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NEW: Earn Avios points with a small business Mastercard – and a special bonus for HfP readers

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EDIT:  This article is now out of date.  Capital On Tap has relaunched with just one Avios card, Business Rewards, which is better than both of the cards described below.  Click here to read our review of Capital On Tap Business Rewards.  We still have a higher sign-up bonus for our readers!

At last!  After many years of having Head for Points readers email me in search of a good travel rewards payment card to use for their business purchases, we finally have something.

You can now earn Avios with a small business Mastercard.

And we negotiated a special extra sign-up bonus for all Head for Points readers if you use our promo code when you apply!

This is the card:

Capital on Tap Capital Club earn Avios

The Capital Club card, from Capital on Tap.

Interest rate information:  Your interest rate is based on your business profile and can be as low as 9.9% APR.  The standard interest rate for marketing purposes is 39.4% APR.

You can find full details on their website here.  Read on first, however, because there is a special higher sign up bonus for HFP readers.

What does the Capital Club card offer?

The Capital Club card is aimed at small businesses and sole traders.  Whilst you may not have heard of Capital on Tap, it already has 50,000 customers for its existing ‘no rewards’ payment card.  This is their first move into the rewards market.

This is what the card offers your business:

10,000 Capital on Tap points (converts to 5,000 Avios) for signing up and spending £5,000 within 3 months

1 Capital on Tap point for every £1 you spend (converts to 0.5 Avios)

No foreign exchange fees when spending overseas

No ATM fees if withdrawing cash on the card

Up to 56 days interest free credit on purchases (minimum monthly repayment is the greater of 10% of balance or £250)

Up to 15 free supplementary cards for your staff

The card has an annual fee of £99.  This is obviously tax deductible as a business expense.

The maximum credit limit on offer is £50,000.

And an extra bonus for Head for Points readers

If you use promo code headforpoints when signing up, you will receive an additional 500 Capital on Tap points.  This is worth an additional 250 Avios.

The site will still show 10,000 Capital on Tap points as your bonus but the extra 500 will be added separately.  If there are any problems, let me know and I can quickly chase it up.

Who can apply?

The Capital Club card is aimed at sole traders as well as small businesses.  The company appears to be flexible in who they accept:

if you are a UK limited company or limited partnership with turnover of £24,000+ then you should be eligible

if you are a VAT registered sole trader then you should be eligible. 

if you are a sole trader under the VAT threshold but above the £24,000 turnover threshold then applications are looked at on a case by case basis – if you have a functioning website and are clearly in business then I am told you should be eligible

Applicants must not have a CCJ against themselves or their business in the past 12 months.

Whilst it doesn’t make any day to day difference in how you use the card, Capital Club is not a credit card.  It is structured as a prepaid Mastercard which is funded by Capital on Tap.  As far as I can see this doesn’t make any difference to your legal rights, as Section 75 protection does not apply to business credit cards.  In the event of any disputes over purchases, you request a Mastercard chargeback.

How does the Capital on Tap Capital Club card compare?

Some sole traders, including myself, use a personal credit card for their business expenses.  A lot of self employed people – or their accountants – are not happy doing this, however, and it is clearly not sensible to give personal credit cards to your staff.  You need a dedicated business payment card in these circumstances.

Until now, if you wanted to earn rewards from a small business payment card you were reliant on American Express Business Gold or American Express Business Platinum.  These are good products but obviously have issues over Amex acceptance, especially with small suppliers.

The Capital on Tap Capital Club Mastercard is a small business card that can be used everywhere that Mastercard is accepted.

You need to look at the maths based on what you spend, including how much you spend in foreign currencies (the card has no FX fees).  The £99 annual fee is a deductible expense so the net cost to you will be lower.  In Year 1 you are getting a sign-up bonus of 10,000 Capital on Tap points, which is worth 5,000 Avios.

(Use the special headforpoints promo code and that increases to 10,500 points, worth 5,250 Avios.)

Day to day you are collecting 0.5 Avios (1 Capital on Tap point) per £1 spent.  If you and your staff have a high level of business expenditure then this could work out very nicely for you.  Remember that you can have up to 15 free supplementary cards.

As far as I know, there is no other Visa or Mastercard payment card aimed at small businesses which offers decent travel rewards.

HMRC accepts Capital on Tap

Here is one good reason to get the card.  Based on early feedback from our readers, HMRC accepts Capital on Tap cards to make tax payments with no surcharge.  This is because HMRC treats it as a personal debit card.

This means that you can earn Avios on all of your PAYE, VAT, corporation tax and indeed personal tax payments.

But don’t forget …..

Capital on Tap points can be converted into cashback as well as Avios.  As 2 points gets you 1 Avios or 1p cashback, you are ‘paying’ 1p per point for your Avios.

If you don’t value Avios at more than 1p (and in most scenarios you can get more than 1p for them as this article shows) then take your Capital on Tap points as cashback instead.

Remember to use our Capital on Tap promo code when you apply

If the Capital on Tap Capital Club card sounds interesting for your business, you can find out more and apply on their website here.

Remember to add promo code headforpoints to receive the extra 500 points as a sign-up bonus.

Disclaimer: Head for Points is a journalistic website. Nothing here should be construed as financial advice, and it is your own responsibility to ensure that any product is right for your circumstances. Recommendations are based primarily on the ability to earn miles and points. The site discusses products offered by lenders but is not a lender itself. Robert Burgess, trading as Head for Points, is regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as an independent credit broker.

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (73)

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

  • Peter says:
    11 Feb11 February 06:38

    Rob can you chase for me Curve Rewards? It has been “temporarily unavailable” for at least 4 weeks now.

    • M Corrêa says:
      11 Feb11 February 08:00

      Same here.. no AMEX and no curve rewards.

    • Rob says:
      11 Feb11 February 08:25

      Apparently it has been out for 3 months for those on the Amex beta.

      • Peter says:
        11 Feb11 February 10:15

        Thank you Rob – I was not on the amex beta though.

        • Rob says:
          11 Feb11 February 10:43

          Neither was I. However, what this means is that is seems to be an app issue, because I could still spend Rewards credit (not on the Amex beta) whilst those on the beta were blocked.

      • Alan says:
        11 Feb11 February 22:25

        Correct – they’re apparently still accruing but unable to spend or see details.

    • Mr Dee says:
      11 Feb11 February 20:51

      I wonder how much Curve rewards they owe out right now…

  • Memesweeper says:
    11 Feb11 February 06:52

    Great to see a new entrant in the rewards and SMe cards market. Thanks for highlighting Rob.

    Two possible snags:

    pre-paid card = some acceptance problems? I’m assuming no way to link this to Curve for that reason.

    Cash back *or* points? If the cash back would otherwise accrue to the business then HMRC/my accountant might see any Avios as a taxable perk valued at 1p each.

    Incidentally, reversing that logic, if the cash back otherwise accrues to my one-man-band company then I’m buying Avios at 1p each before company or personal tax. And if the Avios benefit isn’t taxable that’s a no-brainer. 🙂

    Applying today.

  • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
    11 Feb11 February 07:18

    I’m a bit fuzzy on the exact boundary, but section 75 protection can cover some business transactions. A sole trader using a consumer credit card likely would be.

    • Rob says:
      11 Feb11 February 08:24

      On a personal card, yes – although the card company could dispute whether it was a personal purchase.

      • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
        11 Feb11 February 09:25

        NB though that many ‘business’ credit cards (e.g. Barclaycard) ones are issued under the consumer credit act.

      • Steve says:
        11 Feb11 February 09:51

        Sole traders and small partnerships (no more than three partners) fall within the definition of consumer under the Consumer Credit Act and must therefore be issued with a regulated credit agreement and have S75 protection where it applies.

  • Shoestring says:
    11 Feb11 February 07:44

    Depends how many you need. It’s easy to pick up Avios @0.8p & some @(say) 0.5p & some @free – but these opportunities are often very limited in terms of time available and number available.

  • TescoTease says:
    11 Feb11 February 07:44

    Is this a prepaid credit card or pre paid debit card? If the former then HMRC wouldn’t accept, if the latter I would expect the same level of acceptance as Curve.

    Rob- any clarifications?

    • Rob says:
      11 Feb11 February 08:22

      Doesn’t matter because it is a Business card with full interchange fees so not worth using with HMRC.

      • TescoTease says:
        11 Feb11 February 12:44

        It makes a big difference as to If it’s a credit or debit card. There are organisations (other than HMRC) that accept debit card paymentes and some that accept credit and debit card payments.

        My curve card is a commercial
        Pre paid debit card. HMRC accepts it fine without charges. Is this card the same but without the secondary card in the background?

  • Shoestring says:
    11 Feb11 February 07:45

    Sounds good – what are the ‘size of business’ criteria?

  • Mr(s) Entitled says:
    11 Feb11 February 07:47

    Rob – are you swapping your Amex Plat for this?

    • Rob says:
      11 Feb11 February 08:21

      No. Why would I? 1 point per £1 AND more importantly I can write off the Plat fee.

      But I am cool about using personal cards for business. I know that many people are not.

      And anyone working for us always insist on using their own cards and recharging me, oddly 🙂

      • Daniel says:
        11 Feb11 February 08:31

        Many accountants are not, too – they’ll whack the annual fee on your Director’s Loan account and slug you with S455 tax.

      • Doug M says:
        11 Feb11 February 10:45

        Accountant at work asked recently why I kept using personal cards for business expenses when I have a company credit card. Too many cards to carry…………

      • Steve says:
        11 Feb11 February 11:23

        I was given a company card … “as it doesn’t seem fair I have to use my own!!!) Tried to educate my MD but he just doesn’t get it.

        • jc says:
          11 Feb11 February 18:55

          Or he gets it perfectly and would rather he receive those points

        • Lady London says:
          11 Feb11 February 22:05

          As far as I’m concerned the only type of company credit card I’d be prepared to have is one where the company settles the monthly card bill directly even if I have to list why each expense.

          Had too many corporate cards where the company isn’t settling expenses quickly enough so I have to pay the bill off before I can get a claim paid.

          Also watch out check t’s and c’s and suggest you don’t take the card if they make you jointly liable. I had a friend whose employer folded and his colleagues were pursued by the card company to settle card bills the company was no longer able to reimburse them, as well as losing their job. No company accountant is going to continue asking why you won’t take a corporate card if you quote the presence of that clause as the reason for your concern. Most of them have it I think.

      • Ian M says:
        11 Feb11 February 12:49

        I use personal credit cards for business expenses. My accountant is fine with it. The cards I use for business expenses I never put any personal purchases through and always ensure they are zero balance at the end of the year.

  • Tony says:
    11 Feb11 February 07:53

    Although as a business card, any cash taken out should count as revenue, so would presumably be taxable…

    • Genghis says:
      11 Feb11 February 07:57

      Good point. But only profit is taxable. So I guess it’s 1 avios for personal use or 1p towards business travel.

    • Christian says:
      11 Feb11 February 10:28

      I checked with them – cash withdrawals don’t earn the capital points (to turn into Avios) and you start to pay interest on the withdrawal immediately (pretty standard) but there is no access fee on top for using the cash machine.

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