How Issuers Win Big In Business Travel Cards

Corporate T&E card programs lead to better spending controls, stronger compliance and savings for businesses of all sizes. But business travelers and their managers still struggle with filing expense reports, accessing company credit account information and keeping track of receipts. A recent study by TSYS and the Global Business Travel Association digests their common needs – and introduces a common solution – to leverage what could be a crucial “mobile factor” in the future of T&E cards.

According to a newly released TSYS infographic (see below), 93 percent of business travelers surveyed indicated that they are satisfied with their primary T&E payment card needs. But 60 percent of them cited using a personal debit or credit card for business travel and purchases – one clear example of why there’s room for improvement.

Travel managers desire enhanced incentive and rebate programs attached to T&E, as well as ways to more effectively manage controls and compliance. The travelers want to eliminate stressors around accessing card information, expense reports and holding onto receipts – and of course, to use their personal cards much less.

“Out-of-pocket reimbursement is one of the frustrations that business travelers had with using their personal cards. While many of them are using their personal card, they weren’t necessarily happy with that scenario,” said Christina Hall, senior product development manager at TSYS, in an interview with PYMNTS.

Enter: The Mobile Factor. Of the travel managers surveyed, 70 percent are interested in using software or mobile apps to help manage expenses. For travelers, of the 44 percent who were aware of NFC, 87 percent had never used it to pay for a business expense. These findings highlight the opportunity for both improving expense management and facilitating mobile payments for an improved travel experience.

According to TSYS, now is the time for issuers to eliminate important pain points in T&E card programs and embrace mobile further ignite revenue growth.

“I would definitely encourage issuers of programs and cards to really focus on integrating mobile-based solutions in a seamless way, not only for accessing card account information but also for managing and maintaining images for receipts – and even potentially their routing, submission and approval process for expense report management,” said Hall. “Those would be big wins for any commercial issuer looking to improve their programs.”

Being able to manage T&E cards via mobile device, suggests the study, will achieve the common underlying goal for both sets of players – they can submit and approve expense reports digitally, all while receiving helpful real-time travel spending updates.

But the needs of the management side of the company and the needs of travelers themselves are not necessarily in contention with one another, added Hall. Therefore, at the end of the day, the focus needs to be on the end-user experience.

“Business travel is still a huge expense driver for many corporate customers — in the hundreds of billions of dollars,” she said. “Right now, it’s important that card providers and other third-party providers in this space really focus on improving their programs and growing as much as they can.”

To learn more about how issuers can enhance their T&E card programs and ultimately boost company revenue, view the infographic above and download the full whitepaper here.