Best corporate cards: The top options for New Zealand teams

Key takeaways

• Corporate cards are payment cards issued to your employees, where the company – not the individual – is liable for the spend. That makes them far easier to manage than chasing personal card reimbursements.

• Most traditional corporate cards weren't built for cross-border teams: they charge foreign transaction fees, lack multi-currency support, and don't connect to modern accounting tools.

• Modern fintech platforms like Airwallex offer Corporate Cards as part of a broader spend management system – combining cards, Expense Management, and Bill Pay without the foreign exchange (FX) mark-ups.

Managing spend across a global team is harder than it sounds. When your employees are paying for software in US dollars, travel in euros, and your supplier invoices in Singapore dollars, the costs and the admin pile up fast. The right corporate card programme can do more than give your team a way to pay – it can give your finance team visibility, control, and a way to close the books without the manual work.

What is a corporate card?

A corporate card is a payment card issued to your employees, where the company is on the hook for the spend, not the individual cardholder. Think of it like a company-owned card your team can spend from directly, rather than paying out of their own pocket and claiming back later. That means no reimbursement delays, and your finance team can see exactly who spent what, where, and when.

Corporate cards and standard business credit cards get mixed up a lot – here's how they're actually different:

Corporate cards also come in a few forms. Physical cards work for in-person spend like travel and meals. Virtual cards are digital card numbers you can generate instantly for online purchases and software subscriptions – think of them like a disposable card number tied to a specific purpose. With multi-currency cards, you can spend in different currencies without triggering a conversion every time.

What are the best corporate cards for global teams?

There's no single "best" corporate card – the right fit depends on how globally your team operates, how many people need cards, and whether you need spend controls built in. That said, some options are clearly better suited to you if your team operates across borders.

Here's how the leading options compare at a glance:

Airwallex Corporate Cards

Airwallex Corporate Cards are multi-currency debit cards – available as both Employee Cards and Company Cards – that draw directly from your existing wallet balances. So, if you're already holding US dollars in your account, your team spends in US dollars without any conversion happening at all.

Here's what you get with Airwallex Corporate Cards:

• Multi-currency spend: Draw from Global Account balances in the currency you need, so you're not paying conversion fees on every transaction. You can open local banking details in 21 countries and accept payments from 70+ countries.

• Granular card controls: You can set spending limits per card, restrict merchant categories, and freeze or cancel cards instantly from the WebApp.

• Real-time visibility: See every transaction across all cards as they happen, not at month end.

• Built-in spend management: Cards, Expense Management, and Bill Pay all live in the same platform – no switching between tools.

• Accounting integrations: Syncs with Xero, QuickBooks, and NetSuite.

• Global reach: Card issuing in 60+ markets, with Apple Pay and Google Pay support

Airwallex Corporate Cards are part of a broader offering that includes cards, expenses, and bill payments in one place, so your finance team won't need to stitch together separate tools.

Wise Business

Wise Business is a multi-currency business account with a debit card, built for companies that pay and get paid internationally. It's a practical option if you're managing cross-border purchases and subscriptions and want to hold multiple currencies in one place.

The main features include:

• Multi-currency account: Hold and manage  40+ currencies without opening separate bank accounts.

• Business debit card: Use for everyday spending in-store and online.

• Spend from existing balances: Pay in a currency you already hold to reduce unnecessary conversions.

• International supplier payments: Pay overseas vendors in their local currency

The trade-off is that Wise Business is primarily a multi-currency account with a debit card attached. It doesn't offer the same all-in-one spend management suite – combining cards, expense capture, approvals, and bill payments – that a platform like Airwallex does.

ANZ Visa Corporate Card

The ANZ Visa Corporate Card is a traditional, NZ-issued corporate credit card – a familiar option if you want bank backing and broad Visa acceptance for your team.

Key features of the programme include:

• NZ-issued corporate Visa card: Issue and manage Visa cards for your whole team under one central company account.

• Employee card issuance: Issue cards to employees under a central company account.

• Broad acceptance: Works wherever Visa is accepted, locally and internationally.

ANZ Corporate Card statements are compatible with many expense management and ERP systems. But this requires setup from you – they're not built in the way a dedicated spend platform is.

BNZ Purchasing Visa cards

BNZ offers corporate and purchasing Visa card programmes – one for general employee spend, one for procurement and supplier purchasing. Purchasing cards are a specific type of corporate card set up for buying goods and services from approved vendors, often with tighter category controls.

What BNZ's card programmes cover:

• NZ-issued Visa options: Corporate and purchasing card programmes for business and procurement spend.

• Employee and department issuance: Issue cards across teams or departments depending on the programme.

• Purchasing controls: Restrict spend to specific vendor categories for procurement use cases.

Like most traditional issuers, you'll likely need separate expense management tools and extra accounting setup to get close to what modern spend platforms do out of the box.

American Express Corporate Card Programme

The Amex corporate programme is a premium option if your business turns over $10 million or more and your team travels frequently and needs centralised card management.

The programme includes:

• Membership Rewards points: Earn points on eligible corporate spend (subject to enrolment and terms).

• Travel-focused benefits: Suited to teams with frequent business travellers.

• Corporate programme management: Centralised online management tools.

Foreign transaction fees apply depending on the specific card product, and Amex acceptance can vary by merchant – so it may not work as the single card for all spend, especially for distributed global teams.

Features to look for in a corporate card programme

The card that works for a 10-person domestic team won't necessarily work for a 200-person team operating across five countries. If you're evaluating corporate card programmes, here's what to look for:

Does it cut FX fees on international spend?

Most traditional corporate cards apply a foreign transaction fee on every purchase made in a non-local currency. For a team paying for cloud software, travel, and international suppliers, those fees add up fast. The better alternative is a card where you can spend directly from a balance you already hold in that currency – no conversion needed. Where conversion is unavoidable, look for a provider that uses the interbank rate – the rate banks use when trading with each other – with no hidden mark-up on top.

Does it offer virtual cards and employee cards?

With virtual cards, you can create a unique card number for a specific purpose – say, a monthly software subscription or a one-off vendor payment – with its own spending limit. If that vendor is compromised or the subscription changes, you cancel that one card without touching anything else. If you're managing dozens of online tools and vendor payments, this level of control is the difference between clean books and a reconciliation headache.

Can it stop out-of-policy spend before it happens?

Without controls, corporate cards create problems: employees spend in the wrong categories, hit unexpected limits, or submit receipts weeks late. Look for cards where you can set custom spending limits per employee, lock cards to specific merchant types, and get real-time alerts the moment a transaction goes through. That way, you're catching issues as they happen – not discovering them at month end.

Does it sync with your accounting software?

Manual reconciliation is one of the biggest time drains for finance teams – exporting spreadsheets, matching receipts, re-entering data into your accounting system. Cards that connect directly to your accounting or ERP system through a built-in integration can help you close the books faster and cut down on errors. Check whether the integration is two-way and supports automatic categorisation, not just a basic bank feed.

Which card model fits your cash flow?

There are three main card models, and which one fits you depends on how your business runs:

• Charge cards: The balance is cleared in full each period – no interest, but no carry-over flexibility

• Debit cards: Spend draws from a pre-funded wallet balance – tighter control, no debt risk

• Credit cards: A revolving credit line with interest if not paid in full – more flexibility, but more risk

If your team is spread across multiple countries, debit-style cards funded from multi-currency wallets often make the most sense – they remove the FX conversion step entirely when you're already holding the currency you need.

Why Airwallex Corporate Cards work for global teams

If your team is split across multiple countries, paying vendors in different currencies, and trying to close the books without stitching together four different tools – Airwallex is built for exactly that.

Spending in a currency you already hold

Airwallex Corporate Cards draw from Global Account balances you hold in your multi-currency wallet. So, a team member in Singapore spending in SGD, or a finance manager paying a EUR software subscription, can pay without triggering a conversion. 

Cards, expenses, and bills in one place

Airwallex Spend brings Corporate Cards, Expense Management, and Bill Pay into a single platform. Employees submit receipts in the same tool where finance approves them, and payments go out through the same system – no exporting data between systems, no chasing receipts across email threads. AI-powered receipt extraction reads receipt data automatically – no manual data entry. And automatic categorisation keeps your chart of accounts clean as you go.

Closing the books faster

Because transactions, receipts, approvals, and accounting all live in one system, month-end reconciliation doesn't mean manual exports or jumping between platforms. Direct integrations with Xero, QuickBooks, and NetSuite mean your books update as spend happens – not after a manual upload at the end of the month.

Frequently asked questions

Do corporate cards affect an employee's personal credit score?

No – corporate cards sit under the business, not the individual cardholder, so they don't touch an employee's personal credit score. Unlike personal business credit cards, corporate cards don't typically require a personal guarantee.

Can a start-up or small business get a corporate card?

Yes, though eligibility varies by provider – some platforms set specific revenue or funding requirements. Airwallex doesn't require a minimum revenue threshold, so it's accessible even if you're an earlier-stage business already operating across borders.

What's the difference between a corporate card and a purchasing card?

A corporate card is issued to employees for general business spend like travel, meals, and software. A purchasing card – or P-card – is set up specifically for procurement, often restricted to approved vendors or spend categories, and tends to show up in larger organisations that have structured procurement systems in place.

How do corporate cards handle spending in foreign currencies?

It depends on the card. Traditional corporate cards typically convert the transaction at the point of purchase and add a foreign transaction fee on top. With multi-currency cards – like Airwallex Corporate Cards – you can spend directly from a balance you already hold in that currency, so no conversion happens at all if the currency is already in your wallet.

Can you set different spending limits for different employees on a corporate card?

Yes, on modern corporate card platforms you can. With Airwallex, you can set individual spending limits per card, restrict cards to specific merchant categories, and freeze or cancel a card instantly – all from the WebApp. Traditional corporate card programmes typically give you less granular control over individual cards.

Sources 

1. https://www.americanexpress.com/nz/business/corporate/corporate-purchasing-card/ 

2. https://www.americanexpress.com/nz/business/corporate/card-programme/ 

3. https://www.americanexpress.com/nz/credit-cards/rates-and-fees/ 

4. https://www.anz.co.nz/business/accounts-and-cards/business-credit-cards/visa-corporate-card/ 

5. https://www.bnz.co.nz/business-banking/everyday-accounts/business-cards/compare 

6. https://www.bnz.co.nz/assets/personal-banking-help-support/rates-and-fees/business-account-and-service-fees.pdf 

7. https://wise.com/nz/business/ 

8. https://wise.com/nz/business/card 

9. https://wise.com/nz/pricing/business

The information in this article is based on our own online research. Airwallex was not able to manually test each tool or provider. The information is provided for educational purposes only and a reader should consider the specific requirements of their business when evaluating providers. This research is reviewed annually. If you would like to request an update, feel free to contact us at [[email protected]]

Airwallex (New Zealand) Limited is registered with the New Zealand Financial Service Provider Register (FSP No. 1001602) to provide a range of financial services in New Zealand