Amex for business use

[MCO]

I am self employed and probably bill around 4k a month for business purpose on my Mastercard. Am I allowed to do that through the BA Amex card? Reason why I as is that I got a letter from them last year that they would only accept a payment from a personal account in my name and not from any business accounts.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

[Carlos]

Expect a knock on the door

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

Several threads have raised this issue before.

Amex – as per the letter you’ve already received – does not like business expenses being put through personal cards and personal card bills should be paid from a personal not a business account.

Not sure what extra feed back you want.

[MNDltd]

Best way would be pay from your business account to your personal account. Why not just take out a business Amex and get a load of avios for joining?

[MCO]

Thought about that but already have the PLatinum and adding a Business Gold is just another set of fees on top of Plat and BA PP.

[No Longer Entitled]

MCO wrote:

Thought about that but already have the PLatinum and adding a Business Gold is just another set of fees on top of Plat and BA PP.

There is no fee for the Business Gold in the first year. With your spend you will easily pick up the 60,000 points currently on offer plus the on-going spend at £4k a month will end up netting you over 100,000 points in the first year.

Note, the fee is tax deductible should you keep it in year two because remember, it is picked up by the business not you. The Avios earned however carry no personal tax liability.

With your projected level of spend it might be worth considering the Plat Business which will get you about 170,000 in the same period (120,000 welcome, 50,000 spend). But only you can determine if the fee in year 1 makes the additional points worth it.

[MonkeymaN]

The OP already has a personal Platinum card, so would not be eligible for a sign up bonus.

[No Longer Entitled]

MonkeymaN wrote:

The OP already has a personal Platinum card, so would not be eligible for a sign up bonus.

Doh!

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

Forget about sign up bonuses.

@MCO need to get a business card so they can operate within AMEX rules otherwise they might end up having their personal card(s) closed.

The letter they received last year was a polite notice about not mixing business and personal expenditure. The next letter might not be so polite.

[MCO]

Thank you all for the advice.

[roame]

I am under the impression that Amex let’s you earn sign up bonuses for both personal and business cards. Those are considered separate.

[Carlos]

roame wrote:

I am under the impression that Amex let’s you earn sign up bonuses for both personal and business cards. Those are considered separate.

Rules changed about 3 years ago whereby you need to NOT have a MR earning account in the last 1/2 years (check in Rob’s reviews) in order to qualify for the sign up bonus

[zapato1060]

Rob stated the main issue here is your doing business transactions covered wrongly under s75. This along with sending F&F through Paypal are sure fire ways to get your account terminated.

[JDB]

Carlos wrote:

roame wrote:

I am under the impression that Amex let’s you earn sign up bonuses for both personal and business cards. Those are considered separate.

Rules changed about 3 years ago whereby you need to NOT have a MR earning account in the last 1/2 years (check in Rob’s reviews) in order to qualify for the sign up bonus

@Carlos sorry, but since you’re talking about SUBs, I have to ask whether (although you haven’t changed your HfP) you have yet changed your name by deed poll in the hope of getting new SUBs as you mentioned a few weeks ago?

[No Longer Entitled]

roame wrote:

I am under the impression that Amex let’s you earn sign up bonuses for both personal and business cards. Those are considered separate.

From memory it’s now a 2yr wait between SUB on personal cards. A 13mth wait between SUB on corporate cards. Holding a personal card impacts your ability to earn a SUB on a corporate card. Holding a corporate card does not impact your ability to earn a SUB on a personal card. It’s all a bit messy now.

[Andrew.]

I’d probably be asking myself how the business account name presents on a BACS or FP transfer.

As far as I’m aware there isn’t a flag on the BACS reports to indicate whether a transfer is coming from a business account or a personal account. So if your business account is a sole trader and simply appears as “Orlando McOrlando” when you transfer your monthly salary to your personal account I’m not sure how they’d know. If It’s “Orlando McOrlando t/a Orlando’s Bloomers” or Ltd or LLP in the field forget it.

[JD777]

Amazon Business American Express Card

The sub bonus comes from Amazon, so you get it regardless of being eligible (or not) for sub offer from AmEx.

“No annual fee in the first year, plus get a £100 statement credit when you spend £1,000 in your first 3 months upon approval.”

Annual fee is only £50 and you are earning 1.5% cashback from Amazon (or 60 days to pay back – you decide on checkout page) and 0.5% elsewhere.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07V3GD6PJ