder funds. For most of card history, that meant only banks issued corporate cards, which is why corporate card programmes used to be the preserve of large enterprises with an existing banking relationship and a treasury function to manage it.
That changed with what the industry calls the unbundled issuing model, built on BIN sponsorship (a Bank Identification Number is the scheme-issued prefix that identifies who’s responsible for a card). Three roles now typically sit behind any card programme:
- The BIN sponsor or e-money institution: the regulated entity that holds the licence, the scheme membership, and legal responsibility for safeguarding cardholder funds.
- The issuer-processor: runs the technical rails, authorisation, settlement, the plumbing most cardholders never see.
- The program manager: owns the product, the app, the onboarding and the customer relationship, but operates under the sponsor’s licence rather than holding one of its own.
This is why Soldo, Pleo, Spendesk and most of the names in this space describe themselves as regulated e-money institutions rather than banks. Soldo Financial Services Ltd, for example, is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority under the Electronic Money Regulations 2011 (FRN 900459) to issue electronic money, a different regulatory footing to a bank, and one worth understanding before you commit to any provider (more on why in Chapter 7).
What this unlocked
The practical result: a business no longer needs a banking relationship, a treasury department or months of onboarding to get a working card programme. An e-money-licensed platform can issue physical and virtual cards to any number of employees within days, with the spend controls built into the card itself rather than bolted on afterwards. That single shift, unbundling the licence from the product, is the reason the ‘corporate card’ market now includes dozens of players targeting businesses that a bank-issued corporate card programme was never built to serve.
Chapter
Why corporate credit cards don't fit modern spending
Corporate credit cards were built for a smaller, simpler kind of business spending: a handful of trusted signatories, a handful of large purchases, one statement a month.
That's not how most businesses spend today. Spending is decentralised across dozens or hundreds of employees, buying constantly, in small amounts, across hundreds of merchants.
A corporate credit card wasn't designed for that shape of spending, and it shows. Cards are typically linked straight to the business bank account, so overspend is a real risk rather than a technical impossibility. Where several colleagues share one card, procurement or finance lose the ability to say with certainty who spent what and when, until a name is manually matched against a receipt. Charges are visible in full only when the statement lands at month-end, by which point a problem has already had four weeks to compound rather than four minutes. And because the card connects directly to company funds, a lost or compromised card is a live financial risk, not a capped one.
None of this makes corporate credit cards a bad tool for what they were built for. It makes them the wrong tool for a business that spends the way most businesses spend now: through many people, continuously, in amounts too small to justify the admin of a purchase order but too frequent to ignore.
Chapter
Legacy providers vs fintech alternatives
Anyone shopping for a company card today is really choosing between three different kinds of provider, and they solve different problems.
| High-street banks | Challenger business accounts | Dedicated spend management platforms | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Examples | Barclaycard, HSBC, NatWest, Amex Business | Tide, Starling, Revolut Business, Capital on Tap | Soldo, Pleo, Spendesk, Airwallex |
| Onboarding | Days to weeks, often needs an existing banking relationship | Same day to a few days, fully digital | Days, layered on top of a bank account or their own e-money licence |
| Card model | Physical card, revolving credit line | Debit-linked, some blend credit; unlimited free employee cards common | Physical and virtual, instant single-use virtual cards common |
| Spend control | Statement-based, limited real-time controls | Growing real-time app controls, MCC blocking on some | Most granular: per-card limits, category and merchant rules, approval workflows |
| Rewards | Often strong (points, cashback, travel credit) | Growing (e.g. uncapped cashback on some cards) | Generally none, control is the trade-off |
| Best suited to | Businesses that want a credit facility, reward value, and already bank there | SMBs wanting a fast, all-in-one business account plus cards | Businesses with decentralised spend across many employees needing policy enforced at the point of purchase |
Worth saying plainly: if you're a five-person business that wants one or two cards and values cashback, a challenger business account or even a well-chosen credit card may genuinely serve you better than a dedicated spend platform. The case for a platform like Soldo strengthens specifically as headcount, card count and decentralised spend grow, because that's when policy enforcement and real-time visibility start to matter more than rewards.
Chapter
Corporate cards vs corporate credit cards vs debit cards
The comparison below sets out where a corporate card differs in practice, drawn from what businesses ask most often when weighing up the switch.
Verified against the UK business card market, Aug 2026 (sources below). Three rows updated from the Feb 2024 original, two softened.
| What you need | Corporate credit card | Business debit card | Prepaid business card (Soldo) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Immediate card access, no credit check | Requires a credit check (soft-check options exist, but a check still runs) | Tied to existing bank account, no separate check | Issued in minutes, no credit history needed |
| Avoid overspend and overdraft fees | Draws against a credit line | Can trigger overdraft fees if one's arranged | Draws only against pre-allocated funds |
| Spending limits by day, week or category | Depends on the issuer, from roughly £1k to £250k | Usually a low default per employee card (often £400 or less), admin-adjustable | Fully customisable, per card |
| Restrict spend to approved merchants | Increasingly available via MCC blocking on some issuers | Increasingly available on some challenger business accounts | Built in, on every card by default |
| Restrict spend to approved locations | Limited | Limited | Customisable |
| Set limits by employee or team | Not typically, cards are usually issued to a few signatories | Available on some business banking platforms, admin-set per card | Built in, for every card |
| Issue a temporary, single-use card | Not typically on traditional bank-issued cards | Not typically | Available |
| Card rewards | Available, and often the strongest reason to keep one | Uncommon, most debit cards carry no rewards | Not available |
| Automatic receipt capture and coding | Manual, unless paired with separate expense software | Manual, unless paired with separate expense software | Built into the app |
| Direct accounting software integration | Increasingly common among challenger banks, usually a read-only feed | Increasingly common among challenger banks, usually a read-only feed | Built in, two-way sync |
Sources for the comparison above (not for publication, verification only): Forbes Advisor UK, Best Business Credit Cards UK 2026; Capitalise, Best Business Reward Credit Cards UK 2026; Holdings, Business Debit Cards Guide 2026; Nav, Business Debit Cards: What They Are And How To Get One
The one honest trade-off: rewards. A corporate credit card can earn points or cashback that a prepaid company card can't. For most finance teams, the time saved and the overspend prevented outweighs that, but it's worth naming rather than skating past.
Chapter
Virtual cards and the hybrid, remote-first workforce
Before 2020, ‘who gets a company card’ was answered by ‘who’s in the office with access to the petty cash tin or the shared card in the drawer’. Hybrid and remote work broke that model completely. There often isn’t a drawer, an office, or even a shared timezone.
- Around 20% of US full-time employees work fully remotely and 28% work hybrid as of early 2026
- 55% of job seekers now rank hybrid work as their preferred arrangement
A physical company card can't reach someone who's never coming into an office, and mailing one adds days a distributed team doesn't have. Virtual cards solve the actual problem: a manager issues a card number instantly, with a limit, a category and sometimes an expiry, and an employee anywhere can use it the same minute, with nothing to post.
Where this matters most for a distributed team
- Home office equipment: a one-off purchase that doesn't justify onboarding a new supplier for a single desk chair
- Co-working memberships: a recurring cost for someone with no fixed office, capped to that specific merchant
- Per diem and subsistence for field or remote workers, time-bound to the days they're actually needed
- Individual software trials employees want to test, without the whole team's card details ending up in a tool nobody else knows about
- Short-term contractor and freelancer payments, without adding them as a permanent employee cardholder
The control benefit runs the other way too. A card and a laptop both living in someone's home is a larger loss and theft surface than a controlled office environment, so the ability to freeze a card instantly, from anywhere, without waiting on a bank's call centre, matters more for a distributed workforce than it ever did for a single-site one.
Chapter
How to choose the right corporate card provider
Before comparing features, two regulatory questions matter more than any spend-control feature list.
Check the regulatory status yourself
Don’t take a provider’s own ‘FCA regulated’ claim at face value. Search the FCA Register directly and confirm the specific entity issuing your card is listed as authorised, not merely referenced by a related brand name.
Understand how funds are protected. Money held by an e-money institution is ring-fenced through safeguarding rules, which is a real and legitimate protection, but it is not the same as the Financial Services Compensation Scheme that covers a traditional bank deposit. Neither is wrong; they’re different mechanisms, and it’s worth knowing which one applies to your funds before you move a business’s operating cash onto a card platform.
| What to check | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Card issuance speed (physical and virtual) | Determines how fast a new hire or an urgent purchase can actually happen |
| Spend control granularity | Per-card limits, category and merchant rules, time-bound cards, decide whether policy is enforced at the point of sale or checked afterwards |
| Accounting integration depth | A genuine two-way sync (see Chapter 8) saves far more time than a read-only bank feed |
| International and multi-currency support | Matters if any spend happens outside your home currency, FX fees vary widely between providers |
| Physical and virtual card mix | A provider that only does physical cards can't serve a remote team well (see Chapter 6) |
| Support model and SLA | Card issues are time-sensitive; know who you're calling and how fast they respond |
| Total cost of ownership | Add FX fees, monthly fees and per-card fees together, not just the headline rate |
Match the provider category from Chapter 4 to your actual spend shape, not the other way round. A handful of cards and a preference for cashback points towards a legacy or challenger card. Decentralised spend across many employees, with compliance and real-time visibility as real requirements, points towards a dedicated spend management platform.
Chapter
Automating month-end with integrated expense cards
folder of paper or emailed receipts, chases the ones that are missing, keys categories into the accounting system by hand, and calls it closed several days later than planned.
With cards that sync directly into accounting software rather than feeding it a read-only statement, that sequence changes shape entirely. A receipt is captured the moment it’s spent, automatically categorised from the merchant data attached to the transaction, and synced continuously rather than uploaded in one batch at month close. The finance team’s job on day one of the new month is to review a reconciled ledger, not to build one.
What that shift is worth in practice, drawn from Soldo customer data:
- 80% less time spent by finance approving monthly expense reports
- 62% less time spent by finance managers on claims overall
- 50 hours of admin time saved per year by using expense cards rather than petty cash
- Care provider Making Space cut reconciliation from six days a month to half a day
The distinction that actually delivers this is the one raised in Chapter 5’s comparison table: a two-way sync that writes categorised, receipt-matched transactions into the ledger automatically, against a read-only feed that still needs a human to make sense of it. Ask any provider which one they offer before assuming month-end automation is included.
Give every employee a corporate card, not a credit check.
Apply online in minutes and start spending the same day. No credit checks, no hidden fees, no fixed contracts.
How Soldo works, from card to reconciliation
1. Assign a budget.
A manager sets a budget on a card, with an expense type and, if needed, automatic top-ups, before it's ever used.
2. Capture the receipt.
Employees photograph the receipt in the mobile app at the point of purchase. No folder of paper, no end-of-month scramble.
3. Track spending live.
Every card's activity is visible on one dashboard, most-used vendors, biggest spenders, category totals, updated in real time rather than at statement close. Funds can be moved or a card frozen remotely, immediately.
4. Reconcile automatically
Reports build themselves from the transaction and receipt data already captured, and sync straight into Xero or QuickBooks. Nobody chases a paper trail at month-end, because there isn't one.
FAQs
What is a corporate card?
A corporate card, also called a company card, is a payment card issued by a business rather than a bank credit line, with spending rules such as limits, categories and approved merchants set by the business before the card is used.
Are corporate cards the same as prepaid cards?
Prepaid corporate cards are one type of corporate card. They’re loaded with pre-allocated funds rather than a credit line, which removes both the credit check and the overdraft risk.
Do prepaid corporate cards require a credit check?
No, not the prepaid kind. Because a prepaid corporate card draws against funds the business has already allocated rather than a line of credit, there’s no credit check and no credit history requirement.
Do prepaid corporate cards protect money just like a bank?
Not identically. E-money institutions protect customer funds through safeguarding rules, which ring-fence the money, but this is a different mechanism to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme that covers a traditional bank deposit. Both are legitimate; it’s worth knowing which applies before moving significant funds onto any platform.
How does an integrated expense card speed up month-end close?
By syncing categorised, receipt-matched transactions directly into accounting software as they happen, rather than requiring a statement to be manually reconciled after the fact. Businesses report up to 80% less time spent approving monthly reports as a result.
What's the difference between a corporate card and a corporate credit card?
A corporate credit card draws against a credit line and applies most of its controls after the money has moved, visible on a monthly statement. A corporate card, in the broader sense used in this guide, applies its rules before the transaction happens, and shows spending in real time rather than a month later.
Can every employee have a corporate prepaid card?
Yes. Unlike corporate credit cards, which are usually limited to a small number of signatories, corporate cards can be issued to as many employees as a business needs, each with its own limit.
What's the difference between a fintech card provider and a bank-issued corporate card?
A bank-issued corporate card draws on a credit line from the bank itself. A fintech provider typically operates as a regulated e-money institution, or under another institution’s licence, issuing prepaid or debit-linked cards with the spend controls built into the product rather than the credit relationship.
Can a fully remote employee get a company card?
Yes, and it’s one of the strongest cases for a virtual card. A manager can issue a virtual card instantly to anyone, anywhere, with its own limit and category restrictions, without waiting for a physical card to be posted.
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