Running a construction business? As you accept more projects and grow your portfolio, your business expenses may follow suit.
If you spend a lot of money on business credit cards, you’ll want to make sure that you’ll be able to handle evolving business needs as your company grows.
We’ll walk you through all of the absolute best business cards that you can have for your construction business.
Let’s get to it!
What To Look for in a Credit Card for Construction Businesses
Image Credit: Mark Potterton via UnsplashRunning a construction business is expensive.
Between keeping up with your inventory of raw materials, renting and buying construction equipment, paying your employees, and getting all of the right permits and licenses, the costs will add up.
The best cards for construction businesses will have high credit ceilings, excellent rewards, and flexible financing terms.
That way, you can get as much as you can out of every dollar you spend, whether it’s on lumber or labor. Getting an incremental 1% or 2% back on large business expenses can make a huge difference in the long run. And of course, it always helps if you can get benefits for travel, too!
Let’s take a look at our favorite credit cards for construction businesses.
The 6 Best Credit Cards for Construction Businesses
| Card | Welcome Bonus and Annual Fee | Benefits |
| The Business Platinum Card® from American Express | - Earn 120,000 points after you spend $15,000 on purchases in the first 3 months.
- $695 (Rates & Fees)
| - 5x points on flights and prepaid hotels booked with Amex Travel
- 1.5x points in select business categories and on eligible purchases of $5,000 or more (up to $2 million in purchases per calendar year)
- The best airport lounge access from any card, including Centurion Lounges
- 35% Pay with Points rebate (up to 1 million points back per year)
- Access to Fine Hotels and Resorts and The Hotel Collection
- No preset spending limit
|
| Capital One Spark Miles for Business | - Earn 50,000 miles once you spend $4,500 on purchases within the first 3 months.
- $0 intro for the first year, $95 after that
| - 5x miles on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel
- Unlimited 2x miles per dollar on every purchase
- Access to Capital One Miles
- $100 Global Entry/TSA PreCheck application fee credit
- No-additional-cost employee cards
- No foreign transaction fees
|
| Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card | - BEST OFFER EVER: Earn $900 bonus cash back after you spend $6,000 on purchases in the first 3 months.
- $0
| - Unlimited 1.5% cash-back on every purchase made for your business
- No-additional-cost employee cards
- Zero fraud liability protection
- Fraud alerts
|
| Capital One Spark Cash Plus Card | - Earn up to a $1,000 cash bonus; $500 once you spend $5,000 in the first 3 months, and $500 once you spend $50,000 in the first 6 months of account opening.
- $150
| - Unlimited 2% cash-back on every purchase
- No preset spending limit
- $200 cash bonus every year you spend $200,000 or more
- No-additional-cost employee cards
- No foreign transaction fees
|
| The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express | - Earn 15,000 points after spending $3,000 on purchases in your first 3 months.
- $0 (Rates & Fees)
| - Earn 2x points on everyday purchases on the first $50,000 every calendar year, 1x after that
- Access to Amex Membership Rewards
- Expanded Buying Power
- No-additional-cost employee cards (rates & fees)
|
| The Plum Card® from American Express | | - 1.5% discount on total earnings if you pay your bill early
- Take up to 60 days to pay your bills with no interest
- No-additional-cost employee cards (rates & fees)
- No foreign transaction fees (rates & fees)
|
1. The Business Platinum Card® from American Express
Hot Tip: Check to see if you’re eligible for a huge welcome offer of up to 150,000 points with the Amex Business Platinum card! (The current public offer is 120,000 points.)
Our favorite card for construction businesses is, without a shadow of a doubt, the Amex Business Platinum card. This card has proven time and time again to be a business owner’s best friend.
It offers the holy trinity of perks that business card owners look for:
- High credit limit (in this case, there’s no preset spending limit)
- Top-shelf luxury benefits
- Awesome rewards
Let’s be specific — the Amex Business Platinum card earns:
- 5x Membership Rewards points on flights and prepaid hotels at Amex Travel
- 1.5x Membership Rewards points 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)
- 1x Membership Rewards on all other purchases
These key business categories include:
- Construction material and hardware suppliers
- Electronic goods retailers and software and cloud system providers
- Shipping providers
This card is one of the only ones to offer bonus rewards on construction material and hardware suppliers, which makes this card a match made in heaven for construction businesses.
Plus, you can earn bonus points on large purchases, which construction businesses have plenty of.
Maxing out the $2 million cap per calendar year means accumulating a total of 3 million Amex points, worth a whopping $66,000!
Additionally, this card offers the most exceptional benefits of a business card in the world.
Get access to the legendary American Express Global Lounge Collection, which consists of:
Top off your members-only perks with complimentary Hilton Honors and Mariott Bonvoy Gold status upon enrollment, a 35% rebate when using Pay with Points (up to 1 million points rebated per calendar year), and the ability to book Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts stays.
This card also offers statement credits galore, including:
The kicker on this card, though, is the fact that there is no preset spending limit, meaning you won’t have to worry about maxing out a credit limit in the same way you might with a traditional credit card.
Why We Like Earning Amex Membership Rewards Points
According to our valuations, Amex Membership Rewards points are worth more than 2.2 cents each, making them the most valuable points available!
These rewards are so valuable because you can redeem them for luxury travel such as Emirates first class through transfer partners.
You can also use these points for travel through Amex Travel, gift cards, statement credits, charitable donations, and more.
But these redemption methods don’t yield good value, so we recommend sticking to airline and hotel transfer partnerships.
2. Capital One Spark Miles for Business
The CapOne Spark Miles card is one of our absolute favorite business credit cards for those who are strictly interested in earning rewards on odd categories of business spending.
To start off, there’s usually an awesome welcome bonus — but the main reason we like this card is that it earns an unlimited 2x Capital One miles per dollar spent on every purchase for your business.
That’s equal to a return on spending of 3.6%; plus, earn 5x miles on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel.
You’ll also be able to utilize a $100 Global Entry/TSA PreCheck application fee credit!
The CapOne Spark Miles card offers zero fraud liability, the ability to create virtual card numbers, extended warranty, 2 complimentary visits per year to the Capital One Lounge or Plaza Premium Lounges, no-fee employee cards, and no foreign transaction fees.
Why We Like Earning Capital One Miles
Capital One Miles is similar to American Express Membership Rewards.
The difference is we believe that Capital One miles are worth slightly less at 1.8 cents apiece, mostly because of a less comprehensive list of transfer partners.
Nonetheless, Capital One miles can be transferred to airline and hotel partners, and that is, indeed, the best way to use Capital One miles.
Hot Tip: Store-specific credit cards, like those offered by The Home Depot, may offer special financing but not as much cash-back (if any) or rewards as other cards mentioned on our list.
3. Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card
The Ink Business Unlimited card is the top choice from Chase, which is famous for its terrific credit card offerings.
First off, enjoy a huge welcome offer — beyond that, get an unlimited 1.5% cash-back for all business purchases. There’s no need to think about bonus categories, caps, or anything like that.
One of the best parts of the Ink Business Unlimited card is that you can convert your 1.5% cash-back to 1.5x Ultimate Rewards points if you also have a card that accumulates Ultimate Rewards points, such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card.
By doing so, you’ll double the value of your rewards — your return on spending goes up to 3% instead of 1.5%, based on our valuation of 2 cents per Ultimate Rewards point!
The Ink Business Unlimited card has an introductory 0% APR promotion, as well as primary rental car insurance, purchase protection, extended warranty, zero liability fraud protection, and no-fee employee cards.
Why We Like Earning Chase Ultimate Rewards Points
Chase Ultimate Rewards are slightly more valuable than Capital One miles but slightly less valuable than Amex Membership Rewards.
Remember, the Ink Business Unlimited card alone doesn’t earn Ultimate Rewards points, but if you have a different card that earns Ultimate Rewards, such as the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card or the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, you can convert your rewards to Ultimate Rewards points.
From there, you can redeem them for luxury award travel such as Singapore Airlines first class through transfer partnerships, which is definitely the best-value redemption path.
Other ways to redeem include cash-back, gift cards, charity, Chase travel portal bookings, Pay Yourself Back, and merchandise.
4. Capital One Spark Cash Plus Card
The CapOne Spark Cash Plus card is one of the most unassuming cards out there — but it’s super useful for high-spending business owners.
First of all, this card consistently offers a large welcome bonus, albeit usually with a larger spending requirement than other cards.
This particular product has no preset spending limit, so it’s similar to the Amex Business Platinum card in that sense.
You’ll earn an unlimited 2% cash-back on every purchase with no limits or category restrictions, plus an annual cash bonus of $200 every year you spend $200,000 or more.
But one of the most useful tidbits about this card is that if you also have a Capital One Miles card such as the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, you can convert your cash-back to Capital One miles at a 1% to 1x ratio.
5. The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express
The Amex Blue Business Plus is one of our favorite credit cards in the world because it has a very attractive earning structure.
This card is straightforward and a great earner with 2x Membership Rewards points on everyday business purchases on the first $50,000 every calendar year. After that, you’ll earn 1x Membership Rewards points.
That means you’ll get a 4.4% return on spending for the first $50,000 you spend per calendar year, which is phenomenal for a card without an annual fee.
Plus, employee cards are at no cost, and you can leverage the Expanded Buying Power and access Amex Membership Rewards (including transfer partners).
6. The Plum Card® from American Express
The very last card we’ll discuss is the Amex Plum card — it’s not one that we discuss much, given our focus on points and travel, but it can make or break certain cash flow-strapped businesses.
This product was created specifically to help businesses that have delays in invoicing and payment fulfillment from vendors.
To start, this card offers a 1.5% discount on total earnings if you pay your bill early.
And although this card doesn’t offer any rewards, it does offer the ability to take up to 60 days to pay your bills with no interest — all you need to do is make your minimum payment by the payment due date. This is a super-niche benefit, and the 60-day 0% interest period is the biggest selling point.
It also has no preset spending limit, no foreign transaction fees, and no-cost employee cards.
Hot Tip: Looking for a personal card that can also help with your expenses? Consider our guide to the best credit cards for home improvement purchases.
Final Thoughts
At a high level, running a construction business is complicated, to say the least.
Between getting paid on time, maintaining a stocked inventory of materials, and finding good-quality labor, the last thing you need in your life is more complexity.
That’s why you can stick to any of the cards we’ve recommended to make the most of your business purchases or facilitate the smooth operation of your business.
For rewards and benefits, you can’t beat the Amex Business Platinum card, which has awesome rewards, an abundance of benefits, and no preset spending limit.
Other worthwhile options include the CapOne Spark Miles card, Ink Business Unlimited card, CapOne Spark Cash Plus card, and Amex Blue Business Plus card.
Lastly, the Amex Plum card allows you to take up to 60 days to pay your bills with no interest, which can be an amazing benefit for businesses that are strapped with cash flow.
The information regarding the Capital One Spark Miles for Business, Capital One Spark Cash Plus Card, and Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card was independently collected by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.
For rates and fees of The Business Platinum Card® from American Express, click here.
For rates and fees of The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express, click here.
For rates and fees of The Plum Card® from American Express, click here.
