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

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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.

Get 15,000 points when you pay an invoice using Bluechain

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.

Get 15,000 points when you pay an invoice using Bluechain

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
Get 15,000 points when you pay an invoice using Bluechain

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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British Airways American Express Premium Plus

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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:

American Express Business Platinum

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American Express Business Gold

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Capital on Tap Pro Visa

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British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Category

American Express Gold card, American Express Membership Rewards, American Express Platinum card

Comments (84)

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

  • Daniel says:
    13 Nov13 November 07:45

    The £69 fee is also tax deductible so for a ltd company you would pay £69 – 19% = £55.89

    Then if you are currently on the 4 x membership reward points you will earn 12000 points on top of the 15000 = 27000.

  • SamG says:
    13 Nov13 November 07:52

    Nabbed it – perfect timing with some chunky renovation bills going through at the minute !

  • Anon says:
    13 Nov13 November 07:57

    If my partner also has a Gold Biz card with the offer on it but does not anticipate being able to spend £3000, could they pay, say, an office rent bill for me, to earn the points then I pay them back the £3000 business > business without causing issues with HMRC?

  • Colin_Thames says:
    13 Nov13 November 08:02

    Had it in my Plat Business but not my Gold Business.
    I’ve still got loads more Amex offers on my Blue BA Amex than either business card.

  • Can2 says:
    13 Nov13 November 08:06

    I wonder if I can pay to my company :))

    • Daniel says:
      13 Nov13 November 08:15

      I doubt it. Bluechain only allows you to pay registered companies so they will be able to match up a circular payment. Might be worth a try though.

      • Can2 says:
        13 Nov13 November 10:08

        I have a registered “hobby” company. I am the director though.

        • Chas says:
          13 Nov13 November 15:05

          Unfortunately you can’t. I am a Director of two separate companies. There is a legal contract between the two for services one provides the other, and VAT invoices are generated. Bluechain refused to allow the payment to go through, despite me sharing the contract, as I am a director of both companies and therefore “it goes against what the card schemes allow with anti money laundering regulations and thus prevents us with completing”.

  • Chinafish says:
    13 Nov13 November 08:23

    Does this work for HMRC?

    • Rob says:
      13 Nov13 November 08:30

      If only we had addressed that in the article …..

    • Can2 says:
      13 Nov13 November 10:10

      Don’t worry I also don’t read the articles sometimes :))

    • zapato1060 says:
      13 Nov13 November 11:27

      Chinafish, if you read the article it clearly states you can pay HMRC with Amex but you must sacrifice your first born.

      • BBbetter says:
        13 Nov13 November 18:27

        OP is from China, so it could be the only born.

      • Chinafish says:
        13 Nov13 November 21:03

        I apologise, I hit send and as soon as I did I saw it. Unfortunately it was not possible to recall the post or reply to it before it was moderated.
        I blame my non caffeinated state.

  • Ken says:
    13 Nov13 November 08:36

    Great offer.

    Thanks Rob

  • Khan says:
    13 Nov13 November 08:43

    Is there anyway to use this Bluechain service or is there any alternative to this if I as an individual want to make a payment to someone that doesn’t take AMEX? I am due to make some payments and the vendor doesn’t take Amex, they either take bank transfer or VISA/MASTERCARD- and I really want to use my AMEX for the points and to hit my sign up bonus. Any help would be appreciated!

    • Rob says:
      13 Nov13 November 08:47

      That’s exactly what Bluechain does!

      • Khan says:
        13 Nov13 November 08:50

        How would I use it if I don’t have a business? I want to use my personal Amex card to make the payment, would it still be possible? Thank you for the quick response!

        • Daniel says:
          13 Nov13 November 08:52

          You need to have American Express Business Platinum or American Express Business Gold to take part.

          • memesweeper says:
            13 Nov13 November 08:55

            and the business you want to pay needs to provide an invoice

          • Khan says:
            13 Nov13 November 08:57

            I understand that for this offer you need to be a business, but as I stated previously, as an individual who has a personal card, would this service still be open to me? If not are there any alternatives to paying a company by way of bank transfer but using Amex because they don’t accept Amex? Thus earning points, which otherwise would not be earned.

          • Daniel says:
            13 Nov13 November 09:00

            As Rob says above:

            “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.”

          • Rob says:
            13 Nov13 November 09:16

            The 15,000 points are only on Amex Business but anyone can sign up and use the service and earn regular points.

    • Katrina says:
      13 Nov13 November 11:36

      When I signed up as a business I also got a personal account which is automatically linked to the business (so you effectively get 2 accounts automatically if you sign up as a business). So I can keep my business and personal payments separate by loading different cards to the relevant accounts. It’s also easy to switch between the 2 accounts once you’re logged in.

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

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