Physical & virtual corporate cards for Singapore businesses

Corporate cards are issued in the name of the business.

Companies can assign these cards to employees for business-related spending.

The business is legally responsible for all charges made on the corporate card.

This protects employees from using personal funds or waiting for reimbursements.

Simplified Spending: Employees can make business purchases directly, without out-of-pocket payments.

Expense Tracking: Real-time monitoring of transactions improves visibility and control.

Custom Spending Controls: Businesses can set limits and define usage policies for each card.

Business Rewards: Corporate cards often include perks such as cashback, travel insurance, and vendor discounts.

Corporate cards offer businesses a powerful way to manage expenses, improve efficiency, and reward spending, all while maintaining financial control.

Earlier, businesses used to issue corporate cards only to company directors or senior managers. However, this may cause a bottleneck as your company scales as employees at different levels may need to undertake corporate expenses.

The modern approach to issuing corporate cards is by understanding the needs at a role level. Employees in certain roles such as sales, client servicing, purchase or marketing department often tend to spend money on behalf of the company. Also, certain designations like mid-level managers who meet with clients regularly, or need to make business trips frequently on behalf of the company are potential candidates to issue a corporate card to.

In today’s financial ecosystem, you can avail virtual corporate cards as well as physical corporate cards. Physical cards are the normal tangible cards that have existed in the market for years. Virtual cards are digital cards which reside in your phone, tablet, laptop etc. and have no physical presence even though they function exactly the same as physical cards. While both cards have their own pros and cons, with increasing transactions being done online, virtual cards are replacing physical cards in the market. That said, you need not choose between any one of them, as many providers such as Aspire, offer you the flexibility of owning multiple virtual cards as well as a physical card at the same time at no extra cost.

Corporate cards can exist both as debit cards where your withdrawals are limited to the funds present in your account and also as credit cards where you can withdraw a specified amount as per your eligibility, and repay the same within a specified period. While credit cards are preferred for ensuring smooth cash flow, debit cards are preferred by businesses looking to stay within limits, and in control. Aspire corporate card is a corporate debit card, however, it offers you flexibility to get a credit line on the card, thus providing businesses control as well as extra funds to facilitate a smooth cash flow.

Traditionally corporate cards were designed for companies with high annual revenues, whereas business cards were for smaller companies. But with times changing quickly and the functioning of both companies large or small taking a more global, digital-first approach, the rewards of both corporate cards as well as business cards are gravitating towards providing more and more digital benefits. Instead of deciding on a card by what it is called, it is better to read into the detailed benefits of each card to understand which one will be more suited for your business needs.

There are many banks and fintech companies, like ourselves, that offer corporate cards to businesses in Singapore. We have covered them all in our blog, you can click the links to view cards offered by various banks such as DBS, UOB, Citibank, OCBC, Maybank etc.

However, if you are a start-up or a growing business, chances are you may not meet the eligibility criteria for most of these banks or find them to be expensive for your liking. You can consider opting for Aspire Corporate Card which offers you all the benefits, with eligibility criteria which are less stringent. Read our article on the best corporate cards in Singapore for quick and easy comparison.

Aspire corporate cards are debit cards. We also have Aspire Advance cards, which is a corporate card with a credit line.

At Aspire, we want you to pay the lowest rates in the market.

Zero card activation fees

Zero card transaction fees

Great exchange rates

All Aspire cardholders will enjoy a minimum cashback of 1% on qualified spending (online marketing & SaaS). Our cashback promos are designed to help your business thrive, so take advantage of them!

Cashbacks are computed automatically at the end of each month based on your digital marketing & SaaS expenses. The cashback is then deposited into your business account by the 1st week of next month.

You will receive a separate email notification when the cashback has been processed. PS: You can find out more about our cashback promotions here.

Aspire corporate cards are debit cards. We also have Aspire Advance cards, which is a corporate card with a credit line.

Business liability protection – The company assumes full liability for the card's usage, safeguarding the personal assets of business owners and employees.

Controlled spending – Businesses can set customised spending limits and monitor transactions in real time, ensuring greater control over employee expenses.

Streamlined expense management – Corporate cards simplify the tracking and reconciliation of business expenses, reducing reliance on personal funds and minimising administrative burden for both employees and the business.

Business-centric rewards – Many corporate cards offer tailored benefits such as cashback on business spending and discounts from key suppliers and service providers.

You can create multiple cards for directors, employees, and even external individuals such as your accountant at no additional costs.

When issuing an Aspire card to an individual user, you can also name the card for specific company expenses (i.e. Facebook advertising expenses).

As an Admin, you can issue virtual cards to employees with spend limits at no additional costs. For employees already on Aspire, Admins can issue cards in the following ways:

Click on Debit cards to access your company cards page

Click on the "+ New card" button to initiate card creation

Select the user that you would like to create a card for and complete the required fields

Card is created immediately

You can issue cards during the invitation flow. Do note that Admins will not be able to issue to other account Admins, they can issue a card on their own. Please note, Cards for account Admins (directors) will be created automatically upon account activation.

Yes. With Aspire, you can now get a physical card at your doorstep. Please note that:

Cards tagged to an Advance Limit can't be used for ATM withdrawal

Cards tagged to the SGD/USD account can be used for ATM withdrawals only outside of Singapore (a fee of SGD 5 is charged for every withdrawal)

The first card per user is FREE! Subsequent cards for the same user are charged with a 15 SGD processing fee

There's no card activation fee and no card transaction fee, and you can create multiple cards for directors, employees, and even external people like your accountant at no extra cost. The first physical card per user is free; any additional physical card for the same user has a SG$15 processing fee. On top of that, you earn up to 1.2% cashback* on all spend, so the card works in your favour.