Coronavirus is affecting many businesses all over the United States. Some fear that a recession is just around the corner. Is your business being affected? Here in this post, we will discuss how you can better manage your business cash flow during a time when business is slow. All you need is a little but powerful piece of plastic, aka as a credit card, in your wallet.
0% APR Credit Cards
A friend of mine needed $15k to buy new equipment for his store. He needed help with cash, as the cost for the project was thousands of dollars. He applied for a Blue Business Plus card which has an offer of an intro. 0% APR for 12 months on purchases. He swiped about $15,000 on the card and then started paying about $1,000 a month. It’s now a year later and the credit card is fully paid up. He effectively got a loan from Amex of $15,000 for 12 months without paying a single dime towards interest. Just the opposite, Amex was paying him to use the card. Two points for every dollar spent!
Many real estate investors use these 0% APR offers to manage cash investments in a fix and flip properties. Venders use them to roll over manufacturing expenses which they don’t get paid for until a few months later when the items hit the store shelves. It’s also useful for many other businesses that need help with cash flow because business, for whatever reason, is slow.
Be Proactive
If you have good credit then make sure to always have a business credit card in your wallet which offers 0% APR. Like this, when a slow month hits (like now with the coronavirus) you will be prepared and be able to roll over expenses, to be paid slowly when better times come. These 0% APR credit cards are a super tool which can help you a ton with properly managing cash flow for your business, interest-free.
Business Credit Cards Which Offer 0% APR?
We have put together a great list of all business 0% APR credit card offers available now.
- US Bank Business Platinum – Intro 0% APR for 20 months on purchases and balance transfers (very few approvals)
- US Bank Business Cash – Intro 0% APR for 15 months on purchases and balance transfers (very few approvals)
- Chase Ink Business Cash – Intro 0% APR for 12 months on purchases
- Chase Ink Business Unlimited – Intro 0% APR for 12 months on purchases
- Amex Blue Business Plus – Intro 0% APR for 12 months on purchases
- Amex Blue Business Cash – Intro 0% APR for 12 months on purchases
- Bank Of America Business Travel Rewards – Intro 0% APR for 9 months on purchases
- Bank Of America Business Cash Rewards Card – Intro 0% APR for 9 months on purchases
What You Need To Know Before Taking Advantage Of These Offers
Penalty APR
Penalty APR is the APR you will be paying if you make a late payment. Before taking advantage of these offers, make sure you are familiar with how much the penalty APR will be. If you will end up being late (it happens to the best of us), not only will you be losing the intro 0% APR offer, but you may end up paying more interest now than what you were paying before you made the balance transfer.
Grace Period
When you make a purchase on a credit card, (as long as you pay your balance in full every month,) you will not have to pay interest on new purchases until after the due date on your statement. When you make a balance transfer, you will not be paying the balance in full by the first month. Remember that you will lose your credit card grace period and end up paying interest on your new purchases from the date of the purchases. (I recommend not making any new purchases on this card rather use a different card and pay it in full every month.)
Minimum Payment
Before choosing a card you will want to make sure that you will be able to afford the minimum payment amount. Therefore, make sure you are familiar with how the minimum payment is calculated on your new credit card. (You can find a list here.)
You Can’t Transfer a Balance From the Same Bank
Banks do not allow you to transfer balances from one card to another credit card issued by their bank. For example, you can’t transfer a balance from one Chase credit card to another Chase credit card.
You can read more about balance transfers here.
Have a great day and stay safe!
Thank you!
Great Post!