If you're a UK business owner looking to earn rewards points on your spend, then you’ve probably come across Capital On Tap.
We found them back in 2024, and purely because I was looking for a way to earn more airmiles!
We already had experience using a range of Amex's as well as Barclaycard Avios cards, but wanted to further try and optimise all our spend for points.
I mean, long story short is we're still using them 2 and a half years in, so we're definitely fans!
But it's certainly not going to be for everyone; and in fact you may even get greater benefit form other business rewards cards.
Either way, below I just want to throw my 2 pence in the ring and share our exact experience using Capital On Tap.
Including:
Enjoy!
BONUS SIGN UP OFFER: You can get an additional £75 off if you sign up for Capital On Tap using my referral link here. It’s valid for both the free and Pro account signups. And if you do get pro, then you can still get the bonus 10,000 points after £5,000. So it’s a win-win-win!
The biggest compliment I can give Capital on Tap is that it just works. The app makes sense, payments go through, refunds come back and points are easy to redeem. Compared to Amex, it feels almost laughably straightforward.
We have only had one genuine problem, and they fixed it ridiculously quickly. Beyond that, we have never had a random decline, unexpected fee or missing reward.
Would we sign up again? Absolutely. I think the free card is a very easy recommendation for businesses that want cashback or Avios and will clear the balance every month.
Pro is slightly different. It costs £299 a year and I would only choose it if you can point to specific benefits you will genuinely use. For us, that is mainly the unlimited Priority Pass membership, the better Avios conversion and, more recently, Preloading.
If that already sounds like what you need, you can check the current Capital on Tap offer here.
I’m going to talk a bit more in-depth about each of these points below. First up …
For us, the original attraction was purely Avios. We don’t need the finance features, it’s not why we use it. This may be very different or why you’re looking into the card, and maybe you see Avios building as more of a sideline.
For us … this is purely the reason we have it.
Back in 2024, we had money going out every month on software, travel, equipment and countless other bits, but were paying for almost everything by our standard Revolut Business debit card. Turning that spending into something useful seemed like a no-brainer.
Capital on Tap also ticked another very important box for us: no foreign transaction fees on card purchases. A large chunk of our business expenses comes from travelling, so any card charging an extra fee every time we used it abroad was instantly less appealing.
The application itself was stupidly straightforward. I cannot remember every verification step after this long, but there were no drawn-out calls, awkward discussions or piles of paperwork. I applied, they approved us and the card arrived. Bish, bash, bosh.
We actually tried. We once took out an Amex Business Gold card, but it was our first Amex and we completely misunderstood what it could do. We thought we could use it more like a bank account and pay people by transfer.
Once we realised that was not how it worked, we freaked out a little and cancelled it. In hindsight, we were complete Amex newbies, but even now I do not think it would suit us particularly well.
I find the Amex app and website so clunky and awkward compared with Capital on Tap. It is also accepted in fewer places and charges foreign transaction fees, which is a rubbish combination for a travel business.
Capital on Tap runs on Visa, works in far more places and lets us earn Avios without adding a fee every time we leave the UK. For us, it was the far more obvious choice.
Capital on Tap is not our main bank account. Revolut Business remains the hub. Income comes into Revolut, Direct Debits and transfers leave from there, then Capital on Tap handles whatever card expenses we can.
That setup works perfectly for us. We put roughly 80% of our card-payable business expenses through Capital on Tap, then clear the full balance automatically every month.
That last bit is VERY important. We use the card to earn rewards, not to borrow money. If you carry a balance and start paying interest, those lovely points can become rather pointless very quickly.
Which is the same as how any credit card works.
Capital on Tap now offers Bill Pay for certain BACS payments, but we have never used it. For us, it remains a spending card rather than a replacement bank account.
If you are comparing money apps more generally, we have a detailed Revolut Business review after using it in more than 80 countries.
Honestly, it is very uneventful, which is exactly what I want from a business card. I can log in, see the balance, check recent spending, make a payment and redeem rewards without having to work anything out.
We share one card, so I cannot give you clever insight into employee controls. Capital on Tap offers them, but our little business does not need them. They may be fantastic. I have no idea, and I am not going to pretend otherwise.
What I can say is that our own card has worked flawlessly. We have never had an unexplained charge, missing reward or payment decline, and we have never needed to fight with support over a transaction.
It sounds boring, but boring is exactly what I want from a business card. If the same simple setup would suit you, this is the Capital on Tap link we use.
This is probably one of the biggest reasons we have kept it. We have used Capital on Tap throughout Europe, as well as across the USA, such as Florida, Washington DC and New York. It has worked everywhere we tried it. We have also never seen an unexpected foreign transaction charge.
During our recent USA trip, Amtrak cancelled our Washington to New York train around an hour before departure. They processed the refund and it came back onto the Capital on Tap account without any drama at their end.
Again, boring. But exactly what you want from a card.
One feature we had never really cared about suddenly became very useful on that trip: Preloading. We added our USA budget directly onto the Capital on Tap account, which effectively created a dedicated spending pot for Washington and New York.
Instead of every expense coming straight from Revolut, we could see exactly how much trip money remained. It made spending easier to track and stopped us merrily rinsing the main account.
Because we are on Pro, spending from preloaded funds currently earns 1.25% cashback rather than the normal 1%. That is cashback, not interest, and you can check the live rate on the official Capital on Tap Pro page.
It’s not exactly setting the world on light. But if you’re a bigger baller than us then maybe for you these funds could add up.
You can check the current bonus through our referral link here.
Every £1 of eligible spending earns one Capital on Tap point. You can use those points as cashback, put them against your card balance or convert them into a whole range of different vouches / airmiles accounts. We choose Avios.
The transfer process is not something we overthink. Every so often I log in, head to the rewards section and move whatever has built up. I have probably only done it 4 or 5 times, but it has always been straightforward.
The important update is that Free and Pro no longer convert at the same rate. Free converts 10 points into 8 Avios, while Pro converts 1 point into 1 Avios. You can check the current rates on Capital on Tap's official Avios page.
The extra 0.2 Avios per £1 is nice, but not worth £299 alone. You would need enormous spending before it covered the fee. Combined with lounge access, however, it becomes more interesting.
More on the Pro features below. Bit first …
Yes, as one part of a much bigger points strategy. We have collected Avios through several cards and offers over the years, but Capital on Tap helped turn normal business expenses into more of them without us changing what we were buying.
Those points ultimately formed part of the pot we used to book two British Airways First Class seats for 88,000 Avios plus £1,205.08. That was the total for both of us.
Our separate guide explains exactly how we booked BA First Class with Avios. You can also read my full BA First Class review if you want to see what we actually got for those points.
Spoiler alert: it was every bit as ridiculous as we hoped.
But yeah that’s the whole reason we started collecting Avios in he first place. As a way to occasionally travel in a very premium way that we otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford. And Capital On Tap has helped fit into this strategy perfectly.
We originally chose Pro for the unlimited Priority Pass membership. We travel a lot, airport food is painfully expensive and having somewhere quieter to work is genuinely useful. That made Pro feel worthwhile.
We have typically paid independently for a Priority Pass over the years, even before we started using airmiles cards. So this feature alone saves us buying it direct..
We have used that benefit plenty. The rest of the shiny Pro extras? Not so much.
I signed up for Go Privilege, but it feels designed for bigger ballers than us. We have barely touched Radisson status, The Times or most of the other added benefits. The metal card feels nice, sure, but nobody should pay £299 a year because a card feels heavy.
For us, Pro earns its place through three things:
· Unlimited Priority Pass access for the main cardholder
· The 1:1 Avios conversion
· The 1.25% cashback on preloaded spending
That is it. If those benefits ever don’t justify £299 for US, I would go back to Free.
And for you, you may already be an Amex Platinum member for example and already get an unlimited Priority Pass there. So the value of the Pro account on here becomes less worthwhile.
So the question of the premium version of any airmiles card always comes back to, what are the value of those extras actually to you?
P.s. haven’t used a Priority Pass much in the past? That’s fine, it’s just a free way to get into most airport lounges around the world. For an idea of how these work, here are a few recent lounge reviews we have done:
This is the only genuine problem we have ever had with Capital on Tap, and strangely it ended up making me trust them more. When we joined, the QuickBooks integration was one of the features we expected to use, but it did not actually work for us at the time.
I submitted the issue and they replied the next day. Within another day or two, they had refunded our entire Pro fee. I did not spend weeks chasing them or get passed through six useless departments. They admitted the issue and dealt with it ridiculously quickly.
QuickBooks has since launched properly and now works spot on for us. Transactions feed across as expected, making the accounting side far easier. Capital on Tap also supports Xero, Sage and FreeAgent, and you can read its official QuickBooks announcement here.
This is normally where a review invents dramatic cons to look balanced. I am not doing that. In 2.5 years, we have not had a decline, missing reward or unexpected foreign fee.
I genuinely do not have a day-to-day complaint.
That is so unhelpful I know, and I genuinely feel sorry!
But just being objective: as far as banking apps go, it’s really easy to use and just works! I hate how the American Express app works. It just feels so glitchy and awkward in comparison to Capital On Tap.
Capital on Tap is currently for eligible UK companies and does not accept sole traders. You also need to meet its ownership, credit and business requirements, and approval is never guaranteed.
I cannot tell you whether they will approve you, and neither can some random credit score table online. Check the current Capital on Tap eligibility rules before applying rather than relying on an old review, including ours.
I think the card makes the most sense for an eligible UK business with regular expenses that can be paid by card. It is particularly appealing if you want straightforward cashback or Avios, spend money abroad and will clear the full balance every month.
If you want to get a lot more perks from a business account, then the other big UK name that springs to mind is the American Express Platinum. We’ve always been tempted, but at £650 a year it’s a LOT more expensive than Capital On Tap. Admittedly you do get 2 passes from that I believe.
As well a few hundred quid of straight up travel vouchers to use. And not to mention a much more hefty signup bonus. I doubt we will ever be in a position to nonchalantly pay for both COT or and the Amex Platinum at once. But we would like to try Amex Platinum ourselves at some point.
If most of your spend is in GBP, then an Amex Platinum becomes more appealing as you can push through a lot more spending. But for us, spending in multiple currencies, the exchange fees of Amex just don’t make sense.
After 2.5 years, Capital on Tap is still our main business spending card. Not because every Pro perk is amazing, and definitely not because the metal card makes me feel important.
We keep using it because it is easy, it works abroad, QuickBooks now connects properly and the Avios are simple to redeem. Preloading made our USA budget easier, Priority Pass has saved us money at airports and the points helped get us into British Airways First Class.
But the biggest compliment is still the simplest one: Capital on Tap has never caused us any real grief. After 2.5 years of constant use, that is pretty bloody impressive.
If it sounds right for your business, apply through our Capital on Tap link here. The current offer gives you 7,500 bonus points after your first transaction, which is worth £75 cashback, 6,000 Avios on Free or 7,500 Avios on Pro.
We may receive a referral reward if you are approved, so if you do go ahead then thank you in advance!
Just remember: credit is not free money. This only works as a rewards tool if you clear the balance properly.
And also, we are in no way financial advisors. So the above is simply our experience and nothing more. Do your due diligence before signing up.
For any other questions you may have, feel free to drop a comment below and I will help how I can!
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