Business Platinum – should I switch to personal Amex Platinum?

[Noodles34]

I have a Business Platinum and am wondering if i would be better off getting a personal one? Seems like there are more worthwhile benefits. Okay, so it would be in my name and home address etc. but that is not an issue for HMRC as far as i am aware. Basically like claiming expenses.
Any issue with this that anyone might be aware of?

[JoeL]

In the same position as you and considering the same. I can’t see how it would be an issue to put certain business expenses through a personal card. Plenty of people do it. I’d just speak to your accountants to see what the easiest way of doing this is

[Noodles34]

You can put anything through a personal card, as i said, it really becomes just an expense recuperation, much the same as if you were claiming cash (which you effectively are – to pay the card off). Clearly having a dedicated business card to your works address is easier and ticks the boxes but it is not actually necessary. I guess there is a contentious issue re. the fee, because technically it is not a business card, you can’t really ask the business to pay the fee but will they find that??

[JDB]

Noodles34 wrote:

You can put anything through a personal card, as i said, it really becomes just an expense recuperation, much the same as if you were claiming cash (which you effectively are – to pay the card off). Clearly having a dedicated business card to your works address is easier and ticks the boxes but it is not actually necessary. I guess there is a contentious issue re. the fee, because technically it is not a business card, you can’t really ask the business to pay the fee but will they find that??

Your two posts raise a few questions. You can in theory do this and you could probably even justify charging the fee if it passed the ‘wholly and exclusively’ test. Your personal card agreement however, almost certainly has a term saying that you can’t use the card for businesses purposes. This is because they want the higher interchange/merchant fees allowed on business cards.

If you do go down this route you should ask your accountant but in any event, assuming you are trying to do the right thing, you need to have transparent record keeping, pay the personal bill yourself and get repaid by the company based on receipts for legitimate expenses and identifying ones e.g. that are expensable but not tax deductible. Refunds or statement credits get more complicated and it’s all a bit less clean for VAT.

Re “will they find that” who knows, but is it really worth it? That can only be your call.

• This reply was modified 55 years, 4 months ago by .

[memesweeper]

I have business Gold. If they put the spend bonuses from Business Gold and the restaurant credits from Personal Platinum over to the Business Platinum I’d upgrade immediately. Sadly I don’t thinks this is going to happen.

Previously I ran a BAPP exclusively for business purposes, including linking into the company accounting package and expensing the annual fee (with the agreement of my accountant), and done the opposite — have run a business card with extensive personal use, and not linked the card to my accounts at all. Doubtless this is all a violation of Amex and possibly other terms, but I’m relaxed about the risks, as this is a card company, not HMRC, we’re talking about.

Be aware, if you switch from a ‘real’ business product like Business Platinum to a personal card used for business then you will impact your ability to qualify for sign-up bonuses on other personal products from Amex. For this reason personal Platinum is off the agenda for me for 2022.

• This reply was modified 55 years, 4 months ago by .

[Noodles34]

Thanks for the advice guys

[thomas@thomasflynn.com]

I am much the same. I run my own business and use my main Platinum card for personal expenses and a supplementary card on the same account for any work expenses. Anything on the supplementary card I claim back through my business.

This has worked very well for me for many years and is very clear as to what’s personal vs what’s business.

Does anyone else work in this way?

[JDB]

thomas@thomasflynn.com wrote:

I am much the same. I run my own business and use my main Platinum card for personal expenses and a supplementary card on the same account for any work expenses. Anything on the supplementary card I claim back through my business.

This has worked very well for me for many years and is very clear as to what’s personal vs what’s business.

Does anyone else work in this way?

I’m not sure why you keep posting what is essentially the same question twice. Amex terms do not allow business use of personal cards and vice versa. What anyone else chooses to do is irrelevant – you need to decide whether you are going to comply with Amex terms or flout them. If you do decide to get a Business card you need to pay those statements from a personal account, something also reiterated in the new terms.