Can I Use My Own Credit Card With Ramp?

Ramp is a financial platform designed to assist businesses in managing their corporate spending. Companies often seek solutions to streamline financial operations and gain better control over expenses. A common question arises for businesses considering such platforms: can personal credit cards be directly integrated for company spending? Understanding Ramp’s design helps clarify how it addresses this query, focusing on structured financial management rather than personal card integration for primary business purchases.

Ramp’s Approach to Company Spending

Ramp provides businesses with its own corporate credit cards, both physical and virtual, for managing company expenses. These cards are issued to employees for business purchases. The platform allows administrators to establish and modify spending limits for individual cards or specific funds, ensuring controlled expenditures. For example, limits can be set daily, weekly, or monthly, or restricted to particular categories or vendors.

Transactions made with these dedicated Ramp cards are automatically categorized and tracked within the platform, providing real-time visibility into company spending. This automation includes automatic receipt matching, allowing employees to upload receipts via the mobile app or email, with optical character recognition (OCR) pulling key details like amount, date, and merchant. The system also allows for the enforcement of spending policies, such as requiring receipts for transactions exceeding a certain amount.

Handling Employee Out-of-Pocket Expenses

While Ramp does not facilitate direct spending from personal credit cards as a primary method for corporate expenses, it offers a system for employees to submit out-of-pocket expenses for reimbursement. This process handles situations where an employee uses personal funds or a credit card for a business purchase.

Employees can submit reimbursement requests by uploading photos of receipts through the Ramp mobile app or web interface. They include details such as expenditure, business purpose, and vendor information. Once submitted, these requests go through an approval workflow, reviewed by a manager or finance team. Upon approval, Ramp facilitates payment directly to the employee’s linked personal bank account within 3 to 5 business days. This structured reimbursement process ensures that while personal cards are used for the initial outlay, the company maintains oversight and control over the repayment.

The Role of Ramp’s Dedicated Cards

Ramp’s model emphasizes providing dedicated corporate cards because this approach simplifies expense management and enhances financial control for businesses. Using company-issued cards provides real-time visibility into expenditures, allowing finance teams to monitor spending as it occurs rather than waiting for month-end reports or expense submissions. This immediate insight supports proactive budgeting and compliance management.

Dedicated cards also streamline the separation of business and personal finances, which is beneficial for accounting and tax purposes. They automate policy enforcement, with controls embedded directly into the cards that can decline out-of-policy spending before it happens. This reduces the administrative burden of manual reviews and helps prevent wasteful spending, leading to savings for the business. The system eliminates the need for employees to use personal funds for business expenses, improving the employee experience by avoiding reimbursement delays.