You do not need to incorporate a company to get a business credit card. If you sell things, freelance, drive, consult, or run any side activity for money, you are already operating as a sole proprietor in the eyes of the tax system, and issuers accept that. On the application you can use your legal name as the business name, or a registered trade name if you have one. The barrier is much lower than most people assume.
The first question is usually about the tax ID. In most cases your Social Security number is enough to apply as a sole proprietor. An Employer Identification Number is free from the IRS and takes minutes to get online, and you will need one if you hire employees, but a one-person operation without staff generally does not need one to apply. Getting an EIN anyway can still be smart: it lets you keep your Social Security number off vendor forms and presents a more established profile to banks.
The second surprise is the personal guarantee. Nearly every small business card requires one, which means you personally promise to repay the debt if the business cannot. Your personal credit is checked, and the account can affect your personal credit. True EIN-only cards, the ones that underwrite the business alone without a personal guarantee, are mostly corporate cards for established companies with revenue and cash reserves. A new sole proprietor should not expect to qualify for those, and should not pay anyone who promises otherwise.
Keeping business and personal money apart is the habit that makes the card worthwhile. Pay business expenses with the business card, pay the business card from a business bank account, and keep personal spending off it entirely. Clean separation makes taxes simpler, makes your spending visible at a glance, and protects you if the IRS or a lender ever asks questions. If business and personal charges mix on one card, the card's rewards stop being worth the bookkeeping headache.
Which card to start with depends on where the business spends. The Chase Ink Business Preferred is the classic starter for travel-minded owners: 3 points per dollar on the first 150,000 dollars per year in combined spending on travel, shipping, advertising through social media and search engines, and internet, cable, and phone services, and 1 point elsewhere, with a 95 dollar annual fee and no foreign transaction fee. Its points transfer to airline and hotel partners and pool with your personal Chase points. The no-fee Ink Cash and Ink Unlimited are combine-first cards: their points only become transferable if you also hold a premium Chase card.
On the American Express side, the Blue Business Plus is a simple everyday option: 2 points per dollar on up to 50,000 dollars in purchases per year, with no annual fee. It is a strong fit for a business whose spending does not cluster in one bonus category. Whatever you choose, check one more thing before applying: whether the card reports to your personal credit. Most business cards from Chase, American Express, and Citi do not, which also means they usually do not count toward the Chase 5/24 rule. Business cards from Capital One, Discover, and TD Bank do report personally, so they behave more like personal cards in that count.
A final piece of discipline. A business card is not free money for the business, and it is not a way to hide personal spending. Only charge what the business can repay, pay in full whenever cash flow allows, and review the account monthly like any other business expense. Used that way, the card pays for itself twice: once in rewards, and once in clean books.