Mercury business credit card reviews: Pros, cons, alternatives, and more [for 2024]
How the Mercury business credit card compares to other corporate credit cards for startups.
Updated:
March 10, 2024
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Product Marketing Manager
March 10, 2024
Mercury is a financial technology company that provides a business banking platform to VC-backed startups. Mercury customers have access to several corporate card options.
This guide is designed to help VC-backed startups evaluate Mercury’s business credit card offerings and compare them to other competitors based on insights gathered from the Mercury website and third-party reviews.
Key highlights:
Mercury is a financial technology company providing basic business banking products and services tailored to VC-backed startups — particularly tech startups.
While there are several Mercury banking services, here are the business credit card and debit card solutions they offer:
Mercury claims their underwriting “offers higher credit limits to newly incorporated customers and those with limited credit history, thanks to a startup-friendly underwriting model.”
Curious how Rho’s underwriting differs from newer fintechs like Mercury and legacy card providers like American Express? Learn more in our recent blog post on the topic.
Mercury is seen as a go-to beginner banking solution for VC-backed startups. In addition to fee-free ACH and some treasury features, offers a select few spend management capabilities that help support its business credit card, the Mercury IO Card.
Mercury offers its business credit card, the IO Mastercard, to customers who meet deposit minimum requirements. IO’s underwriting model is designed to provide higher credit limits to newly-incorporated customers, and those with a limited credit history.
Note: Your business must maintain $25K in a Mercury account to qualify for IO and keep your credit account active. Credit limits are based on Mercury account balance (also known as cash-based underwriting), so your limit might increase as your Mercury balance increases, but your credit limit may also decrease.
Mercury clients can use these accounts to manage operational funds and non-operational reserves, including sending ACHs to vendors. Deposits are held by Mercury’s partner banks, Choice Financial Group and Evolve Bank & Trust, Members FDIC.
Through sweep networks, funds in your Mercury checking and savings accounts are eligible for up to $5M in FDIC deposit insurance (an outcome also branded as Mercury Vault).
Mercury Treasury is currently available to users with account balances over $500K. You can invest funds into “lower-risk mutual funds” through Mercury’s partner, Apex Clearing Corp.
Mercury customers can automatically sweep excess cash into a Mercury Treasury account. Keep in mind that it will take several business days to withdraw funds from Mercury Treasury.
Be sure to review how money market funds compare to owning T-Bills outright like with services like Rho Prime Treasury.
Mercury offers venture debt, which is a term loan issued to startups that have raised venture capital within the past year. To obtain approval, Mercury focuses on the strength of the VC investors and founders and the startup’s potential for growth.
Mercury provides some limited integrations with QuickBooks and Xero – while also generating “Netsuite-friendly reports” i.e. CSV exports of transactions.
Mercury has focused its products and services on startup founders who want access to business banking services built into a technology platform with a good user experience.
Mercury may be a target for customers with more than $250,000 in deposits who want a sweep account to increase FDIC insurance coverage. Mercury is also a consideration for businesses that want access to venture funding.
However, as growth-stage startups scale, they may need additional capabilities like multi-entity support, AP automation, and other important financial operations features.
Mercury offers business credit cards and debit cards to startup firms that meet eligibility requirements.
The Mercury Debit Cards are issued by Choice Financial Group and Evolve Bank & Trust, Members FDIC. The IO Mastercard is issued by Patriot Bank, Member FDIC.
Mercury offers the IO Mastercard to customers who meet minimum deposit requirements. Mercury does not run a credit check during the IO application process, so your personal FICO credit score will not be considered or affected.
When you apply for the IO Mastercard, you will need to deposit up to $25,000 into your account. To keep your credit account active, you must maintain an average cash balance of roughly equal to $25,000 in your Mercury account.
Your Mercury credit limit is determined by your Mercury account balance, and the company may increase or decrease the credit limit. Mercury reassesses your credit limit following large withdrawals and deposits.
Another risk is technical debt. If you use multiple software solutions for banking and finance, your software costs and transaction fees can rise quickly.
For example, standalone AP automation, expense tracking, and cash management tools can be expensive and have hidden integration costs with accounting software or bookkeeping platforms like QuickBooks Online.
Managing multiple financial platforms can also place a strenuous burden on your already time-strapped team. A disjointed finance stack increases the risk of errors and makes understanding how your business operates difficult.
The Mercury IO Mastercard provides a number of features:
However, Mercury does not provide multi-entity support, AP automation, and spend management capabilities. Many startup founders will either pair Mercury with Ramp or Brex for the spend management piece – or manage both cash and spend with Rho.
There are no annual fees, no fees for additional credit cards, and no interest charges. Balances must be paid in full each month, and no balances can be carried over to a new month and charged interest.
Based in New York, Rho is a comprehensive finance automation platform that empowers startups, SMBs, and middle-market companies with tools to boost their bottom line and operate more efficiently.
In one platform, businesses can access corporate credit cards with spend controls, automated expense management and accounts payable, business banking, and treasury management – all without platform fees.
Rho integrates with QuickBooks Online, Oracle NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, and Sage Intacct. Rho also supports flat-file CSV exporting, so you can automatically tailor transaction categorization to your business needs.
The Rho platform is free, though the Rho Prime Treasury capability does have a small annual management fee which depends on the amount invested, but caps out at 0.60% .
Just like middle-market companies, Rho is a great fit for startups. Founders use Rho as a single solution for corporate cards, expense management, payments, banking, and treasury. Startup founders can effectively manage finances with a lean team, saving time and money.
Mercury is great for startup businesses that are just starting and want access to business banking services built into a technology platform with a good user experience.
As startups start to scale, more streamlined approvals, a robust expense management solution, and structured workflows become necessary.
This is where Rho shines - providing a comprehensive stack of financial tools allowing unimpeded growth without team members needing platform changes.
Visit G2 to learn how Rho’s fee-free business banking and finance platform, business credit cards, and more compare with different startup solutions, including:
Based in New York, Ramp is a fintech company initially launched in 2019 as a corporate card and expense management platform combo. It has since expanded its spend management product capabilities to include bill payments, procurement, and accounting integrations.
Ramp’s mission is to help build healthier businesses and does so through its platform that helps firms control business spend, save time, and automate busywork.
Some of Ramp’s basic features are free to use. However, many automation features are now paywalled behind Ramp Plus and Ramp Enterprise plans, including ERP integrations, purchase order management, and premium customer support.
As of this article’s publishing date, Ramp Plus is $12 per user per month (when billed yearly; $15 per month otherwise).
However, larger enterprise organizations must contact Ramp Sales for a more specific quote if they want important features like multi-entity support.
Ramp is a viable alternative for businesses with manual expense and payment processes or using outdated tools like Concur or BILL that cause problems, such as expense receipt submission and invoice payment delays.
Ramp offers corporate card, expense management, and spend management product capabilities. Ramp, however, does not offer banking or treasury capabilities.
Mercury provides business checking and savings accounts, corporate credit cards, treasury services and venture debt. The platform does not offer expense management or spend management features.
Ramp and Mercury do not provide business banking, payments and corporate cards in a single solution. Rho provides all of these services within one platform, allowing startup founders to run finances leaner and boost profitability.
Based in San Francisco, Brex is a spend management fintech company that first launched as a VR startup back in 2017. After pivoting, they launched a corporate card to challenge American Express and have since added spend management capabilities like expenses, travel, and AP.
Brex’s mission is to empower employees anywhere to make better financial decisions, doing so by providing spend management and finance automation capabilities.
Brex’s products include corporate cards that offer a points-based rewards system, expense management, procurement, accounts payable, travel booking, business banking services, a mobile app, and other finance features.
Key features include:
As of this article’s publishing date, Brex Premium is $12 per user per month (when billed yearly; $15 per month otherwise), but larger enterprise organizations must contact Brex Sales for a more specific quote if they would like to access more features and dedicated onboarding.
Brex caters largely to startups with venture capital funding. If you fit this category, they can be a quality option, although other providers like Rho offer these capabilities and more without the need to pay subscription user fees.
Brex is not a good choice for bootstrapped startups, because spending limits and benefits are designed for funded growth companies. In 2022, Brex made a decision to no longer support traditional small businesses. If you are in this market, Brex may not be the right solution for you.
The Mercury platform does not offer expense management or spend management features. Brex provides expense management, procurement, and accounts payable functionality that is not offered by Mercury. While Brex offers these additional benefits, they require fees.
Brex customers must sign up for a Brex Premium or Brex Enterprise account to access important features like dedicated customer support, custom roles and permissions, ERP integrations, live budgeting, and travel planning.
Choose a business credit card that is backed by an integrated expense management platform. When cards are integrated with a platform, managers can take full control of company spend with complete visibility in real-time.
Benefits include:
The Mercury debit cards are issued by Choice Financial Group and Evolve Bank & Trust, Members FDIC, and the IO Mastercard is issued by Patriot Bank, Member FDIC.
Mercury offers the IO Mastercard to customers who meet deposit minimum requirements. IO’s underwriting model is designed to provide higher credit limits to newly-incorporated customers, and those with a limited credit history.
No. When you apply for the IO Mastercard, you will need to deposit up to $25,000 into your account. To keep your credit account active, you must maintain an average cash balance of roughly equal to $25,000 in your Mercury account.
The IO Mastercard can be useful for startup founders. IO’s underwriting model is designed to provide higher credit limits to newly-incorporated customers, and those with a limited credit history. However, startup firms must be able to maintain minimum cash balances.
Mercury cash deposits secure credit card repayments. Your IO Mastercard credit limit is based on the total deposits in your Mercury bank accounts.
When you apply for the IO Mastercard, you will need to deposit up to $25,000 into your account. To keep your credit account active, you must maintain an average cash balance of roughly equal to $25,000 in your Mercury account.
There are no annual fees, no fees for additional credit cards, and no interest charges. Balances must be paid in full each month, and no balances can be carried over to a new month and charged interest.
Mercury makes money in five different ways:
After reviewing the Mercury business credit card and other credit cards on the market, think about the features and tools that are most important for your business.
And if you still need help choosing a business credit card, let's make this easy.
If:
All wrapped up in unbeatable pricing and great customer support sounds nice to you, so you should consider Rho.
Schedule time with a Rho payments expert today!
Competitive data was collected as of February 21,2024, and is subject to change or update.
