Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Got an SME? Capital On Tap shakes up its (indirectly Avios-earning) Visa credit cards

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If you have a small business and you want to earn Avios from a Visa or Mastercard, there is only one option open to you – the Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa card.

As well as having a generous 10,500 points sign-up bonus (via an exclusive HfP offer here), you earn points worth 1 Avios for every £1 you spend.

It is also the only credit card indirectly earning Avios which has NO FX FEES.

Capital On Tap has just tweaked its card portfolio so I thought I’d take another look at what they offer.

HFP Capital on Tap business Visa credit card blue

Who is Capital On Tap?

Whilst you may not have heard of Capital On Tap, it has already helped more than 120,000 customers access business funding across its card and loan products. This card, launched in 2018, was its first move into the rewards market.

You can find full details on its website here.  Read on first, however, to learn more about the additional bonus for HfP readers.

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 39.9% APR.

Who can apply for the Capital On Tap Business Rewards card?

The Capital On Tap card is aimed at limited companies and LLPs.  It is not currently accepting unlimited partnerships or sole traders.

If you do NOT have a limited company, our recommended choice for a business Visa or Mastercard credit card is Barclaycard Select Cashback. It is free for life and you get 1% cashback on all of your spending. Our review of the Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card is here and you can apply here.

A minimum turnover of £24,000 is required.

How does the Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa card work?

Nothing has changed with the benefits on the Business Rewards package in the recent rejig.

In summary, the Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa card:

  • has a sign-up bonus of 10,000 Capital On Tap points which converts into £100 cashback or 10,000 Avios
  • this is increased to 10,500 Capital On Tap points, worth £105 cashback or 10,500 Avios, if you use the promo code “headforpoints” when applying or use our link here
  • has an on-going earnings rate of 1 Capital On Tap point (worth 1p of cashback or 1 Avios) per £1 spent
  • has an annual fee is £99 which is tax deductible

The bonus arrives at the end of your fourth billing period, irrespective of how quickly you spend the £5,000.

There are other benefits too:

  • 20 free supplementary cards for your staff
  • a credit limit of up to £100,000
  • up to 56 days to pay before interest is incurred
  • the card works with Apple Pay and Google Pay
  • there are no FX fees and no ATM fees 

Capital On Tap Business Rewards is the ONLY credit card indirectly earning Avios which does not charge foreign exchange fees.

Another positive point is that Avios transfers from Capital On Tap are INSTANTANEOUS.  Log in to Capital On Tap, request a transfer of some or all of your available Capital On Tap points to Avios, log in to your British Airways Executive Club account and they will be there.

What has changed with Capital On Tap?

Capital On Tap has two SME cards:

  • the free Business credit card and
  • the £99 Business Rewards credit card, which is the version which allows you to indirectly earn Avios

Capital On Tap has made a major improvement to its free Business credit card – it now comes with 1% cashback.

There is now little difference between the free card and the £99 card, apart from the option to indirectly earn Avios. Both offer free ATM withdrawals, both have no FX fees when used abroad, both let you issue a lot of supplementary cards.

It is important to note that, if you have the free Business card and choose to upgrade to Business Rewards, your existing Capital On Tap points cannot be carried over and converted to Avios. You need to redeem them for cashback before the upgrade is processed.

For the first year, it makes sense to get the Business Reward credit card

For your first year, I would strongly recommend getting the Business Reward card:

  • you pay an annual fee of £99, but this is a tax deductible business expense
  • via our special HfP link, you will get a sign-up bonus which converts to 10,500 Avios when you spend £5,000 in three months
  • the points you earn convert into either 1 Avios per £1 spent or 1% cashback – the choice is yours

After Year 1, however, your decision is trickier:

  • you can stick with the Business Reward credit card, paying the £99 fee and retaining the option of converting your points into the equivalent of 1 Avios per £1, or
  • you can downgrade to the Business credit card, pay no annual fee and earn 1% cashback (which would be taxable) but without the option of getting Avios instead

It seems to be a no-brainer to take the £99 Business Reward card in Year 1, because the sign-up bonus easily covers the annual fee.

Conclusion

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

You should see the exclusive HfP offer on the landing page, but if not simply add promo code headforpoints to receive your extra 500 points (for a total of 10,500 points) when signing up.

PS. Remember that you must have a limited company to apply. Sole traders should stick with the free Barclaycard Select Cashback card with its 1% cashback.


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:

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 (14)

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

  • Dan says:

    They are surveying who would like Avios on the free card, so further changes seem possible.

    • Rhys says:

      Yes, there will be further changes. They just haven’t decided on them yet.

      • Kate Last says:

        They have a wonderful opportunity to offer redemption to other schemes and become a bit like Amex. I hope they do that.

  • Mr(s) Entitled says:

    There is also a middle ground whereby you can apply the 1% earned to your credit balance. Not sure if that is better from a tax perspective versus cash because I’ve not done it and I am not an accountant.

  • Richard says:

    Does anyone (Rob?) know if avios earned through the Capital On Tap business card can be linked to a personal BA avios account?

    • Graeme says:

      They can. You just type your details into the app – very simple.

      • Michael Scarn says:

        And it’s instant (I’ve just done it).

      • Rob says:

        There are ONLY personal Avios accounts, in the same way you can only have a personal Membership Rewards, IHG etc account.

  • Richard says:

    Thanks

  • Badger says:

    Can this be used to pay HMRC, NI, Nest etc? Most of my business payments currently go via bank transfer or DD and I suspect may be missing a trick

    • Mr(s) Entitled says:

      It is a Corporate Credit Card so will attract a fee with HMRC. Not sure if you can put Curve before it.

      • Tonyb says:

        You can, curve metal works fine

        • JimBo says:

          Does that mean you can attract Avios on both the Cap Tap card and Curve ? What would the point of linking to curve be ? I don’t have Curve metal but I do have the other Curve Standard .

  • Steven Dorrington says:

    It’s a great card, but miss a payment and be prepared for a hefty interest charge as they back date it 56 days. Think mine was £900 for 1 month!!!!

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

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