Business credit card FAQs: Capital on Tap and UK cards in general

Capital on Tap is a Visa business credit card for UK limited companies, issued by New Wave Capital Limited (trading as Capital on Tap). It is not a bank, but it holds FCA firm reference 625592 (consumer credit) and FCA firm reference 900922 (electronic money). The standard card has £0 annual fee; a paid tier, Pro, costs £299 a year. Capital on Tap says it is used by more than 300,000 UK businesses.

A credit card. It is a revolving credit facility, so you can carry a balance from month to month if you choose. The minimum payment is the greater of 10% of the balance or £100. There is no interest on purchases if you pay the statement balance in full by the due date, so a business that clears the statement each month pays no interest at all. Cash withdrawals are different: they accrue interest from the day they are taken.

Yes. Capital on Tap advertises automatic sync to Sage, Xero, QuickBooks, FreeAgent and more, and its FAQ says the feed syncs every 12 hours, covering card payments, refunds and interest charges. First-time Xero subscribers are offered 6 months of Xero free for first-time subscribers. I use the sync in my own business and it is the feature that removed the most admin.

Yes. The card page advertises unlimited free employee cards, with limits per billing period or per transaction set from the portal. You can also create instant virtual cards, which suit software subscriptions because each tool can have its own card and limit. I run both employee and virtual cards in a small agency and cover the set-up in the guides.

If you apply through our referral link or enter our promo code, are approved, and make a transaction within 30 days of activating the card, Capital on Tap pays 7,500 points to both the referrer and the new customer. You can take yours as £75 off your balance instead. It is paid within one month of the first transaction. It is the same bonus for both of us, and it is this site's only income.

The programme terms say the new business must be brand-new Capital on Tap customers only, based in the UK, with no CCJs and £24,000 minimum annual turnover. It must apply through the referral link (or code); an application started on the ordinary site without the code does not qualify, and the bonus cannot be added afterwards. You also need to be approved for the card, which is a separate decision.

No. The terms are explicit that the bonus is only paid when the referral link or code is used, so a direct application earns nothing for you and nothing for us. You are welcome to apply directly if you would rather not use a referral; the information on this site is free either way. If you do want the bonus, start from our link or enter the code when the form asks for it.

The terms say the bonus may be taxable income, so treat it as business income and mention it to your accountant. The terms also say the bonus bonus can be lost if payments are not kept up, and separately that earned points points can be lost if you are more than 14 days late. Keep the account in order and neither applies.

Not on the standard card, which has £0 annual fee. Employee cards are also free. The paid tier, Capital on Tap Pro, costs £299 a year, billed annually, in exchange for 1.25% on preloaded spend (and Daily Repay via Smart Repay), lounge access and a better Avios rate. Whether Pro pays for itself depends on spend: Capital on Tap's own break-even figure is £29,900 of ordinary credit spend at 1%.

Capital on Tap advertises rates as low as 13.86% APR (variable) and Capital on Tap does not publish a representative APR on its website, so we do not quote one. Your rate is your fixed business rate plus the Bank of England Bank Rate, and depends on your personal and business credit history and the Bank of England base rate. It rate only changes at the start of a billing period. Pay the statement in full by the due date and no interest is charged on purchases.

No. The card has a 0% non-sterling transaction fee, which matters for any business paying for USD or EUR software and overseas suppliers, where a typical card adds 2.75% to 2.99%. There is also £0 ATM fee, but cash is limited to two withdrawals and £400 in any 24 hours and there is interest on cash withdrawals from the day you take them, so it is not a cheap way to get cash.

The credit agreement lists £0 charge for missing the minimum payment, but missing payments still costs you. Points points can be lost if you are more than 14 days late, the account can be suspended, and the agreement allows reasonable enforcement, legal and tracing costs. Interest accrues on the unpaid balance. There is no over-limit fee (the card is declined instead), so going over the limit simply blocks further spending until you repay.

You earn 1 point per £1 on card spend, and 1 point = 1p (1,000 points = £10), which is why Capital on Tap describes it as 1% cashback. Points are calculated with each transaction rounded down to the nearest pound, and there are no points on cash withdrawals or fees. Refunded purchases have their points cancelled. Bill Pay earns points too, but only on the higher-fee option.

Points can be redeemed for balance credit, cash, gift cards, Avios, Virgin Points or Radisson Rewards. Cash to a bank account has a £10 minimum for cash to a bank account and is paid within two business days. Note that redemptions cannot be reversed, so check the option before confirming. I have redeemed points myself; the process is done from the portal in a few steps.

Yes. On the standard card the rate is 10 points = 8 Avios on the free card; on Pro it improves to 10 points = 10 Avios on Pro. Virgin Points convert at the same two rates. Capital on Tap says Avios credited within 24 hours of conversion. At the ball-park value Head for Points uses, roughly 1p per Avios, the free-tier conversion is worth slightly less than taking cash, so it only makes sense if you will actually use the Avios well.

They can. The rewards terms say points expire after 24 months with no earning or redeeming. In practice any card spend or any redemption resets the clock, so an account in regular use never reaches that point. Points are also cancelled if a purchase is refunded, which can leave a negative balance, and can be lost if you fall more than 14 days behind on payments.

Your business must be registered as Ltd, LLP or PLC, be active on Companies House, have no unsatisfied CCJs in the last 12 months, be not in a high-risk industry and have £24,000 minimum annual turnover. The applicant must be an active UK director or a shareholder with 25% or more. There is no minimum trading history, so a newly incorporated company can apply. Capital on Tap advertises a decision in around 2 minutes.

No. Capital on Tap is not available to sole traders; you need a limited company, LLP or PLC. Sole traders have other options, including the BA Amex Accelerating Business card, Barclaycard Select Cashback and business debit cards from Monzo, Starling, Tide and Revolut. Our sole trader guide compares them and earns us nothing, since there is no referral attached to any of them.

Capital on Tap says it runs a soft search on your personal credit file when you apply, so applying does not leave a hard mark on your personal file. A hard search is run on the business's credit file only once you sign the credit agreement. Be aware that a personal guarantee required from a director or major shareholder, which means you are personally liable if the company cannot pay.

Capital on Tap advertises limits up to £250,000, but the starting limit is individual and, in my experience, lower than expected. Capital on Tap runs automatic account reviews for higher limits, and you can request a manual review, though a manual review can lower your limit as well as raise it. Its own guidance suggests 3 to 6 months of on-time history between requests. Getting my limit increased has been genuinely difficult, and the credit limit page explains what helps.

Not strictly, but paying company costs on a personal card creates two problems: the bookkeeping gets tangled, and money the company owes you (or you owe it) runs through the director's loan account, which has tax consequences if it is not settled. A business card keeps company spend on the company's books, gives staff their own cards with limits, and feeds transactions straight into the accounts.

Yes, for most taxes. HMRC accepts corporate credit and corporate debit cards, but not personal credit cards, and charges a non-refundable fee on corporate credit cards whose percentage gov.uk does not publish. HMRC treats the payment as made on the day you pay. Whether the points earned outweigh the fee depends on the fee applied, so check gov.uk before you pay and compare it with a bank transfer.

Not to Capital on Tap. Its FAQ states that Section 75 does not apply because the card is not regulated under the Consumer Credit Act. You still have the Visa chargeback process for card purchases that go wrong. Bill Pay payments are bank transfers rather than card payments, so Bill Pay payments have no chargeback rights. Other business cards vary, so check each issuer's terms.

A card suits short-term, recurring spend that you will clear each month: subscriptions, travel, supplies, advertising. Used that way it costs nothing and earns points. An overdraft suits irregular cash-flow gaps, and a term loan suits a single large purchase repaid over years. Carrying a large card balance for months is usually the most expensive of the three, so match the tool to the length of the borrowing.