Starting a new business is like graduating from high school all over again. You need to buy a car, apply for an apartment, get a credit card, but you don’t have any credit history. So you have to get a secured credit card or have a cosigner with credit history to help start building your credit.
If you have started a new business and want to apply for a business gas card, you’re stuck in the same boat. No one wants to issue credit to a new company. So how can you set up a fuel card account when you have no credit history?
Fortunately there’s two ways you can get a gas card with no credit.
Option 1: Put Down A Deposit
This is a very similar strategy to getting a secured credit card. Take the current dollar amount you spend on fuel on a weekly basis and multiply that number by 1.5. For example if you purchase $1,000 of fuel every week, you should put down a $1,500 deposit.
When you put down the deposit with the fuel card company, they will setup your account for weekly billing and will keep your deposit for roughly 3-6 months until you establish credit with the company.
After that time period, the fuel card company should give you back your deposit and set you up on regular credit terms where you can extend your billing cycle and your credit limit amount.
Option 2: Sign The Personal Guarantee
On most fuel card credit apps there should be an optional personal guarantee section. If a principal of the company fills out this portion of the credit app, the fuel card company can run a personal credit check on the principal and decide whether to issue credit or not to the company based on the results.
It;s important to note that this would open a line of credit with the company, not the principal or owner of the company, their credit would just be checked out as a reference.
