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Self-Employed UK: Get £75 Free + Points on Every Spend (2026)

By Afshin · 12 May 2026 · 9 min read

If you're self-employed in the UK and using a personal card for business expenses, you're leaving real money on the table. Capital On Tap pays a 7,500-point welcome bonus (worth £75 cash) the moment you make your first card transaction with referral code 2REFY893A52, plus 1 point per £1 spent forever after — points you can cash out, transfer to Avios for plane tickets, or stack toward a holiday. This guide explains exactly who qualifies as 'self-employed' for the card, how the bonus and points work, and how to redeem them for the best value.

What 'self-employed' means for Capital On Tap

In the UK, 'self-employed' covers two very different tax structures, and they qualify differently for Capital On Tap.

If you're a director of your own Limited Company (LTD) or a member of a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) — the most common structure for UK self-employed people earning over ~£30k once you factor in tax efficiency — you can apply for Capital On Tap directly and claim the £75 bonus today. This includes most contractors, consultants, freelancers, agency owners, e-commerce sellers, tradespeople running through a Ltd, and creative professionals.

If you're a pure sole trader filing a Self Assessment return without a registered company, Capital On Tap is not currently open to you. But the path to qualifying is short: you can incorporate a Limited Company online with Companies House in under 24 hours for £12, and apply once you're registered. Most accountants recommend incorporating anyway once your annual profit passes around £30,000 because of the tax savings, and this card adds another reason.

• Self-employed Ltd director — eligible, apply now with code 2REFY893A52
• Self-employed LLP member — eligible, same code applies
• Self-employed sole trader (no Ltd) — not eligible directly; incorporate first
• Self-employed via umbrella company — not eligible (you're an employee of the umbrella, not running a business)

What you actually get: £75 bonus + 1% on every spend, forever

The headline offer has two layers. First, a one-time welcome bonus of 7,500 points (worth £75 in cashback or Avios value) credited after you make your first card transaction with referral code 2REFY893A52 — that 'first transaction' can be any genuine business spend, even a £1 software subscription or a tank of fuel.

Second, every pound you spend on the card afterwards earns 1 point — equivalent to 1% — with no cap, no rotating categories, no tiers, no expiry. Spend £30,000 in a year and you've earned 30,000 points (£300) on top of the welcome bonus. Spend £100,000 and you're at £1,000 plus the £75. There is no annual fee, so the points are pure margin.

Compare this to spending the same amounts on a personal debit card or your business bank's standard card: zero rewards on either. Compare to most UK personal cashback credit cards: capped at £150–£300 per year, often with monthly minimum spends and tiered rates. Capital On Tap's flat 1% on unlimited spend with no annual fee is genuinely one of the better deals in the UK card market right now.

Three ways to redeem your points (cash, flights, or a holiday)

Points can be redeemed three ways, and you can switch between them inside your Capital On Tap account whenever you like.

**Cashback**: 1 point = 1p, credited straight to your card balance. This is the simplest option and gives a guaranteed 1% return. If you'd rather just lower your business expenses, pick this.

**Avios for flights**: transfer points to British Airways' Avios programme at 1:1, which means 7,500 welcome bonus = 7,500 Avios. That's enough for a one-way short-haul economy reward flight (e.g. London to Amsterdam, Paris, Dublin, or Edinburgh) when you add cash for taxes, or it can be combined with later earnings toward a long-haul redemption. Aviation enthusiasts and frequent BA flyers usually get more value per point this way than via cashback.

**Holiday spending and travel offsets**: any cashback redemption can be spent however you want — including booking hotels, package holidays, or topping up airline tickets. There's no special 'travel portal' that locks you into inflated prices. Many self-employed people simply let cashback build up across the year and use the lump sum to offset a family holiday in summer.

How the £75 bonus actually credits to your account

The mechanic is simpler than most welcome bonuses. There's no minimum spend requirement, no 90-day window, no specific category you have to spend in. Once you're approved and your virtual card is issued, you make any single card transaction — and the 7,500 bonus points appear in your Capital On Tap rewards balance, typically within a few days of the transaction settling.

From there you can convert it to £75 cashback (credited to your card balance), 7,500 Avios (transferred to your BA executive club account), or leave the points compounding alongside future earnings.

One thing to watch: you must apply through a referral link with the code attached. Going directly to Capital On Tap's website without a referral skips the bonus entirely — there's no way to add the code retrospectively. Use code 2REFY893A52 at the application step and the bonus is automatically attached to your account.

What self-employed people typically spend on the card

The card is most valuable for self-employed people whose business expenses currently sit on a personal card or a debit card with no rewards. Typical UK self-employed spend that earns 1% back includes:

• Software subscriptions (Xero, Adobe, Microsoft 365, Notion, Canva, Slack, Zoom)
• Cloud services (AWS, Google Workspace, hosting, domains)
• Marketing (Meta, Google Ads, LinkedIn, Bing Ads)
• Professional services (accountant, solicitor, insurance broker)
• Stock, materials, equipment, tools
• Travel — fuel, train tickets, parking, hotels, flights for client visits
• Business meals and client entertainment (within HMRC rules)
• Phone bills, broadband, co-working space
• Stationery, postage, printing, signage

Worked example: a £40k turnover freelancer

Say you're a freelance designer running through a Ltd, billing £40,000 a year. Your typical business expenses might be around £8,000 (software, marketing, accountant, phone, equipment, occasional travel). Putting it all on Capital On Tap earns you:

• £75 welcome bonus from code 2REFY893A52 after your first transaction

• £80 in 1% cashback over the year on £8,000 of normal business spend

• Total year-one return: £155, with zero annual fee

Year two onward, with the welcome bonus already banked, you'd still earn £80 cashback at the same spend level. Scale that to £20,000 of annual business expenses (common for self-employed people running e-commerce or trades businesses) and you're at £200 a year on autopilot, plus the £75 in year one.

How to apply if you're already a Limited Company director

If your Ltd has been registered with Companies House for at least three months and you're a director, the application takes around two minutes:

1. Visit the referral link at tapondeals.co.uk/capital-on-tap-promo-code/ (which automatically attaches code 2REFY893A52)

2. Enter your company number, your name as director, and your home address

3. Capital On Tap runs a soft credit check on you personally — no impact on your credit file at this stage

4. Most applicants get an instant decision and a virtual card to use immediately

5. Make any single card transaction to trigger the £75 welcome bonus

The physical card arrives in the post within 3–5 working days. You can add the virtual card to Apple Pay or Google Pay straight away if you don't want to wait.

How to apply if you're currently a sole trader

If you're trading as a sole trader and want access to Capital On Tap, the route is to incorporate a Limited Company first. This is genuinely quick:

1. Choose a company name (must be unique and end in 'Limited' or 'Ltd')

2. Register with Companies House online — the standard fee is £12 and takes 24 hours, or £100 for same-day service

3. Open a free business bank account (Tide, Starling Business, or Mettle all open in minutes)

4. Move your trading into the Ltd from the new tax year (your accountant can help structure this without losing continuity with HMRC)

5. Trade through the Ltd for at least three months to meet Capital On Tap's minimum trading-history requirement

6. Apply with code 2REFY893A52

Most accountants will tell you that incorporating once your profit passes £30,000–£40,000 saves more in tax (via the dividend split and pension-contribution flexibility) than it costs. The Capital On Tap £75 bonus and ongoing cashback is essentially a small extra reason on top of that.

What it doesn't do (be honest with yourself)

Capital On Tap is a credit card with a representative APR of around 35.4% variable. If you carry a balance month-to-month rather than paying in full, the interest will dwarf the cashback and the £75 bonus. The card only makes sense if you treat it as a charge card and clear the balance each month.

It also won't help you build personal credit — it reports to commercial credit bureaus (Experian Business, Equifax Commercial), not your personal Experian/Equifax/TransUnion file. If your goal is rebuilding personal credit, this isn't the product.

And the bonus is one-per-business: you can't open multiple Ltds just to claim it repeatedly. Capital On Tap's underwriting catches this and the bonus is forfeited.