May 2, 2007

NEWS: SMES Get Plastic

All indications are showing that the future or corporate purchasing in the UK is about to change. Nowadays, providers of commercial credit cards are wooing small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) with all sorts of new and improved benefits, putting the future of old-fashioned fuel cards in real jeopardy. Britain’s Energy Business Review has published a statement on the matter, coming out and saying that issuers of standard fuel cards will need to make plans to “keep up,” as it were. Recommendations included expanding the functionality of cards being offered, as well as keeping tabs on their competitors to scope out what benefits were being offered. Key opponents of fuel cards in the SME market are shilling discounts on both regular and diesel fuel, for example.

Plus, regular credit cards are tempting to SME owners, because they can be used anywhere. Traditional fuel cards may be confined to the pump for benefits and rewards earning. That may be one of the reasons why these cards are experiencing a 5% uptick over fuel card offerings. A survey by American Express showed that UK employees overwhelmingly preferred purchase cards to old-school paper invoice procedures – a margin of 83%! Of the rewards schemes preferred by British employees, hotel discounts and airline miles were the most preferred, by 62% and 55%, respectively.


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