Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

How does American Express AccessLine work?

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We’ve come across American Express AccessLine which is a payment service for companies who want to pay any supplier with a charge card to help their cash flow. Obviously this only appeals to a small number of HfP readers who are small business owners, but we thought it was worth mentioning regardless.

Corporate card members with an American Express Corporate Green Card, American Express Corporate Gold Card or American Express Corporate Platinum Card can use this payment service (for domestic payments only).

It is basically a corporate version of Billhop, scaled up for the demands of small companies.  Amex pays your suppliers directly into their bank account and then adds the cost – plus a transaction fee, of course – to your card bill.

As well as having up to 55 days to pay the Amex bill, you will earn 1 Membership Rewards point for each eligible £1 spent.  This is clearly of appeal to our readers!

If this is of interest, the website with more information and to sign up is here.


Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current 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:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback Business Credit Card

1% cashback uncapped* on all your business spending (T&C apply) Read our full review

Comments (98)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Mr dee says:

    Any idea of the fees compared to billhop?

  • Iain C says:

    Is the AmEx option a new way to earn on HMRC payments for VAT/CT? Also, do you know what the transaction charge is? This is an awesome find, thank you!

    • Jake says:

      In theory it could work, VAT and CT can be paid as a direct bank transfer, assuming its allowed the main question if points are provided.

      • Mr Dee says:

        The points should be provided as your paying the fee but I think there is better ways to pay the HMRC

  • JoeyJoJo says:

    Very interested, obviously. But, cut to the chase, what is the fee?

    • Peter K says:

      The link to the info says it is not available to individuals only businesses and if your want more you need to click on an “enquire” link. That suggests to me, though only a guess, it may be a rate specific to your company and how much money you put through the service. The same way PayPal fees are tiered on how much goes through them.

    • Will says:

      Thank you. That’s the Info I’m looking for.

  • Jake says:

    Would this also be a way to pay employees?

  • Anna says:

    OT – now flying home from Boston this summer. The new BA lounge looks very nice, has anyone used the sleeper service on this flight recently? I’m planning to go for the “maximise sleep” option as it’s a rather short flight.

    • Anna says:

      Also – we will be connecting onto a CE flight to MAN, will we be able to access the arrivals lounge at LHR (I don’t know if there are showers in the main lounges, i’ve never actually checked)?

      • Chrisp says:

        I’ve only used the Arrivals lounge once when terminating in London. On my trips from the USA and connecting up to MAN I use the main lounge where there are showers. Sometimes, you may have a short wait but it’s usually not too bad.

        • Stu N says:

          There are showers at all the lounges airside.
          – At the south lounges they are part of the Elemis spa complex; they are usually very busy as the South Lounge and First Lounge are at that end.
          – If you’re flying First you can try to book a cabana in the Concorde Room, otherwise you’re scrapping for the Elemis ones.
          – Galleries North also has showers that are much quieter than South
          – final option is showers out at T5B lounge which are super-quiet – you would need to know how to use the tunnels to get back to 5A for your domestic and need at least an hour to do the round trip. There is a thread on Flyertalk BA forum about that.

          For all of these options there is a desk you check in and get added to the list – they give you a buzzer when your shower is ready. If you’re travelling with a family member you can potentially speed things up by asking the staff to skip the cleaning between. I figure we share showers at home so I don’t have a problem with that! Towels and very basic toiletries are provided.

        • Gavin says:

          Showers are the same (poor compared to other lounges). Arrivals Lounge which is Landside will have better breakfast than Galleries however. If you’ve got any duty free booze you will need to stash it inside your luggage for your Manchester flight

    • Sussex Bantam says:

      The standard option is to eat in the lounge and then sleep on the plane (as long as you are in CW/First). I think there is an option to eat on the plane but I’ve never seen anyone take it. Everyone is trying to maximise sleep for those 5 hours !

    • Louise says:

      Anna we did that flight in August. Food great at Boston Lounge and we used arrivals at T5

  • Stuart graham says:

    Would anyone fly to JNB from uk via PRG and ZRH?
    It would turn a 12 hour over night flight in to a complete 24 hour plus faff

    • David says:

      To pay £1k return instead of £3k direct on BA or SA? Sure.

    • Court says:

      I agree, I think to CPT/JNB I’d just suck it up in WTP for 1k and have an early check-in at the hotel for a shower and nap rather than the faff of going via PRG and ZRH.

    • Lady London says:

      Of course they would fly from UK via PRG and ZRH to get a good fare to CPT especially, @Stuart.

      Remember you’re on HfP 🙂

  • mark e says:

    O/T – Amex Gold Rewards Card.

    I cancelled my AMEX platinum Rewards Card in August last year and six months and one day after cancellation I applied for an AMEX Gold Rewards Card, the application was successful and I have shifted my day to day spending so that I can achieve a rewards points bonus for spending £2,000.

    At the moment I cannot see anything on my AMEX account when I log in to reflect my progress with this target . I do however have progress checker for “Renewal bonus spending 15,000 by 05 Feb 2019 to receive 10,000 Membership Rewards points”

    Has something gone wrong here, have they scrapped the 3 month spend bonus for card churners like me? should I be concerned?

    • Mk don says:

      I have same issue issue with a BA card issued around 23rd Jan, might be new UI change not showing it ? Be interesting know if this is new normal or a glitch.

    • David says:

      I wouldn’t worry – I had the same issue that it doesn’t show the tracker, but the bonus always turned up. Interestingly, I once had it that the bonus tracker would appear when I logged in on one laptop but not on another, so you could try a different device, but you’re probably still ok for the bonus.

    • Rob MC says:

      Best to go on the chat and ask if the offer is on the account

    • Dave H says:

      Have just had the same, I contacted customer service and they confirmed that I was eligible for the bonus, the summary was just tracking the annual spend requirement.

    • Lewis King says:

      Try the iOS or android app, it shows there consistently for me, whereas the website struggled.

      • mark e says:

        Thank you Lewis , I have checked the app and there it is .

        Thank you everyone else too.

  • Ian says:

    I don’t know about the English winter, but I’d sure like to escape the Scottish winter! 😉

    • Fastbowler says:

      Northern Ireland winter was also well worth escaping this year!

      • Mikeact says:

        Having lived in both Minneapolis and Ottawa, you really have no idea what a really bad winter is like….when your eyes start to stop blinking or slow down, you know it’s pretty cold !

        • mark2 says:

          I remember Rupert Wingfield-Hayes BBC correspondent saying that he knew that it was cold when the hairs in his nose froze.
          My mother-in-law, then aged 10, was deported from Poland to Siberia in a cattle truck in February 1940 (with over a million other Poles – rarely mentioned ethnic cleansing)

    • roberto says:

      I know its hardly the same but its been cold in Andalusia this winter – There actually was snow for a nano second on the beaches although I was sunning in Oman at the time. 🙂

      • Cate says:

        Seriously roberto you’re so far down my Christmas card list this year…… 🙂

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