Is The Business Platinum Card® from American Express worth it?
The Business Platinum Card® from American Express may be worth it for business owners who travel frequently and can take advantage of its premium travel benefits, such as Amex lounge access worldwide. It also comes with high point earnings on select purchases, which makes it a great option for businesses that spend on more than just travel.
However, this American Express card does come with a substantial annual fee of $695. This makes it less appealing for small businesses that don’t usually spend much on travel. In these cases, you may prefer another business credit card better suited to your organization.
The Business Platinum Card® from American Express: Rewards
Welcome offer
You can earn 150,000 Membership Rewards Points when you spend $20,000 in the first three months of holding this card.
The value of rewards points depends on how and when you redeem them, but the average is around 1 cent per point. That means this welcome offer has a potential value of around $1,500.
Earning rewards
You can earn valuable rewards points outside of the welcome offer too, including:
- 5x points when you book prepaid flights and hotel stays through American Express Travel
- 1.5x points on certain business expenses, such as electronic goods, construction and hardware expenses, software subscriptions and expenses and shipping
- 1.5x points on any purchase of $5,000 or more
- 1x points on all other purchases
Redeeming rewards
You can redeem Amex Platinum Business card rewards in a variety of ways, providing flexibility on how you use these perks.
Some options include:
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Booking travel. When you use your rewards to book through American Express Travel, you typically get the most value per point.
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Transferring points. Amex lets you transfer points to hotel and airline rewards programs, including Delta, Marriott Bonvoy and Virgin Atlantic. You need at least 500 points to transfer and must transfer in increments of 250 points.
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Shopping. You can use your points to purchase gift cards and merchandise.
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Receiving a statement credit. Request a conversion to cash back and get a statement credit using your points.
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Donating to charity. In some cases, you can redeem points for charity donations—a benefit that could help with goodwill for your business.
The Business Platinum Card®: Benefits
Travel benefits
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American Express Global Lounge Collection. Platinum cardholders get access to Amex lounges across the globe, making business travel more enjoyable.
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Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite status. You can leverage our card membership status to upgrade to Elite status with this hotel rewards program without meeting stay requirements. That can help you earn free nights and other perks faster.
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Hilton Honors Gold status. Not a Marriott Bonvoy member? That’s okay because you get a similar benefit with Hilton’s hotel rewards program.
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Fine Hotels & Resorts program. When booking luxury and other hotel stays through American Express Travel, you can get hundreds of dollars in perks and upgrades, making any stay more enjoyable.
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Travel insurance. By paying for travel expenses with your Amex Platinum Business card, you get automatic Amex travel coverage that helps mitigate losses due to delayed or canceled trips, interruptions during travel, damage to rental cards or lost or delayed baggage.
Eligibility and Benefit level varies by Card. Terms, Conditions, and Limitations Apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by Amex Assurance Company.
Statement credits
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Indeed statement credit. You can get up to $90 back each quarter on purchases you make with Indeed as you work to round out your staff. This credit opportunity is through December 2024.
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Dell statement credit. Through December 2024, you can earn up to $400 on purchases with Dell in the United States. You can earn up to $200 semi-annually.
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Adobe statement credit. If you use your Amex Platinum Business card to pay for an auto-renewing Adobe subscription, you can get up to $150 back in statement credits per year.
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Wireless services statement credit. You can get up to $120 back per year when you use your Business Platinum card to pay for services with a U.S.-based wireless phone carrier.
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Airline fee credit. You can get up to $200 in credits on airline fees, including baggage fees. You’ll need to choose one airline and spend with that airline to get these perks.
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CLEAR plus credit. Earn up to $189 back on CLEAR Plus membership annually when you pay with this card.
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Global Entry or TSA PreCheck credit. Get up to $100 in statement credit every 4.5 years to help cover the cost of either Global Entry or TSA Precheck.
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Extended warranty. When you use this card to purchase items that have a manufacturer’s warranty of five years or less, you get extended coverage for up to one year. That means if your business laptop, printer, copy machine, or other covered item breaks right after the manufacturer’s warranty is up — as often happens — you’re still covered.
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Purchase protection. Use your Amex card to purchase items and get peace of mind knowing you can get reimbursed for losses if the item is damaged in an accident or stolen. This coverage is good for up to $10,000 per incident and a total benefit of $50,000 per year.
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Return protection. If you can’t return your item to a vendor, you may be able to return it directly to Amex and get a refund.
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Cell phone protection. Amex coverage will reimburse you for replacement or repair of a damaged cell phone up to $800 total minus a $50 deductible. You can use this benefit up to two times annually as long as you are paying your cell phone bill with your Amex card.
Eligibility and Benefit level varies by Card. Terms, Conditions, and Limitations Apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by Amex Assurance Company.
Fees, rates & limit
Fees
With Amex, huge perks and rewards usually come at a price, and that’s true with this card. The annual fee is $695. However, you can add up to 99 employee cards at no additional fee, and spending on those cards also earns rewards (see rates and fees).
Other fees you may pay with this credit card include:
- $39 or 2.99% of any past due balance when you make a late payment, whichever is greater
- $39 if your payment is ever returned
You won’t pay foreign transaction fees if you make purchases outside of the United States.
Interest rates
With this card, Amex offers a Pay Over Time feature that lets you carry a balance over time at an APR of 19.49% to 28.49% variable, depending on your creditworthiness. This feature is only available on certain purchases and is limited by a Pay Over Time Limit, which works similarly to a credit limit.
If you make late payments, you may be assessed a penalty APR of 29.99% variable for 12 billing cycles. The penalty APR applies if you make two or more late payments within 12 months, you have a returned payment or you fail to make a minimum payment at all within an entire statement cycle.
Credit limit
This card doesn’t come with a preset spending limit. The amount you can spend at any one time depends on your credit history and your management of American Express credit card accounts, including this one. As you demonstrate responsible account management, you can typically increase your credit limit.
Note that the Pay Over Time benefit does come with a limit. This limit might also change as you demonstrate a responsible payment history. You can call Amex to discuss your limits and how much you would like to be able to spend.
How The Business Platinum Card® from American Express compares
The Business Platinum Card® from American Express vs. American Express® Business Gold Card
For businesses that can’t maximize Platinum card perks, an American Express Business Gold Card might be a better option. The annual fee for this card is only $375 (see rates and fees), and you earn 4x points on two spending categories you select, 3x points on flights and hotels booked through American Express Travel and 1x points on other purchases. You can also get a welcome offer of 70,000 bonus points when you spend $10,000 in the first three months.
It’s worth noting that you can only earn 4x points in your selected categories on a total of $150,000 in spending annually. After that, spending in those categories earns 1x points.
While the Business Gold card doesn’t offer quite the same level of perks and statement credits that the Platinum card does, you can still earn $155 in Walmart+ credit and $20 monthly credits for eligible business expenses.
The Business Gold card also utilizes Pay Over Time features, and the rates and fee structures on this card are the same as they are for the Platinum card.
Read our full Amex Business Gold card review
Is The Business Platinum Card® from American Express right for me?
The Amex Business Platinum card holds a lot of enticing benefits, but it’s best for businesses that have higher spending budgets. If you’re only spending a few thousand each month, you probably won’t maximize the rewards and perks on this card, making that $695 annual fee a financial albatross.
Explore these alternatives if you’re not convinced the Amex Business Platinum card if the right fit for you:
You can also check out Chase business cards or Capital One Spark business cards to learn more about your options with other card issuers.
How do I apply for The Business Platinum Card® from American Express?
You can learn more about the Amex Business Platinum card and apply online. The application typically only takes a few minutes and requires information such as your full name, Social Security or tax ID number, business name, address and contact information, and some basic information about your business revenue or finances. In some cases, Amex might ask for more information, and you may need to provide documents like tax paperwork or checking account statements.
This card requires good or excellent credit. People with credit scores of 700 or higher have the best chance of being approved for this card, but other factors, such as income and overall credit history, are factors in approval.
