Capital on Tap referral code: 7,500 points (£75) for you and for us

The code and the link

The code is 2REFS477A36. It is a Refer a Friend code generated inside our own Capital on Tap account. Capital on Tap’s FAQ describes where these come from: “You can find your unique referral link by logging in to your online portal. Sharing this link is the easiest way to refer a friend to Capital on Tap.” That is all this is. It is not an affiliate scheme, we are not a partner, and we do not get paid when you click. We get the same bonus you do, and only if you are approved and use the card.

There are two ways to attach the code to your application. The link in the box above opens capitalontap.com with the code already filled in. If you would rather go to capitalontap.com yourself, or you are applying on another device, you type the code into the code box on the application. Both routes are covered in detail below.

Before the detail, here are the terms in one place. Every line comes from the Refer a Friend Programme terms, last updated 29 April 2025.

One thing the code does not do: it does not change the product. The free card already has £0 annual fee, so there is nothing to discount. The code does not alter your interest rate, your credit limit or your chances of approval. The terms are explicit that Capital on Tap is “not required to accept any application, and any such acceptance is at our sole discretion.” If you want to know whether you are likely to be accepted, read the eligibility page or run the two-minute checker first.

How the bonus works, on both sides

The Refer a Friend terms have a section for each party. Section 5 covers you, the referred business: “You’ll receive your Referral Bonus within one month of your first transaction. This can either be a card payment or drawing down funds.” Section 4 covers us, the referrer, and describes the same bonus paid “for every Referral, provided that they use your unique referral link, are approved for a Capital on Tap credit card and make a transaction within 30 days of activating their card.”

The bonus itself is a choice. Clause 4.1 offers “a Referral Bonus of: 7,500 Points; or £75 if you opt to apply the Referral Bonus towards your balance on your Credit Account.” On the free card 1 point = 1p (1,000 points = £10), so the two options are worth the same. The difference is flexibility.

• Take it as points and it sits in your rewards balance alongside the points you earn at 1 point per £1. From there you can redeem for cash to your bank account (minimum £10 minimum for cash to a bank account, paid within two business days), gift cards, a credit against your balance, or convert to Avios, Virgin Points or Radisson Rewards. On the free tier the airline rate is 10 points = 8 Avios on the free card, so the bonus would become 6,000 Avios. The rewards page covers each option and the 24-month expiry rule.
• Take it against your balance and it simply reduces what you owe on your next statement. Simpler, and it avoids the question of what the points are worth, but it is the least flexible choice.

Whichever you choose, the bonus is a reward under the Rewards Terms and Conditions, which means the rules on forfeiture apply to it. The most important is the arrears rule: points can be lost if you are more than 14 days late. The Refer a Friend terms repeat the point in their own words at clause 7.3: “If payments to your Credit Account are not kept up to date, you could also lose your Referral Bonus.” Set the Direct Debit up and leave it on.

When the bonus pays

The headline is within one month of the first transaction. That is the outside date in the terms, not a target. In practice the whole sequence, from application to points in your rewards balance, runs like this.

1. Application. Capital on Tap says “Apply and get a decision in 2 minutes.” The FAQ adds a caveat: “In some cases, we may email you within one business day to request further information to complete our review.” Identity verification is done with a passport or driving licence, ideally on a phone.
2. Signing. You sign the credit agreement and, for anyone who joined after May 2024, the E-Money Facility Agreement. This is the point at which the hard search is made on your business credit file; applying only involves a soft search on your personal file.
3. Cards. A virtual card can be created in the portal straight away. The physical card arrives in physical card in 2 to 5 business days, and you activate it in the portal.
4. First transaction. Must happen within 30 days of activating the card. A single online purchase on the virtual card is enough.
5. Bonus. Credited within one month of the first transaction. It appears in the Rewards Points History in the portal, which the FAQ says lists “any bonus points you’ve earned” as a separate line.

Realistically that is anywhere from a couple of weeks to about six weeks after you apply, depending on how quickly you make the first purchase. You will see other sites quoting shorter or longer periods. The only figure that binds Capital on Tap is the one in its own terms, and that is one month from the first transaction.

Who qualifies for the referral bonus

Two sets of rules stack here: the Refer a Friend terms, and the ordinary eligibility rules for the card. Clause 2.1 of the referral terms requires that the businesses referred “are brand new Capital on Tap customers (they must not have entered into a Credit Agreement and/or an E-Money Agreement with us before)” and “are eligible for a Capital on Tap credit card (for example, they must be business owners, based in the UK, with no CCJs against them and a minimum £24,000 annual turnover) and we approve their application”.

The card’s own criteria, from the product page and FAQ, fill in the rest:

Three of those catch people out. First, sole traders and ordinary partnerships cannot apply at all, and the FAQ also rules out “charities, non-profit organisations, trusts, funds, or Royal Charters”. If that is you, our sole trader guide lists the cards that do accept you. Second, the personal guarantee is not optional: the FAQ says “Yes, we require a personal guarantee from a director or major shareholder of the company when you apply.” Our personal guarantee guide explains what you are signing. Third, “brand new” is defined by agreements, not by cards. If you have ever held a Capital on Tap credit account or signed the e-money agreement, you are not new, even if the account is long closed.

One grey area we cannot resolve from the terms: Capital on Tap now offers an Instant Savings account, and its FAQ confirms an existing savings customer can apply for the credit card. Whether a savings-only customer counts as “brand new” for the referral bonus is not stated. If that is your position, ask support on 020 8962 7401 before you apply rather than finding out afterwards.

How to enter the code

There are three situations, and the right action is slightly different in each.

1. You click our link

The referral link opens the Capital on Tap application with the code attached. You should not need to type anything, but check that the code field shows 2REFS477A36 before you submit. Browser extensions that strip tracking parameters, and some in-app browsers, can drop the code on the way through.

2. You go to capitalontap.com directly

Capital on Tap’s homepage has a section headed “Do you have a code?” with the instruction “Enter your code to get started with your application.” Type 2REFS477A36 there and continue. The code then travels with the application. This is the route to use if you prefer not to arrive via someone else’s link.

3. You are applying on a different device

A lot of people read a page like this on a laptop and then apply on their phone, because the identity check is easier with a phone camera. In that case the link does nothing for you. Copy the code with the button at the top of this page, or write it down, and type it into the “Do you have a code?” box when you start the application on the other device.

The step-by-step application guide walks through every screen, what documents you need to hand, and where the code field sits.

What counts as a first transaction

The terms define the trigger precisely: the referred business must “make a transaction within 30 days of activating their card (either by spending on their card or drawing down funds)”. Two things count, and the terms list nothing else.

• A card purchase. Any purchase, of any size, on any card on the account, including a virtual card. The FAQ says that once approved you can “create a virtual card in your portal for online spending” immediately, so you do not have to wait for the plastic to arrive. A small software subscription or a stationery order does the job.
• A drawdown. This is a transfer from your credit line to your business bank account. The FAQ describes it: “you can transfer available funds from your Capital on Tap Business Credit Card to your nominated business bank account. This is also known as a drawdown.” It also warns: “Any funds transferred will incur interest daily until the amount is repaid in full.”

Given the choice, make a purchase. A purchase paid off in full at the statement costs nothing, because there is no interest on purchases if you pay the statement balance in full by the due date. A drawdown starts accruing interest the day it lands, the same way a cash withdrawal does (interest on cash withdrawals from the day you take them). Using a drawdown purely to trigger a £75 bonus is a poor trade.

Note what is not on the list. Preloading your own money onto the account, making a repayment, and paying a fee are not “spending on their card or drawing down funds”. Do not assume any of them starts the clock on the bonus. Also note that the 30 days run from activation, not from approval, so if the card sits in a drawer unactivated for a month you have not used up the window, but you have not earned anything either.

Why the bonus sometimes does not arrive

Working from the terms and the FAQ rather than from guesswork, these are the reasons a bonus fails to appear, roughly in order of how often we expect each one comes up.

1. The code or link was not used at application. By far the most common. The application went in without the code, or the code field was cleared before submission. Clause 6.1 applies and neither side is paid.
2. The business was not new. The applicant, or the same company, had a Capital on Tap credit or e-money agreement before. The terms treat that as disqualifying regardless of how long ago it was.
3. The application was declined. No approval, no bonus. The terms also say “We will not discuss the outcome of your Referral’s application”, so we never learn why, and we cannot chase on your behalf.
4. No transaction within 30 days of activation. The card was activated but not used in time. The window is measured from activation, and the terms name only card spend and drawdowns as qualifying transactions.
5. It has not been a month yet. Capital on Tap has until one month after the first transaction. If your first purchase was ten days ago, nothing is wrong.
6. Payments were not kept up. Clause 7.3 lets Capital on Tap withhold or remove the bonus if the account falls behind, and the rewards terms forfeit unclaimed points after 14 days in arrears. A failed first Direct Debit is a real risk here, because it is easy to submit an application with the wrong account details.
7. The referrer hit a cap. Explained in the next section. If we have reached ten bonuses in a calendar month, or a hundred in total, our side stops paying.
8. A programme violation was found. Clauses 7.1 and 7.2 allow Capital on Tap to forfeit or revoke bonuses where it decides, at its discretion, that the terms or the credit agreement have been breached, or where it restricts or closes the account.
9. You are looking in the wrong place. Points appear in the Rewards Points History in the portal, on a separate line from spend-earned points. If you chose the £75 option, it shows as a credit on the account rather than in the rewards balance.

If none of those apply and it has been more than a month since your first transaction, the terms tell you what to do: “If you think you are owed a Referral Bonus that has not yet been granted then please reach out to our customer support on 020 8962 7401 so that we can help.” Have your application date, the code, and the date and amount of your first transaction ready. You have to make this call yourself; because Capital on Tap will not discuss your application with us, we cannot make it for you.

The referrer caps, and what they mean for you

Since the 29 April 2025 update, the referrer side of the scheme is capped twice. Clause 4.1: “You are limited to a maximum of ten (10) Referral Bonus payouts per calendar month. Once this limit is reached, you will not be eligible to earn any further Referral Bonus for the remainder of that month. The cap is applied on a monthly basis and will reset at the start of each new calendar month. In addition to the foregoing, you may only claim up to a limit of 100 Referral Bonuses.”

For us that means 10 bonus payouts per calendar month and 100 bonuses in total, after which the code earns us nothing. For you, it is less clear. Section 5, which covers the referred business, does not say what happens to your bonus if the person who referred you is over their cap that month. It might be paid regardless, or it might not; the terms are silent, and we are not going to guess.

What we will do is tell you. If we get close to the monthly cap we will say so at the top of this page, and if we reach the lifetime cap we will take the code down and explain why on how we make money. This is also why we do not plaster the code across every page like a voucher site. The scheme is small by design, and so is our use of it.

Referral code or promo code: is there a difference?

For this code, no. People search for a “Capital on Tap promo code”, a “discount code”, a “referral code” and a “voucher code” and they mean the same thing: something to type into the code box on the application. Capital on Tap’s application accepts referral codes and promotional codes in that one field, and 2REFS477A36 is a referral code. It is not a discount, because there is nothing to discount on a card with £0 annual fee.

It helps to know what else exists, so you do not mix them up:

• Partner and promotional codes. Capital on Tap runs separate promotional offers with their own legal pages, some through partners such as accountants and company-formation services. Where these exist for the free card, the bonus advertised is typically the same 7,500 points. There is no better code hiding somewhere.
• The Pro welcome bonus. This is a different offer for the paid card: 10,000 bonus points when you spend £5,000 in the first 3 months. The FAQ says it “is for new customers who have not previously received a sign-up bonus”, which suggests you should not assume you can collect both the referral bonus and the Pro bonus. Ask before you upgrade if that matters to you. Whether Pro is worth its fee at all is a separate question, covered in the Pro break-even analysis.
• Customer-only promotions. Capital on Tap occasionally emails existing customers time-limited offers, such as extra points on a referral made in an anniversary month. Those are invitation-only and do not affect what a new applicant receives.

Tax: the bonus may be income

Clause 4.4 of the terms: “The value of the Referral Bonus may be taxable income to you. You are responsible for any taxes resulting from the Referral Bonus. Please consult your tax advisor if you have questions about the tax treatment of a Referral Bonus.” The FAQ says something similar about points generally: “Redeeming points for cash into a bank account may have tax implications, depending on your business’s specific circumstances.”

For a limited company the practical position is usually straightforward: cash or cash-equivalent rewards received by the company are income of the company and go through the accounts. How Avios or Virgin Points are treated is a different and less settled question, which is one of the reasons some business owners prefer to convert. Our Avios guide sets out the question to put to your accountant. We are not tax advisers and this is not advice.

Pro members may be offered more

Clause 4.2: “If we have agreed to enrol you in Rewards Pro as part of your Rewards Membership, you may be entitled to receive a higher Referral Bonus. The details of such Referral Bonus will be set out in your Online Portal.” Section 5 then says that if you were referred by a Pro member “you will be entitled to the same Referral Bonus which they received.”

We are on the free tier, so what our code pays is the standard 7,500 points. If a friend who holds Pro offers you their code, it is worth asking them what their portal shows, because it might be higher. We would rather you got the bigger bonus than used ours.

The 29 April 2025 terms update

The Refer a Friend Programme terms carry a last-updated date of 29 April 2025, and that revision changed the scheme in three ways that still matter. Before it, the bonus was a flat £75 and there were no caps on how many referrals a customer could be paid for. The current terms replace that with the choice of 7,500 points or £75 against the balance, add the 10 bonus payouts per calendar month limit, and add the 100 bonuses in total ceiling.

Two later clauses are worth knowing about. Clause 9.1 lets Capital on Tap “suspend, cancel, terminate or modify the terms of the Refer a Friend Programme and/or any Referral Bonus... at any time in our sole discretion”. Clause 9.4 says that if new terms are issued later, they apply when the referral uses a new link generated under those terms. In other words, the deal you get is the one in force when you apply through the link, not the one described on a page written months earlier.

We re-check the terms page and its last-updated date; the figures on this page were last verified on 15 September 2026. If the bonus, the caps or the payout timing change, the news section gets a dated entry and this page is updated the same day.

Our interest, plainly

More on how we work is in how we make money and the editorial policy. Credit is subject to status and eligibility, and Capital on Tap is the lender: New Wave Capital Limited (trading as Capital on Tap), company number 07959823.