Drop-shipping is one of the hottest businesses out there right now. With the explosion of e-commerce and the software technology growth within the drop-shipping sector, it’s easy to see why starting a drop-shipping business is easier than ever.
Drop-shipping effectively breaks down the barriers to entry that e-commerce poses. With e-commerce, you have to pay for inventory and storage, while drop-shipping removes these costs entirely.
So what are the best credit cards for drop-shipping entrepreneurs? We’ll show you in our complete guide. We put ourselves in the shoes of a drop-shipping business owner to learn about the common expenses and benefits that could be valuable.
Then, we reverse-engineered the data to come up with the best choices. Let’s get to it!
What To Look for in a Business Credit Card for Drop-Shipping
Wouldn’t it be nice to find a credit card that offers you tons of rewards and benefits for your business? Drop-shipping business models vary from company to company, but it’s possible to figure out some of the most common expenses that are almost universal to all drop-shipping businesses.
First of all, a drop-shipping store must be online. So one of the first expense categories you’ll pay for is related to getting a website up and running. Whether you’re talking about internet service costs or software as a service (SaaS) subscriptions, these expenses will stay with you forever.
Other costs include marketing, and advertising — after all, how do you expect your company to be found if you don’t invest in building your online presence?
Of course, you’ll likely have to pay out of pocket to ship your products, at least initially, before charging the customer for that same shipping fee.
Other expenses include supplies, office space (not to be confused with warehouse space), and more.
These top expenses are pretty uniform regardless of what exact product you’re drop-shipping, so the best cards for drop-shipping are those that offer bonus rewards on most of the expenses we described above.
Best Overall Business Cards for Drop-Shipping
If you’re looking for the absolute best credit cards for drop-shipping, you’ll want to focus your efforts on finding a card that rewards you for your biggest purchases.
Your biggest purchases are most likely going to be advertising and shipping.
In addition, you need to find a card that offers a lot of protections for your business — what happens if you get hit with a fraudulent vendor or end up with a damaged shipment of equipment or merchandise?
The ideal credit card you use should be business-friendly, offer plenty of rewards, and confer numerous benefits.
We’ve narrowed down the playing field to the absolute best choices only, so let’s take a look!
Our #1 favorite business credit card for drop-shipping is the Amex Business Platinum card.
You’ll also get the best travel perks from a single card, including access to the following airport lounges in the American Express Global Lounge Collection:
For comparison, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card only offers access to Priority Pass lounges!
If you ever take business trips, you’ll also find tremendous value in the Global Entry/TSA PreCheck application fee credit, the $200 annual airline fee credit, access to the Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts benefits program, 35% points rebate on select flights, and Hilton Honors and Marriott Bonvoy Gold status upon enrollment.
For your office expenses, you’d be able to get up to $400 every year in statement credits for Dell purchases in the U.S. This can be used to buy office supplies, hardware, electronics, and even software.
The Amex Business Platinum card also has a unique bonus-earning structure of 1.5x on eligible purchases in key business categories, as well as on purchases of $5,000 or more everywhere else (up to $2 million in purchases per calendar year).
Of course, other benefits include extended warranty coverage, purchase protection, cell phone protection, return protection, travel insurance, business tools like QuickBooks integrations, and more.
Why We Like Earning Amex Membership Rewards Points
The Amex Business Platinum earns Amex Membership Rewards points, which means that you’ll have access to Amex’s prized Membership Rewards program.
You can redeem Membership Rewards points in a number of different ways, starting from travel bookings through Amex Travel, to gift cards, statement credits, merchandise and goods, as well as charity.
But… the best way to get outsized benefit from the most valuable flexible rewards currency is to transfer your Amex points to airline and hotel partners for business and first class flights.
This is an incredible way to book travel worth tens of thousands of dollars using fewer points than you think.
| Credit Card | Benefits & Info |
|---|
American Express® Business Gold Card
Learn More (at Amex's secure site) | - Welcome Offer: Earn 70,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $10,000 on eligible purchases with the Business Gold Card within the first 3 months of Card Membership.*
- MORE REWARDS: Get 4x Membership Rewards® points on the 2 select categories where your business spent the most each month. 1x is earned for other purchases.**
- **4x points apply to the first $150,000 in combined purchases from these 2 categories each calendar year.*
- AIRLINE BONUS: Get 25% points back after you use points for all or part of an eligible flight booked with Amex Travel, up to 250,000 points back per calendar year.*
- PAY OVER TIME OPTION: Decide whether you want to pay eligible purchases in full each month—or pay over time with interest.*
- Good to Excellent Credit Recommended (670-840)
- Annual Fee: $295
- *Terms Apply. For rates and fees of the Amex Business Gold card, click here.
$1,540
Must Reads: For more info on the Amex Business Gold Card see our guide on its benefits, top FAQ’s and our full review. |
Our runner-up card is the Amex Business Gold card, which offers a different value proposition, but nevertheless one of the best out there.
The Amex Business Gold card favors those who are making a lot of purchases and who want to take advantage of automatically-adjusted bonus categories so that you don’t have to worry about your points strategy.
On combined purchases of up to $150,000 per calendar year, you can earn 4x Membership Rewards points per $1 spent each month on your top 2 categories in this list:
- Airfare purchased from airlines
- U.S. purchases for advertising in select media
- U.S. purchases made from select technology providers of computer hardware, software, and cloud solutions
- U.S. purchases at gas stations
- U.S. purchases at restaurants
- U.S. purchases for shipping
The biggest stress-reliever with this card is the fact that you don’t need to select a bonus category — Amex will automatically calculate which categories you spent the most on so that you can earn as many points as possible.
So if you maxed out the $150,000 in a year, you’d earn a total of 600,000 Amex points, which would be worth around $13,200!
Plus, you could also get a one-time welcome bonus when signing up for the card.
Though this card doesn’t offer major travel perks like lounge access or a Global Entry application fee credit, it still does offer some of the most important business card perks out there.
These benefits include purchase protection, extended warranty coverage, car rental and travel insurance, business management tools, and the ability to add up to 99 total employee cards with no annual fee after the first employee card ($50 annual fee).
Lastly, this card, along with the Amex Business Platinum card, does not have a preset spending limit, which means that your credit limit can fluctuate from month to month to accommodate for larger, unexpected purchases that might exceed a traditional credit card’s limit.
| Credit Card | Key Benefits & Info |
|---|
Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card
Learn More (at Chase's secure site) | - Earn 100,000 bonus points after you spend $15,000 on purchases in the first 3 months.
- Earn 3 points per $1 on the first $150,000 spent in combined purchases on travel, shipping purchases, internet, cable and phone services, advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines each account anniversary year
- Earn 1 point per $1 on all other purchases—with no limit to the amount you can earn
- 25% more value when redeeming points through Ultimate Rewards® travel
- Good to Excellent Credit Recommended (670-850)
- Annual Fee: $95
$2,000
Must Reads: For more info on the Ink Business Preferred, see our guides on its benefits, 7 things to do as a new cardholder, and our full review. This is our favorite Chase business credit card. |
Our third-place winner is the Ink Business Preferred card, issued by Chase. This card is arguably the most popular business credit card Chase offers, and it offers awesome perks to drop-shipping business owners.
This credit card comes jam-packed with value with a low annual fee of $95. Specifically, you’d first notice the gigantic welcome bonus, which would be one of the quickest ways to get a ton of points.
Also, the Ink Business Preferred card will enable you to earn 3x Chase Ultimate Rewards points on your first $150,000 spent on the following business categories every cardmember year:
- Travel
- Shipping purchases
- Internet, cable, and phone services
- Advertising purchases with social media sites and search engines
In theory, you could earn 450,000 Chase points every cardmember year, which would be worth around $9,000. When you couple that with the 5x points per dollar on Lyft purchases through March 2022, you can begin to see how the points will add up over time.
Some of the other perks include the ability to redeem your points for 1.25 cents per point (25% bonus) when booked through the Chase travel portal.
You can also access the prestigious Chase Ultimate Rewards program and transfer your points to airline and hotel partners.
You can spend with ease knowing that you have purchase protection, extended warranty coverage, and no foreign transaction fees.
Don’t forget that you’ll enjoy top-of-the-line cell phone protection insurance, travel insurance including primary rental car collision insurance, and much more.
Why We Like Earning Chase Ultimate Rewards Points
We love Chase Ultimate Rewards points, not because they’re worth around 2 cents per point overall, but also because of how easy it is to redeem your points.
Sure, it might not have as many transfer partners as Amex, but it’s super-easy to redeem your points for solid value, whether it’s via the Chase travel portal, gift cards, cash-back, goods, services, or for charity.
Alternative Business Credit Cards for Drop-Shipping
So let’s say you’ve looked through the recommendations above and would like to learn more about what else is out there, perhaps some lower annual fee options if you’re just starting out as a drop-shipper.
In the next section, we’ll show you the best alternative credit cards for drop-shipping.
Don’t have time to worry about bonus categories or trying to figure out which merchants fall under which categories? We understand!
The Ink Business Unlimited card is a worry-free way to take advantage of a ridiculously lucrative rewards landscape without having to worry about any of the restrictions.
This card will earn you a flat 1.5% cash-back on all your business purchases with no caps and no category restrictions, in addition to a hefty welcome bonus.
This card has no annual fee, and you could convert your cash-back to Chase Ultimate Rewards points if you have a qualifying Ultimate Rewards credit card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card.
You might also find some incredible value in the form of saved interest payments when you take advantage of the introductory 0% APR offer. You can add unlimited employee cards for free, too!
But make no mistake, this is an impressive business credit card, considering you also get primary rental car insurance, purchase protection, extended warranty protection, and zero liability fraud protection without an annual fee.
One of our favorite cards is the Amex Blue Business Plus card, which offers you 2x Membership Rewards points on everyday business purchases, up to $50,000 in purchases per year. After that, you’ll earn 1x.
So if you don’t see yourself blowing through this yearly amount, it makes a ton of sense to put your spending on this card.
You’ll also get 0% introductory APR (as shown in the table above) as part of its benefits, as well as no annual fee, purchase protection, extended warranty coverage, employee cards for no additional cost, and of course, the ability to earn and redeem American Express Membership Rewards points (see rates and fees).
The Marriott Bonvoy Business card is perhaps one of the most unexpected credit cards for drop-shipping, but we’ll show you why you shouldn’t disregard it.
This business credit card is a great choice for those who spend big on shipping and wireless telephone services.
Specifically, you can earn 4x Marriott Bonvoy points per dollar spent at U.S. restaurants, at U.S. gas stations, on wireless telephone services purchased directly from U.S. service providers, and on U.S. purchases for shipping.
You can also earn 6x at hotels participating in the Marriott Bonvoy™ program.
This card makes a ton of sense if you see yourself being part of the Marriott Bonvoy loyalty program because you’ll also get:
- 15 Elite Night Credits (useful to qualify for elite status)
- 1 Free Night Award each cardmember anniversary (up to 35,000 points)
- Marriott Bonvoy Silver Elite status (Gold Elite status when you spend $35,000 on purchases each account year)
- No foreign transaction fees
- Secondary car rental collision damage coverage
- Baggage insurance
- Purchase protection
- Extended warranty coverage
- Return protection
Why We Like Earning Marriott Bonvoy Points
Marriott Bonvoy points are incredibly flexible when redeemed for travel. In addition to getting free nights at Marriott properties, you can transfer your points to even more partners than American Express and Chase!
Marriott Bonvoy points are incredibly useful for business and first class flight redemptions, and they can be transferred to numerous airlines as a unique benefit, such as Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan and Japan Airlines Mileage Bank.
Final Thoughts
There’s a lot of promise in drop-shipping. Don’t miss out on opportunities to get easy rewards by setting yourself up with the right (and best!) cards for your needs.
In this guide, we focused on dissecting the top expenses for drop-shipping business owners and we honed in on the top card products that can help you rack up points on those categories.
We also highlighted a few of the most useful non-points perks you will get as a cardmember, including purchase protection, lounge access, business travel insurance coverage, and so much more.
For rates and fees of The Business Platinum Card® from American Express, click here.
For rates and fees of the American Express® Business Gold Card, click here.
For rates and fees of The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express, click here.
