Why Preloaded Travel Cards Are The Best Choice For International Business Travelers?
Preloaded travel cards are an efficient way to manage business expenses. They help business travelers manage budgets efficiently while offering full visibility.
Business travel is back and growing fast. The business travel industry rebounded strongly post-pandemic, with overall spending increasing from $1.43 trillion in 2019 to 1.48 trillion in 2024 and is projected to exceed $2 trillion by 2028.
Even as remote work continues, the demand to have more face-to-face interactions is growing. Whether it's closing a deal in New York or attending a conference in London, business travelers need secure payment solutions now more than ever before.
Preloaded travel cards eliminate the risks of carrying large amounts of cash and the complications of using personal credit or company debit cards. As companies invest more heavily in business travel, the need for a convenient and efficient way to manage expenses abroad makes preloaded travel cards an increasingly popular choice.
What Is A Preloaded Travel Card?
A preloaded travel card is a type of travel card that a company preloads with funds. Since it is pre-funded, employees can only use a set amount of funds for business travel purposes. These travel cards can come in two types:
- Physical Travel Cards: Physical travel cards are tangible plastic cards that employees can carry with them.
- Digital Travel Cards: Digital travel cards, on the other hand, are present digitally and can often be linked to Google Pay or Apple Pay to make payments.
These cards are usually powered by a network like Mastercard or Visa. So, a Mastercard travel card can be used to pay across the world in multiple currencies and across millions of merchants worldwide.
Why Preloaded Travel Cards Are The Best Choice For International Business Travelers?
Preloaded travel cards simplify payments for travelers. Here are a few reasons why they are the best choice:
Simplified Management
Over 1 in 10 businesses rely on employees to manually report their travel expenses, which leads to delays and errors. In fact, 19% of business travel expense reports contain errors, creating unnecessary administrative load and back and forth with employees.
Preloaded travel cards solve this by providing all detailed transaction records from merchant information to timestamps and amounts on a simplified portal. This eliminates the need for manually tracking and reporting expenses, significantly reducing errors and increasing efficiency.
Global Acceptance
One of the biggest frustrations for international business travelers is limited payment acceptance. Corporate credit cards can face restrictions in certain countries, leaving travelers unable to complete essential transactions.
For international travelers visiting multiple countries, preloaded travel cards offer the ability to hold and spend multiple currencies from a single card. For example, the travel card offered by CleverCards is powered by Mastercard. Which means the card can be used to pay at 50 million+ merchants worldwide.
Enhanced Security
Business travelers already deal with a lot while traveling. From carrying sensitive business information to work stress, and navigating all of that in a foreign country. The last thing they need is the added worry of losing a corporate credit card.
Preloaded travel cards offer multiple layers of security. Since they are preloaded and not linked to a credit line, the risk of unauthorised charges is low. Additionally, these cards can be easily paused or unloaded from a central dashboard at any point in time without any bank intervention.
Better Cost Control
Traditional methods of expense tracking cost businesses heavily. Survey reveals, 75% of businesses say that manual expense tracking increases fraud risk. Moreover, statistics show companies globally lose an average of 5% of their annual revenue to expense fraud.
The root cause of this often lies in the lack of transparency while reporting expenses. Preloaded cards address this problem by recording every transaction in one place. The digital trail makes it nearly impossible to falsely report.
How Do Preloaded Travel Cards Work?
The process of issuing a preloaded travel card is quite simple. Here's how they work:
1. Choose Provider: The first step involves selecting a preloaded travel card that meets your business needs. Before you pick a provider, consider fee structures, integration, and whether they solve your business needs.
2. Add Employee Details: The next step is to add details of employees who will receive cards. When issuing digital travel cards, all you need to provide is the employee's name and their email.
With CleverCards, the process is instant. The card is automatically generated and delivered straight to their inbox. You can even bulk upload an employee list and distribute hundreds of cards in seconds.
3. Preload Cards & Send: Select the amount you wish to load in each card. This could vary based on your travel budget, duration, and destination costs.
4. Link Card To Pay: Employees can instantly activate their card. A digital travel card from CleverCards can be directly linked to digital wallets like Apple Pay or Google Pay to make contactless payments in-store.
5. Track Spending: Real-time spending tracking is where the game changes for preloaded travel cards. Every translation the employee makes is automatically recorded with information on location, merchant names, and currency amount.
6. Pause or Reload: Travel cards can instantly be paused or reloaded at any point in time during the travel period. Making it easier for the admin team and employees to manage expenses.
Handles Business Travel Expenses Efficiently With CleverCards
Prepaid travel cards like those offered by CleverCards simplify the way business travelers manage expenses abroad. Our cards work seamlessly across 50 million merchants globally, ensuring your team can complete translations no matter which part of the world they are in.
CleverCards offer digital Mastercards, which means there is no hassle of carrying a physical card. Both employers and employees have complete visibility on the travel spends. Employees can manage settings via the CleverCards secure online portal, while employees can track expenses on the CleverCards app.
Want to learn how CleverCards can reform your business travel expense management? Fill out the form below, and our team will reach out to you.