What does this guide cover?

The float is free and finite. Where the gap fits inside it, a card is the cheapest money you have. Where it does not, the same card becomes one of the most expensive.

Which funding products does this apply to?

Working Capital, Business Credit Cards. Each has its own page listing the funders in this directory that offer it and what each one publishes about its terms.

Are the figures here quotes?

No. Every worked example is labelled illustrative and exists to show the arithmetic. What a particular lender charges is on that lender's page, where it publishes it at all.

The Find Me Funders research desk. Some drafting is AI-assisted, and every page that is says so at the top, including whether a person has checked its claims yet.

How do I know a figure here is right?

Where a page carries the green notice, its claims were checked against the sources listed at the end and a reviewer is named. Where it carries the amber one, nobody has verified it yet and you should confirm anything you plan to act on.

Are the examples real deals?

No. Every worked example is labelled illustrative and exists to show the arithmetic. What any particular lender charges is on that lender's page, where it publishes it.

Why do you never say what a typical rate is?

Because we cannot source it. A market average assembled from lenders who do not publish prices is a guess with a decimal point on it. Where a lender publishes a figure, we show that figure and say where it came from.

Is this financial or legal advice?

No. It is general information about how these products work. Outcomes depend on your contract and your state, and a lawyer or accountant licensed where you are is the person to ask about your situation.

Can I reuse this content?

Quote a paragraph with a link back. Do not republish whole articles.

Using a business credit card to cover a cash-flow gap

A credit card gives you an interest-free loan of a length you control, and most people never work out how long theirs is. The number decides whether a card is the right tool for a specific gap or the wrong one.

How long your float actually is

Two dates set it: the day your statement closes and the day payment is due. Illustrative only — suppose a statement that closes on the 5th and is due 25 days later.

A purchase made on the 6th, the day after the statement closed, appears on the next statement, which closes on the 5th of the following month and is due 25 days after that. From purchase to payment is about 55 days.

A purchase made on the 4th, the day before the statement closes, is due in 26 days.

Same card, same purchase, less than half the float, decided entirely by where in the cycle it fell.

Matching the float to the gap

Now put a receivable next to it. Illustrative only: you buy materials and invoice the customer on the same day, on terms that mean cash arrives about 45 days later.

Buy on the 6th and payment is due at day 55, ten days after the money lands. The card covered the gap for nothing.

Buy on the 25th and payment is due about 30 days after purchase, fifteen days before the customer pays. Now you either fund it from elsewhere or you carry a balance.

If your buying is discretionary in timing, shifting large purchases to the start of a statement cycle is free working capital. If it is not, the card is simply the wrong instrument for that gap.

What carrying a balance actually costs

The grace period applies only when you pay the statement balance in full. Carry a balance and most card agreements stop granting grace on new purchases until you have paid in full again, usually for a stated number of consecutive cycles. Interest then runs from the transaction date on everything you buy.

Illustrative only: 20,000 carried at a 22% purchase rate is about 4,400 a year, or roughly 367 a month. That is the direct cost. The indirect cost is that the free 55-day float on all your other spending disappears at the same time, which is the part people do not see coming.

Intro offers and balance transfers

A 0% introductory rate is a real tool. Read three things before relying on one.

The fee.Balance transfer fees are charged upfront as a percentage of the amount transferred. Illustrative only: a 3% fee on 20,000 is 600. If you clear the balance evenly over a twelve-month 0% window, your average balance is around 10,000, so 600 against 10,000 of average borrowing is about 6% for the year. If you repay in one lump at the end, it is 600 against 20,000, or about 3%. Both beat carrying at 22%, provided the balance is actually gone by the deadline.

What happens at the end.A genuine 0% introductory rate charges nothing during the window and applies the ongoing rate to whatever is left afterwards. Nothing is charged retrospectively.

Whether it is deferred interest instead.Deferred interest promotions are written differently: interest accrues from the purchase date all along, and if any balance remains at the deadline, the whole accrued amount is charged at once. Illustrative only: 20,000 paid down evenly over twelve months at 22% accrues roughly 2,200. Under a true 0% offer you pay none of it. Under deferred interest, leaving a few hundred dollars unpaid on the deadline can trigger the entire 2,200.

The wording is the tell. "0% intro APR for 12 months" is one thing. "No interest if paid in full by" a date is the other. Deferred interest turns up most often in promotional and retail financing rather than on general-purpose business cards, but the phrase is what matters, not the product category.

The protection difference nobody mentions

Credit extended primarily for business purposes is exempt from the Truth in Lending Act under 15 U.S.C. 1603(1). The consumer card rules layered onto TILA — the ones covering rate increases on existing balances, payment allocation and certain fee limits — therefore do not automatically apply to a business card. Some issuers extend some of them voluntarily as a matter of policy. Read your card agreement rather than assuming the protections you have on a personal card came with you.

Cash advances and convenience cheques are not the float

Three things happen at once when you take cash off a card rather than buying something with it. A fee is charged upfront, usually a percentage of the amount with a minimum. There is no grace period — interest runs from the transaction date. And the cash advance rate is typically set above the purchase rate.

Illustrative only —$5,000 taken as a cash advance with a 5% fee and a 27% cash advance rate, repaid in 20 days. The fee is $250 and the interest is about $74. That is $324 for 20 days of $5,000, which annualises to roughly 118%. A product most owners think of as an emergency convenience is priced like one.

The same logic applies to convenience cheques and to a card used to pay a bill through a third-party payment service, where the service's percentage charge plays the same role as the advance fee.

When a supplier surcharges

If a supplier adds a percentage to accept a card, the float is no longer free — you are buying it.

Illustrative only —a 3% surcharge on a $20,000 purchase costs $600. Time the purchase at the start of your statement cycle and you hold the money for about 55 days, so $600 for 55 days annualises to about 19.9%. Make the same purchase near the statement close, hold it 26 days, and the same $600 annualises to about 42%.

Two consequences. A surcharge makes the timing of the purchase worth real money rather than being a nicety. And at 55 days of float a 3% surcharge is broadly comparable to carrying a balance at a card rate — so if you were going to revolve it anyway, paying the surcharge to preserve the float is not obviously the worse deal. Run both.

When a card is the wrong tool

When the gap is longer than the float and will not close on a date you can name. Revolving a five-figure balance at a card rate is more expensive than most secured alternatives and it consumes the limit you would want available in an emergency. Cards are excellent at bridging days and weeks. They are a poor substitute for a facility sized to a structural gap.