July 5, 2006

Tesco Personal Finance has today introduced a new credit card aimed specifically at the 2.5 million sole traders in the UK.

The Tesco Business Card offers an interest-free period of up to eight weeks, has an interest rate of 13.9 per cent and charges an annual fee of £25.

Cardholders will earn one reward point for every £3 they spend, including balance transfers, with no limit on the number of points that can be accumulated.

There is also a fuel facility available to business owners on the card, which will offer money off petrol when filling up at Tesco. The company estimates that 2.5 million sole traders could earn 379 million free miles by using the card for their daily business costs.

"We understand the business pressures sole traders face and wanted to offer a card that could help," said Colin Robertson, head of Tesco Business Card.

"We have offered a fuel reward scheme as they told us the cost of petrol is placing an increasing demand on their finances."

Tesco Credit Card was launched in July 1997 and currently has over 1.8 million cards in use across the UK.