What a corporate card is
A corporate card is a card a company provides to an employee for business purchases. The employee pays a merchant for items such as airfare, software or supplies, and the issuer sends the transaction through the card network for authorization and settlement.
A corporate card is one type of commercial card. Commercial card is the broader category, which also includes purchasing cards designed for procurement and supplier payments. The employee's card and the company's payment arrangement are separate: the company or employee can be responsible for paying the issuer.
A corporate card does not set your processing price by itself; transaction data and your processor's markup matter too.
Who pays the card bill
In a company-pay arrangement, the issuer bills the company for employee card transactions. In an individual-pay arrangement, the employee pays the issuer, and the company handles business expenses through its reimbursement or expense process.
That billing choice affects your customer's internal accounting, not the amount your business charges at checkout. Your business still processes a card transaction, and its acceptance costs depend on the card product, transaction details and your processing agreement.
How corporate cards affect your processing costs
Your card costs still have three layers: interchange, network fees and processor markup. The card network sets interchange categories, and the processor markup is the only one of those three layers you can negotiate.
A corporate card transaction can qualify for a commercial-card interchange category. For eligible business-to-business sales, sending Level 2 data, such as tax and invoice details, or Level 3 data, such as item descriptions and quantities, can qualify the transaction for a lower category. Missing enhanced data can leave you paying a more expensive category.
For scale, an illustrative 0.25 percentage-point difference in interchange on a $10,000 sale equals $25. That is a hypothetical comparison, not a stated corporate-card rate. Compare your corporate-card qualification and effective rate with your Level 2 and Level 3 data submission rates.
What you can actually change
You cannot negotiate the network's interchange schedule. You can improve transaction data and negotiate the processor markup, then check that your corporate-card sales qualify for the categories your data supports.
- Submit complete tax, invoice and customer-code details on eligible business-to-business sales.
- Send item descriptions, quantities and unit prices when Level 3 data applies.
- Compare your corporate-card effective rate and qualification rate with other card categories.
- Separate interchange and network fees from the processor markup before negotiating.
- Audit data capture. Check whether your billing or accounting system sends tax, invoice and line-item details with eligible corporate-card transactions.
- Compare effective rates. Review the corporate-card interchange categories on your processing records alongside the share of sales that qualify for enhanced data rates.
- Negotiate markup separately. Use your itemized costs to distinguish processor markup from interchange and network charges before discussing pricing.
Frequently asked questions
Is a corporate card the same as a commercial card?
A corporate card is a type of commercial card, generally issued for employees' business expenses. Commercial card is a broader category that also includes purchasing cards used for procurement and supplier payments.
Do corporate cards cost merchants more to accept?
A corporate-card transaction can qualify for a commercial-card interchange category, which can have different costs from a consumer-card category. The card name alone does not set your total processing price; transaction data, network fees and processor markup also matter.
How can a business lower fees on corporate-card transactions?
Send complete Level 2 or Level 3 data on eligible business-to-business sales, then compare the transactions' effective rate and qualification rate. Your processor's markup is the negotiable part of your costs; interchange and network fees are separate.