The new Avios SME payment card from Capital On Tap works at HMRC

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

• Lee says:

  9 Mar9 March 09:49

  I just called Capital on Tap and they told me it is now £199. They said they changed it. Even though their website still says clearly £99 and no mention of £199 until you have already applied.
  They told me to email them directly and state what has happened and someone will see if they will do the £99 fee. Not a great start.

  • Chris says:

    9 Mar9 March 10:03

    Website now says £199

    • Rob says:

      9 Mar9 March 11:10

      Ok. Let me explain. COT is launching a 2nd Avios card imminently. I didn’t know the terms but the fee is higher with better earning. It seems they may be doing it this weekend without telling me.

      • Helen says:

        9 Mar9 March 12:16

        Rob, please can you also find out if those who got the £99 card can upgrade to the £199 card for the better Avios and higher sign-up bonus if we are within the 3 months? Thank you.

        • Rob says:

          9 Mar9 March 13:56

          Will do. It seems they are still experimenting and have asked me not to cover the new card until everything is locked down in a couple of weeks.

• B Bop says:

  9 Mar9 March 10:06

  I just signed up and it gave me two options. A no-bonus standard account or the “club” account but the terms were £199 fee for 20000 points (once u spend 5k) and points were 1:1. Didn’t see an option for the £99 card. I think it’s still good value though right? Annoyed if u can’t link to Xero or curve tho! I’m no adverse to using a non biz card for my company expenses so maybe something else would be better, but the idea of being able to pay corporation tax is appealing and it’s good to have a backup to the Amex now that curve wont support it

  • Shoestring says:

    9 Mar9 March 10:13

    Good value @£199? That will depend on how much you pay HMRC. [HfP has repeated that despite the £199 appearing in places, it *will* only be £99 as per home page.]

    So if you can’t get points from your payments to HMRC any other way & pay in hefty amounts, the £99/£199? fee could easily be covered many times over, partly by the introductory bonus (5250 Avios)

• Munch says:

  9 Mar9 March 10:50

  Paul – do you get one year at the new status from the the last date of your 10th stay? Or is it from the start of your challenge?

• DaveL says:

  9 Mar9 March 11:25

  Sao Paulo…

• Paul Stevens says:

  9 Mar9 March 11:32

  >>This would allow our self-employed readers to pay their VAT, PAYE, corporation tax and personal tax

  I understand the VAT and corporation tax but how can I pay personal tax on a business card? Wouldn’t it come out of the company account?

  • James M says:

    9 Mar9 March 12:33

    If you’re self employed, you are your company there’s no reason you couldn’t pay personal tax.

    Obviously for limited companies etc. you are not your company so personal obligations couldn’t be paid on a business card.

    • Chas says:

      9 Mar9 March 17:00

      “If you’re self employed, you are your company”

      That’s only the case if you’re a sole-trader, but if you’re not (and you’re incorporated) that is most definitely not the case – the company and the person are completely separate legal entities. If you’re incorporated, then paying your personal tax on a corporate card could lead to tax consequences depending on the value and the length of time it’s outstanding for – get your accountants advice.

      If you’re self-employed and incorporated, you can already pay your VAT, PAYE and Corp tax on personal cards and earn miles (through Curve), and then expense it to the Company.

    • Paul Stevens says:

      9 Mar9 March 17:36

      Ah thanks, for some reason I read self employed as having a limited company.

  • Mr Dee says:

    9 Mar9 March 21:05

    It’s called a directors loan

• Crafty says:

  9 Mar9 March 12:14

  OT: KLM flight cancelled and rerouted for next day. It was a fully non EU sector (Singapore to Denpasar); am I right in thinking EC261 therefore does not apply?

  Secondly, they are saying they aren’t liable for accommodation costs. Presumably this is good enough for Amex Insurance (Plat) – I can show them a statement from KLM saying they won’t compensate me. But their reasoning is flimsy (wouldn’t get them out of EC261 if it were within EU) – saying flight cancelled because a PREVIOUS flight could not get through Pakistan airspace. Am I expected to have challenged this, or for insurance purposes will the statement that they won’t compensate me be sufficient?

  • Shoestring says:

    9 Mar9 March 12:20

    First point: correct, EC261 does not apply.

    • Shoestring says:

      9 Mar9 March 12:31

      Second point: not an expert, sometimes it is a good idea to ring the insurance co to get clearance for a cost *before* you incur the cost. Eg for BUPA, I know from experience that if you are likely to undergo medical intervention costing several £thou, ring them and get the OK first to make the claim painless afterwards.

      • Crafty says:

        9 Mar9 March 12:46

        Yep. Understand that. Cancellation was last minute so we weren’t in much of a position to do so this time… either way, incurring the cost is definitely fine under the policy, it’s just a question of where the needle points to on the burden of proof/effort.

      • the_real_a says:

        9 Mar9 March 17:40

        My experience of this (apart from medical) is that they wont “clear” anything. The CS agents dont know and will often tell you the wrong thing, and its difficult to get through to the underwriters who are trained to be be noncommittal. Having said that, i have never had a claim turned down.

    • Lady London says:

      9 Mar9 March 18:52

      Er…. Shoestring, would that also be the case if the ticket was departing EU… then the sector above… then continuing on? surely EU261 covers you to final destination including all intermediate flight segments, provided departing out of EU?

      • Shoestring says:

        9 Mar9 March 20:21

        it wasn’t ex EU

      • Shoestring says:

        10 Mar10 March 08:10

        but if the flight was 2 segments on one PNR, departing EU first then (say) refuelling break in Singapore before leaving for Singapore-Denpasar, you’d be covered

• Russ says:

  9 Mar9 March 13:13

  Sorry for the OT but I’ve lost my passport and need it as flying out Friday. I’ve not lost one before and don’t know what the protocol is. I understand have to cancel it online but what do I do about getting a new one fast? The website’s as useful as a box of frogs….

  • Qwerty Bertie says:

    9 Mar9 March 13:24

    You will have to go to one of the passport offices in person, for an urgent appointment. They offer a same day service, where you pick up four hours after the initial appointment at a counter. It means going to Victoria in London, unless you happen to have an easier route to one of the few alternatives. I think there is one in Belfast, but otherwise I don’t have a clue where else you could go.

    • Anna says:

      9 Mar9 March 13:33

      It’s Liverpool if you live in the North West.

    • Russ says:

      9 Mar9 March 20:02

      London for me but that would mean changing plans for next week which was no small task, like most of us here I’d imagine.

  • Shoestring says:

    9 Mar9 March 13:25

    oo-er you are a bit stuffed as I’m sure you know

    in the past the UK was happy to issue 2 passports to people if they travelled for business to both Israel and Arabic countries as this made things easier – shame we can’t all get 2 passports!

    I think your only route is fast track new passport (2 days), don’t worry about cancelling the old one as they’ll do that https://www.gov.uk/get-a-passport-urgently/online-premium-service

    • Russ says:

      9 Mar9 March 19:58

      ‘oo-er you are a bit stuffed as I’m sure you know’

      Yes I did know thanks Shoestring LOL 🙂

  • Anna says:

    9 Mar9 March 13:32

    You’ll probably have to get yourself down to your nearest passport office and queue with the (reportedly) thousands of others who need to renew their passports before March 29th. Good luck!

    • Shoestring says:

      9 Mar9 March 13:35

      the good news is: my wife has 2 passports

      so she can lose 1 and still make my life a misery out at our place in the sun lol 🙂

      • Curious says:

        9 Mar9 March 19:25

        Is she from NornIron?

  • Graham Walsh says:

    9 Mar9 March 17:04

    A colleague did his passport renewal and it arrived back in 2 days, guessing as you’ve lost yours, some extra security checks will be needed/time wasted.

  • Shoestring says:

    9 Mar9 March 17:22

    btw if you lose your passport abroad, go to the nearest Embassy or Consulate and they can generally sort you out there & then

    • Lady London says:

      9 Mar9 March 19:05

      Apparently lots of them are no longer able to issue passports but issue some kind of “travel authorisation” to get you home and you apply for a replacement passport separately?

      • Shoestring says:

        9 Mar9 March 20:04

        sounds about right

      • Shoestring says:

        9 Mar9 March 20:09

        OK you are on a boys night out in Prague. You lose your passport. What next ?

      • Craig says:

        9 Mar9 March 20:51

        It’s an emergency travel document and only available outside the UK. Having a photo of your passport makes it much easier.

      • Doug M says:

        9 Mar9 March 21:49

        Definite on the passport photo, that would have been a big help. Happened to me in Vienna and was fortunate to have a friend to vouch for my ID. Had to report theft to police and get a report, get some passport photos, and then embassy issued a travel authority. Once home applied for new passport.

  • Lady London says:

    9 Mar9 March 18:54

    just google it. there are appointments available at all the passport offices on Monday. Belfast a bit thin but others enough through the week. In London they only seemed to offer morning when I checked recently. I think it’s called “Premium” service.

    • Lady London says:

      9 Mar9 March 18:59

      beg pardon. There were available on Monday, but taking a closer look I think you can only book 2 days ahead now. so think you could book Wednesday. feedback on the service is it’s expensive but excellent.

      • Lady London says:

        9 Mar9 March 19:03

        0300 222 0000 but you can arrange online. There are photo booths at the place where your appointment is, if it’s London. You have to bring your completed form (from Post office)

      • Russ says:

        9 Mar9 March 20:07

        Yes I expected it wouldn’t be cheap, or even reasonable but what can you do?

  • Russ says:

    9 Mar9 March 19:56

    FOUND IT!!

    Thanks everyone. If it ever happens again I’ll know what to do. It’s been so stressful. We’ve turned the whole house upside down in the process only to find it in the car. So relieved.

    • Shoestring says:

      10 Mar10 March 16:29

      I lost my wallet once out at our place in the sun – searched everywhere to no avail, we’d been visiting vineyards previous day and had shared the driving, as in: I drove there, my wife drove back, you get the picture, plus my younger bro was visiting so we’d made merry ‘testing the quality’ – anyway, having lost my wallet, I phoned up the banks & cancelled the credit cards

      Needed to get some milk and bread from the local shop later that morning, so I jumped in the car, only to find my wallet safely wedged next to the front passenger seat! 🙂 what a useless faff

• Jimbob says:

  9 Mar9 March 22:38

  OT – need to put through £400 on my SPG Amex in the next couple of days to get the sign up bonus, so I can used the current bonus offer for transfers to Avios.

  Any suggestions as what I can put on the card that would be easily refundable to make the £1000 target spend?

  • Peter 64K says:

    9 Mar9 March 23:20

    Not refundable but council tax? Or send £400 friends and family via PayPal to someone you trust to give it back?
    Gift cards you will use later?

  • Memesweeper says:

    10 Mar10 March 07:21

    Peter’s suggestion is a good one: get down to Tesco and grab some cards for Netflix or John Lewis or whatever else you know is certain to soak up some of your spending over the next few months.

  • Mr Dee says:

    10 Mar10 March 10:24

    Morrisons gift card, use on fuel, shopping and they give change

  • Alan says:

    10 Mar10 March 17:27

    Plus you don’t want the transaction that triggers the bonus to be refundable – I’d go with the suggestions above!

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