Get 15,000 points when you pay an invoice using Bluechain with your Amex Business card

Back in August we covered Bluechain, a company which allows you to pay invoices with a credit card.

Bluechain charges your credit card, adds a small fee and sends a bank transfer to the company to whom you owe money. Easy.

Even better, it works with American Express as well as Mastercard and Visa.

Amex is now offering a huge incentive of 15,000 Membership Rewards points to give it a try. You need to have American Express Business Platinum or American Express Business Gold to take part.

What is Bluechain?

Bluechain is a B2B payments platform. It allows you to manage invoices and pay any of your suppliers with a credit card.

As well as maximising your reward points, it can also help with your cashflow because of the grace period given by your credit card to settle the bill.

How does Bluechain work?

You can use Bluechain to pay any registered UK business including sole traders. The system is very straightforward. To pay invoices you need to:

• Add invoices – Simply add invoices manually or connect to your accounting software to automatically pull in all unpaid invoices.
• Choose how you want to pay – With a debit or credit card, and whether you want to pay in full or split the payment into parts.
• Choose when you want to pay – Pay now, on the due date or schedule for another date.

Bluechain takes payment from your card on the date selected, pays your invoice via a standard money transfer and automatically reconciles it in your accounting software.

If you are a sole trader, some HfP readers have found it easier – in terms of account verification – to open a Bluechain account as a private individual and not as a business. To do this, on the page where you are asked if you are a Sole Trader or Ltd Company, just click ‘Skip’ instead.

What is the American Express offer?

It is very simple.

If you have American Express Business Platinum or Business Gold you should be able to opt-in to the Bluechain promotion via the ‘Offers’ tab of the website or app.

Once signed in, you will receive 15,000 bonus Membership Rewards points when you send £3,000+ by Bluechain.

You have until 12th February 2025 to do the spend.

Cumulative spend counts.

What does Bluechain cost?

Bluechain is free to join. You only pay when you make a payment through the platform.

The current payment fees are:

• American Express 2.3%
• Mastercard and Visa 2.5%

It will cost you (£3,000 x 2.3%) £69 to make a £3,000 payment with your Amex Business card. This should be tax deductible. In return, you will receive for your first £3,000 of transactions:

• 3,000 base Membership Rewards points

• 15,000 bonus Membership Rewards points

• any bonus Membership Rewards points from hitting the monthly (Business Platinum) or quarterly (Business Gold) spending targets

What sort of invoices can be paid via Bluechain?

Bluechain can be used to pay any registered UK business or sole trader, with the bonus of being able to pay companies, such as Google Ads, with a credit card when they no longer accept direct credit card payments.

The only notable exception is that Amex no longer accept payments to HMRC (even through Bluechain) although you can still pay HMRC with Visa or Mastercard on the platform.

Conclusion

This is a very generous offer by Bluechain to small business owners.

It is showing on your American Express Business card NOW for registration. (There is a limit to how many people can redeem the offer, so don’t hang around.)

You can find out more about Bluechain on its website here.

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Want to earn more points from credit cards? – December 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:

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th January 2025, the sign-up bonus on ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is increased to 30,000 Membership Rewards points. This converts into 30,000 Avios. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th January 2025, the sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card from American Express is increased to 80,000 Membership Rewards points. This converts into 80,000 Avios! The spend requirement is changed to £10,000 in six months for this offer. Click here to apply.

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 9th December 2024, there are EXCLUSIVE sign-up offers for our readers on the two Capital on Tap small business Visa cards. You can earn 20,000 points on the Business Rewards card and 30,000 points on the new Pro card. Click here to apply.

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 when you spend at least £2,000 per month.