Ultimate Guide To Prepaid Travel Cards For Businesses In 2025
Prepaid travel cards help businesses tackle travel expenses smartly by reducing admin work and lengthy reimbursement processes. This guide covers how they work, what features to look for, and how CleverCards makes business travel simpler and smarter.
The challenge with business travel often isn't the expenses, but managing these expenses. Businesses still rely on outdated systems like shared corporate cards, expense forms and reimbursements. These processes create bottlenecks and are frustrating to manage for both employees and employers.
A survey by Travel Perk suggests that over 83% employee travellers struggle to reconcile trip expenses, and over 26% use their personal credit cards to pay off expenses. Moreover, employees bogged down by expense forms, lost receipts and delayed reimbursements often feel less efficient and focused.
This makes it clear, the problem is not how much the business is spending but how it is managing the spending. Businesses need to shift towards a solution that removes the friction from managing travel expenses for both employees and employers. This is where a ''Prepaid Travel Card' comes in, making travel a business enabler and not a burden.
What Are Prepaid Travel Cards?
Prepaid travel cards are pre-loaded with a set limit of funds to meet employees' travel expenses. Businesses can issue a prepaid money card to individual employees to meet the expenses for their trip.
The best prepaid travel cards today are digital. That means no physical cards, no shipping delays, no risk of loss. Employees can add their digital cards to Google Pay or Apple Pay to start making payments anywhere online or in-store using contactless.
But what makes it stand out is the number of manual tasks it eliminates from the process. With a card that is already funded, employees can avoid any out-of-pocket expenses or lengthy reimbursement cycles.
Traditional Travel Spend Management Vs Prepaid Travel Cards
Despite seeing a major shift in how businesses operate over the last couple of years, most companies still rely on traditional processes that are not only cumbersome but also inefficient.
Let's break down the key differences between traditional travel expense management and prepaid travel cards:
1. Manual Process vs Instant Access
Businesses often wait for physical cards to arrive, assign them to employees and track them across departments. In case of delayed delivery, employees incur out-of-pocket expenses and claim reimbursement.
With prepaid travel cards, on the other hand, you can instantly issue these cards. No waiting or manual distribution. Employees can then use this card to spend without having to pay and wait for reimbursement.
2. High Admin Load vs Digital Automation
HR and finance teams spend hours chasing employees for reimbursement forms, managing lost receipts, reconciling expenses and approving reimbursements. Research suggests 57% of HR time is spent on admin tasks like reimbursements
Prepaid cards cut out admin work completely. Cards are issued online and spending can be monitored in real-time via a centralised dashboard. The spend amount is pre-approved and pre-loaded into each card, which eliminates the need to manage individual employees' travel expenses and individual reimbursements.
3. Delayed Reimbursements vs Stress-free Spends
Reimbursement cycles in a company are not as simple. Over 1 in 4 employees say that the expense process in their company is complicated. Employees have to fill out complex reimbursement forms, attach every receipt, and the reimbursement process can then take weeks to get approved.
Prepaid cards break this cycle by offering employees a pre-funded card. Employees spend within the limit allowed, track their balance in real-time and do not have to wait to get reimbursements.
Do Prepaid Travel Cards Work Better?
Prepaid travel cards not only reduce admin work but also increase outcomes. They eliminate the hassle of manual processes, give real-time visibility and are simple to use. Employees and employers both feel stress-free, and businesses are able to manage their travel expenses better.
Key Features To Look For In A Prepaid Travel Card
Once a business decides to choose a prepaid travel card, it is important to know what key features they should look for. Not every prepaid card is the same. Here are the non-negotiables businesses should look out for:
Digital Card: The card should be digital-first. With hybrid work structures on the rise, your business needs something that can work for both in-office and remote employees.
Essential Controls: Modern solutions mean better control. Ensure the card you pick offers control like pausing or freezing the card at any given moment for when plan changes or the card is lost.
Real-time Tracking: Waiting until the end of the trip to review expenses defeats the purpose of automation. Pick a card that allows real-time tracking for both employees and employers.
How CleverCards Helps Improve Business Travel Management
CleverCards offers a prepaid digital Mastercard to manage employees' travel spends. These cards are designed to revolutionise how businesses manage employee travel spends.
Here's how CleverCards offers a clever solution for businesses to manage their travel expenses:
1. Issue Instantly: Employers can issue CleverCards to their employees instantly with a personalised message via email.2. Real-time Control: Cards can be paused, cancelled, loaded or unloaded anytime through the CleverCards business portal. If a card is lost or no longer needed, it can be frozen instantly, offering complete peace of mind.
3. Track Spends: Employers have real-time visibility of how an employee is spending. This ensures they don't have to wait for the month-end to review expenses. Employees, too, can check their balance on the CleverCards app.
4. Smart Receipts: After each transaction, employees can upload receipts by simply taking a picture, and add notes. This helps employers understand spending better and simplifies reconciliation.
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