What is the best Avios business credit card?

What is the best Avios business credit card?

American Express has reopened the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card to new applicants. You can apply here.

This is an attractive card. The sign-up bonus is 30,000 Avios and, as long as you have some sort of small business (a ‘buy to let’ should be OK, or any side hustle) you qualify for it, even if you have a personal British Airways American Express card.

With the Accelerating Business card back on the market, I thought it was worth running through the card options for small business owners.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 22nd October 2024, the bonus on American Express Business Platinum is increased to up to 80,000 Membership Rewards points, worth 80,000 Avios. You will receive 8 points per £1 spent for the first three months, on up to £10,000 of spending. Click here to read our full card review. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 22nd October 2024, the bonus on American Express Business Gold is increased to up to 40,000 Membership Rewards points, worth 40,000 Avios. You will receive 4 points per £1 spent for the first three months, on up to £10,000 of spending. The card is FREE for your first year. Click here to read our full card review. Click here to apply.

What Avios business credit cards are out there?

There are four credit or charge cards which allow you to earn Avios from spending by your small business.  These are:

• Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa (10,000 Avios bonus)

• British Airways Accelerating Business American Express (30,000 Avios bonus)

• American Express Business Platinum (40,000 Amex points bonus = 40,000 Avios)

• American Express Business Gold (20,000 Amex points bonus = 20,000 Avios)

Our latest review of American Express Business Platinum is here.  This card has a bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points.  These convert to 40,000 Avios.  You can apply here.

There is also American Express Business Gold.  This offers a sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points, convertible to 20,000 Avios, which is impressive for a ‘free for a year’ card.  Our full review of Amex Business Gold is here.  You can apply here.

Why we are not looking at Business Platinum or Business Gold

I am NOT looking at American Express Business Platinum or American Express Business Gold in this article.

There are good reasons for getting these cards, primarily for the very attractive sign-up bonuses on offer. Head for Points staff have American Express Business Platinum cards, so we clearly value them.

However, purely in terms of the annual fees and the Avios earning rate, Business Platinum and Business Gold are beaten by the two cards below.

The reasons to go for American Express Business Platinum or Business Gold would be:

• because you value the extra benefits offered – American Express Business Platinum includes airport lounge access, £200 of annual Amex Travel credit, £150 of annual Dell credit, £300 of annual Indeed credit, free The Times and Sunday Times subscription, travel insurance etc

• because you value TRANSFERABLE points – as well as converting your points to Avios at a rate of 1 Avios per £1 spent, American Express has many other airline and hotel partners. If you are not totally committed to earning travel rewards via Avios, American Express Membership Rewards points allow you to keep your options open until you are ready to book.

If this sounds of interest to you, click below for our latest reviews:

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 22nd October 2024, the bonus on American Express Business Platinum is increased to up to 80,000 Membership Rewards points, worth 80,000 Avios. You will receive 8 points per £1 spent for the first three months, on up to £10,000 of spending. Click here to read our full card review. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 22nd October 2024, the bonus on American Express Business Gold is increased to up to 40,000 Membership Rewards points, worth 40,000 Avios. You will receive 4 points per £1 spent for the first three months, on up to £10,000 of spending. The card is FREE for your first year. Click here to read our full card review. Click here to apply.

If you definitely want to collect Avios points, however, the two cards below are more rewarding for your business:

The two dedicated business credit cards for earning Avios

Option 1: Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa credit card

The Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card looks like this:

You can apply, and find full details, on this page of the Capital on Tap website.  As the website explains when you click through, if you apply via our HfP landing page you receive a higher bonus which transfers to 10,500 Avios.

Your interest rate is based on your business profile and can be as low as 1.19% per month.  The representative interest rate for marketing purposes is 34.3% APR variable.

Here are the headline details:

• Annual fee: £99

• Sign-up bonus: 10,000 Capital on Tap points, worth £100 cashback or 10,000 Avios, if you spend £5,000 within 90 days

• An additional 500 Capital on Tap points, worth 500 Avios, if you apply via our special HfP landing page

• Earning rate:  1p cashback or 1 Avios per £1 spent

• Annual spending bonuses: None

• Foreign exchange fee:  None – this is the only Avios-earning credit card, personal or business, which does not charge foreign exchange fees when used abroad

It is also worth mentioning that Capital on Tap has virtually instantaneous transfers of points into Avios.  They reach your British Airways Executive Club account as soon as you’ve completed a transfer from your Capital on Tap account. There is no risk of missing out on that reward seat.

On top of these benefits, as a cardholder you would also get:

• Unlimited cards for your staff, for free
• A credit facility of up to £250,000
• Up to 42 days to pay before interest is incurred on card purchases when you repay in full
• No UK ATM fees
• Accounting integrations with Sage, QuickBooks, Xero and more

If you are a UK limited company or limited partnership with turnover of £24,000+ then you should be eligible. Unfortunately, sole traders are not eligible.

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

You can apply for the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa credit card here.

Option 2: British Airways American Express Accelerating Business credit card

The funky looking British Airways American Express Accelerating Business credit card was relaunched last week. It had been suspended for some months whilst the BA On Business SME loyalty programme, to which the card is linked, was offline.

You can apply, and find full details, on this page of the Amex website.

The annual fee is £250. The annual fee is refundable pro-rata although Amex has made noises about removing this option in late 2024. Nothing is confirmed at the moment.

The representative APR is 108.4% variable, including the annual fee.  The representative APR on purchases is 28.5% variable.

What is the sign-up bonus on the BA Accelerating Business credit card?

You receive an impressive bonus of 30,000 Avios when you spend £5,000 in your first three months.

To qualify for the bonus, you cannot have held any American Express Business card in the previous 12 months. This includes Accelerating Business, Business Platinum and Business Gold.

You are totally fine to receive the bonus if you hold a personal American Express card. For clarity, this includes the personal British Airways American Express cards – you will still get the bonus on BA Accelerating Business if you have a personal BA Amex.

What is the earning rate on the BA Accelerating Business credit card?

There are two ways to earn points with the BA Accelerating Business card:

• You earn 1.5 Avios for every £1 you spend, plus

• You earn 100% more On Business points for every £1 you spend with British Airways using the card.  For most small businesses, this means you will receive an extra 1 On Business points per £1, ie 2 per £1 spent vs the standard 1 point per £1 spent.

What are On Business points?

On Business is the British Airways loyalty scheme for small businesses.  I summarise the key points further on, but to avoid cluttering this article please read my full review of the British Airways On Business programme here. This article is from 2022 but nothing has fundamentally changed.

The key thing you need to remember is that you can earn BOTH Avios and On Business points when you fly with British Airways.

Is there an annual spending bonus?

Yes.  You can earn up to 30,000 Avios per calendar year as a spend bonus.

You receive 10,000 Avios for hitting £20,000 of qualifying spend with additional 10,000 Avios bonuses for hitting £40,000 and £60,000.

Note that, unlike most other American Express bonuses, this is based on calendar year and not card year spending.

Doing the maths, if you spent exactly £20,000, £40,000 or £60,000 in a calender year, you would average 2 Avios per £1 on your spending. This is an excellent return.

Are there any other benefits?

You get typical American Express credit card benefits:

• Up to 56 days to pay
• Up to 20 supplementary cards for your employees
• Travel inconvenience cover (with higher payouts if you or your baggage is delayed on a British Airways flight)
• Travel accident protection
• Purchase protection
• Refund protection

One negative point is that 2.99% is added to all foreign currency transactions as an FX fee.

See this page of the American Express website for full details of these benefits.

What sort of business can apply for the BA Accelerating Business credit card?

There are very few requirements to get the BA Accelerating Business Amex. To quote:

• The business has a current UK Bank or Building Society account
• You are aged 18 or over
• You have a permanent UK home address
• You will pay the annual Cardmembership fee of £250

If you do not currently have a British Airways On Business account, one will be opened for you when you apply for the card. The usual rule about having to be VAT registered is waived.

Which Avios credit card is best for your business?

As usual, it isn’t as simple as that.  British Airways American Express Accelerating Business and Capital on Tap Business Rewards are not entirely comparable.

Let’s look at four key factors:

• Capital on Tap Business Rewards is a Visa.  British Airways American Express Accelerating Business is, well, an Amex.  There is a substantial difference in the acceptance rate of Amex vs Visa in the B2B sector.  Even if you get the BA Accelerating Business card, it won’t be accepted everywhere.

• Capital on Tap Business Rewards has no FX fees.  BA Accelerating Business has a 2.99% FX fee.  If you spend a lot of money outside the UK, this is a key differentiator.

• BA Accelerating Business has a higher Avios earning rate. Capital on Tap earns 1 Avios per £1 spent, whilst BA Accelerating Business earns 1.5 Avios per £1 spent, with additional bonuses if you hit £20,000, £40,000 and £60,000 of annual spend.

• Capital on Tap Business Rewards is only available to limited companies and limited liability partnerships, whilst BA Accelerating Business is available to sole traders. If you’re a sole trader, you don’t have much of a choice in which card you pick.

In general …..

• Small spenders may do better with Capital on Tap, larger spenders may do better with BA Accelerating Business – Capital on Tap may have a lower Avios earning rate but the annual fee is substantially lower (£99 vs £250)

• Those with lots of overseas spend may do better with Capital on Tap due to the 0% FX fee, whilst those with mainly UK spend may do better with BA Accelerating Business

• Those with lots of suppliers who do not take Amex may do better with Capital on Tap, those with a lot of Amex-friendly spend (hello, heavy Google Adwords and Facebook advertisers) may do better with BA Accelerating Business

• Those with substantial British Airways spend may do better with BA Accelerating Business due to the bonus On Business points given on BA flight bookings

However …. why not get both?

You can, of course, apply for BOTH cards. This may be the best option.

You won’t necessarily end up keeping both of them for the long term. However, as both Capital on Tap Business Rewards and British Airways American Express Accelerating Business come with generous sign-up bonuses, you won’t lose out in the short term.

You can apply for the British Airways American Express Accelerating Business card here.

You can apply for the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa here.  You MUST apply via that special HfP link to get the additional 500 Avios bonus, for a total bonus of 10,500 Avios.

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.