Business cards have often have the same benefits as personal cards. They do have less legal protections on fees, rates, and unauthorized charges.
There are various protections offered on credit cards. Always check your credit card to ensure they carry a given benefit as these certainly vary by issuer and card:
- Price protection A few card issuers will refund the difference if an item you buy goes down in price soon after the purchase
- Return protection Some card issuers will refund you for buyers remorse if the store won’t take it back
- Purchase protection Some card issuers will refund you in the event of damage or theft within 90 days of purchase
- Extended warranty Some card issuers will lengthen the warranty offering by the manufacturer for damage and defects
- Car rental insurance Some card issuers will cover collision insurance on your rental car
- Travel protections There are various protections offered on some cards for things like Trip Delay, Baggage Delay, and Lost Baggage
- Cell phone protection A few cards offer protection on your phone when the bill is paid with their card
For some time, I’ve had this idea in my head that business cards have less protections than personal cards, and found myself deferring to personal cards for clothing and electronics purchases where the protections matter to me.
In fact, business cards clearly offer many of the same benefits that personal cards do. As mentioned, these do vary by card issuer and specific card, but broadly the same benefits are found on both. As an example, my favorite benefit is Return Protection which makes the decision to buy easier. Many business credit card have the exact same return protection as personal cards do.
Amex is my favorite issuer for protections. Almost all Amex card have similar protections, and most of their business cards show the same protections as personal cards. Blue Business Plus is an exception in that it only has warranty and purchase protection, not return protection. Also note that some of the premium personal and business cards have higher limits on purchase protection.
One thing to be aware of is that some issuers put a caveat in the car rental insurance protection of business cards that it’s only for business rentals, not personal. Since there are big dollars at stake in case of an accident, it would be prudent to use a personal card for personal rentals.
There are some legal protections offered on personal credit cards which are not offered on business card. Things like getting notice before the APR changes, 6-month introductory interest rate, 21-day payment window, and similar things which are included in the CARD Act of 2009. Business cards also, theoretically, don’t offer the same protections against unauthorized charges; though as far as I know, in practice, the major card issuers do reimburse for unauthorized charges.
Probably the most gratuitous example of huge differences between Personal and Business cards is with my JetBlue Plus (personal) and JetBlue Business (business, obviously). A lot of the differences can be chalked up to the differences between the World Elite Mastercard (personal) and World Business Mastercard (business, obviously) levels of the cards, with WE MCs doing a quite a bit more than WB MCs in terms of MC benefits. But then BarclayCard adds even more the personal JetBlue Plus card. So I was going to put some JetBlue TRAVEL spend on the business card, but decided to use my personal card since the travel, purchase, return, and price protections are soooo superior to the business card, even though my CL on the personal card is tiny whereas my business card CL is huge!
Hello, I was wondering if anyone can give me any advice. I am planning on traveling to Cancun with my wife at the end of the month. We were going to rent a car. From what I understand, the rental cost is like $9/week, but there is a mandatory ~$17/day insurance that you must buy, as well as the regular CDW insurance which is around $20/day. I considered using my Ink Preferred but this being more of personal travel, I would rather not risk it. I also have the Southwest Plus, Southwest Biz, Freedom, Amex Biz Platinum, Green, PRG, EDP, BCP, BCE, Biz Plus, Arrival +, Merril Edge from BoA. I used to have the Sapphire Preferred, but Chase gave me the ax back in November. Only was able to get my wife’s cards reinstated… I am thinking about going with the Arrival + as I have enough points to cover the rental. State Farm is my insurance. Thanks in advance!
i thought most amex cards do not offer price protection like citi/chase/discover and others?
Right, Amex does not offer that benefit.
I think your analysis and title are a bit misleading.
Clearly, Business Cards do NOT offer the same Consumer Protections as Personal Cards.
For example, Personal Cards are required by law to offer “if you are not satisfied with your purchase etc you can call and have the charge removed while it is investigated”.
What would you change in the title? I’ll add a note about the unauthorized transaction thing that Bill mentioned above.
Your title conflates “legal protections” with “card benefits”. The word “protection” is generally associated with “consumer protection”, i.e., legal protection. However, “Purchase Protection” is a card benefit, it’s not a legal protection.
I suggest you change the title to something like: “Do Business Credit Cards have the same Benefits and Legal Protections as Personal Cards?” and adjust the contents to clearly separate these two areas. Yes, business cards often have similar *Benefits* as personal cards. No, they don’t have the same *legal protections*.
Agreed!
Excellent.
@Nameless Thanks for the feedback. I’ve added the word ‘benefits’ to the title. The other part is already clear in the post.
Chuck — what you listed are credit card benefits, not legal protections.
Do consumer protection laws like the Credit CARD Act, Dodd-Frank, and CFPB protect business accounts?
We mentioned in the post that business cards have less legal protections. (Most of those are irrelevant to me and most readers who pay on time and don’t carry a balance.)
Paying on time and not carrying a balance have little to do with my concern. For example, CFPB fights other injustices on behalf of consumers. If they don’t have any power over business accounts, then it is worth mentioning that business accounts are not protected by CFPB.
That’s interesting. Do you know that to be true that you can’t file a CFPB complaint for a business credit card problem?
I just asked a friend of mine who is experienced with this, and he says CFPB works the same for business cards as personal.
To be fair, business cards are supposed to be for business use only. Just don’t make the bank suspicious or angry and they probably won’t care. It is the reason I never got an Ink card.
I agree with Tim above. Car rental protection is tricky – we will typically know only when we file a claim. The T&C clearly say rental protection is provided only when the rental was for business purposes. I haven’t filed a claim seeking rental car protection from a business card, but I assume proving the rental was for business purposes will be difficult for people who do business as individuals (using SSN).
I typically use a personal card to rent (which has primary rental car protection) and while returning, I choose to charge whichever card I need to put the spend on.
I’ll add that business accounts have significantly fewer protections in regards to unauthorized transaction disputes. With merchant data breaches becoming a weekly/monthly occurrence this major difference can greatly increase the cardholder’s loss exposure:
http://www.ct.gov/dob/lib/dob/Reg_E_EFTA_Error_Resolution_Flowchart_11.pdf
This is true from a technical standpoint, but on a practical level I haven’t heard of card issuers sticking to the letter of the law and not reimbursing such a thing.
If anyone has such a story, please let us know.
When I looked at using my Chase Ink business card for a car rental, I was scared off by language that said the rental had to be for business related purposes. I used a personal card instead since the rental was for a personal vacation. Not sure if my fear was warranted and I wonder to what extent other protections could be diluted by the “business related” small print language.
Yeah, I’ve been scared off the same. Was going to add a note to the post about that, but wanted to keep it simple.
Let me add a note to the post.
I think you would be ok Chuck since you have a legit business with this website, and could one way or another tie your car rental to the website by saying you were reviewing a vacation destination to blog about
May also want to keep in mind primary versus secondary coverage. Most consumer cards do not offer primary coverage, but secondary coverage.
As a reminder to ALWAYS read the fine print of your card – SPG BIZ Card up until recently does NOT offer CDW benefit for rental outside US. Found that out after reading the fine print.
AMEX recently modified it to be in line of the personal card’s version.
Forgive me, but how can Chase ever say something isn’t a business expense?
Almost anything can be justified as a business expense
Not necessary. In the fine print of some Chase business cards it does say that the underwriter has the right to request proof of the rental is related to a business activity, I doubt you can say your rental in Hawaii for a vacation can be related to your business activity UNLESS you are attending a conference.
United biz card fine print actually says the domestic coverage would be secondary if the rental is for personal use when I combed thru it 2 years ago. Overseas virtually all cards coverage would be primary due to no US insurer would provide coverage outside US.
Hey FLL, you seem to have a good grasp on this. Any tips with traveling to Cancun? I fell for the rentals being like $9/week!!! But then you have to buy the mandatory “Mexican Insurance” which is about $17/day. Then the CDW is another $20 or so per day…. Makes out to be an expensive rental. I have the Ink Preferred, but this is most likely considered “personal” travel… I also have the Amex Biz Platinum, PRG, EDP, BCP, Green, Arrival + (thinking about using this one since I have enough points to cover the rental fully), Chase Freedom, Soutwest, Discover, and the Merril card. Any tips on what I should do? and possibly who to rent from?
Thanks in advance.
If i remember correctly I k Pref provides primary coverage for biz rentals, and secondary for personal in US. For international it is primary in any case (since you would not have any other protection amyway)
In early days I emrolled in Premium Rental with Amex. Cost $17 per rental and serves as primary on CDW. Felt more comfortable since I was paying the premium, which will make it almost impossible for insurer to deny the claim after they accepted the money.
Also note that international coverage may not work in some countries. Chase has way fewer limitations, but Amex does not cover you at all in Italy, Ireland, Israel, New Zeland… and few more countries.
Good luck
Hey thank you for the input. Is the “Premium Rental” still available with Amex, can I still enroll? And thanks for the tip on the Ink Preferred. I guess I will use it persona rentals even when I am in the states, as I don’t have a “Primary Coverage” credit card anymore. Great to know that I’ll get 3x UR and the same coverage as I would’ve got on any other “secondary coverage” providing card…. Do you think it is risky not taking the insurance abroad like in Cancun? I guess I have no choice but to take the “mandatory” one, but the CDW I would like to skip if the card would cover me as “Primary”.
Thanks!
To address this concern: I use a personal card with primary car rental insurance to rent a car. Once I return it,having not had any accident or problems, I ask the check-in person to switch the payment to whatever card I want to use. This is just a quick swipe of the new card on their hand-held device they have carried over to the car. I have done this specifically with the Blue Business card to get the 2 points/$ combined with the 5% AMEX OPEN discount at Hertz.
Great tip Beth, thank you for that one! I have the Ink Preferred, and have been reluctant to use it for rentals, since most of the time, I would travel for personal. I do fly for work, but I assume that is not considered “Business Travel”. Luckily my job insures rentals themselves.
Good idea Beth, thanks for the tip!
For Amex, this varies depending on the business card. I noticed this when I needed to return something I bought with my Blue for Business Plus. That card doesn’t have Return Protection (as can be seen in the link in the post).
Oh, wow, good to know, I’ve actually used that card a few times.
Let me add that to the post
It seems that PenFed Credit Union has discontinued there PenFed Premium Travel Rewards American Express Card, and replaced it with:
PenFed Pathfinder Rewards American Express:
3x Points on Travel including rail, commuter, and car rentals.
•1.5x Rewards everything else.
•25,000 Bonus Points after spending $2,500 in 1st 90 days
•No annual fee
Can you verify what their definition of “travel” is as well as the point valuation? Are there points like 1 cent each??? I think it might be better than the last incarnation as it seems broader cash back coverage than the PenFed Premium Travel Rewards American Express Card which only gives you 4.25% cash back only on airline tickets. You may have to call them because the new credit card isn’t on their website and only a member can have a sneak peek of such!!