It can feel like the world is on your shoulders when you own a company with so much to do and manage. It costs money to run a business, but many traditional banks limit spending to just one person, making it near impossible for your employees to run errands or pick up supplies. That is why banks and financial institutions came up with a different solution: the prepaid business debit card.
Whether it is gas for the company truck or office equipment for your admin team, prepaid business debit cards are an excellent way to maintain control of the company finances while still allowing employees spending privileges. Many prepaid business debit cards even include special accounting tools and integrations to help reconcile expenses and simplify your bookkeeping.
However, there are many options out there to choose from, and not all of them may suit the unique needs of your business. Based on our methodical analysis, these are the best prepaid business debit cards for 2021.
The best prepaid business debit cards compared
Product | Number of cards | Issued by | Intro Offer | Monthly fee | Limits |
Bento for Business Visa® Debit Card | 100+ | The Bancorp Bank, Member FDIC | 60-day free trial | $29/mo. – $149/mo. | $25,000 per day in transactions |
Dash | Unlimited | Sunrise Banks, N.A., Member FDIC | N/A | N/A | $10,000 maximum card balance; $100,000 maximum account balance |
Emburse Prefunded Mastercard | 100+ | N/A | 60-day free trial | Starting at $7/mo. per user | $25,000 per day in transactions |
Netspend Small Business Prepaid Mastercard | 10 | The Bancorp Bank, MetaBank®, National Association, and Republic Bank & Trust Company | N/A | $9.95/mo. Waived with $10,000+ | $15,000 – $25,000 maximum card balance |
PEX Visa® Business Prepaid Card | 150+ | Fifth Third Bank, N.A. and The Bancorp Bank | 60-day free trial | Starting at $75/mo. | $25,000 per day |
Walmart MoneyCard | Green Dot Bank, Member FDIC | $20 bonus through 2/28/22 | $5.94/mo. Waived with $500+ monthly direct deposits | $500 maximum card balance |
At a glance
Bento uses AI technology to help with receipt capture, integrating with the reporting feature to help you prevent excess spending. There is the ability to create custom controls for each individual card like daily spending limits, merchant restrictions, and international transaction prevention. You can even track all transactions in real-time, so you are always in the know. In fact, Bento claims its real-time tracking helps the average customer reduce their spending by more than 15% when converting from a traditional business card.
With your Bento account, you can import your employee list, request cards as needed for the entire team. With Bento approval, you may have up to two additional Authorized Signers on your account. You may use your card as often as you like, but you may spend no more than $25,000 per transaction per day. There are no limits on direct deposit, ACH, or wire transfers, but Bento transfers are limited to three per day, up to $10,000. Bento does not allow any ATM deposits, but you may withdraw cash from any Visa®, Maestro®, Plus®, or Interlink® ATMs. However, there are limits to the amount of withdrawals, with a $500 maximum per transaction and per day. ATM withdrawals are also limited to the business owner only.
There are also no direct deposits, with deposits limited to your external bank account only.
Pros:
Cons:
Fees
Bento offers a free 60-day trial, allowing you to test drive the service with up to 50 cards. No contract is required, just a monthly fee that depends on your business’s number of physical and virtual cards. Bento offers prepaid business cards for more than 100 employees, making it well-suited for companies with lots of employees. For more than 100 cards, Bento offers customized pricing.
Plan fees
Plan | Number of Cards | Monthly Cost |
Starter | Up to 10 cards | $29/mo. |
Team | Up to 25 cards | $69/mo. |
Professional | Up to 100 cards | $149/mo. |
There are some other fees you may incur with your Bento prepaid business card.
Bento Prepaid Business fees
Fee | Cost |
ATM withdrawal | $0 domestic $3 international |
Card replacement | $0 |
Foreign transaction fee | 3% |
Refund Check Fee | $15 |
Set up fee | $0 |
Transaction fee | $0 |
At a glance
Dash is FDIC-insured through its issuer, Sunrise Banks, N.A. There is a maximum balance of $100,000 for your account, with a per-card maximum of $10,000 each. However, there is no minimum balance required to open your account. Instead of charging the cardholder for transactions, Dash charges the merchants instead, saving you countless dollars.
You can use your card anywhere. Mastercard is accepted for all of your spending needs, with more than 40 million retailers and over 210 countries and territories. You can use the Dash mobile app for account management, including setting spending limits and tracking employee spending. You can upload and comment on receipts before filing them away. There is a detailed reporting feature, and employees can also request funds as needed right in the app for better efficiency.
Dash protects your account with 24/7 fraud monitoring, plus there is the ability to set custom alerts for low balance and daily summary notifications.
Pros:
Cons:
$10,000 card maximum
$100,000 account balance
ACH reload only
Fees
A Dash account comes with very few fees. You may have an unlimited number of Dash prepaid cards without any monthly or card fees.
Dash Prepaid Business fees
Fee | Cost |
Card replacement | $0 |
Foreign transaction fee | 3% |
Monthly fee | $0 |
Paper statement | $10.99 per month |
At a glance
Emburse gives you the ability to spend anywhere Visa or Mastercard is accepted while also easily setting remote controls for your entire team. Both virtual and physical cards are available, and they are compatible with both Apple Wallet and Android Pay for easy use. However, cards may not be used at ATMs or for cashback.
Account owners have the ability to fully control employee spending with the ability to create budgets and restrict specific merchants. Staff can easily request additional funds while you control budgets and even where and when employees are allowed to use their cards.
Emburse is all about efficiency. You get real-time reporting with immediate transaction approvals, and instant funds transfers to prevent any unnecessary delays. Plus, you can set special role-based permissions with approval flows to allow regular transactions to occur without repeated approval.
For easier accounting, you can export expenses directly into QuickBooks, and there is additional fraud protection to help protect your account.
Pros:
Cons:
Fees
The Emburse prepaid business card is available in three monthly plans, depending on the number of users you have.
Emburse Prepaid plans
Plan | Employees | Monthly Cost |
Starter | Up to 10 | $50/mo. |
Business | 10-100 | $7/mo. per user |
Enterprise | 100+ | Custom pricing |
At a glance
The Netspend Small Business Prepaid Mastercard has specific limits of $15,000 to $25,000 per account with a maximum daily load of $7,500. You cannot spend or withdraw more than $5,000 per day, and ATM cash withdrawals are limited to $325 per transaction and $940 each day.
The Netspend Small Business Prepaid Mastercard includes additional special rewards through Mastercard Easy Savings. For those staff lunches, this includes a 4% rebate on more than 20,000 restaurants, such as Carrabba’s and Bonefish Grill. One of Netspend’s strengths is its ability to create custom programs for rewards and incentives. You have the option to set up either one-time or recurring rewards for anything you like. Rewards can then be deposited directly onto your employee’s card. Employees can immediately access funds and, with paperless payroll, receive payroll cards instead of printed checks.
Account owners have access to the Employer Portal, a space where you can customize your program with personalized company branding. Here, there are also account settings for employee details, transactions, and tax files. Netspend also includes additional software called Tip Solutions to help you both calculate and pay staff tips.
Pros:
Custom branded incentive programs
Additional Mastercard Easy Savings
Exclusive Tip Solutions calculator
Cons:
Fees
While direct deposit is free, the Netspend Small Business Prepaid Mastercard carries specific fees.
Netspend Small Business Prepaid fees
Fee | Cost |
Account fee | $9.95 per month or $0 with $10,000+ monthly loads |
ATM cash withdrawal | $2.50 domestic $4.95 international |
Card replacement | $3.95 |
Over-the-Counter Cash Withdrawal Fee | $2.50 Over-the-counter cash withdrawal Varies at over-the-counter cash withdrawal at Reload locations |
Foreign transaction fee | 3.5% |
Transaction fee | None |
Each user’s card | $1.95 per month |
At a glance
The PEX Card allows for multiple prepaid cards for your team with real-time monitoring. You can select and prevent specific merchant categories with spending limits, but there are no transaction limits for your spending. While there is no minimum required balance, you are limited to $25,000 per day in reloads.
You can track your account activity via desktop or the mobile app with additional API integrations using SaaS technology. You can also use the PEX API to create a custom, automatic payment platform that has the capacity to process millions of daily transactions. You can also integrate your card with several popular programs like QuickBooks, Booking Express, and Certify.
There is 24/7 cardholder support if you have any issues.
Pros:
Cons:
Fees
There is a free 60-day trial so that you can try out the PEX Card first.
Several plans are available for businesses of all sizes, but you can waive the monthly fee when you spend $50,000 or more.
Prepaid PEX Card Monthly plans
Plan | Number of cards | Business Pricing | Nonprofit Pricing |
Standard pricing | |||
Core | 20 | $75/month | $30/month |
Pro | 100 | $200/month | $80/month |
Ambassador | 20 | N/A | Custom pricing |
There are also some additional fees you may face.
PEX Card Prepaid Business fees
Fee | Business Cost | Nonprofit Cost |
ACH transfer from PEX Card to a business account | $5 | $5 |
Additional card accounts | $2 – $4 | $0.80 – $1.60 |
ATM withdrawal | $0 domestic $3 international | $0 domestic $3 international |
Card replacement | $0 | $0 |
Foreign transaction fee | 1.5% | 1.5% |
Funds transfer | $0 | $0 |
Refund Check Fee | $15 | $15 |
Returned Request Transfer | $25 | $25 |
Set up fee | $49.95 | $39.95 |
Transaction fee | $0 | $0 |
At a glance
The Walmart MoneyCard comes with tons of perks. When you use your card, you receive 3% cashback on Walmart.com purchases, 2% at Walmart gas stations, and 1% cashback for in-person purchases at Walmart stores, up to $75 each year.
There is a monthly fee of $5.94 per month, but you can waive this fee when you have a minimum of $500 in direct deposit each month. The Walmart card earns 2% interest on up to $1,000 in savings. There is even overdraft protection of up to $200 when you use direct deposit. With ASAP Direct Deposit, funds can be received up to two days before usual times.
Accounts are permitted cards for up to four additional members with approval. You can either open an account online or purchase a card from a physical Walmart store to get started. Once your account is open, there is mobile banking to help you manage your account with check deposits, balance inquiries, bill pay, and funds transfers.
Pros:
Cons:
Fees
The Walmart MoneyCard has specific fees you may face.
Walmart MoneyCard fees
Fee | Cost |
Card purchase | $1 |
Monthly fee | $5.94/month or free with $500+ in direct deposits |
Cash deposit fee | In-store: $0 with app $3 with card at Walmart registers $5.95 other locations |
Walmart checking cashing and reload | $0 |
ATM withdrawal | $2.50 |
Walmart withdrawal | $0 |
Teller cash withdrawal | $2.50 |
Overdraft fee | $15 |
Foreign transaction fee | 3% |
How did we choose these products?
To find the best prepaid business debit cards, there are specific factors that we consider:
Account fees: While some cards may require pricey monthly plans, others may not charge any monthly fees at all.
Card fees: There are other fees that may apply to your card, such as ATM fees, reload charges, and foreign transaction fees.
Reloads: When it comes time to add funds to your card, some cards may let you reload via the mobile app, while others may require ACH transfers or in-person reloads.
Transactions: Card providers may limit what you can deposit and where, as well as charging you fees for accessing your funds.
Users: Depending on the number of employees you have, you may require multiple cards, but some cards limit the number of users on your account.
Tools: Many options give you the ability to create custom controls for each individual card, so your manager has different access than your intern.
Integrations: To simplify your accounting, many prepaid business debit cards come with special integrations, such as Quickbooks and payment integrations.
Reporting: Depending on the card you choose, you may receive real-time alerts and expense tracking.
Rewards and benefits: Some cards give bonus rewards or allow you to earn interest, such as the Walmart MoneyCard and NetSpend
Before you choose the best prepaid business debit card for your business, be sure to consider your spending needs carefully.
Which is the right one for you?
With so many prepaid business cards, it can be difficult to know which one to choose for your business. We can help.
Choose this product… | If you… |
Bento for Business Visa® Debit Card | Don’t want to limit your spending |
Dash | Have a large team |
Emburse Prefunded Mastercard | Want full control over how, where, and when employees spend |
Netspend Small Business Prepaid Mastercard | Want to offer custom incentives |
PEX Visa® Business Prepaid Card | Have a lot of expenses |
Walmart MoneyCard | Do much of your shopping at Walmart |
The best prepaid business debit cards FAQ
What is a prepaid business debit card?
Available from banks and other financial institutions, a prepaid business debit card is a type of debit card that allows you to load a specific amount of funds onto your debit card for use. When the funds run out, you can reload your card without having to connect your bank account.
Why should a business use a prepaid business debit card?
Prepaid business debit cards are an excellent way to give employees spending privileges while also maintaining control over their spending. It prevents wayward employees from spending too much, plus you receive extra tools and alerts to ensure that you always know where your money is going.
What is the best prepaid business debit card?
There are many options for the best prepaid business debit card, but ultimately, the best card will depend on your specific needs. When you shop for a new business debit card, be sure to consider important factors like tools and pricing to ensure that you find the best prepaid business debit card for your company.
Our list of best prepaid business debit cards are an excellent place to start.
Are there alternatives worth considering?
Several prepaid business debit cards almost made our list, including these:
If you are not sure that a prepaid business debit card is for you, check out our recommendations for the best business banking accounts for the self-employed, as well as our picks for the best business bank accounts for 2021!
