Drop-shipping is one of the hottest businesses around right now. With the explosion of e-commerce and the growth of technology software within the drop-shipping sector, it’s easy to see why starting a drop-shipping business is easier than ever.
Long story short, 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 right here 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.
Let’s dive in!
What To Look for in a Business Credit Card for Drop-shipping
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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 major expenses you’ll have will be 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 — you’ll have to invest in building your online presence for your company to be discovered.
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 universal, regardless of the specific products 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.
The 3 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 — you want to have at least a degree of coverage in the event that you deal 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 best choices only — let’s take a look!
1. The Business Platinum Card® from American Express
Image Credit: American Express
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 over 1,400 of the following airport lounges in the American Express Global Lounge Collection:
For comparison’s sake, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® 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, up to $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 Elite status upon enrollment.
For your office expenses, you’ll find good value in the up to $400 Dell credit, up to $360 in Indeed credit, up to $120 in wireless credit, up to $150 in Adobe credit, and $189 in CLEAR credit.
The Amex Business Platinum card also has a unique earning structure: you’ll earn 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). In addition, get 5x points on flights and prepaid hotels booked through Amex Travel.
Hot Tip: Drop-shippers who make large purchases will love the 1.5x points you can earn on purchases of $5,000 or more!
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 card 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, including travel bookings through Amex Travel, gift cards, statement credits, merchandise, goods, and 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 relatively few points.
2. American Express® Business Gold Card
Our runner-up card is the Amex Business Gold card, which offers a different — but also great — value proposition.
The Amex Business Gold card suits those who are making a lot of purchases and who want to take advantage of automatically adjusted bonus categories so you don’t have to worry about your points strategy.
You can earn 4x Membership Rewards points per $1 spent each month, on combined purchases up to $150,000 per calendar year, on your top 2 categories in this list:
- Airfare purchased from airlines
- U.S. purchases at gas stations
- U.S. purchases at restaurants
- U.S. purchases for advertising in select media
- U.S. purchases for shipping
- U.S. purchases made from select technology providers of computer hardware, software, and cloud solutions
The biggest upside to 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 in so that you can earn as many points as possible.
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 according to our valuations. On top of this, you could earn a 1-time welcome bonus after being approved for the card and meeting minimum spending thresholds.
Though this card doesn’t offer major travel perks like lounge access or a Global Entry application fee credit, it does offer some of the most important business card perks out there. They 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 total; see rates and fees).
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.
3. Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card
Our third-place finisher 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 card comes jam-packed with perks, all for a reasonable annual fee. One of our favorites is the gigantic welcome bonus, which is one of the quickest ways to earn 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 in the following business categories every cardmember year:
- Advertising purchases with social media sites and search engines
- Internet, cable, and phone services
- Shipping purchases
- Travel
In theory, you could earn 450,000 Chase points every cardmember year, which would be worth around $9,000, according to our valuations. When you couple that with the 5x points per dollar on Lyft purchases through March 2025, you 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) on travel purchases when booked through the Chase travel portal. You can also access the valuable 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. And 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 because they’re valuable and the program makes it incredibly easy to redeem your points.
Sure, it might not have as many transfer partners as Amex, but it’s 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.
The 3 Best Alternative Business Credit Cards for Drop-shipping
Now that you know our top picks for drop-shipping businesses, let’s take a look at some of the best alternatives available.
1. Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card
Don’t have time to worry about bonus categories or 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 lucrative rewards structure — 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.
If you have a qualifying Ultimate Rewards credit card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, you could convert your cash-back to Chase Ultimate Rewards points.
Other benefits include unlimited employee cards for no additional fee, primary rental car insurance, purchase protection, extended warranty protection, and zero liability fraud protection.
2. The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express
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.
If you don’t anticipate exceeding that $50,000 figure each year, it makes a ton of sense to put your business spending on this card.
Other benefits include 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).
3. Marriott Bonvoy Business™ American Express® Card
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 write it off.
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 points per dollar spent at hotels participating in the Marriott Bonvoy program.
This card makes a ton of sense if you stay often with Marriott, as you’ll also receive:
- 1 Free Night Award each cardmember anniversary (up to 35,000 points)
- 15 Elite Night Credits (useful to qualify for elite status)
- Baggage insurance
- Extended warranty coverage
- Marriott Bonvoy Silver Elite status (Gold Elite status when you spend $35,000 on purchases each account year)
- No foreign transaction fees
- Purchase protection
- Return protection
- Secondary car rental collision damage coverage
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!
These points are useful for business and first class flight redemptions, as they can be transferred to numerous airlines, including 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. With any of the cards listed above, you’ll rack up points on purchases made in the categories most relevant to running your drop-shipping business. And, these cards offer a range of perks not necessarily related to points that will help you deal with unforeseen situations that may arise as a business owner.
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.
For rates and fees of the Marriott Bonvoy Business™ American Express® Card, click here.
