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A separate business credit card allows small business owners to easily manage and track their expenses. As a bonus, a lot of cards even come with a range of benefits like rewards, employee cards, and of course, a high credit limit to help your business manage its cash flow.
However, most traditional business credit cards from big banks like American Express and Chase sometimes are very hard to get approved for, especially if you’re a small business. Most of these cards come with hefty annual fees and high credit score requirements.
As a result, fin-tech companies like Brex and Torpago launched their own business credit cards tailored for small business owners.
Brex has been around for a while now, but Torpago is a newcomer, which some say is one of the best Brex alternatives out there. We’ll see how both cards stack up against each other.
Read More: 5 Key Differences Between Business & Personal Credit Cards
(Image courtesy of Canva pro)
What Is Torpago?
Launched in 2020 by Brent Jackson, Torpago is a financial-technology company that offers corporate credit cards equipped with their spend management software.
While the Torpago card works like a traditional business credit card, it is so much more. You earn cash back rewards for every dollar you spend, access to issue unlimited virtual & plastic cards, best-in-class spend management software to control what your team spends on, and more.
What sets the Torpago card apart is the simplicity of the system and ease of use. Torpago replaces what typically will take three to four systems to complete.
Once a Torpago card is swiped, the transaction is instantly categorized, goes through an automated approval process, and syncs into your accounting system within seconds. This process typically takes weeks and requires the use of multiple sites when using one of the mainstream business cards like the American Express Business Platinum Card or the Chase Ink Business Preferred Card.
Torpago Card Highlights
- 1.5% cashback on all purchases.
- Partner merchant discounts.
- Spend management platform.
- No personal guarantee or deposit is needed.
- Dynamic credit limit.
- Real-time accounting integrations.
- Unlimited physical and virtual cards.
- 24/7 support.
- Zero annual fees.
Torpago Rewards
The great thing about flat-rate cashback cards is you don’t have to worry about multiple earning categories.
The Torpago business credit card earns 1.5% cashback on all purchases. It doesn’t matter what you spend it on. Just swipe, and you’re good to go.
Partner Merchant Discounts
In addition to the flat-rate cashback, you’ll also get additional discounts when you use your Torpago card with the following partner merchants below:
- Get 40% off Quickbooks Online for 6 months: QuickBooks is an accounting software program that helps businesses manage expenses and keep track of daily transactions. You can also use it for invoicing, paying bills, generating reports, and more. Pricing starts at $17/month.
- Get 20% off in your first year with Carta, plus waived implementation fees: Carta is a financial reporting software that simplifies equity transactions for businesses. Carta pricing starts at $2800.00 per year.
- Get 2.25% off on PLASTIQ fees when you use your Torpago card: PLASTIC is a service that allows individuals and businesses to use debit or credit cards to pay merchants that don’t accept debit or credit cards. PLASTIQ charges a 2.85% processing fee for credit cards and 1% for debit cards.
The company seems to be in talks with more partners, so cardholders should be able to avail themselves of discounted services in the future; however, there are no specifics on what these partners will be.
Spend Management Features
The Torpago Card’s main strength is its spend management platform which allows business owners to have full control of their company’s finances.
You can track your spending, set spending limits, categorize expenses, sync transactions to your accounting system, and much more from your dashboard. Here are more details:
- No More Expense Reports/Reimbursements: Torpago breaks corporate spending down to the per transaction level. Instead of waiting weeks to submit a review and reimburse expense reports everything is done in real-time with more control.
- Set Department Spending: You can provide cards for departments and individuals with set credit limits to avoid overspending. You can also set restrictions based on factors such as vendors, spending categories, and time of day.
- Real-Time Integration With Your Accounting Software: You can connect Torpago’s spend management platform with all leading accounting and HR systems, such as Acumatica, NetSuite, QuickBooks, and Xero to highlight a few. Integrations are plug-and-play, so you can set it up on your own quickly.
For a zero-annual-fee card, Torpago’s expense management features are pretty impressive. Every transaction you or your employees make is monitored by the platform in real time and organized appropriately according to the categories you set.
No Personal Guarantee Or Deposit
Most business cards require a personal guarantee (usually in the form of personal assets) in cases when a business cannot keep up with payments. Torpago doesn’t require any personal guarantee and is 100% FREE.
Small business owners and startups can easily get approved for a Torpago business credit card as long as they have sufficient cash in the bank, healthy spending patterns, and good business history.
Dynamic Credit Limits
Most banks offer a fixed credit limit based on the business owner’s personal financial history. There are ways to increase your credit limit, but it’s a time-consuming process that may or may not happen.
Torpago offers dynamic credit limits for its cardholders based on the company, not the individuals. This means that your credit limit may increase on a regular basis if your business is financially performing well.
Unlimited Physical & Virtual Cards
The primary cardholder can provide an unlimited number of physical and virtual Torpago cards for employees as long as the credit limit is not exceeded.
Physical cards work best for department heads who make specific purchases for their respective departments. For example, you might want to provide different physical cards for your marketing and operations managers to properly categorize the expenses.
Meanwhile, virtual cards work best for one-time online purchases and recurring purchases (subscriptions) where you want to keep your physical card number private.
24/7 Torpago Customer Service
Torpago has a 24/7 customer service hotline which you can reach at 1 (650) 623-5429. You can also use Torpago’s chat box on their website, but it is not available 24/7, so only use this if you’re not in a rush. Depending on your timezone, replies typically take under 6 hours, so make sure you ask your questions all at once.
Read More: How Often Should You Apply For A Credit Card?
(Image courtesy of Canva Pro)
What Is Brex?
Brex was founded by Brazilians Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi on January 3, 2017. It’s also a fintech company that offers business credit cards and expense management software.
Business owners can use Brex’s software to monitor cashflows, add employee cards, set spending limits, handle bills payments, and many more. What’s great about Brex cards is they don’t require personal guarantees, so they’re perfect for small businesses and startup companies.
Additionally, you can earn up to 8x points on multiple categories, which is one of the highest rates we’ve seen among corporate cards. However, earning points is a bit complicated, which will be discussed below.
Brex Card Highlights
- Earn up to 8x points on rewards
- No personal guarantee
- Expense management system
- Partner Merchant Discounts
- Flexible credit limits
- Unlimited physical and virtual cards
- Zero annual fees
Brex Rewards
One of Brex’s top features is its reward rates. Cardholders can earn up to 8x points on multiple spending categories. Here’s an example of the categories you can earn from.
- 8x on rideshare (e.g., Uber, Lyft, Taxi)
- 5x on Travel booked via Brex Travel
- 4x on restaurants
- 3x on eligible Apple purchases through the Brex Rewards portal
- 1.5x on ads
- 1x everything else
Take note that the rewards categories Brex offers change depending on the nature of your business. This means you may not earn some of the rewards mentioned above if your business belongs in a different category.
For example, if your business belongs to tech or life sciences, these will be your rewards categories:
Tech rewards
- 8x on rideshare
- 5x on travel booked via Brex Travel
- 4x on restaurants
- 3x on eligible Apple purchases through the Rewards portal
- 3x on recurring software
- 1x on everything else
Life sciences rewards
- 8x on life sciences conference tickets
- 5x on travel booked via Brex Travel
- 3x on eligible Apple purchases through the Brex rewards portal
- 2x on lab supplies
- 1x on everything else
Additionally, the rewards will dip to a measly 1 point per dollar if you don’t use the Brex Card exclusively for your purchases or if you make monthly payments when paying your balances. The rewards are a bit complicated and hard to remember so you can check out the full details on the Brex Rewards information page.
No Personal Guarantee Or Deposit
Startups and small businesses don’t have many assets that they can use as a personal guarantee, so they end up getting denied by banks. Brex doesn’t require personal guarantees making it easier for business owners to apply for the card.
Expense Management System
Brex has a financial suite of services that will help you manage your business a lot easier:
- Spend Management: Generate receipts automatically for every card swipe. The data will be displayed on your account both in USD and local currency.
- Expense Tracking: Track all business cashflows in real-time. You can also update spending limits easily at any time.
- Integration: Connect your Brex Empower to systems you currently use and automate any financial workflow with multiple integrations and APIs.
Partner Merchant Discounts
Brex also offers discounts from the following partner merchants below:
- Get up to $5,000 in credit and up to $100,000 in AWS Activate, depending on eligibility
- Get 30% off your first 12 months of QuickBooks.
- Save up to 50% every time you ship with UPS.
- Get 50% off any Gusto plan for 12 months.
- Get 25% off 12 months of eligible Slack paid plans.
- Get $10,000 credits on Freshworks suite of products.
The discount offers from Brex are very solid since it’s worth around $180,000.
Flexible Credit Limits
Brex provides flexible credit limits for its cardholders. This means that a company’s credit limit may increase depending on how it performs financially. It’s basically an incentive for companies to perform better.
Unlimited Physical & Virtual Cards
Primary cardholders can give their employees unlimited physical and virtual credit cards with set spending limits. This allows the business owner to keep track of company expenses and avoid overspending.
Read More: Here’s Why Applying For Multiple Credit Cards Isn’t All That Bad
Torpago Vs Brex: Which Is Better?
Both Torpago and Brex offer similar benefits and services in most categories; however, the main differences between the two cards can be found in the rewards categories and partner merchant discounts.
Let’s dive deeper into it.
Rewards Categories
Torpago has a flat rewards rate of 1.5%, while Brex has a rewards rate of up to 8%. On paper, it might look like Brex has the advantage but not entirely. In terms of value, Torpago tops Brex in this category, and here’s why.
While Brex may have a higher rewards rate, you need to use the Brex card exclusively to get the 8% rate because you’ll get a lower rate if you don’t.
Not to mention, Brex’s rewards categories are very limiting to businesses that belong in the tech and science industry. If you’re a tattoo shop owner or a thrift shop owner, you won’t be able to get the best value for your credit card spending on Brex’s reward categories.
And even if your business belongs to the tech and science industry, the 8% earning rate for the Brex card falls under the rideshare category. To be honest, most tech and science industries are not heavy rideshare users.
Meanwhile, Torpago’s flat-rate card lets you earn 1.5% on every purchase, making it a solid choice for any business owner.
Partner Merchant Discounts
Brex wins this round since it offers more partner merchant discounts compared to Torpago. As of this writing, Brex has 5 partner merchants while Torpago only has 3.
However, it’s quite expected since Brex has been around longer. It will be interesting to see which of the two companies can expand their partner network faster in the future.
(Image courtesy of Canva Pro)
Bottomline: Which One Should I Get?
If you’re looking for an excellent across-the-board business credit card, Torpago is the better option since it has a simple rewards structure that fits almost any business type. Hence, a lot of business owners we know are actually moving from Brex to Torpago.
Yes, Torpago may lack features in some areas, such as partner merchants, but it’s too early to count it out since it just recently launched.
However, if your business belongs to the tech and science industry, then the Brex card might be for you. Just make sure that your spending habits perfectly match the card’s spending categories to make it worth your while; otherwise, you are better off with Torpago!
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