Your business credit product isn't built for how you operate

Summary: Enterprise spend platforms support working capital by enabling businesses to carry balances strategically rather than clearing them monthly. They support credit lines through dynamic repayment options that adjust to cash flow cycles. For cash flow forecasting, these platforms integrate payment automation, expense management, and accounting tools, giving finance teams real-time visibility into obligations and liquidity. Marqeta's 2026 State of Credit research shows 93% of expense management users want credit products that automatically adjust repayment based on cash flow.

The businesses most likely to be reading this are already using credit. They have a business credit card, probably a line of credit, maybe a charge card too. They are not strangers to financial products.

They are also, quietly, working around them.

Marqeta's 2026 State of Credit research surveyed 5,000 consumers and SMBs across the US and UK. Among the US SMBs who use expense management tools; a segment that skews growth-stage, higher-revenue, and more financially complex, the picture that emerges is not one of satisfaction. It is one of workarounds.

The personal card problem is not accidental

53% of expense management users have put a personal credit card to work for their business in the last 30 days. That number might look like a gap in financial discipline. It isn't one.

Of those who use personal cards for business:

• 56% do it because of better rewards
• 47% cite better cash flow management
• 46% say it's simply faster or easier than using a business card

This is deliberate behavior. These are businesses that have adopted expense management tools, neobank accounts, and payment automation. They are not defaulting to personal cards because they don't know better. They are doing it because their business card isn't good enough, and this is a product problem, not a behavior problem.

Credit as working capital, not a convenience layer

Working capital definition: The funds a business uses to cover day-to-day operations, calculated as current assets minus current liabilities.

Among expense management users, only 37% pay their credit card balance in full each month. Compare that to 52% of SMBs who don't use expense management tools.

This is the critical distinction:

• Non-expense management SMBs use credit like a debit card; spend now, clear it at month end
• Expense management users use credit as a working capital tool; they carry balances, stretch payment timing, and manage cash flow cycles

And the product they are using was not built for that. 49% of expense management users say they would reach for their business credit card to manage a large unexpected expense (over $5,000). 34% say they have struggled to meet payment obligations at some point.

These are not the behaviors of a business in distress. They are the behaviors of a business that is growing faster than its credit infrastructure can keep up with.

What they are actually asking for

The research is direct on what this segment wants:

• 93% are interested in a credit product that automatically adjusts repayment based on cash flow (17 percentage points above the SMB average)
• 84% say flexible repayment terms are important
• 79% are interested in flexible credentials; the ability to switch between credit, debit, and BNPL on a single card (16 points above average)
• 77% are comfortable with AI making payment method decisions to optimize rewards or cash flow (19 points above the SMB average)

These are not aspirational preferences. This is a segment that has outgrown the standard product set and is telling you exactly what they need.

The consolidation gap

One of the clearest data points in the research: 82% of expense management users want a single platform combining payment cards, expense management, and accounting integration. Only 2.6% already have it.

That gap between what 82% want, and the 2.6% who have it, is not a technology gap. The integrations exist now. The gap is in how financial products have been packaged and sold.

Expense management users are already running layered stacks:

• 59% use payment automation tools (double the SMB average)
• 39% bank with neobanks
• 46% use project management tools

They are not looking for one provider to replace everything. They are looking for one that connects everything well.

The business credit card that works for them is not more complex. It is better integrated, more adaptive, and built for the way they actually operate, with dynamic repayment, flexible credentials, and rewards that understand the difference between a vendor they use every week and a one-off purchase.

80% of expense management users say a clear graduation path from entry-level to advanced products is important to them. They want a provider that understands where they are going as a business and builds the financial products for that now.

If you'd like to chat with us about flexible credentials, get in touch.