Business Credit Cards 2026: Fees, Rates and Liability

Business credit and charge cards in Australia cost from $0 a year (CommBank Business Low Rate) to $1,750 (American Express Platinum Business) as at 17 October 2026. Purchase rates ran from 12.99% to 20.74%, with up to 55 interest-free days. Most small business cards make the applicant personally liable for the debt. Card surcharges ended on 1 October 2026, and the ATO now accepts credit cards until 30 June 2027.

This page compares 23 business, charge and corporate cards using each issuer's own published details, checked on 17 October 2026. It is general information, not financial product advice, and it doesn't consider your circumstances. Read the card's terms, key fact sheet and target market determination (TMD) before you apply, and consider getting advice.

Business card, charge card, corporate card or debit card?

Card rules vary by issuer, so check the liability clause in the conditions of use for any card you apply for. Debit and prepaid expense cards from providers such as Airwallex, Weel and Zeller avoid debt altogether, but they don't build a credit line or earn interest-free time.

Business credit cards compared: costs

As at 17 October 2026. "Additional cards" is what the issuer publishes about employee or extra cardholder cards. Archa charges a monthly plan fee instead of an annual card fee, so it sits outside the $0 to $1,750 annual fee range quoted on this page.

Rewards, liability, eligibility and accounting feeds

Who is liable for the debt?

This is the most important line in any business card application, and it is often in the small print.

What that means for each structure:

• Sole traders are personally liable for every business debt in any case, because the business isn't a separate legal entity. A business card mainly helps you separate spending. See sole trader vs company.
• Company directors should not assume a company card protects them. CommBank says that with its personal liability cards it recovers amounts from you, not from the company that employs you. Corporate facilities may also require security or guarantees, which NAB's conditions say are listed in the letter of offer.
• Guarantors have protections under the Banking Code of Practice for banks that subscribe to it. The 2025 code says a guarantee must be limited to a stated amount or property, the bank must give you key documents, and it can't accept the guarantee until the third day after you receive them. You can withdraw before credit is provided.

American Express's business card conditions also say that because the account is used wholly or predominantly for business purposes, you may lose protection under the National Credit Code. Read the hardship and dispute sections before you sign, and know that complaints can go to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority.

Do the rewards cover the fees? A break-even test

Rewards only pay if the points you actually redeem are worth more than the fees. A point's value depends on what you redeem it for, so this illustrative table uses two assumed values, 0.5 cents and 1 cent a point. Replace them with your own.

Break-even annual spend = annual fees ÷ (points per $1 × value of one point)

Fees and earn rates as at 17 October 2026. The test ignores sign-up bonuses, earn caps, lower earn on government and tax payments, extra-card fees and the value of perks such as lounge access.

Illustrative example: one year, one card. A business puts $6,000 a month on a card ($72,000 a year), including $1,000 a month of ATO payments, and redeems points at an assumed 0.5 cents.

Two costs can wipe this out:

• Carrying a balance. Carrying the full $6,000 for one extra month on the NAB card costs about $6,000 × 19.50% ÷ 12 = $97.50, more than a third of the net reward.
• No interest-free days. CommBank says its Business Low Rate card has no interest-free period, so interest runs from each purchase. If purchases sat on the card for an average of 25 days before repayment, the interest would be about $6,000 × 14.55% × 25 ÷ 365 = $59.79 a month, or $717.48 a year.

A low rate card suits a balance you expect to carry. A card with interest-free days suits spending you clear every month. Rewards come last, after you know which of those you'll do.

What changed in 2026: surcharges, interchange and rewards

From 1 October 2026 the RBA allowed card networks to ban surcharges. The RBA says eftpos, Mastercard and Visa introduced no-surcharge rules from that date, American Express and UnionPay no longer permit surcharging, and PayPal's rule took effect on 5 October. The rules apply to credit, debit and prepaid cards, including cards issued overseas.

The RBA also cut the interchange cap on consumer credit cards to 0.3% while keeping the cap on commercial (business) credit cards at 0.8%, and removed the benchmark for both. It said interchange should not be used to fund cardholder rewards and noted that issuers indicated they were likely to review rewards programs, fees and other features. Check your card's current earn rate and annual fee rather than relying on last year's figures.

If you take card payments, work through our card surcharge checklist, read your merchant statement and compare EFTPOS machines.

Paying the ATO with a business credit card

The ATO first announced it would stop accepting credit cards after 30 November 2026. On 9 October 2026 it extended that: the ATO will keep accepting credit card payments for tax until 30 June 2027, after discussions with the government and transitional funding. Its easy-read guidance says a rule that started on 1 October 2026 means it can't ask you to pay the card fee.

After 30 June 2027, the ATO says taxpayers can use third-party payment providers and should weigh their fees, charges and processing times. Our guides to the ATO credit card change, Pay.com.au, Sniip and Pay.com.au vs Sniip compare the options.

Earn rates on tax payments are often lower than on other spending. NAB's Rewards Business Signature earns 1.25 points per $1 including ATO payments, while ANZ's business rewards cards earn 0.5 points per $1 on tax payments and American Express's Qantas card earns 0.5 Qantas Points per $1 on government payments (as at 17 October 2026). If the card is how you cover a tax bill you can't otherwise pay, talk to the ATO first. Our guide to preparing for an ATO payment plan covers that conversation.

Using a business card for cash flow, and the risks

Interest-free days are a maximum. ANZ, for example, says interest-free days don't apply if you don't pay the closing balance in full by the due date. The actual gap depends on where your purchase falls in the statement cycle: a purchase on the last day of the cycle gets only the days until the due date.

Used deliberately, a card can bridge a short gap between paying a supplier and being paid by a customer. Used by default, it becomes expensive debt at around 20%. Before relying on one:

• Put the card's due dates into your 13-week cash flow forecast alongside wages and BAS.
• Test a late customer payment. If the card can only be cleared when your biggest customer pays on time, plan for the month they don't.
• Avoid cash advances, which carry their own rate (for example, 21.74% on NAB's Signature cards) and are excluded from interest-free days on cards such as NAB's Business Card.
• Compare an overdraft or line of credit for longer gaps. See business overdraft vs line of credit and unsecured business loans.

Controls for employee cards

Every extra card is spending authority. Before you issue one:

1. Set an individual limit. Westpac's BusinessChoice cards allow individual limits from $1,000 on up to 99 cards, and CommBank lets you lock, block or limit its cards in the app.
2. Write a one-page card policy: what the card is for, what it isn't, and the receipt deadline.
3. Require a receipt for every transaction within a set number of days, uploaded to your accounting or expense software.
4. Check the liability model. On a personal liability card, the primary cardholder owes the debt for the employee's spending.
5. Review statements monthly and query anything without a receipt the same week.
6. Cancel cards the day someone leaves. Add it to your handover checklist.
7. Consider debit or expense cards for staff who only need to spend small, budgeted amounts. Zeller lists corporate cards at $9 a card per month, and Airwallex company cards are free to create (as at 17 October 2026).

Card fraud often arrives as a convincing email. Our guide to scams targeting small business covers the common ones.

Recording card spending in your books

A business card account is a liability in your books, not a bank account. Record each purchase when you record what was bought, and treat the monthly repayment as a reduction of the card debt. Coding the repayment as another expense counts the spending twice. Our guide to credit card repayments in your books walks through a full example.

• Feeds: connect the card feed so each purchase arrives separately. Check the cost: Westpac charges $5 a month per card for data feeds (as at 17 October 2026). Our bank feeds guide explains how feeds work.
• GST: the card statement doesn't replace the supplier's tax invoice. See missing tax invoice.
• Private spending: if something personal goes on the business card, record it correctly with our guide to personal purchases through a business account.
• Fees and interest: the ATO lists bank fees and charges, and interest on money borrowed to produce assessable income, among deductible operating expenses. Only the business portion of mixed-use costs is claimable.

How to choose a business credit card

1. Decide whether you'll carry a balance. If yes, compare purchase rates. If no, compare interest-free days and fees.
2. Decide who should be liable. A sole trader is liable regardless. A company may prefer business liability, which can bring stricter eligibility.
3. Count the cards you need. Per-card fees multiply quickly: six NAB Rewards Business Signature cards cost $1,050 a year.
4. Run the break-even test with your own spend and a realistic point value.
5. Check eligibility before applying. NAB asks for an ABN held 12 months and GST registration, Westpac's Altitude cards want two years in the same or a similar business, and American Express asks for $75,000 or more in revenue.
6. Check the feed for your software and whether it costs extra.
7. Read the conditions of use for the liability, guarantee and hardship clauses.

Key takeaways

• Annual card fees ranged from $0 to $1,750 and purchase rates from 12.99% to 20.74% across the 23 cards compared (as at 17 October 2026).
• Most small business cards are personal liability: the applicant owes the debt. American Express makes the applicant and the business jointly and severally liable.
• A rewards card only pays if the points you actually redeem are worth more than the fees. At an assumed 0.5 cents a point, NAB's $175 card breaks even at $28,000 a year of spend.
• From 1 October 2026 businesses can't surcharge Visa, Mastercard, eftpos, American Express or UnionPay card payments, including payments between businesses.
• The ATO extended direct credit card acceptance to 30 June 2027 and says it can no longer pass its card fee on to you.
• Set a limit, a receipt rule and a monthly reconciliation for every employee card, and record the repayment as a reduction of the card debt, not a second expense.

Where to get help

• Reserve Bank of Australia: surcharging questions and answers.
• ACCC: card surcharge guidance for businesses and customers.
• ATO: ways to pay and help with tax debts on 13 11 42.
• Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA): free dispute resolution with card issuers, at afca.org.au.
• Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman (ASBFEO): help for small businesses in disputes with lenders, at asbfeo.gov.au.
• Australian Banking Association: the Banking Code of Practice, including protections for guarantors.

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