No fee business credit cards in the UK: what's genuinely free and what still costs you

Five UK business credit cards charge nothing a year, for as long as you hold them: the iwoca Credit Card, Capital on Tap's Free plan, Barclaycard Select Cashback, Metro Bank, and Funding Circle's Cashback card. There's no waiver to earn and no spending target to hit.

But 'no annual fee' only ever described one charge, and on a year of ordinary company spending it's usually the smallest one. What decides the cost is interest, foreign transactions, cash withdrawals, late payment, and each extra cardholder.

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The charges that decide what a business credit card costs you

Five charges do the work. The annual fee is rarely the biggest.

Interest. This is the charge a fee-free shopper assumes won't apply, because the plan is always to clear the balance every month. Representative APRs on the cards here run from 15.95% to 54.3%. Carry £3,000 for six months at 25.5% and that's about £383 in interest – more than a decade of the £32 annual fee you avoided.

Foreign transactions. If your company pays for software in dollars or sends anyone abroad, look at this one before the annual fee. It runs from 0% to 2.99% across these cards. At 2.99%, £9,600 of foreign spend over a year costs £287. Four cards charge nothing: the iwoca Credit Card, Capital on Tap, Funding Circle, and Santander – though Santander's 0% applies when you pay in the local currency, and that card has a £30 annual fee. Metro Bank charges nothing inside the Single Euro Payments Area and 2.99% everywhere else.

Cash withdrawals. Taking cash out is the most expensive thing you can do with a business credit card. Expect 2.5% to 3% with a minimum charge, and interest from the day you withdraw – not one card here gives an interest-free period on cash. Lloyds charges 2.5% with a £2.50 minimum; NatWest and Barclaycard charge 3% with a £3 minimum. Two cards sidestep the problem by not offering cash at all: the iwoca Credit Card and Funding Circle's.

Late payment. Either £12 or nothing. Barclaycard charges £12 and can do so up to four times a year on the same account. Lloyds charges £12, and £12 again if a payment is returned or you go over your limit.

Each extra cardholder. The only charge that grows with your team. Lloyds and NatWest price their annual fee per cardholder, so a £30 fee across four cards is £120 a year, not £30. Santander charges one fee per business however many cards you hold, and Capital on Tap, Funding Circle, and American Express all include additional cards at no charge – American Express up to 20 of them.

The fee you were shopping to avoid was £0. The charges you weren't comparing came to £682.

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Is there a 0% business credit card?

One, and it isn't a no-fee card.

Barclaycard Premium Plus publishes 0% on purchases for six months from account opening, then 18.4%. It charges £150 a year. Every card on this page with no annual fee publishes no introductory offer at all: Barclaycard Select Cashback lists its introductory rate as not applicable, and Metro Bank and Santander both publish 'none'. So in the UK business market, a 0% purchase offer and a £0 annual fee don't come together. The one card that gives you six months at 0% charges £150 for it.

That's worth separating from the thing it gets confused with. 'Up to 42 days interest free', or 'up to 56 days', is a grace period, not a deal. It only works if you clear the statement balance in full and on time, every time, and interest applies to that cycle's purchases the moment you don't. Two cards go further: Capital on Tap and Funding Circle both need the previous statement paid in full as well, so one slip can cost you the following month's grace period too.

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Which UK business credit cards publish £0, charge by charge

Below are the cards a UK limited company can apply for that either charge no annual fee or are widely described as fee-free.

Sources, all checked on 14 October 2026: American Express Business Gold, Barclaycard Premium Plus, Barclaycard Select Cashback, Capital on Tap and its revolving credit facility agreement, Funding Circle Cashback, HSBC Commercial Card, Lloyds Bank, Metro Bank, NatWest, and Santander. Terms change, so read the issuer's page before you apply.

The interest-free window is 56 days on most of the bank cards and 42 on the iwoca Credit Card, Capital on Tap, and Funding Circle; American Express gives 54. HSBC is the odd one out, with up to 56 days if you pay by minimum direct debit but only 38 if you pay in full by direct debit.

Four cards look free in year one and aren't. HSBC waives £32 per card for 12 months with no way to earn it back afterwards. American Express Business Gold is free for the first membership year, then £195. Lloyds and NatWest start charging £32 and £30 per cardholder in year two, but both waive it if the account spends £6,000 or more a year.

And a representative APR is only comparable when you know the balance it assumes. Barclaycard, Lloyds, NatWest, HSBC, and Santander all publish theirs on an assumed credit limit of £1,200. The iwoca Credit Card, Metro Bank, and Funding Circle don't publish one. Capital on Tap publishes no representative APR at all, only 'rates as low as 13.86% APR (variable)', which can't be compared with the figures above.

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When paying an annual fee costs your company less

If you expect to carry a balance, a fee is often the cheaper option, and it isn't close.

Lloyds Bank charges £32 per cardholder after the first 12 months and waives it if you spend £6,000 or more a year across all cards. Its representative APR is 15.95%, the lowest of any card here. Barclaycard Select Cashback charges nothing a year and 25.5%.

On £3,000 carried for six months, the Lloyds rate costs about £240 against Barclaycard's £383. That £143 gap is more than four years of the £32 fee, before you count the fuel cashback.

So the question isn't really whether a card charges an annual fee. It's whether you'll clear the balance. If you will, pick on foreign transactions, cash, and cashback thresholds, and the annual fee is close to the only other thing that matters. If you might not, the rate matters more than everything else on the card put together.

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When a credit card is the wrong tool

A card is the cheapest way to pay for anything you can clear inside the billing cycle, and one of the most expensive ways to borrow for anything else.

The dividing line is usually the shape of the cost. Software, fuel, travel, and supplier invoices all suit a card you clear monthly. A van, a round of equipment, or a hire you're making before the revenue arrives doesn't, because the cost lands in one month and earns its way back over many. At 20% to 35% that's a slow way to fund it, and it eats the limit you keep for day-to-day spending.

An iwoca Flexi-Loan is a business loan with flexible repayment options. If you're waiting on an invoice, a Flexi-Loan can cover the gap, and you can clear it with no early repayment fee once your customer pays.

You choose a fixed term of between 12 months and five years, so you know the repayment schedule from the outset. Because there's no fee for repaying early, you can clear it as soon as the cash arrives – many of our customers only take out our finance for a few weeks, or even days. Our rates start from 1.5% per 30 days, and our business loan calculator shows what you'd repay. Every new Flexi-Loan needs a personal guarantee from at least one director.

Flexi-Loan in action: Dovetail & Slate A seasonal dip put pressure on cash flow at Guy Walker's recruitment business, and he needed funding to cover VAT, salaries, and supplier bills until revenue picked up. He bridged the gap without committing to funding for longer than he needed, repaying as cash flow recovered. Read Guy's story

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No fee business credit card questions

Which business credit card with no annual fee has the lowest interest rate?

Metro Bank, at 18.9% representative APR, and it charges every customer the same rate.

Of the other £0-annual-fee cards, Barclaycard Select Cashback is 25.5%, Funding Circle 34.9%, and the iwoca Credit Card 35.40%, while Capital on Tap publishes no representative APR to compare. If you're willing to pay a fee, Lloyds Bank is lower again at 15.95%.

Metro Bank comes with trade-offs, though. It needs one of its business current accounts, publishes no cashback, and its free foreign spending stops at the edge of the Single Euro Payments Area. It's the cheapest card to carry a balance on, not the cheapest card to run.

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Does a card with no annual fee still need a personal guarantee?

Usually yes, and the ones that don't say so haven't said they won't.

Capital on Tap, American Express, Funding Circle, and the iwoca Credit Card all publish that they need a director's guarantee. Santander goes furthest and asks all directors of a limited company to sign. Barclaycard, Metro Bank, NatWest, and HSBC publish nothing either way on their card pages, which is not the same as not requiring one – read the agreement before you sign rather than after. What a guarantee commits you to is covered in are business credit cards personally guaranteed?