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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

15,000 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:

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.

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

Category

American Express Membership Rewards

Comments (98)

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

  • Kai says:
    16 Feb16 February 10:25

    OT: cancelled my Hilton credit card more than a year ago and re-applied. Just noticed in their terms “Free Night Reward Certificate will only be awarded for first time applicants of the Hilton Honors Platinum Visa card”. Do they enforce it?

  • Thywillbedone says:
    16 Feb16 February 10:32

    O/T:

    Does anyone know if AMEX refer-a-friend sends reminders to apply those invited?

    • Rob says:
      16 Feb16 February 11:11

      No AFAIK

      • Cate says:
        16 Feb16 February 12:43

        I’ve referred MrCate and if he starts an application then leaves it he gets reminders. I guess it’s the actually starting of the process (Amex automatically saves) which generates reminder emails.

    • Thywillbedone says:
      16 Feb16 February 15:05

      Thanks – in many ways I wish they did at least one reminder – I never like to chase as it looks desperate if you don’t know the person well!

  • Tracy says:
    16 Feb16 February 10:44

    O/T my bonus hilton points have posted today. I had the targeted offer of 50% more points on MR rewards transfers to hilton.

  • Stephen says:
    16 Feb16 February 10:44

    OT — Is there an equivalent to BARedemptionFinder for Virgin flights? Something that will send notifications of changes to reward flight availability?

  • Chris says:
    16 Feb16 February 12:31

    O/T: anybody here used a Curve debit card (linked to CC) to top up a Starling bank account? You can put up to £250 a day through and bill to your credit card it seems. Any reason not to do this, could the CC company consider it a cash advance?

    • Andrew M says:
      16 Feb16 February 13:16

      They have a page on their site basically saying that anything that can be viewed as “cash recycling” is not permitted, and that doing so may get your account suspended or revoked. So, continue at your own risk…

      • Chris says:
        16 Feb16 February 13:39

        Thanks. Thought that refers to ATM withdrawals? I’m more interested in using it to effectively create a free money transfer.. and take advantage of 0% purchase deal. I’ve done a test, think I’ll wait until my statement comes next week before doing anymore transactions

        • Andrew M says:
          16 Feb16 February 14:24

          Primarily addresses ATM, but goes on: “Any other equivalent usage which the Curve Compliance Team believes aims to achieve the same outcome, for example via the use of money transfer services, is also not permitted. Such behaviour may result in your Curve account being blocked or cancelled.”

          It works, or at least an equivalent method I tried does – but I’m not continuing, as I am not willing to risk losing my Curve.

      • Graeme says:
        16 Feb16 February 20:12

        Is it possible to use a Curve to pay into a SIPP pension using the debit card? Or will this be seen as cash recycling?

        Thanks

  • Stu N says:
    16 Feb16 February 12:52

    Earlier in the week I said I would report back on Plaza Premium in T5. Had some
    time in there between about 10 and 11 this morning.

    Easy access with an Amex Plat for me and guest – the agent swiped the card and scanned boarding passes then waved us in. (We both have cards so in theory could have got a party of 4 in there).

    Lounge is sort of L shaped – more seating past the catering and bar if the first bit you get to looks quite busy. Several different seating options including single person pods with mini tables, two person booths and some low sofas around tables. Loads of plugs and USB sockets around the place. The lounge was about 1/3 capacity so no problems finding a seat. We sat at the north end by the floor to ceiling windows which had good views of departing aircraft, that seemed to pass the time quite nicely.

    Food was good – decent hot breakfast spread with what looked like good quality bacon and sausages and fruit salad. Coffee decent and bar had a good range of drinks. Wine looked fairly standard £5-6 retail bottles and spirits were Gordon’s Gin/ Jack Daniels sort of level. Bathrooms clean and modern. Didn’t try the WiFi.

    Overall, I’d say it was nicer than BA Galleries lounges and food is substantially better. Beers and spirits probably just about on par with Galleries but bar service rather than self-pour. The wine didn’t look as good (sometimes you get some cracking wines in Galleries).

    Main annoyances were that they were boarding at A7 and the announcements were piped into the speakers in the lounge area.

    Overall, decent alternative to Galleries lounges – ambience is probably better, breakfast was streets ahead and drinks not quite as good.

    If they open to Priority Pass suspect it will become very busy indeed as it is quite a small space, though used very cleverly. As things stand I’d definitely recommend it if you have access with a card; would struggle to justify the £40 entry fee though.

  • Mark says:
    16 Feb16 February 13:41

    Rob –
    Another question about Curve Card. I have an IHG premium card and use it (& others) via Curve – it works fine BTW.
    But I wondered, would I get the double points bonus for IHG and foreign spending via Curve, that I do using the IHG card directly?
    I suspect not, as Curve will be seen as normal UK spending, whoever the ultimate supplier is?
    The same would apply to any ‘bonus points’ benefits with other cards like the John Lewis card (double points at Waitrose etc). So maybe Curve is not quite as useful as I thought. Or am I missing something?

    • Jeremy says:
      16 Feb16 February 14:34

      If you are right, which I agree is likely, then for foreign currency transactions:

      IHG Premium credit card per £ foreign currency spend = 4 IHG points and 2.99% foreign transaction free
      Curve with IHG Premium per £ foreign currency spend = 2 IHG points and 1% foreign transaction fee

      Given Rob’s 0.4p valuation for IHG points, you’re still better off using Curve.

      This may of course not be the case for all bonus points benefits on other cards, especially within the UK.

  • andy says:
    16 Feb16 February 13:43

    Corporate Cards can only be issued to Company’s that have a turnover greater than £2M
    This is required to use Access Line as a method of payment.

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