LAST CHANCE: Get 40,000 points with American Express Business Platinum AND a £100 bonus

UPDATE – SEPTEMBER 2023:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.  We produce a monthly directory of the top UK travel credit card offers – please click HERE or use the ‘Credit Cards’ menu above.  Thank you.

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American Express Business Platinum is currently running a new promotion but it ends on Tuesday 18th July.

It isn’t life changing but if you were on the fence about applying then it should be enough to tilt you over.

Until Tuesday night, new cardmembers will receive an extra £100 statement credit. This is on top of the usual bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £12,000 within your first three months of holding the card.

American Express has also improved the benefits package recently, with all cardmembers now getting a £200 annual travel credit to spend at Amex Travel.

You can find out more details about, and apply for, American Express Business Platinum here.

Get 40,000 Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus

New cardmembers receive 40,000 Membership Rewards points as a sign-up bonus on American Express Business Platinum.

You need to spend £12,000 within three months to trigger the two parts of the bonus.

Once you’ve spent £12,000, you receive 40,000 American Express Membership Rewards points which convert into:

• 40,000 Avios
• 40,000 Virgin Points
• 40,000 Emirates, Etihad, Flying Blue, Asia Miles, Delta, Finnair, Qantas or SAS miles
• 26,666 Singapore Airlines miles
• 80,000 Hilton Honors points
• 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points
• 120,000 Radisson Rewards points
• 2,666 Club Eurostar points

….. and many other non-travel rewards.  I wrote this article on the most valuable Membership Rewards redemptions.

Apply now and receive an extra £100 on top

If you successfully apply by Tuesday 18th July, American Express will give you a £100 statement credit at the same time as you trigger the 40,000 bonus points.

You may qualify for the bonus even if you think you don’t

It is easier to qualify for the sign-up bonus on the Business Platinum card than the personal Platinum Card.

To get the 40,000 Membership Rewards points on signing up, you only need to have gone 13 MONTHS without any American Express card (personal or business) which earns Membership Rewards points.  The personal Platinum Card requires you to wait 24 months.

A valuable new £200 benefit for all Business Platinum cardmembers

In 2022, American Express added a £200 Amex Travel credit to the benefits package.

Importantly, you receive this credit EVERY membership year. It isn’t a one-off.

You will receive an annual £200 of statement credit against £200 of charges from Amex Travel.

The only catch is that the £200 must be spent in a single transaction. If you use it against a hotel booking, it will need to be pre-paid and therefore will not qualify for elite status benefits or hotel loyalty points.

A second new benefit – up to 120,000 annual bonus points

In addition to the new £200 credit when you book with Amex Travel, you will now earn an extra 10,000 Membership Rewards point bonus in every month where you spend £10,000+.

There is cap of 120,000 bonus points each year. If you can reach that, even in the worse case scenario – ie you convert them via Avios into Nectar points worth 0.66p each – you’re getting £800 of extra value each year.

£10,000 per month may seem a lot but there are lots of small companies – primarily those who do lots of Google and Facebook advertising – who spend this easily.

If this sounds like you, American Express Business Platinum is now THE most valuable credit card in the UK for your spending.

You’d be earning 2 Membership Rewards points per £1 spent in a month where you charged exactly £10,000 to the card, and this can’t be beaten. This would convert into 2 Avios per £1 or whatever else you chose to do with them.

Card facts

Now let’s look at the card in more detail …..

The annual fee is £650, refundable pro-rata if you cancel.

(Important: whilst it will no longer be possible to get a pro-rata refund on personal credit cards from 2nd October, you will still be able to get a pro-rata refund on Amex charge cards like this one.)

You receive one free supplementary Platinum Card. Additional Platinum supplementary cards after the first free one are £295. Supplementary cards receive all of the benefits below, including the travel insurance, hotel status cards and Priority Pass, with the exception of the Dell credit and the Amex Travel credit.  You can have free Gold supplementary cards for other employees but these do not come with any substantial benefits.

American Express Business Platinum is a charge card, not a credit card.  You must clear your full balance at the end of each month.

The card is metal.

Until 18th July, the sign-up bonus is 40,000 Membership Rewards points and a £100 statement credit. This requires you to spend £12,000 within your first three months of membership.  You qualify for the bonus as long as “you do not currently hold or have held any Membership Rewards enrolled American Express card in the past 13 months.”

You earn 1 Membership Rewards points on virtually every £1 spent on the card.  These convert 1:1 into Avios, Virgin Points and lots of other airline and hotel programmes, plus Eurostar points (15:1).  You can also redeem for various shopping vouchers.  You can see the redemption options on the Membership Rewards website.

You earn an extra 10,000 Membership Rewards point bonus in every month where you spend £10,000+. This is capped at 120,000 bonus points per year.

What are the criteria for applying for Amex Business Platinum?

There is no minimum income exclusion and no trading requirement.  You can apply even if you have just set up your business, as long as:

• The business has a current UK Bank or Building Society account
• You are aged 18 or over
• You have a permanent UK home address

What is the Amex Business Platinum benefits package?

Let’s look at what you get for £650:

You will receive a complimentary Priority Pass card.  Priority Pass is a network of 1,300 airport lounges across the world, including seven in London Heathrow.  This includes the Club Aspire and Plaza Premium lounges in BA’s Heathrow Terminal 5.  Your Priority Pass allows an unlimited number of free visits to their lounges.  You can also bring in a guest for free.

You can also give a Priority Pass card to a second person by allocating your one free Supplementary Platinum Business card to them.  If this is your partner or spouse, you would both be able to get into the lounge for free and each bring in a free guest so a family of four is covered.  Additional guests would be charged at £20 each.

You can also access American Express Centurion lounges with a guest, including the new Centurion Lounge in Heathrow Terminal 3.

You will receive comprehensive travel insurance – you can take a look at the policy document here (PDF).

You will receive Gold status in the Marriott Bonvoy hotel loyalty scheme.  This will give added benefits at Marriott, Renaissance, Sheraton, Westin, W, aloft, St Regis, The Ritz-Carlton, The Luxury Collection etc properties – over 30 brands in total.

You will receive Premium status in the Radisson Rewards hotel loyalty scheme.  This will give added benefits at Radisson Blu / RED, Park Plaza and Park Inn hotels.

You will receive Gold status in the Hilton Honors hotel loyalty scheme.  This is the best mid-tier hotel status to have, because you get free breakfast with it.  You will get benefits at Hilton, Waldorf Astoria, Hampton, Curio etc.

You will receive Gold status in the MeliaRewards hotel loyalty scheme.  You will get benefits at Melia and INNSIDE hotels, with benefits including three 20% discount vouchers each year and ‘2 for 1’ breakfast.

You receive £150 or equivalent cashback when you book a onefinestay home rental.  You can use this benefit an unlimited number of times.  There are no ‘cheap’ properties with onefinestay, although your £150 credit could still get you a decent discount at lower cost properties.

You receive a free digital subscription to The Times and The Sunday Times.  This is worth over £300, and if you currently pay for this it is a huge incentive to take out the card.

You receive £150 credit per year to spend with Dell. No minimum spend applies but the credit is split into two parts. You can earn £75 cashback between January and June and £75 cashback between July and December.

You receive £200 credit per membership year to spend with Amex Travel. The only rule is that the spend is made in one pre-paid transaction.

You can access the Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts Programme.  This offers genuine added value benefits at a large number of luxury hotels across the world.  These include a GUARANTEED 4pm check-out, free breakfast, an upgrade if available at check-in and typically a $100 credit towards on-property spending.

There are also benefits with Avis Preferred and Hertz Gold Plus Rewards but these are, in all honesty, no better than deals that are generally available.

This card WILL continue to offer pro-rata refunds

As we reported recently, American Express will no longer offer pro-rata fee refunds from October for anyone who cancels one of its credit cards.

Because Business Platinum is a charge card, and not a credit card, it is not covered by this rule.

You will still be able to cancel Business Platinum at any time and get a pro-rata fee refund for the remainder of your membership year.

Conclusion

The limited time sign-up bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points (worth 40,000 Avios or 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points or 120,000 Radisson Rewards points or 40,000 Virgin Points etc etc) plus a £100 statement credit is a good reason for getting the American Express Business Platinum card now if you had been on the fence.

This is before you consider the new £200 of annual Amex Travel credit, which is an excellent benefit and – for our readers – virtually as good as cash.

Earning an extra 10,000 Membership Rewards points bonus in every month where you spend £10,000+ is also very attractive for bigger spenders.

Whilst the £650 annual fee is high it would be refunded pro-rata if you decided after a few months that the card was not for you.

Remember that it is easier to get the bonus on Business Platinum compared to the personal version because it only requires you to have gone 13 months without a card earning Membership Rewards points.  The personal version requires you to have gone 24 months without a personal card earning Membership Rewards points.

You can find out more about American Express Business Platinum, and apply, on the American Express website here. Remember that you need to apply by Tuesday night to receive the extra £100 statement credit.

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Want to earn more points from credit cards? – September 2023 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:

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: The sign-up bonus on the Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard is doubled to 30,000 Virgin Points if you apply by 2nd October. You receive 15,000 Virgin Points with your first purchase and a further 15,000 points if you spend £3,000 within 90 days. Apply here.

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:

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.