Capital on Tap vs Funding Circle Cashback card: which 1% card suits your company?

At a glance

The Funding Circle Cashback Business Credit Card has a £0 annual fee, pays 2% cashback for 6 months (capped at £2,000), then 1% uncapped, charges 0% on non-sterling spend, and states 34.9% APR representative (variable); from 14.9%. It is for limited companies only; at least one year trading; £30,000+ turnover. Cash withdrawals not permitted.

Capital on Tap’s free card has a £0 annual fee, earns 1 point per £1 from the first pound with no threshold, charges 0% non-sterling transaction fee, and gives you unlimited free employee cards with per-card limits. It accepts a Ltd, LLP or PLC with no minimum trading history. It advertises rates as low as 13.86% APR (variable) and does not publish a representative APR. I have used it for a few years in a small agency, on the free tier; I have not held the Funding Circle card, so the Funding Circle side of this page is research from Funding Circle’s own pages, checked on 28 October 2026.

• Limited company under a year old, or an LLP: Capital on Tap, because Funding Circle will not take you.
• Established limited company with heavy spend planned in the next six months: Funding Circle’s intro rate is worth a look.
• You want a published representative APR before applying: Funding Circle.
• You occasionally need cash, want points you can turn into Avios, or have several people spending: Capital on Tap.

Side by side

Funding Circle figures are from its Cashback card page and support pages; Capital on Tap figures are from its card page, FAQ and credit agreement. “Not stated in our data” means we have not yet recorded a sourced figure, not that the feature is missing. The other free 1% card with no FX fee, the iwoca Credit Card, is compared on Capital on Tap vs iwoca.

Cashback and the 2% intro rate

Funding Circle’s headline is the intro offer: 2% cashback for 6 months (capped at £2,000), then 1% uncapped. After the first six months, the two cards pay the same rate, 1% uncapped, so the whole difference in rewards lives in that opening window.

How much is it worth? Take a company putting £5,000 a month on the card. Over six months that is £30,000 of spend: at 2% it earns £600, at 1% it would earn £300, so the intro rate adds about £300. Funding Circle’s page caps the intro cashback at the figure shown above, and at 2% you would need to spend fifty times the cap in six months to reach it. For most small companies the cap will not bite; the six-month clock will. Check when the six months start before you time a large purchase around it.

Capital on Tap’s nearest equivalent is the referral bonus: 7,500 points, or £75 against your balance, for a new customer who applies through a referral link and makes a first transaction. Set that against Funding Circle’s extra 1%: the two are worth the same in cash at £7,500 of spend over the six months. Spend less than that and Capital on Tap’s bonus is worth more; spend more and Funding Circle’s intro rate wins on day-one value. That is a fair point in Funding Circle’s favour for a busy, established company, and we would rather you knew it.

Beyond the first six months, the difference is in what the 1% becomes. Capital on Tap pays in points worth 1 point = 1p (1,000 points = £10), redeemable as balance credit, cash, gift cards, Avios, Virgin Points or Radisson Rewards. Funding Circle pays cashback. If you want cash, they are equivalent; if you want Avios or Virgin Points, only Capital on Tap offers that route. The cashback calculator shows what your own spend earns on Capital on Tap, and the cashback cards comparison sets both against the rest of the market.

Eligibility: the startup question

This is where the two cards part company. Funding Circle’s page lists: limited companies only; at least one year trading; £30,000+ turnover. Capital on Tap asks for a Ltd, LLP or PLC, active on Companies House, with £24,000 minimum annual turnover, no unsatisfied CCJs in the last 12 months, applied for by an active UK director or a shareholder with 25% or more. There is no minimum trading history.

So two groups can get Capital on Tap but not Funding Circle. First, any limited company that has been trading for less than a year: a new consultancy, agency or e-commerce business in its first months. Second, LLPs, because Funding Circle’s wording is limited companies. For these businesses the comparison is over before it starts, and Capital on Tap is the clear choice between the two; our page on business credit cards for startups covers what a young company can realistically expect, including modest starting limits.

Neither card accepts sole traders. If that is you, the best business credit cards UK page lists the cards that do. For Capital on Tap’s full criteria and what happens at the soft search stage (soft search on your personal credit file when you apply), see Capital on Tap eligibility.

Non-sterling spend and cash withdrawals

On non-sterling spend they are level: Capital on Tap charges 0% non-sterling transaction fee and Funding Circle charges 0%. For a business paying for US software, cloud hosting or overseas suppliers, both beat the non-sterling fees most high-street business cards charge. The no foreign transaction fee cards page lists the rest.

Cash is different. Funding Circle’s support pages say: cash withdrawals not permitted. Capital on Tap allows them with a £0 ATM fee at home and abroad, limited to two withdrawals and £400 in any 24 hours. That is not an invitation: Capital on Tap charges interest on cash withdrawals from the day you take them, and there are no points on cash withdrawals or fees. But for a business that occasionally needs cash abroad or for a supplier who only takes cash, it is a facility Funding Circle does not offer at all.

Representative APR: Funding Circle publishes one, Capital on Tap does not

Funding Circle states its rate in the standard format: 34.9% APR representative (variable); from 14.9%. That tells you before you apply what most accepted customers pay.

Capital on Tap advertises rates as low as 13.86% APR (variable). Capital on Tap does not publish a representative APR on its website. Your rate depends on your personal and business credit history and the Bank of England base rate, and you see it after the soft search. We do not repeat third-party figures for Capital on Tap’s representative APR because the ones in circulation contradict each other. If you pay in full every month the difference is academic: Capital on Tap charges no interest on purchases if you pay the statement balance in full by the due date. If you plan to carry a balance, Funding Circle gives you a number to compare and Capital on Tap does not, and that is a genuine point in Funding Circle’s favour. Either way, the guide to avoiding interest is the better answer than comparing rates.

Who issues each card

Neither card comes from a bank, and neither needs you to move your business current account. Funding Circle’s card: Issued by Monavate Ltd (EMI, FRN 901097) for Funding Circle. In other words, an electronic money institution issues the card on Funding Circle’s behalf.

Capital on Tap is New Wave Capital Limited (trading as Capital on Tap), with FCA firm reference 625592 (consumer credit). It is not a bank either. In practice the question that matters is not the licence type but whether you are comfortable with a specialist lender rather than your bank. The Capital on Tap review covers who is behind it and what the complaints look like, and our Funding Circle Cashback card review does the same for Funding Circle.

Personal guarantees

Both cards want one. Funding Circle’s support pages answer “Yes” to whether a personal guarantee is needed, and Capital on Tap says a personal guarantee required from a director or major shareholder. A director who signs either is personally liable if the company cannot pay the balance. That is standard for small-business credit cards outside the big banks, but it is not a formality, and the personal guarantee guide explains what you are signing.

Employee cards, credit limits and accounting

Capital on Tap gives you unlimited free employee cards with per-card limits, plus instant virtual cards for subscriptions and one-off online purchases. In my agency I use its card controls, so a card has its own limit and can be cut off on its own. For Funding Circle, our data on employee cards reads: Unlimited and free (a feature Funding Circle labels Beta); only a director can issue them.

Both sync to accounting software. Capital on Tap supports Sage, Xero, QuickBooks, FreeAgent and more, syncs every 12 hours; Funding Circle lists FreeAgent, Xero, Sage. I use Capital on Tap’s sync to Xero for our own books.

On credit limits, Capital on Tap advertises up to £250,000, but starting limits are often far lower; mine was lower than I expected and has not moved since. For Funding Circle, our data on limits reads: Up to £250,000. A headline maximum tells you little about what a small company will be offered on day one, on either card.

Who should choose which

If you are a young limited company or an LLP, Capital on Tap is the one of the two you can have, and it is a strong card in its own right: no fee, no FX charge, 1% from the first pound, free employee cards and accounting sync. If you are an established limited company about to put a lot of spend through a card, Funding Circle’s intro rate is a real advantage for six months, and its published APR is useful if you might borrow. After month six, the two pay the same 1%, and the choice comes down to cash access, points flexibility, staff cards and which limit each offers you.