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Corporate Insight announced the release of a new series of research reports focused on the credit and charge card offerings currently available to small business owners. On a monthly basis, Corporate Insight, a provider of competitive intelligence in financial services, will evaluate the current card products and online services provided for small business clients through its new Small Business Card Monitor subscription service.
The series launches with a detailed overview of the attributes, rewards and annual fees of the 53 small business cards now offered by American Express, Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, Citibank, Discover, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo. Future reports will track the online account management capabilities offered to small business card owners, as well as changes to products and services as they occur, such as the recent launch of the Chase mobile application “Jot.”
The next report in the series will focus on the ways credit card companies allow customers to request an employee card and the various steps in the process compared firm-to-firm. The company also offers monitoring services that cover the entire online financial services spectrum-including annuities, brokerages, banking, mutual funds and credit card services.
According to the U.S. Office of Small Business Administration, about 50 percent of all U.S. employees work for a small business, and small businesses pay 44 percent of the nonfarm U.S. private payroll, based on research from the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Department of Labor. Corporate Insight said it is up to credit card companies to provide these businesses with tools and rewards that best suit the needs of each individual business.
“If you’re a small business owner, you know that a credit card is essential to maintaining monthly cash flow. Fortunately, the wide variety of cards available today means that most small business owners should be able to find a card that meets their needs,” said Alisson Andrade, senior analyst of Small Business Card Monitor at Corporate Insight. “Through Small Business Card Monitor, we will provide the industry with a first-hand view of the customer experience along the lines of what we have done with our Credit Card Monitor service. We will benchmark the major issuers’ small business card offerings and provide continuing coverage of this important market segment.”
Andrade said she believes that small business card users must have access to robust account information online to effectively monitor business expenses and employee spending habits, and the high dollar amount typically associated with running a business also means card rewards are achieved faster and many companies tailor awards to the needs of their small business.