PNC Visa Business Credit Card Review

The PNC Visa® Business Credit Card is the most mundane of the five business credit cards offered by PNC Bank. Heck, it’s one of the most mundane business credit cards on the market, full stop. As you’ll see, there’s a reason why the term “bare-bones” is often applied to this card.

You won’t be earning rewards with your purchases on this card, you won’t be enjoying many shopping or travel perks, and you certainly won’t be collecting any sort of welcome offer. But the PNC Visa Business Credit Card has a couple of possible selling points that might make the card appealing to one or two businesses out there.

First off, the card carries an extremely long 0% APR for balance transfers. You can also take advantage of the card’s competitive APR rate for purchases — it’s one of the lowest rates on the business credit card scene. Finally, PNC likes to argue that the card is good for keeping personal and business purchases separate.

With no rewards to earn and no bonus offers to weigh, there isn’t a great deal to analyze about this card — even after going through everything it offers with a fine-tooth comb. Nonetheless, let’s see how well the PNC Visa Business Credit Card stacks up against the competition.

PNC Visa Business Credit Card At A Glance

Eligibility

You’ll need good to excellent credit to qualify for the PNC Visa Business Credit Card. In most cases, this means your credit should sit above 640. Note that this number is just a recommended minimum score as PNC does not market its required scores.

Unsure of your credit score? Read up on our favorite (and free!) credit-score-checking websites to get the deets.

Additionally, you must also be a PNC Bank Business Banking customer and/or a PNC Online Banking customer to obtain this card. That means your business must be based in one of the states in which PNC operates, all of which are in the eastern half of the country. In addition to Washington, D.C., PNC branches are located in these states:

• Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin

Rewards For Spending

Because the PNC Business Credit Card is marketed solely for its APR perks, there are no rewards to earn. Despite any sort of reasoning on PNC’s part, a lack of rewards is still disappointing. One of the major advantages credit cards have over other types of financing (such as a loan) is their rewards programs.

It’s also worth noting that this card isn’t designed for new credit users or those with a poor credit history. In some cases, cards for that particular audience don’t have any rewards to help offset the card issuer’s risk. Here, however, PNC just doesn’t include rewards of any kind — even though this card is best suited for those with good credit and above.

All told, no rewards make this card a somewhat disappointing entry in PNC’s already unremarkable stable of credit cards. Even a minimal rewards scheme (such as 1% cash back) could make this card a more viable option.

Redeeming Rewards

The PNC Visa Business Credit Card has no rewards program, and therefore, there are no rewards to redeem.

Card Benefits

You won’t find anything exciting here — PNC merely includes a few standard credit card benefits.

Employee Cards Available

With this card, you’ll be able to add employee cards to your account. You can then manage employee spending through PNC’s monitoring tool and by setting a spending limit.

Note that PNC fails to publicly market whether or not employee cards cost extra.

Extended Warranty

Thanks to Visa’s cardholder benefits package, eligible purchases may receive extended protection. This protection will be able to double the length of an original manufacturer’s warranty up to one extra year. It’s worth noting that warranties already above three years long won’t be eligible for the additional coverage.

Purchase Security

Another perk bundled into Visa’s cardholder benefits setup is purchase security. Thanks to this feature, your purchases will be covered against damage or theft within the first 90 days after purchase. If an item does become damaged or stolen within those first 90 days, you may be eligible to receive a replacement, repair, or reimbursement.

Overdraft Protection

Easily the most unique benefit included with this PNC card is its overdraft protection feature. When you enable this, you’ll be able to set your PNC credit card to act as protection should you overdraw your PNC business checking account. If you happen to overdraw your account when the credit card is set as protection, funds will automatically be transferred over to cover the difference.

Online Account Management

There are a few online tools included in PNC’s credit card suite that can help manage your account and card usage. Available features here include:

• Viewing balance and pending transactions online
• Accessing up to 13 months of transactional history
• Adding, activating, and closing cards
• Scheduling or making electronic payments
• Downloading transaction history into Excel, Quicken, QuickBooks, or .csv file formats

PNC also has a spending analysis tool to categorize purchases automatically. This tool might be able to help your business plan and budget future spending.

Rates & Fees

This is where the PNC Visa Business Credit Card shines. With an excellent APR range for purchases and a 0% APR introductory period, this card might work for those who plan on carrying a balance.

A Competitive APR

With no rewards in place, this card has to pick up the slack somewhere. One of the areas where it does succeed is in its APR range of 11.49% - 21.49% (variable). These are extremely competitive numbers, which means that those looking to carry a balance with their credit card may find solace in the PNC Visa Business Credit Card. The lower number is among the lowest around for business credit cards while the upper end isn’t too shabby itself.

Of course, by paying off your credit card bill in full each month, you’ll avoid dealing with interest rates.

0% Balance Transfer APR For 13 Billing Cycles

Those who transfer in a balance within the first 90 days of account opening will be eligible for a 0% balance transfer APR for 13 billing cycles. This is a very generous intro rate period and means that you won’t be paying interest on balance transfers for essentially one year. Do note, however, that you’ll still be subject to the card’s standard balance transfer fee of either $5 or 3% of the transfer (whichever is higher).

No Annual Fee

Another plus to this PNC card is its lack of an annual fee. However, because there’s no reward program in place, no annual fee isn’t exactly shocking.

Watch Out For The Foreign Transaction Fee

Despite the sun and roses in the paragraphs directly above, there is a foreign transaction fee with the PNC Visa Business Card. Purchases made outside of the US will incur a fee equal to 3% of the transaction — frequent travelers beware.

Other Fees

There are a few other fees to keep in mind. Cash advances will get dinged an extra $10 or 4% of the advance (whichever is higher), up to a maximum of $75. Should you make a payment late, you may also get charged up to the industry standard of $39.

Is The PNC Visa Business Credit Card Right For You?

There’s only so much you can say about the PNC Visa Business Credit Card. It’s a bare-bones card offering a low APR and a lengthy 0% APR period on balance transfers. In isolation, it makes a decent case for itself to the business owner looking to consolidate credit card debt onto a card with a low-interest rate.

However, when you look at the competing credit cards in this particular niche, you’ll find cards that offer similar features — but also include things that the PNC Visa Business Card abstains from, such as an intro 0% APR on purchases, reward points, and a longer list of benefits. Furthermore, most of these cards aren’t tied to a particular bank. The PNC card being tied to those with a PNC banking account means that the card isn’t even available to business owners in vast swaths of the country.

You might want to apply if…

• You want to transfer your balance from a different card to avoid paying interest
• You can qualify for the credit card’s lowest APR bracket

You might want to look for a different card if…

• You want a credit card with rewards
• You want a credit card with a solid benefits package
• You don’t plan on carrying a balance
• You don’t live in the same state as a PNC branch

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