Finance is uncertain about corporate card costs, survey finds

Employees often use corporate cards for travel and other business expenses, but does your finance team know the true cost of this payment method?

For many companies, there’s a bit of uncertainty surrounding corporate cards, according to a survey from the Global Business Travel Association. Specifically, the survey found that a lot of corporate card confusion stems from rebates and fees.

The knowledge gap

For companies that have rebate agreements with their card providers, almost a quarter (22%) weren’t sure whether they were really receiving their full rebate amounts. What’s more, when it came to corporate card fees:

• 23% of companies didn’t know if their cards had late fees or interest charges
• 21% didn’t know if there was a fee for issuing or replacing a card, and
• 25% were unsure if there were fees for card renewals.

Essentially, some companies don’t fully understand the additional savings and costs that can come along with their corporate card programs. Without that awareness, CFOs and their teams may not get all the value they can out of their program.

Educating the masses

Of course, sharing this message with your finance team as a whole is step one. To boost the bottom line, you’ll want to make sure your company’s getting the money it deserves via rebates and is actively working to avoid unnecessary or hidden fees.

And you can’t effectively get rebates and minimize fees without the help of the employees and business units using cards. As a second step, you’ll want to verify these aspects are included in your company’s card program training. Your finance team could also add a section to your card program policy that discusses “additional card considerations and costs.”

At the end of the day, the more educated and aware everyone is, the more cost-effective your corporate card program can be.