What is the difference between American Express Business Gold and Business Platinum?

We often get asked about the differences between the American Express Business Gold and American Express Business Platinum cards.

The Amex Business Gold and Amex Business Platinum cards have two fundamental elements in common. You earn American Express Membership Rewards points from your eligible spending and as a sign-up bonus and they are both charge cards rather than credit cards. There are also key differences, however.

As you will see the benefits offered by the cards are significant, including supplementary cards for employees, Dell spending credits and – with Business Platinum – travel insurance, airport lounge access, hotel elite status, an annual £200 Amex Travel credit and a quarterly recruitment credit from Indeed.

(There is a sister article to this one looking at the differences between the personal Platinum and Gold cards – click here to read it.)

In this article I review the benefits of both the American Express Business Gold and Business Platinum cards followed by a comparison of the Membership Rewards points bonuses, fees and application criteria.

If you want to see a dedicated article on either card, click here for our full review of American Express Business Platinum and click here for our full review of American Express Business Gold.

What are the benefits of Amex Business Gold?

You receive £100 credit per year to spend with Dell. No minimum spend applies (spend under the limit and your items are totally free) but the credit is split into two parts. You can get £50 credit between January and June and £50 credit to use between July and December.

You will receive an additional 10,000 bonus Membership Rewards points whenever you spend £20,000 in a calendar quarter (Jan-Mar, Apr-Jun, Jul-Sep, Oct-Dec). If you spent exactly £20,000 in a quarter, you would have earned 30,000 points in total. This comprises 10,000 bonus points and 20,000 base points.

What are the benefits of Amex Business Platinum?

As usual, American Express adds a lot of bells and whistles to the Business Platinum card, many of which will improve your business – and leisure – travel:

• You receive £200 per year to spend at Amex Travel. The only condition is that the £200 is spent in one transaction with Amex Travel online, using your Business Platinum card. The £200 credit renews on your card anniversary.

• 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 credit between January and June and £75 credit between July and December.

• You will receive a complimentary Priority Pass card.  Priority Pass is a network of 1,500 airport lounges across the world, including eight in London Heathrow.  This includes the Aspire and Plaza Premium lounges in BA’s Heathrow Terminal 5.  Your Priority Pass allows an unlimited number of free visits to their lounges, subject to availability.  You can also bring in a guest for free.

• You can also give a Priority Pass card to your supplementary cardholder.  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 £24 each.

• You will receive comprehensive travel insurance.  This is a very valuable benefit – you can take a look at the policy document here (PDF).  Unlike the personal Platinum card, you are covered up to the age of 80 and there are fewer restrictions on how you pay for your travel.

• 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 – 36 brands in total.

• You will receive Premium status in the Radisson Rewards hotel loyalty scheme.  This will give added benefits at Radisson Blu, Radisson 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, including three 20% discount vouchers each year and ‘2 for 1’ breakfast.

• 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 £300 credit per year to spend with indeed.com on job advertising. The credit is split into four quarterly payments of £75.

• 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.

There is also a bonus for on-going spend

As with the Business Gold card, you earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent. However with the Business Platinum card you will receive 10,000 bonus Membership Rewards points in every month where you spend over £10,000.

This would make Business Platinum the most valuable travel rewards card on the market for anyone spending exactly £10,000 per month, as they would be averaging 2 points per £1.

What are the sign-up bonuses?

American Express Business Gold offers 20,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £3,000 within three months. This is the most generous sign-up bonus generally available on any free UK business card – albeit that Amex Business Gold is only free for the first year.

The Business Platinum card offers 50,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend £6,000 within 3 months.

Membership Rewards points can be converted 1 to 1 into Avios or Virgin Points. Click here to see what other reward programmes are Membership Rewards transfer partners.

What are the rules for qualifying for the sign-up bonuses?

There are no rules! Everyone who is accepted and who hits the spend target qualifies.

There are no longer any restrictions based on other American Express cards you have or recently had.

If you are accepted for the card and spend the required sum, you will receive the bonus.

How do the annual fees on Amex Business Gold and Amex Business Platinum differ?

There is a substantial fee difference between the two cards.

Amex Business Gold has no annual fee in year 1 and is £195 per year thereafter.

Amex Business Platinum has an annual fee of £650 per year.

Annual fees are refunded pro-rata if you cancel.

Annual fees can be charged to your company as a business expense if the card is used solely for business expenditure.

What are the requirements to apply for the different cards?

American Express brought back PERSONAL minimum income requirements during 2023. It previously looked at household income and did not have an official minimum.

Amex Business Gold has no turnover or profitability requirements for the company itself, but you must have an income of £20,000+. In addition it is a requirement that:

• The business has a current UK Bank or Building Society account
• You are aged 18 or over
• You have a permanent UK home address
• You will pay the annual fee of £195, after your first year of Cardmembership

Amex Business Platinum requires a personal minimum income of £35,000, but other than that the terms are identical to those of Amex Business Gold.

The American Express business cards are aimed at small businesses and sole traders. If you are a sole trader, the requirement to have a dedicated business bank account is waived.

Do Amex Business Gold and Amex Business Platinum impose foreign exchange fees?

Yes. Both card impose a 2.99% foreign exchange fee on transactions outside the UK.

How does a charge card differ from a credit card?

Both American Express Business Gold and American Express Business Platinum are charge cards.

There are two fundamental differences between a charge card and a credit card:

• a charge card does not have a fixed credit limit, although American Express has its own internal limits based on what it knows about you, your business and your transaction history

• you must repay your entire balance at the end of each statement period – there is no ability to roll over your balance by paying interest

If you are someone who always pays off your credit card at the end of the month, you won’t notice any day-to-day difference from using a charge card.

Conclusion

Both American Express Business Gold and the American Express Business Platinum come with generous sign up bonuses, ongoing spend bonuses and allow you to make the most of all employee spending with supplementary cards (up to 20 free supplementary cards on both products).

American Express Business Gold gets you:

• a sign-up bonus of 20,000 American Express Membership Rewards points when you spend £3,000 in the first 3 months
• No annual fee for the first year (£195 thereafter)
• a £100 annual credit with Dell
• up to 40,000 bonus points per year based on spending

The Business Platinum card has a very heavy fee – and is not free in the first year – but comes with an unmatched range of travel and non-travel benefits and a big sign-up bonus. 

Where do I apply?

The application form for American Express Business Gold (20,000 points sign-up bonus) can be found here.

The application form for the Business Platinum card (50,000 points sign-up bonus) can be found here.