Bits: interesting Barclays business card, earn Avios on ferry tickets

News in brief:

Interesting Barclays corporate credit card 

A reader sent me a link to the Barclays Premium Plus business credit card, which I hadn’t seen before.

(Has American Express not trademarked the use of the phrase ‘Premium Plus’ for credit cards? Seems not.)

In general, I don’t believe that many one or two person businesses need a dedicated business credit card.  I don’t have one for HfP.  There is no accounting or tax reason why you cannot use a personal card if it is your own company.  I use my American Express Platinum charge card exclusively for HfP expenses, which allows me to write off the £450 annual fee against tax.

However, if you do feel that your circumstances require a dedicated business credit card, this one has a number of interesting travel features:

Card is a Mastercard

Annual fee of £100 with additional cards at £75

0.5% cashback on purchases, capped at £400

FX fee of 0.99% compared to the usual 2.99%

Priority Pass airport lounge membership with two free visits per year, extra visits charged at £15

5 days free access per year to Barclays collaborative hot desking work spaces across the UK

‘Enhanced’ travel insurance

Representative APR 36.2% variable including the annual fee based on a notional £1200 credit limit

This is not a bad package.  Whether it is worth £100 will depend entirely on how much use you will get of the benefits above, but it looks promising.  You can find out more here.

Remember that American Express also has two small business charge cards.  You may want to check out the American Express Platinum Business Card and the American Express Gold Business Card. There is currently a 20,000 points (= 20,000 Avios) bonus on the Gold Business card and a 40,000 points (40,000 Avios) bonus on the Platinum Business card.

The Platinum Business card offers different benefits to the standard Platinum card.  The travel insurance is better, as the age limit is increased to 80 and there is no requirement to pay for your flight or hotel with an Amex card.  The hotel status and Priority Pass benefits are also slightly different.

There is also the little-known British Airways Corporate American Express which I discussed here.

Earning Avios from ferry tickets

A need to book some ferry tickets from Venice to Croatia this week reminded me that Avios has a decent deal with Direct Ferries, the leading global ferry ticketing website.

Direct Ferries is a central booking site for 199 ferry companies around the world.  From the UK, they work with companies such as Brittany Ferries, P&O Ferries and Stena Line, as well as Eurotunnel.

The scale of the site is impressive.  You can book 2,577 ferry routes covering 713 ferry ports, connecting you to over 243 countries and islands.

The Avios earning rate seems decent – you will earn 4 Avios points for every £1 spent.

There is no special booking link.  Book as usual on the main Direct Ferries site.  When you create an account with Direct Ferries you will find a box to enter your Avios number.  Once done, you will automatically be credited with points from all of your bookings.

Remember that this is an avios.com partnership and not a British Airways Executive Club one.  You will need an avios.com account.  The points you earn can easily be moved across to BA afterwards using the ‘Combine My Avios’ function on ba.com.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.