Float Credit Card Review

Float offers a convenient virtual credit card for small businesses in Canada. It is Canada's first smart corporate card with an integrated spend management software that streamlines the management of business expenses.

Float Credit Card Review Summary

Here’s a quick summary of our Float Credit Card review. Read the full article below for details.

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Float Credit Card is a good choice for businesses in Canada that need a credit card but haven't yet built up enough credit score to qualify for a traditional credit card.

Float is a suitable option for small and medium-sized businesses that want to streamline payment workflows and save time by automating some of their  bookkeeping. Its receipt capture and accounting system integrations are great solutions if you’re finding bookkeeping and/or your expense report processes to be a challenge.

We do recommend trying out Float, especially for small businesses.  Applying only takes a few minutes and your business can get approved in 1-3 business days.

The main drawback is that Float Financial’s Visa Card operates on a prepaid model. Therefore, your credit limit is backed by your business bank account balance. It may not work well for those who don't have the cash to fund the credit card before making purchases.

Cost

Float’s Essentials plan is free. This basic plan still allows you to use the spend management solution, accounting software integration, and unlimited virtual cards! You can also request five physical cards for free and at no annual fee.

The Professionals plan is $99/month. This premium plan lets you create an unlimited number of physical and virtual cards and unlocks more features to better manage your organization.

Float Promo Code for $500 Cashback

If you sign up now through our referral link here 👈 or use our referral code AVALON500 when you sign up, you will receive $500 cashback if you spend $25k on the card in the first 90 days.

Usability

Float’s intuitive web and mobile applications provide easy navigation, oversight of all transactions, and the ability to manage purchase approvals and document requests in real time.

The Essentials plan gives you access to features that are easy to learn. The Professionals plan includes a “Personalized Onboarding” feature where a representative will help you get started with all of the features.

What is the Float Credit Card?

The Float Visa Credit card is a prepaid business credit card provided by the Canadian Tech Startup Float Financial.  Float Financial has created this card to help small businesses in Canada make corporate spending easier and more streamlined.

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Businesses of all sizes have to deal with the difficulties of managing their expenses. For business owners and their finance teams, managing funds and purchase approvals can be a challenge.

For employees tasked with making purchases, the approval process can be a challenge as well. They may be required to purchase items out of pocket, reimbursements can be delayed and receipts may be lost.

Float Credit Card aims to solve these issues by offering businesses in Canada a corporate credit card with integrated spend management software. This lets businesses allocate funds to credit cards and approve expenses even before the purchases are made. 

The credit cards can be virtual or physical.  They can each have custom credit limits, names or vendor restrictions.  No personal guarantee is required to be approved for the Float cards.

How Does the Float Credit Card Work?

Float aims to build the smartest corporate card for businesses. It streamlines business spending, expense tracking, and reporting by giving customers the best combination of accessibility, management, and automation.

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The general steps to getting started with Float’s Visa card are:

1. Apply - Submit a 5-minute application and get approved in as little as one business day. Use Avalon’s Float referral link for $500 back on your first $5,000 of purchases.
2. Fund Account - Float credit cards operate on a prepaid model that is funded by your business bank account. Connect your bank account and quickly add funds to your Float account.
3. Create Card(s) - Create and customize virtual and physical cards through the web application or mobile app.  Physical cards are shipped in just a few days.  Virtual cards can be instantly created.
4. Start Spending - Once funded, you can start using physical cards just like any other credit card, or use virtual cards for online or over-the-phone purchases.
5. Track Expenses - Using Float’s web application or mobile app, you can track every transaction and receipt in real-time. You may also receive notifications for spend requests through email or Slack integration.
6. Manage Cards - Add new cards, change card limits, add or remove employee access and set rules for each card’s spending. You can edit, approve, and deny requests, all through the straightforward online dashboard.

Accessibility

Applying for a business credit card may include a credit approval process that can be tedious and restricting, resulting in a potentially low credit limit for your business. In addition, most corporate cards in Canada require a personal guarantee for businesses with limited credit history.

With Float Financial’s Visa Credit Card, small businesses have easy access to business credit cards through an online application, without the long wait. Apply in five minutes and get approved within three business days without personal guarantees or personal credit checks.

Instead of a personal guarantee, your corporate card is backed by your business bank account. Because of this, it has a very high limit of up to $500,000, making it an excellent choice for many small businesses in Canada. Well-funded startups can also make use of Float’s high transaction limit of up to $100,000!

Management

Float Card is integrated with impressive software that delivers powerful management capabilities. It enables you to organize spending, tracking, and reporting in one place.

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• Create Unlimited Virtual Cards - Create as many virtual cards as you like. These cards are mainly used for online subscriptions, one-off expenses, or other online transactions.
• Physical Credit Cards - The Basic Float Card plan lets you order up to five physical cards while the Premium Float Card plan lets you create an unlimited number of physical cards to be used within your business.
• Customize Card Type - Set the credit limit for each card and decide whether it is a Single-use or Recurring card. Recurring cards allow you to set a monthly spending limit.
• Assign Specific Attributes - You can allocate card(s) to different teams within your organization and assign specific cardholders. Further customize cards by creating a name and description for each card, set purchase amount limits, or limit purchases to specific vendor(s). You can also assign accounting and sales tax codes and add custom tags to each card.
• Require Receipts - Reduce administrative time with Float’s receipt-upload feature. Decide whether the card requires the user to upload a receipt after every transaction or not. You can set an auto-lock on the card if receipts are not being uploaded after purchase. Your finance team may just love this feature.
• Access Transactions in Real-Time - The integrated management software can be accessed through the web application or mobile app.

Check out an interactive demo of Float’s web application.  You can see all of the useful features and find out if your business could benefit from using Float Visa.

Automation

What sets apart Float Credit Card from other credit card providers is its integrated software that will automate your expense management.

• Automated Receipt Reminders - Float can send reminder emails to cardholders when receipts aren’t uploaded for purchases.
• Automatic Receipt Capture and Matching - Eliminate the manual process of collecting receipts, calculating tax, and accounting for transactions. Every transaction is synced with the software in real-time, saving you and your bookkeeper time!
• Automatic Top-ups - You can configure your Float account to receive funds from your bank account automatically when your Float Card balance falls below a certain level.

Float Credit Card Fees and Costs

Float Credit Card has two available plans: Essentials and Professionals. 

Essentials Plan - $0/month

The Essentials plan is $0 per month. This basic plan is tailored for smaller businesses that  have fewer cardholders (1-5) and that only require basic approval processes. 

Although the Essentials plan only provides a maximum of 5 physical cards, you can still set up unlimited virtual cards.

Professionals Plan - $99/month

The Professionals plan has a 60-day free trial and costs $99 per month plus tax after the trial ends.

This plan works well for medium to larger-sized enterprises that need more than five physical cards and that require multiple transaction approval levels.

The Professionals plan features advanced spend management capabilities that are not available in the Essentials plan such as multi-level approval workflows and the ability to assign and manage cards over multiple teams.

Benefits of Using the Float Credit Card

There are numerous options out there for virtual credit cards you can use in your business. However, most of them are tailored for individual cardholders. They operate without the features that specifically benefit small businesses. Float Card aims at small businesses in Canada by providing the following benefits:

No Personal Credit Check

Because Float is not technically a debt product, no credit checks are required.  This means that an early stage business can apply and get approved in as little as one business day.

Boosts your Spending Capability 

With Float’s innovative solution, you’ll see much higher spending limits than with traditional credit card providers. Float Visa cards operate on a prepaid model and have a spending limit of up to $500,000 as long as you’re able to fund your Float account with sufficient funds.

Whether you have small recurring purchases such as online subscriptions or high-value purchases such as purchasing equipment, Float Credit Card has got you covered. The maximum limit per transaction is $100,000.

Create Virtual Credit Cards Instantly

Float lets you create an unlimited number of virtual cards for the numerous online purchases that are the norm for small businesses these days.  These are accepted the same as any standard Visa card, other than they can’t be physically used at a point of sale (online purchases only).

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Using virtual cards can also help to secure your company credit card information. Virtual cards can be generated and used for one-time purchases or easily canceled and replaced in the event of a security breach.

Small businesses can also make use of physical credit cards for real-world purchases, anywhere Visa is accepted.

Powerful Credit Card Management

Float’s corporate cards deliver smart supervision, tracking, reporting, and protection of your company’s finances. 

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• Credit Limits - Set different credit credit limits for any given card.
• Expiry Dates - Choose when virtual cards are set to expire.
• Vendor Limits - Limit a card to be used only for a specific vendor or vendors.
• Card Names - Include a card name, description, purpose, and tags for easier management.
• Single-use Virtual Cards - Create single use virtual cards.  This can be a great option if you need an employee to make one purchase on behalf of the business.
• Receipt Requirements - Set receipt requirements for transactions so that cardholders are required to upload receipts through the app or via text when purchases are made.
• Cardholder Requests - Card holders can request a top-up, limit increase or funding top-up through the web application or mobile app.
• Multi-level Approval Workflows (Premium) - The Premium plan lets you create multi-level approval workflows compared to the Basic plan’s single-layer approval workflows.  This allows you to set more than one approval requirement for large purchases.
• Manage Teams (Premium) - Create multiple teams and managers for better cost tracking and approval workflows.
• Approval Notifications - Approvers will be notified of the requests via email (Basic plan). The premium plan also offers approval notifications via the Slack integration.
• Spending Oversight - Monitor credit card activities through the Float software.
• Accounting Automation - One-click export to your favorite accounting software (we like this!).

Integrated Accounting Software

Save hours of manual bookkeeping with Float’s easy export to your favorite accounting software. Both the Essentials (basic) and Professionals (premium) plans offer integrations with Xero and QuickBooks. 

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If you're using Netsuite or Sage, Float can create custom transaction exports compatible with each software. Float does not integrate with Freshbooks at the moment. Instead, you can export transactions manually as a CSV file and import them into Freshbooks

No Foreign Exchange Fees

When Float first launched, they offered “no additional fees on foreign exchange transactions.” This allowed Canadian businesses to spend in USD and be confident that they wouldn’t need to pay any additional fees.

In November of 2022, Float introduced its USD Corporate Cards which meant that they changed their policy on foreign exchange fees. 

Starting November 14, when you make a purchase in a currency that’s different from the denomination on your Float card, you will incur a 1.5% foreign transaction fee.

This means that if you make a USD purchase with the CAD Float card, you will incur a 1.5% foreign transaction fee.  However, if you make the USD purchase with the USD card, then no foreign exchange fee is charged.

The good news is that it only takes a few clicks and five minutes to apply for a USD Float Card. 

Login to your Float account and navigate to the “Funding” section.  Click “Apply for USD” and you’re off to the races!

Using the USD card for USD purchases and CAD card for CAD purchases will allow Canadian businesses to avoid foreign exchange fees altogether.

Cashback on Purchases

Float brings you a straightforward cashback program: 1% cashback on every dollar you spend each month above $25k.

Perks from Float’s Partners

If you’re already needing something from this list, you can save thousands of dollars with Float’s Partners. Check out the current list of Float’s partner promos below.

AWS (Amazon Web Services)

Industry-leading platform offering cloud computing solutions.

• $25,000 in AWS Activate Credits valid for 2 years to help cover costs associated with eligible AWS Services. In addition, you get 1 year of AWS Business Support (up to $5,000) that lets you access premium technical support and resources

Hubspot

The top CRM Platform that’s easy to use and integrate to your business.

• 30% off for your first year and 15% off every year after

Quickbooks Online

Quickbooks is an all-in-one and user-friendly accounting software.

• 70% off for 3 months

DocSend

Now owned by Dropbox, DocSend is a secure document sharing and analytics company that safely shares business-critical files.

• Up to 90% off of your first year subscription costs

Very Good Security

A San Francisco-based data security platform that aims to secure your business data and helps you maintain security compliance.

• 15% off platform fees for your first year and free VGS Control that makes sure that your business is compliant with SOC 2, PCI, ISO 27001, GDPR, and more.

Remote

A global platform that enables companies to employ people anywhere in the world without worrying about legal complications.

• Your first hire is free and 20% off additional hires in your first year

Forma AI

Forma AI is an AI-powered software solution that aims to motivate your sales team by optimizing your sales team’s compensation strategy.

• Get 15% off for your Forma.ai license

Intercom

A powerful customer relations management software that can be integrated to your website or any web-based platform to communicate with customers.

• 100% off your first year and 50% off your second

ReachDesk

A data-driven platform that enables B2B companies to increase upsells and motivate customer loyalty by sending direct mail and e-gifts to customers.

• 15% off for your first year

Gorgias

A customer service software especially tailored for e-commerce businesses.  It helps businesses to manage all of their customer service support from one place.

• Get your first two months free

Retool

An intuitive platform for building apps.  It allows you to drag and drop building blocks to build your custom apps, dashboards, and other internal tools for your business operations.

• $1,200 in credits against any Retool Cloud plan

ClickUp

ClickUp is a project management tool that lets you manage tasks, collaborate with your team, create rich-text Docs, reports, strategies, and other files. 

• 20% off for your first year

Junip

A review management solution that helps e-commerce businesses collect more customer reviews.

• 25% off for your first 6 months

Deel

Deel is a payroll solution for international hires.  It uses a tech-enabled self-serve process, helping businesses hire anyone, anywhere.

• 10% off for your first year

Notion

Notion is an all-in-one workspace where you can think, write, and plan, adapting to your tasks and needs.

• $1,000 in credits against any paid plan

OpenPhone

A modern business phone system that allows you to make unlimited calls and texts for one low price.  It’s great, we use this at Avalon.

• 20% off for 6 months

Fellow

A productivity software that helps your businesses manage meetings through collaborative agendas, real-time note-taking, and time-saving templates.

• $1,000 in credits against any paid plan

Carta

Carta (formerly eShares) is a global ownership management platform that helps companies, investors, and employees manage equity and ownership.

• 20% first year discount and waived implementation fees

Drawbacks to Using the Float Credit Card

Limited Physical Cards

The Essentials plan is limited to only five physical cards. This is usually fine for small businesses with less than ten employees. If your business needs more than five physical cards, you’ll want to subscribe to the Professionals plan instead.

However, in contrast to other business credit cards that may charge you an additional fee for each supplementary card, Float provides up to five cards for free!

Need to Have the Cash in Advance

The typical credit card model lets you make the purchase first and then pay off the card with cash afterwards.  If you pay the balance on time, no interest is charged. If you carry a balance, you’ll pay the high interest charges of around 20%. 

Unlike traditional credit cards, Float operates on a prepaid model. You will need the cash on hand to fund your Float account before making purchases with your Float Visa. 

One positive aspect of this is that you will never carry a balance on your credit so you won’t be charged any credit card interest. 

Fixed Cashback Rate

Float's cashback benefit is a flat rate of 1% on all transactions after spending $25k each month. 

This may be difficult for smaller businesses to take advantage of. If you don't spend more than $25k in a month, you won't receive any cash back.

Float Charge Card 

Float realizes that the pre-paid model isn’t the best option for everyone, so they introduced a charge card product in 2022.

As businesses grow, the need for extending their cash runway increases. So in 2022 Float introduced its new Charge Card product, offering qualifying customers 30-day unsecured credit terms with high limits.

The new Float Charge Card is accepted everywhere that VISA is (pretty much everywhere). 

It provides qualified customers with spending limits that are 5-10x higher than big bank credit cards without requiring a personal guarantee or collateral.  If approved, businesses can receive a monthly credit limit of up to $750k.

Who is the Float Charge Card For?

The Float Charge Card is designed for Canadian companies with:

• Credit card spend of $50k+ per month
• Businesses must show 12+ months of operating runway available in their bank accounts, or show consistent profit if less than 12 months’ runway exists
• Businesses must also have $250k+ of cash or equivalents (GICs for example) on hand

The Float Charge Card is not currently available for non-profits or cryptocurrency businesses.

Float USD Credit Card 

In 2022 Float also announced its new USD smart corporate cards to help businesses simplify USD spending and save on transaction fees.

Float’s USD cards work the same way as the Canadian dollar cards.  Connect up your USD bank account to Float and transfer some cash to fund the card.

There are no foreign exchange fees with the Float USD card like there can be when you use a traditional Canadian dollar credit card to make USD purchases.

The USD corporate cards are accepted everywhere that MasterCard is accepted (again, pretty much everywhere).

To apply, just login to your Float account and navigate to the “Funding” section.  Click “Apply for USD.” 

The application process for Float’s USD card only takes 5 minutes and will save you from paying any exchange fees on USD transactions.

Float Credit Card FAQ

What is Float Financial?

Float Financial is a Canadian financial tech startup providing smart corporate credit cards and integrated spend management software. 

The Float Financial Visa card is a great option for small and medium sized businesses in Canada that need a modern credit card that offers easy oversight into business spending.

How does Floatcard work?

Float credit cards can be either physical or virtual cards.  The physical Visa cards can be used for real world purchases just like traditional credit cards.  Virtual cards can be created and customized on-the-spot to be used for online or over-the-phone purchases. 

Float uses a prepaid model and isn’t a debt-based product.  You’ll fund your Float credit card account from your business bank account and start making purchases. 

Float also features an integrated, intuitive spend management software. This helps manage and track purchases, create and delete cards, and automate your business spending.

Does Float have a limit?

Float's corporate credit cards can have a maximum limit of up to $500,000 as long as you have sufficient cash in your business bank account to fund it.
Purchase limits are quite high at $100,000 per purchase.

Is Float Visa legit?

Float Financial Solutions Inc. is a Toronto-based fintech company founded in 2019. They are backed by Golden Ventures, Tiger Global, Garage Capital, Susa, and senior executives at Uber, Shopify, Xero, Wave, and H&R Block.

We also use Float at Avalon and can attest to its legitimacy! 

What information do I need to apply for a Float Credit Card?

You will need to provide your legal business name and personal information such as your home address and date of birth. 

Float does not do any hard credit checks but you will need to validate your identity by providing ID and a copy of some mail confirming your address.

Does Float integrate with Accounting Software?

Yes - Float’s free basic plan can work with Quickbooks and Xero. 

If you are using a different accounting management software such as Sage or NetSuite, you can switch to their premium plan that costs $99 plus tax per month.

How does Float cashback work?

You will receive 1% cashback for every dollar you spent ABOVE $25k each month.  If you spend less than $25k in a month, you won't receive cash back.

Does Float charge FX fees?

No. Float does not charge any foreign exchange transaction fees or exchange premiums.