Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Great new card offer – get 40,000 Avios with the Amex Business Gold Card

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I tend not to cover small business credit cards on Head for Points because they don’t offer great value.

There are, for example, two British Airways American Express Corporate Cards, which I discuss in this post on the On Business loyalty scheme.  They are not desperately exciting, though, and usually have no sign-up bonus.

Reader Joe tipped me off about what is genuinely a fantastic offerAmex is currently offering 40,000 Membership Rewards points when you apply for the American Express Business Gold card.

American Express Business Gold card

See here for full details.

Here are the basics:

  • The card carries an annual fee of £125.
  • Membership Rewards points from small business cards go into a separate Membership Rewards account to any personal MR account you have.
  • You need to spend £3,000 in three months to get the 40,000 Membership Rewards points
  • You earn 1 point per £1 when you spend on the card

Now, the question is ‘what does Amex count as a small business?’.

Here are the qualifications from the Amex website:

“To apply for the Gold Business Card, you should be able to say yes to the following.

  • I am aged 18 or over
  • The company has been trading for more than one year and has a current UK Bank or Building Society account
  • My personal income is over £20,000
  • I have a permanent UK home address
  • I/The Business have/has no County Court Judgements for non-payment of debt
  • Pay annual fee of £125 (Tax deductable)

I understand that I will not be eligible for any Welcome Bonus award if I have held any American Express Charge Cards in the past six months.”

What is not fully clear to me is whether the last point applies to YOU or to your COMPANY.  Since this card is available to limited companies as well as sole traders, and as you need a company bank account to apply, I don’t see how the block on giving you the points if ‘you’ have any Amex Charge Cards could apply to a director, instead of the company itself.  I cannot be certain of this though.

It is certainly an offer worth a look if you have your own company.  If you have an Amex corporate card for your own small business, please share any experiences below.


Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.

Barclaycard Select Cashback Business Credit Card

1% cashback uncapped* on all your business spending (T&C apply) Read our full review

Comments (6)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Neil Spellings (@neilspellings) says:

    I have my own Ltd company and am already an Amex Plat holder I’ll sign up and see what happens!

  • ElCreakio says:

    I called Amex re having previous charge cards and unfortunately they said if you hold a personal gold charge card you won’t get the business gold card welcome bonus. Didn’t check about platinum though.

    • Raffles says:

      That’s a shame if true. Shame about the card fee, because if not you could give it a go anyway. As it stands, you’d be £75 out of pocket if the bonus didn’t arrive.

    • James Ward says:

      I just called and got the exact opposite answer. According to the person I spoke to, the two cards are not related so you’re eligible for both.

  • mblythin says:

    Damn, I got this card for my Ltd about 4 months ago. On the plus side, my card (must be an older version) gives 2 MR per £1 which makes it pretty decent value for general business expenses. A day trip to London this week from Scotland essentially netted me 600MR.

  • skcam says:

    so would these MR points be transferable into a personal BAEC a/c? does making a fully refundable flight booking typically “work” towards min spend thanks?

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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