The American Express Business Platinum Card® is not only one of the most fabulous cards for business owners. But it’s also one of the top cards for travel rewards in general. Unfortunately, members must pay for this quality since the card levies a $595 yearly fee. It will increase to $695 on January 13, 2022. Despite the variety of significant advantages. There are cards which were just launched in October. Further, with some outstanding possibilities to acquire extra points. The Amex Business Platinum Card is often overtaken by its personal predecessor. The Platinum Card® from American Express, which has an overwhelming $695 annual fee.
You might want to reconsider your decision on obtaining a card. The latest introduction of a new welcome bonus of 120,000 points after spending $15,000 on qualifying purchases in the first three months of card membership. Here we mentioned few reasons why you should get the Amex Business Platinum rather than the Amex Platinum. Additionally we would help you to how to decide that.
Amex Platinum card
You’ll earn 100,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $6,000 on transactions with the card in the first six months of membership. Plus, during your first six months of card membership, get 10x points per dollar at restaurants anywhere in the world. Not only that you can shop local in the United States (on up to $25,000 in combined expenditures).
Earning
The following are the rates at which this card earns points:
- On flights booked directly with airlines or via Amex Travel (up to $500,000 per calendar year), you’ll earn 5 points per dollar.
- On prepaid accommodations booked via Amex Travel, get 5 points for each dollar spent.
- All other qualified purchases get 1 point per dollar spent.
Unique Benefits
The personal Amex Platinum Card offers the following advantages that the corporate version does not (certain benefits need enrollment):
- Up to $200 in Uber Cash each calendar year for rides or UberEats orders in the United States: Monthly payments of up to $15, with an additional $20 in December.
- An annual hotel bill credit of up to $200: Bookings made via American Express Travel for prepaid Amex. You can make the payment using this card.
- Equinox credit of up to $300 per year: On some Equinox memberships or digital subscriptions to the Equinox on-demand workout app, you may get up to $25 in monthly bill credits.
- Annual digital entertainment credit of up to 240 dollars: Up to $20 in monthly statement credits on Audible, The New York Times, SiriusXM, and Peacock purchases or subscriptions.
- Annual statement credits of up to $155 may be used to offset the cost of a monthly Walmart+ membership, including taxes.
- When you buy one SoulCycle at-home bike (in one transaction), you can get a $300 bill credit. You may purchase up to 15 bikes each calendar year.
This card outperforms the Amex Business Platinum in terms of statement credit volume. These credits, on the other hand, aren’t for everyone. For example, if you don’t live in an Equinox gym or don’t want to pay for a digital membership through the app, this credit is primarily worthless. That credit is also useless if you don’t subscribe to one of the four major digital entertainment merchants regularly. You may not acquire much mileage out of that reward if you don’t periodically travel via airports that join the Clear security program.
Amex Business Platinum Card
Spend $15,000 on qualifying purchases during the first three months of card enrollment to earn 120,000 Membership Rewards points. This is a 20,000-point increase over the last public offer. The welcome bonus is worth exactly $2,400, according to TPG, which values Amex points at 2 cents each.
Earning
The Amex Business Platinum card earns points at the following rates, as well as some new bonus options:
- On flights booked via Amex Travel, you’ll earn 5 points for every dollar spent.
- On prepaid hotels booked via Amex Travel, get 5 points for each dollar spent.
- Up to $2 million in qualified purchases over $5,000 in the United States every calendar year, as well as electronic goods merchants, software, cloud service providers, building materials and hardware suppliers, and shipping providers, earn 1.5 points per dollar.
- All other qualified charges get 1 point per dollar.
Unique benefits
The Amex Business Platinum Card provides many of the same advantages as the personal Amex Platinum Card, but it also includes the following special features (some of which require enrollment):
- When you pay using points for a first- or business-class ticket on any airline, or an economy ticket on one airline of your choosing, you will get a 35 percent refund (up to 500,000 points return per calendar year).
- Up to $400 in yearly statement credits for Dell technology purchases made in the United States every calendar year – up to $200 in January through June and another $200 in July through December.
- To post openings and attract talent, you may get up to $360 in yearly statement credits ($90 each quarter) on all Indeed hiring and recruiting goods and services.
- An annual bill credit of up to $150 on certain Adobe purchases, such as Adobe Creative Cloud and Acrobat Pro DC.
- For purchases made straight from any U.S. cellular telephone operator, you may get up to $120 in yearly bill credits ($10 each month).
Both cards have benefits to offer
For perspective, below are the primary perks that both cards give their users in common (registration is necessary for certain benefits):
- Annual airline fee credit of up to $200 on charges by the airline you pick.
- Up to $100 statement credit for Global Entry and/or an $85 statement credit for TSA PreCheck per four years (4.5 years for PreCheck) (4.5 years for PreCheck).
- Up-to-$179 yearly Clear statement credit: Activated when using your card to make a transaction for a membership.
- Access to all the American Express worldwide Lounge Collection.
- Register for free Gold elite membership with both Hilton Honors and Marriott Bonvoy.
- No international transaction fees (see rates and fees for the Amex Platinum and rates and fees for the Amex Business Platinum) (see rates and fees for the Amex Platinum and rates and fees for the Amex Business Platinum).
- Various travel and buying safeguards.
Amex business platinum card be better for you than an Amex platinum card?
The Amex Business Platinum’s initial conditions are quite straightforward:
- Earn 120,000 additional points after spending $15,000 during the first three months. That’s a big investment, but not beyond the budget of many small enterprises.
- After satisfying the minimum spending criteria, you’d finish up with at least a minimum of 135,000 points.
When comparing, the Amex Platinum Card currently offers a tremendous bonus:
- 100,000 points after making purchases worth $6,000 within the initial six months, and 10x points per every dollar on up to $25,000 in purchases at restaurants worldwide and when you shop local inside the U.S. during the initial six months of account opening.
- On the surface, the personal card’s terms can appear preferable. Not only do you have double the time to achieve less than half the amount of spending to earn 100,000 bonus points, but if you exploited the maximum spending potential of those bonus categories, you could nab an additional 250,000 points.
- How probable is it that you’ll put down $25,000 at restaurants and U.S. Shop Small companies over the next six months, though? You’d have to spend $3,500 in those categories to reach the 135,000 points you might earn outright with the Amex Business Platinum. So you’re looking at approximately $9,500 in minimum expenditure at the absolute least. Think about how plausible it is and if you would be better off simply reaching a general spending threshold with the Amex Business Platinum.
You tend to travel on flights a lot
The two cards have fairly similar earning systems with two small (but major) variances.
First, the personal Amex Platinum Card earns 5x on flights booked not only via Amex Travel but also directly with airlines, whereas the Amex Business Platinum exclusively gets 5x on flights booked through Amex Travel. Second, the personal card’s bonus earning on flights is restricted at $500,000 in expenditure each calendar year, whereas the business version has no such restriction. Both accumulate 5x on Amex Travel prepaid hotel stays.
If you like to book tickets directly with airlines merely, a personal card is a better alternative. However, if you truly utilize Amex Trip for a majority of your travel plans. You have that choice. Then you at least won’t be losing out by charging your bookings to the Amex Business Platinum.
You pay with points frequently on air travel
One of the key ways the two cards vary is that the Amex Business Platinum provides card members a return of 35 percent of the points they redeem using Amex’s Pay with Points service, while the personal version does not. There are a few limitations, however.
First, you only get the 35 percent points return on business- or first-class flights with any airline or on tickets in any class with the same airline you preselect for your annual $200 airline charge rebate. That can constrain your choices if you don’t really intend to spend points on a ticket with the same airline.
Something more to consider:
You may only get up to 500,000 points back every calendar year. That’s a rather high threshold. But if you do consistently redeem more than about 1.4 million Membership Rewards points each year this way. You would be able to surpass the 35 percent level.
Even if you infrequently redeem Membership Rewards this way, this one advantage may save you tens of thousands of points on a single trip. Of course, that makes carrying the Amex Business Platinum instead of the personal card well worth it, as the latter won’t save you any Membership Rewards you cash in through Pay with Points.
Another way to understand this is that instead of earning 1 cent every Membership Rewards point in value redeemed for flights through Pay with Points, holding the Amex Business Platinum and redeeming this manner raises their worth up to 1.54 cents apiece – a 54 percent premium.
Summery
In conclusion, both cards have tremendous benefits. But one might appeal to you more than the other. You get to decide which is better for you. Make sure to do more research on each card for extra safety and assurance. Click here to know the best credit cards in 2021 for travelling.
