Purchasing Cards

Purchasing Cards are a form of charge cards that companies issue to employees.  Employees are to use these cards for business purposes only.  Employers can put limits on these cards, such as purchase amounts and number of times the card can be used.  Three of the biggest Purchase Cards are:

1. Visa Purchase Card
2. Corporate Purchasing Card by American Express
3. U.S. Bank Purchasing Card

The purchasing card I found to be the best option was the U.S. Bank Purchasing Card.  As stated on their website, many of their clients have saved as much as $78.58 per transaction, when using the purchasing card.

There are multiple benefits of using a purchasing card.  By using a purchasing card, you dont have to worry about filing the paper work for authorizing, tracking, and reconciling the purchases. Transactions can be tracked and automatically posted to the general ledger.  Employers can manage and monitor employee compliance and they can also enforce card-usage policies for employees.

One of the biggest benefits for the U.S. Bank Purchasing Card are that employers can control and limit spending by:

• Capping the number of transactions and dollar amounts per day, per month, or any other desired period of time.
• Having a single-purchase limit for the cardholders.
• Having a limit on how much the cardholder can spend per 30-day billing cycle.
• Blocking purchases of specific commodities and services.

Other benefits of the U.S. Bank Purchasing Card that help boost efficiency and decrease cost are:

• Worldwide card acceptance
• Reduced paperwork
• 24-hour customer service
• Liability Waiver protection program
• Online account setup and maintenance
• Online web-enabled reporting
• Flexible authorization system
• Cardholder spending controls