Card Hub Study Reveals the Best and Worst Banks for Small Business
Wells Fargo, HSBC and U.S. Bank are the worst credit card companies for small business, according to a recent study by Card Hub. The study rated each of the top 10 credit card issuers in the U.S. in terms of both its transparency and the extent to which it has voluntarily extended the new credit card law’s protections to its business credit cards. Bank of America, the study says, was the only major issuer to apply all of the major protections implemented by the law—the Credit CARD Act of 2009—and is therefore the best credit card company for small business owners.
While the law drastically increased the transparency of the consumer credit card market and augmented the consumer credit card bill of rights, business credit cards were excluded from its protections. This despite the fact that small businesses are the backbone of the American economy and small business credit cards are more closely tied to individual consumers than they are to individual corporations.
Given such factors and the unequivocal success of the CARD Act, it is only a matter of time before so-called business credit cards are given the same protections as any other consumer-oriented credit card. The extent to which credit card companies recognize this and proactively address it speaks to their sophistication (or lack thereof) and provides insight into their organizational values.
Wells Fargo, HSBC and U.S. Bank are at the low-end of the totem pole not only because they have failed to apply a single major CARD Act protection to their business credit cards but also because they refuse to be upfront about their policies. These companies, it would seem, either lack the strategic foresight to realize an extension of the CARD Act is inevitable or simply do not see the value in being an early adopter and garnering much-needed social cache among a prized consumer segment.
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