Capital on Tap rewards: cashback, points and Avios explained

I have earned and redeemed Capital on Tap points for a few years on the free card, so this is part first-hand and part reading of the Rewards Terms and Conditions (last updated 8 June 2026) and the FAQ. Where I quote a rate, it is Capital on Tap’s published rate on 15 September 2026; several of them are described in the terms as “set out in your Online Portal”, which means they can change without a rewrite of the T&Cs.

How Capital on Tap points work

The earn rate is 1 point per £1 spent on the card, and 1 point = 1p (1,000 points = £10). Capital on Tap markets this as 1% cashback, and the two descriptions are the same thing viewed from different ends. There are no bonus categories, no spending tiers and no cap on the free card.

Rounding is the first edge. The terms say “we will round down each separate request to the nearest pound to calculate your Points earned”, so a £4.99 coffee earns four points and a £149.50 software renewal earns 149. Across hundreds of small transactions that shaves a fraction off the headline 1%, though for a business putting most of its spend through in larger invoices it is barely visible.

Points appear in the Rewards Points History shortly after a transaction is processed and are available to redeem once the transaction has posted. The history shows daily accruals, bonuses, refund adjustments and redemptions as separate lines rather than a running total; the live balance sits on the main Rewards page.

Points accrue to the account, not to individual cards. Spend on employee cards and virtual cards earns at the same rate and lands in the same balance, and Capital on Tap says that if a card is replaced the points stay with the account. For a business that puts staff expenses and every software subscription through separate cards, that means one points balance to manage rather than several. It also means only the account holder can redeem; employee users see their own transactions, not the rewards page.

On Pro, the rate rises to 1.25% on preloaded spend (and Daily Repay via Smart Repay). Ordinary credit spend on Pro still earns 1% on ordinary credit spend, same as the free card, a distinction the marketing does not labour. Our Pro break-even page works through what that extra 0.25% is actually worth.

What does not earn points

The rewards terms exclude three things, and a fourth rule takes points back:

• Cash withdrawals. ATM cash and drawdowns to your bank account earn nothing, and they also accrue interest from day one. Details in our Capital on Tap fees guide.
• Fees. The Bill Pay fee, the Pro membership fee and any other charge Capital on Tap applies do not earn points. The terms put it as: “You will not earn Points on any Cash Withdrawals ... or on any fees we may charge you.”
• Interest. Interest is not a purchase, so it earns nothing either.
• Refunds. points are cancelled on refunded purchases. In the terms: “If you have a purchase refunded, we will cancel the Points earned for that purchase which may result in a negative Points balance.” If you redeemed the points before the refund landed, your balance goes negative and future earnings fill the hole first.

Preloaded spend does earn. If you top up the card with your own money because your limit is too low for a purchase, the purchase still earns at the normal rate on the free card and at the boosted rate on Pro. Given how low the initial limit can be (mine was, and increases have been hard work, as our credit limit page explains), preloading is worth knowing about.

Bill Pay and points: two fee options

Bill Pay pays a supplier by bank transfer from your credit line. It earns points, but only on one of its two fee options, and the maths is a wash on the free card:

The 2% option makes sense if you want Avios rather than cash, since the points it earns can be converted while the fee is simply a cost. The 1% option makes sense if you want a clean line on the invoice. Either way, remember that one point per pound is earned on the amount paid, rounded down, and the fee itself earns nothing. Paying HMRC and suppliers by card covers when a 1% net cost is worth paying to keep cash in the business for another month.

Redemption options: balance, cash, gift cards or airline points

You redeem from the Rewards page in the portal or app. The options are balance credit, cash, gift cards, Avios, Virgin Points or Radisson Rewards. Each behaves slightly differently:

• Balance credit. Points reduce what you owe at the rate shown in the portal. The terms are explicit that this reduction does not count towards the monthly minimum payment, so your Direct Debit still needs to go through.
• Cash to a bank account. Paid to an account in your business or personal name, with a £10 minimum for cash to a bank account and paid within two business days. Capital on Tap’s cashback page notes that cash to an account other than your nominated business account is paid “at a slightly lower rate”.
• Gift cards. E-gift cards from a list of retailers, with the conversion rate and minimum points per card shown in the portal at the time.
• Avios, Virgin Points and Radisson Rewards. Covered in the next section.

Timing is the same for all of them: points are available to redeem as soon as the transaction has posted, and there is no minimum holding period. Cash is the slowest at paid within two business days; balance credits and gift cards are applied when you confirm, and Avios are Avios credited within 24 hours. Gift cards are the option to check most carefully, because the retailer list and the points-per-card rate are set in the portal at the time and can differ from the flat penny-a-point you get elsewhere.

One rule applies to all of them: redemptions cannot be reversed. The terms say “Once you have redeemed your Points this cannot be reversed or transferred.” and, for Avios specifically, that you cannot convert them back once the British Airways account has been credited. Points can also only be claimed while the credit account is in good standing, with no arrears and no overdue payment.

Avios, Virgin Points and Radisson Rewards

Airline conversion is where the free card and Pro part company. The rates below are from Capital on Tap’s FAQ; the rewards terms themselves only say the rate is “displayed in your Online Portal”.

There is no conversion fee on either tier; Capital on Tap says all customers can convert “at no extra cost”. Avios go to The British Airways Club or Qatar Airways Privilege Club, and Schedule B of the rewards terms says that for a limited company only the main account holder can receive them. Virgin Points go to Virgin Red or Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. A minimum number of points may apply to an Avios conversion; the portal shows it.

Whether 0.8 Avios per point is a good deal depends on what you do with the Avios. Head for Points, the UK frequent-flyer site, puts a ball-park value of about 1p on an Avios, which would make a free-card point worth 0.8p converted against 1p as cash. At that valuation, converting on the free tier only makes sense if you redeem for flights where you get above-average value per Avios. Our guide to earning Avios on business spend compares the Capital on Tap rates with the Amex options and covers the tax question.

Worked example: what your spend earns in a year

The table applies Capital on Tap’s published rates to three monthly spend levels. Points are 1 point per £1, cash value is 1 point = 1p (1,000 points = £10), and Avios use the free-card rate of 0.8 per point, with the Pro rate alongside for contrast. Rounding down on individual transactions would trim these slightly.

Put your own figure in the cashback calculator, which also shows the Pro break-even point and lets you toggle between the two tiers. For context on scale, the referral minimum turnover of £24,000 minimum annual turnover equates to £2,000 a month; a business at that level putting everything through the card would earn roughly £240 a year.

Expiry and forfeiture: the two ways to lose points

Clause 11 of the rewards terms sets out expiry, and clause 5 sets out forfeiture for arrears. They are different mechanisms:

• Inactivity. Points expire if “you do not earn or redeem any Points for more than 24 months”. Any earning or redeeming resets the clock, so an active card never hits this. Points also expire when the rewards membership is terminated, including if you close the account.
• Arrears. “If you are late paying under your Credit Account by more than 14 days, you may lose all Points in your Points Account that you have earned but not yet claimed” You earn nothing while in arrears, and once you are back in good standing, points are forfeited again each time a monthly payment is missed. A single missed Direct Debit can cost more in points than a year of the 1% is worth, which is one more reason to set the repayment option to full balance and leave it alone.
• Cancelling Pro. If you or Capital on Tap cancel a paid membership, you can earn until the next renewal would have happened and must redeem by the end of the period you last paid for. Points left after that are lost.

The 8 June 2026 rewards terms update

Capital on Tap republished the Rewards Terms on 8 June 2026. We compared the text with the previous November 2025 version. For free-card customers nothing about earning or redeeming changed. The edits concern Pro memberships paid monthly: a minimum period during which you cannot downgrade, automatic downgrade after two consecutive missed instalments, rules for switching between monthly and annual plans, and clearer wording on redeeming points after cancellation. The Avios clause was also renamed from “BA Executive Club” to “The British Airways Club” with no change to the mechanics. The clause-by-clause summary is in our news entry on the June 2026 update.

Tax: rewards on business spend may be taxable

Two Capital on Tap documents raise this and neither answers it, because it depends on your circumstances. Schedule B, point 10 of the rewards terms says a tax liability “may arise, for example, if you obtain Avios and or Points as a result of business expenditure” and tells you to check with an accountant or tax adviser. The FAQ says redeeming points for cash into a bank account “may have tax implications”.

The practical distinction most accountants draw is between rewards that stay in the company (a balance credit or cash to the business account, which reduces the cost of the underlying expense) and rewards a director takes personally (Avios in a personal British Airways account, a gift card used at home). The referral bonus carries the same caveat: the referral terms say it may be taxable income. Ask before you convert a large balance, and keep the redemption history from the portal for your records.

Is the Capital on Tap rewards scheme any good?

For a business that pays its statement in full, a flat 1% on everything with no annual fee and no FX fee is about as good as UK business cards get. Barclaycard Select Cashback matches the 1% but only in months you clear its spend threshold; the high-street banks pay 0.5% or restrict cashback to fuel; Amex pays more in points but charges a fee and is accepted in fewer places. The comparisons are in our roundup of the best business credit cards.

The weaknesses are real but small: rounding down, a free-tier Avios rate that makes airline redemptions marginal, and forfeiture rules that punish a missed payment hard. None of them has cost me anything in practice, because the Direct Debit does its job. If you are choosing between the free card and Pro purely for the rewards, read whether Pro is worth it before paying the fee, and if you want the wider picture of living with the card, my Capital on Tap review covers the rest.