Best business credit cards with no personal guarantee in 2025
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There are many reasons to get a business or corporate credit card: separating business and personal expenses, monitoring spend, cash back rewards, and other perks for your business. But if your business card is linked to your personal credit with a guarantee, it puts your own assets at risk.
A better option for many organizations is a business card that doesn’t require a personal guarantee or a personal credit check. These cards tie liability to the business, not the owner, which makes them valuable for founders seeking a clear separation between personal and business finances.
Corporate cards with no personal guarantee are rare, but for qualifying businesses, these cards provide access to funds and enable you to track your company's spending, manage cash flow, and build your business credit profile, all while protecting your personal assets from your business obligations. This keeps your home, savings, and other property separate if the company runs into financial difficulties.
In this article, we’ll explore what these cards are, how they work, their benefits, and how to choose the right one for your business.
What is a personal guarantee on business credit cards?
First, let’s define what a business credit card is. Simply put, it’s for company purchases like software, travel, and office supplies. It keeps spending separate, organized, and flexible, often with higher limits and tools to manage growth. Many business credit cards also require a personal guarantee, which puts your own assets at risk if the company defaults.
How personal guarantees work
A personal guarantee is your promise to pay your business debts if the company can’t. It gives lenders confidence they’ll be repaid, which is why it’s a fairly standard requirement for new businesses or those without an established credit history. Personal guarantees can allow you to access financing you might not otherwise qualify for, but they also move the risk from the company to you personally.
Personal liability and asset risk
When you sign a guarantee, your personal assets are on the line. This includes savings, real estate, and even your vehicle. Separating business and personal expenses is smart, but a personal guarantee erases that protection by allowing creditors to pursue both personal and business assets. For many business owners, the risk outweighs the benefit of getting a business card quickly.
Impact on personal credit scores
A business card with a personal guarantee can affect your individual credit score. Late payments or defaults may be reported on your personal credit file, lowering your score and making it harder to qualify for future loans, mortgages, or other credit cards.
Legal implications of personal guarantees
A personal guarantee is legally binding. If your business can’t repay its debt, lenders can take you to court. You could end up facing wage garnishments, liens on your property, or forced asset sales. Fighting these claims is costly and time-consuming, and once a judgment is in place, it can cause financing problems for years.
Benefits of business credit cards without personal guarantees
Most business credit cards require a personal guarantee, which means your own assets are at risk if your business can’t pay its bills. But there are also cards that don’t require a personal guarantee, and they offer clear advantages. These kinds of cards don’t touch your personal assets and make it easier to keep business and personal finances separate.
These are the main benefits of business credit cards without personal guarantees:
Personal asset protection
A business credit card without a personal guarantee keeps your personal finances off-limits. If the business can’t meet its obligations, the card issuer can’t come after your personal property. For many business owners, this separation provides peace of mind when taking on credit in the business’s name.
Limited personal liability
With a business card that doesn’t require a personal guarantee, you’re not personally responsible for company debt. Issuers and collectors can only pursue the business, not the owner or employees. This keeps financial responsibility with the company itself, giving you more confidence to use credit as a tool for growth.
Separation of business and personal credit
A no-personal-guarantee business card keeps your business and personal credit separate. Activity on the card is reported to business credit bureaus, not consumer ones, which means your business can build its own credit profile. Separating personal and business finances makes it far easier to track your organization’s performance, protects your individual credit history, and shows lenders that your company can operate independently.
Peace of mind for business owners
Running a business is stressful enough without worrying about your personal assets. Knowing your personal credit and finances aren’t tied to your company’s credit card reduces anxiety, allowing you to focus on the business. Your personal finances stay protected from business downturns and surprise costs.
Better risk management
By keeping liability with the business, you lower the personal risks tied to borrowing. If challenges arise, you have more room to manage them through company resources instead of dipping into personal savings (speaking of anxiety!). This makes business credit cards without personal guarantees a safer option if you want to limit risk while still accessing capital.
Improved business credit building
When your company uses and manages the card responsibly, the positive activity is reported to business credit agencies. Over time, this builds your business credit history, making it easier to qualify for larger credit lines, better terms, and more financing options down the road. A strong business credit profile also demonstrates your stability to partners, lenders, and vendors.
Business credit cards vs. corporate cards
Business credit cards and corporate credit cards are pretty much the same thing, right? No. While they may sound similar, they offer different features and are tailored to different financial situations.
Business credit cards
Business credit cards are designed for smaller businesses and startups and are often the easiest cards to get, but they usually come with a catch: they require a personal guarantee. That means the owner is personally responsible for the balance. Not only that, but business credit cards affect your personal credit score if you miss your payments.
Most issuers look at both your personal and business credit when you apply for a business credit card. So it’s important to keep both credit scores healthy if you want to increase your odds of approval (and get better terms and higher limits).
Many business credit cards also offer basic expense tracking and may allow a handful of employee cards, but controls are limited compared to corporate programs.
Corporate cards
Corporate cards, on the other hand, are geared toward larger, well-established organizations. A key difference is that they don’t typically require a personal guarantee, so the liability rests with the business. Approval is based mainly on your company’s financial health and business credit score.
Corporate cards also come with advanced expense management tools, accounting integrations, and the ability to issue multiple employee cards under a single corporate credit card policy, which makes tracking and controlling spending much easier. That’s important, since a recent Rippling survey found that 62% of company cardholders know of instances where corporate cards were misused.
For smaller or newer businesses, a business credit card can be the more practical choice. But, if your company is established, has strong revenue, and you want to avoid personal liability, or you need advanced controls for multiple employees, a corporate card may be the smarter long-term solution.
Best business credit cards with no personal guarantee (and company card alternatives)
Here are the top business credit cards that don't require a personal guarantee, including both corporate charge card options and alternative solutions:
1. Rippling Corporate Card
Rippling’s corporate card is a charge card that doesn't require a credit check or a personal guarantee, making it accessible to a wider range of companies, from small businesses and startups to large enterprises. Approval is based on your company’s financial standing. Because it’s a charge card, you’ll pay off the balance each month, helping you avoid debt accumulation.
What makes Rippling’s corporate card stand out is that it integrates with your employee data to create hyper-custom spending policies based on employee attributes like department, level, and location. Most spend management solutions require hours of oversight to enforce complex policies — but with Rippling, you can build and automate hundreds of granular policies across your entire workforce.
Features include real-time policy enforcement, automated receipt matching, and detailed spending analytics with role-based visibility. These capabilities help you work faster, avoid costly mistakes, and make informed financial decisions as your business scales.
With Rippling, there are no annual fees or interest charges on U.S. transactions, and subject to Rippling’s corporate card approval, companies can also earn cash back rewards on eligible transactions (more details here).
2. Ramp Business Credit Card
Ramp’s corporate card doesn’t require a credit check or personal guarantee. Approval and credit limits are based on your business’s financials. There’s no annual fee, and the card includes built-in expense management features, including automated expense tracking, simplified spend controls, and automated reminders for approvals, making it a popular option for companies looking to manage their expenses.
Ramp integrates with a wide range of third-party tools, including accounting software and other financial platforms, which can help businesses expand their financial management capabilities.
Additional benefits include cash back rewards, partner offers and discounts, and a 30-day payback period. Ramp also provides unlimited physical and virtual cards, all with global acceptance.
3. Brex Corporate Credit Card
Like the other leading cards in our list, the Brex corporate card bases acceptance and credit limits on company financials like revenue and funding, not credit scores and personal assets. Brex is designed for startups and growing businesses and offers rewards that can be redeemed for cash back and credits. Some spending categories are eligible for rewards multipliers, but most categories earn 1x points.
Brex cards feature built-in spend management, including automated receipt collection and categorization, as well as limited spending controls by category and vendor. Other features include worldwide acceptance, local currency cards, and integration with popular accounting and expense management software. There are no annual fees, foreign transaction fees, or interest fees.
4. Nav Prime Card
The Nav Prime charge card helps business owners build both business and personal credit using the same transactions. No personal guarantee, credit check, or security deposit is required. However, the card is only available to Nav Prime members. Nav Prime offers several membership tiers for business credit services, with plans starting at $39.99 per month for credit tracking. However, to access the card, you will need the $49.99 per month “Build” plan (or higher).
There are no restrictions on usage, but unlike most credit cards that allow you to carry a balance from month to month, the Nav Prime card deducts the amount you spend from your linked bank account daily.
Nav is a good fit for some startups, but the card leans more toward credit building and monitoring than expense management. You won’t find traditional perks like rewards or cash back, and it’s not available everywhere since state regulations limit where Nav can offer it.
5. BILL Divvy Corporate Card
The BILL Divvy corporate card gives businesses access to credit without requiring a personal guarantee or personal credit check. Approval is based on company financials rather than an owner’s credit history, with limits that scale depending on cash flow, bank balances, and overall business health. This keeps liability with the business while offering flexibility as the company grows.
Divvy also reports repayment history to the Small Business Financial Exchange (SBFE), which helps businesses establish or build their commercial credit profile. For companies looking to boost their credit standing, timely payments on this card can help.
In addition to credit access, the card comes with integrated spend management tools. Businesses can issue unlimited employee cards, set customizable budgets, and track expenses.
There’s no annual fee or charges for employee cards with the BILL Divvy corporate card. It also offers rewards on spending across different categories, with points redeemable for cash back, credits, gift cards, or travel.
6. Citi Business AAdvantage (corporate accounts)
The Citi Business AAdvantage World Elite Mastercard gives businesses two liability options: a traditional personal guarantee or a corporate guarantee. The corporate guarantee removes personal liability, but it requires stronger business financials. It's aimed at larger companies that have been in business for at least two years and have at least $5 million in annual sales. Even with the corporate guarantee, applying requires a credit check. There is a $99 annual fee, which is waived in the first year.
Citi reports account activity to major business credit bureaus, including Dun & Bradstreet, Experian Business, and Equifax Business. Credit limits grow over time as revenue and business performance improve.
Benefits include travel perks like free checked bags and preferred boarding on American Airlines flights, and 25% savings on in-flight purchases. Cardholders earn enhanced travel rewards on select business purchases, including airlines, gas, telecommunications, and car rentals, along with base rewards on all other spending.
7. American Express Corporate Cards (large businesses)
American Express offers corporate cards (Corporate Platinum, Corporate Gold, and Corporate Green) tailored to different employee roles and business requirements. Your organization can issue these cards to your employees for business expenses and use Amex @ Work to set spending limits, generate reports, and manage overall employee spending.
If Amex approves your company for corporate liability, your business assumes responsibility for all charges. That means no personal guarantee is required under corporate guarantee structures, although in many cases, Amex does perform a personal credit check when you apply. Corporate liability isn’t available to every business and usually requires solid business financials.
Amex reports corporate card activity to business credit bureaus, which can help companies build or strengthen their business credit over time. Expense-management tools are part of the package, via Amex @ Work. Extra perks (which depend on card tier) include travel rewards, vendor payment benefits, and other business-friendly features. Annual fees vary by tier.
Card/Issuer | Personal guarantee | Credit check | Annual fee | Rewards and perks | Benefits |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rippling Corporate Card | No | No | None | Cash back on eligible purchases | - Real-time policy enforcement - Automated receipt matching - Detailed spending analytics |
Ramp Business Credit Card | No | No | None | Discounts and deals from card partners, cash back on eligible purchases. | - Automated expense tracking - Global acceptance |
Brex Corporate Credit Card | No | No | None | Reward points that can be redeemed for cash back and credits. | - Built-in spend management - Business software integrations - Access to cash management solutions |
Nav Prime Card | No | No | Nav Prime membership required | None | - Builds business and personal credit - Basic recordkeeping - Real-time credit monitoring |
BILL Divvy Corporate Card | No | No | None | Flexible rewards | - Unlimited virtual cards - Mobile app with receipt capture - Includes expense management software |
Citi Business AAdvantage | No | Yes | $99, waived in first year | Unlimited AAdvantage miles with bonus categories | - Free checked bags on AA - Discounts on in-flight purchases - Employee cards at no additional cost |
American Express Corporate Cards | Depends on liability structure | Often | Depends on tier | Depends on tier | - Card management platform - Corporate liability structure available - Tier-based travel perks |
How to qualify for business credit cards without personal guarantees
Most business credit cards require a personal guarantee, but there are a growing number of options that don’t. These typically include corporate cards and newer offerings from alternative card issuers that are designed for businesses with strong financials. To improve your chances of getting approved, here are some steps you can take:
Build strong business credit history
Focus on building a strong business credit profile and score. There’s no shortcut here, just consistent good habits. Pay your bills on time, keep your balances manageable, and regularly check your credit activity. Over time, these actions will strengthen your company’s credit rating and show issuers that your business can stand on its own without a personal guarantee.
Maintain healthy cash flow and revenue
To qualify for no-personal-guarantee business credit cards, you need to show steady revenue and healthy cash flow. That means regular deposits, consistent account activity, and enough money coming in to cover your expenses. When providers see that your business has reliable income, they’re more willing to extend credit without tying it to your personal finances.
Establish banking relationships
A good banking history can help you qualify for a business credit card without a personal guarantee. If you don’t already have a dedicated business account, open one and start using it for everyday expenses and deposits. Keep the account active, avoid overdrafts, and aim for steady balances. Over time, this kind of track record shows issuers that your business handles money responsibly.
Work with business credit consultants
If you’re aiming for business credit without a personal guarantee, a credit consultant can help you get there faster. These experts know what issuers look for and can spot weak points in your profile that might hold you back. They’ll suggest practical fixes, guide you through complex requirements, and even help organize your application so it’s more compelling.
Consider starting with secured business cards
If your business is new or your credit history is limited, a secured business card can help you get started. You put down a deposit, which becomes your credit limit, and then use the card for regular expenses. Pay it off on time and keep balances low, and you’ll show issuers that your business can manage credit responsibly. This steady record can make it easier to move up to better options later, including business cards with no personal credit check. Prepaid business credit cards can also be useful for managing day-to-day spending, but they don’t build credit in the same way as secured cards.
Apply during strong financial periods
Timing is important when you apply for credit. Put in your application when your business has healthy bank balances, steady revenue, and manageable expenses. Issuers look closely at where your finances stand right now, not just your history, so applying during a strong period can improve your odds of getting a corporate card with no personal guarantee.
Protect your personal assets with Rippling's Corporate Card
Running a business is risky enough without putting your personal finances on the line. But that’s what many business credit cards want you to do when they ask for a personal guarantee. Rippling is different. Rippling’s corporate cards avoid that risk by separating business and personal liability.
With Rippling, there’s no need for a personal guarantee or a credit check. Approval is based on your company’s financial profile and fundamentals, keeping the responsibility for your business expenses with your business. Your personal assets aren’t part of the equation.
Since it’s a charge card, the balance has to be paid in full each month, which keeps debt from adding up while still giving you the flexibility to handle large or recurring business expenses. This structure gives your thriving business room to scale without putting your personal credit at risk.
With Rippling, you get more than separation of business and personal finances:
High-level visibility and real-time control over employee spending
Powerful automation capabilities to reduce spend management busywork
Unified employee data and spend data.
Hyper-custom card policies and automatically control how, when, and where employees can spend
Advanced analytics to enable better financial planning and spend management
Detailed expense reporting to let you keep track of every penny
Integrations that connect with many popular accounting systems to simplify reconciliation
Combined with Rippling spend management software, Rippling’s corporate cards deliver a fully automated expense system. They cut hours of manual admin, enforce compliance in the background, and give you visibility and control over company spend that traditional business cards can’t, all while protecting your personal assets by keeping liability with your business.
The fact that we can link permissions to our Rippling data structure and centralize it around who people report to and what department they're located in — a way that's all driven from employee data in an updated system — is very helpful, rather than trying to integrate to another expense platform.
Sean English
CFO at V-Check
FAQs about business credit cards with no personal guarantee
What revenue do I need for a no-personal-guarantee business card?
It depends. Business cards with no personal guarantee are generally available only once your company has high levels of recurring revenue. Approval is typically based on your business's financials and how effectively your company manages expenses.
Different issuers have different criteria. Some require a minimum business bank balance of $20,000 or more. For example, Ramp’s corporate card requires a minimum cash balance of $25,000. It’s worth shopping around to find a card that fits your company’s needs.
Do no-personal-guarantee cards help build business credit?
Not all no-personal-guarantee business cards report to the major business credit bureaus, as approval and credit limits are often based on your company’s revenue, cash flow, and bank activity rather than credit history. For the ones that do report, responsible card use can help establish or build your business credit profile.
What happens if I default on a no-personal-guarantee card?
Defaulting means your business, not you personally, is on the hook for the debt. Your personal credit isn’t affected, but lenders can still pursue collections against the company and report the delinquency to business credit bureaus. This can also make it tougher for your business to secure credit and favorable terms with lenders and vendors in the future.
Can startups get business cards without personal guarantees?
It’s possible, but not very common. Most issuers require a personal guarantee, especially if your business is new and lacks a credit history. However, some corporate card programs may waive the personal guarantee if your company has strong financials, external funding, or significant revenue to offset their risk. Other options you can explore include secured business credit cards or prepaid business credit cards.
Disclaimer
Rippling and its affiliates do not provide tax, accounting, or legal advice. This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for tax, legal, or accounting advice. You should consult your own tax, legal, and accounting advisors before engaging in any related activities or transactions.
The Rippling Corporate Card is issued by Fifth Third Bank, N.A. Member FDIC, and Celtic Bank, Member FDIC, pursuant to a license from Visa® U.S.A. Inc. Visa is a trademark owned by Visa International Service Association and used under license. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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The Rippling Team
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