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Amex Business Platinum vs personal Platinum – what’s the difference?

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A regular question I get asked by readers is how American Express Business Platinum differs from The Platinum Card.

We have a similar article on how American Express Platinum differs from American Express Preferred Rewards Gold which you can find here.

Differences between business and personal american express platinum cards

What benefits are shared between American Express Business Platinum and personal Platinum?

Before we get onto the differences, which are modest, let’s look at the benefits which both cards share.

Note that this list is not comprehensive – I have focused on the travel related benefits – and you should study the Amex Business Platinum website and The Platinum Card website for full details.

You can opt in for most of these benefits via this page of the American Express website. This page is not well promoted by Amex and a lot of Platinum cardholders don’t know it exists.

Airport lounge access

You will receive a free Priority Pass card.  Priority Pass is a network of 1,400 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 via your free supplementary Platinum card.  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.  This means that a family of four can get into a lounge if you give your partner the second card.

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

Amex Business Platinum and personal Platinum differences

Hotel status

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 – 31 brands in total.

You will receive Premium status in the Radisson Rewards hotel loyalty scheme.  This will give added benefits at Radisson Blu / RED / Individuals, Park Plaza and Park Inn hotels. One key benefit of Premium is the ability to activate ‘Discount Booster’ and receive an additional cash discount of c 10% in return for earning fewer points.

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 (hotels in the US give a cash credit instead towards any F&B spend).  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.

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

Hotel booking benefits

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.

Day to day earning

Both cards earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on the card, with a few exceptions.

Both cards receive Amex Offers for making purchases at specific merchants. In my personal experience, I receive slightly more offers on The Platinum Card than Business Platinum. The offers on Business Platinum are slightly more business-driven. It is rare for any of the generous hotel cashback offers we cover on HfP to appear on Business Platinum.

Differences between Amex business platinum and personal platinum

The following benefits are exclusive to American Express Business Platinum

You receive a £200 annual Amex Travel credit. This is awarded per membership year, not per calendar year. You receive £200 off a £200+ transaction at Amex Travel (flight or hotel) which is pre-paid. This is as good as cash to most HfP readers.

You receive a monthly 10,000 points bonus whenever you spend £10,000 in a statement month. If you spent exactly £10,000 per month – which is obviously unlikely – this would mean that you were earning an average of 2 points per £1, the most generous rate of any UK payment card.

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. I have come to value this benefit and would probably continue to pay for it even if I cancelled my Business Platinum 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 £300 credit per year to spend with online recruitment group Indeed. No minimum spend applies. The credit is split into one x £75 cashback for each calendar quarter.

The following benefits are exclusive to The Platinum Card (personal)

You receive £400 per year of dining credit. This is split into two chunks – £200 per calendar year to spend at roughly 160 UK restaurants (credited at £100 per half year) and £200 equivalent per calendar year to spend at 1,200+ international restaurants (credited at £200 per half year).

You receive £100 per year of Harvey Nichols credit, split into a £50 credit for each half-calendar year. You can order items instore or online. This offer ends on 30th June 2025.

You receive Eurostar lounge access irrespective of your class of travel. You cannot bring a guest but your partner could accompany you if you issued them with the free supplementary Platinum card. Staff will often allow children in at quiet times but this is not guaranteed and a family may be turned away.

Differences between business and personal american express platinum cards

The following benefits differ between Business Platinum and The Platinum Card

Card structure

The Platinum Card (personal) is issued as a credit card.

The representative APR is 694.9% variable, including the annual fee.  The representative APR on purchases is 30.0% variable.

American Express Business Platinum remains a charge card, meaning that you MUST repay your balance in full every month.

In reality, since I doubt many of our readers pay interest on the credit card balances, this is not a key difference.

Annual fee

Both cards have an annual fee of £650 per year.

Annual fees are tax deductible for the percentage of spending which is done for business purposes. This applies to both the personal and business card.

Both cards require a personal minimum income of £35,000 per year. Amex still looks at your personal income even if you are applying for Business Platinum.

Both cards can be cancelled at any point for a pro-rata refund. Plans by Amex to remove pro-rata fee refunds on its credit cards in 2024 were dropped.

Sign-up bonus

The Platinum Card (personal) has a bonus of 50,000 Membership Rewards points. Business Platinum also has a bonus of 50,000 Membership Rewards points.

The sign-up bonus rules are different between the two cards even though the bonus is the same:

  • There are no restrictions on receiving the sign-up bonus on Business Platinum, regardless of other American Express cards you hold or have recently held
  • You only receive the bonus on The Platinum Card if you have not had any personal Membership Rewards card (Business cards are not counted) in the previous 24 months

This means than an existing holder of Business Platinum could NOT get The Platinum Card bonus but an existing holder of The Platinum Card COULD get the Business Platinum bonus.

Differences between business and personal american express platinum cards

Travel insurance

Both cards come with comprehensive travel insurance.  The coverage with Business Platinum is stronger in some areas – you are covered up to the age of 80 (vs 70 for The Platinum Card) and there is no requirement to pay for anything on American Express to receive full coverage.

Even if you are not between 70-80 yourself, remember that you can cover family members by issuing free supplementary cards to them, up to the limits allowed by each card.

I strongly recommend you read the policy documents for each card, available via the application websites here and here, if this is important to you.

Refer a friend bonuses

Both cards allow you to earn up to 90,000 Membership Rewards points per calendar year by referring friends for American Express cards.

Business Platinum cardholders receive a higher bonus of 18,000 points per successful referral, compared to 12,000 points for holders of The Platinum Card. These numbers are often higher during regular promotions.

Conclusion

There is no obvious answer to the question of whether American Express Business Platinum is better than The Platinum Card ….

…. assuming, of course, that you have some sort of business – or are in the process of launching one – and so qualify for Business Platinum.

I have both cards, so I get the best of both worlds. I would find it difficult to choose if I had to, because when I consider the benefits which are unique to each card:

  • I value the Eurostar lounge access on my personal card, and living in London I ensure I use the £100 of Harvey Nichols credit (although this ends in June 2025). It is easy to use the £200 of UK dining credit each calendar year, although using the £200 of international credit requires a little more planning.
  • I have come to value the free subscription to The Times and The Sunday Times via Business Platinum. It is easy for me to use the £200 of annual Amex Travel credit. I have also ordered the odd Dell item with my free credit.

More information

Please take a look at the official American Express websites if you require additional information about any of these benefits, especially insurance.

The Amex Business Platinum website, which contains full details and the application form, is here.

The Platinum Card website for the personal card, which contains full details and the application form, is here.

Category

American Express Platinum card

Comments (46)

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

  • R says:
    31 Oct31 October 05:22

    I currently have the Gold Charge card (not credit) if I wanted to upgrade to platinum (I know I won’t get the bonus) will this require the £35k income check again.

    If yes Being self employed our income fluctuates how do they check if you have reached the threshold?

    Is upgrading from personal charge card to business platinum possible or would it have to be to personal platinum?

    • Rob says:
      31 Oct31 October 07:42

      The only ‘official’ upgrade routes Amex offers are Gold to Plat (charge to charge or credit to credit, not a mix) and BA to BAPP. Anything else seems to be treated as a fresh application.

      • lumma says:
        31 Oct31 October 14:54

        I’ve always found it strange that they don’t allow you switch to a different card. I’ve got a project (red) AMEX that gathers dust which I would probably switch for something else if it was just like Barclaycard where you can request to swap it.

        I keep it because very occasionally I get some great amex offers on it and it’s by far my longest held credit card.

    • Jonathan says:
      31 Oct31 October 13:20

      Amex have buckled down heavily on income criteria, even before they re-introduced minimum income mandates, there were other readers saying that Amex don’t really consider applications for Platinum if income is below a desired level.

      The main point is that people who have the Platinum are going to have money to burn, hence the hefty annual fee, if your money is a bit tight, then you should probably look at Gold / ARCC (for MR points earning) and their cards depending on your preference

      • Ruralite says:
        31 Oct31 October 13:40

        When I upgraded via the upgrade link from Gold (which I’d had for about 5 years) to Platinum about a month ago, I don’t remember any onerous questions about income. It was very straightforward and my card turned Platinum in the app before I even had the acceptance email. I do have a high spend throughput, cleared in full every month from private income, no salary. I think when I applied for Gold initially private income (as opposed to a salary) was an option and I possibly just had to confirm that it was still the same on the Platinum upgrade request.

  • SardondeDuero says:
    31 Oct31 October 07:38

    Great article as I was wondering the key differences in benefits relating to the Platinum Card v Business Platinum. Frustratingly, I applied for a BAPP card and Business Platinum in August 2019. Let’s just say the travel benefits were very quickly useless to me!

    I contacted Amex yesterday who confirmed I am eligible for the Platinum Card and Business Platinum SUB, so great timing with this article, thanks.

  • Helen says:
    31 Oct31 October 07:45

    Is there still a restriction on the Platinum Business card that you can only earn double points up to £10,000 six times a year.

  • Matthias says:
    31 Oct31 October 07:55

    If you do any sort of international travel, then the £150 “dine abroad” credit is easy to use if you remember – the list if countries and restaurants is very extensive.

    • Rob says:
      31 Oct31 October 07:58

      I’m not so sure. Solo travellers may not want to sit in a formal restaurant on their own – my only opportunity last year, remembering it launched in October, was on a New York trip on my own and frankly I decided I’d rather do something more casual and pay. People with young kids will also find the fairly formal restaurant list hard to use.

      We used ours this year when my wife and I went over to Paris as Accor’s guests for two days and we went to a very smart bistro near the opera. Kids would have hated it, but it cost so much that we blew €170 on two of us with minimal alcohol.

      • Gagravarr says:
        31 Oct31 October 09:14

        They aren’t all formal restaurants. This year we went to Babel Babel in Nice, which as well as excellent seafood also did drinks etc. They had inside and outside tables, at lunch you could probably get away with kids without issue, and as a solo traveller you could just drink your way through their excellent wine list or spirits!

        Last year we went to a seafood place in Milan, which had a caviar list… Amazing food, and even with wine we only just went above £150, though that was skipping all the caviar!

      • Craig Vassie says:
        31 Oct31 October 12:28

        Harry’s Bar in Venice is more bistro upstairs than formal. Fine for solo travellers. Linked to Cipriani so suitably silly priced, and therefore ideal to use for the dining credit. Food good. Nice view over the lagoon. You need to reserve.

    • JDB says:
      31 Oct31 October 08:06

      @Matthias – whether or not it’s “easy” depends on your travel pattern. My wife has the Plat and hasn’t been able to use it on trips to South Africa, Argentina or China where there are no restaurants listed. Her five shorter trips also had no restaurants listed.

      As a result, we are hoping to use it in Madrid in December but the list there is pretty rubbish. It isn’t ’free money’ and many people here say they end up eating in places they wouldn’t choose for themselves (and not just for cost reasons).

      • StanTheMan says:
        31 Oct31 October 10:30

        Have you not managed to persuade her to cancel the Platinum ??
        You have made many compelling arguments on here over the past few months.

        • JDB says:
          31 Oct31 October 10:46

          @StanTheMan – haha! Indeed she will cancel at the higher renewal price around this time next year. She would already have cancelled it but for the fact I pay the fee and she only has it for children to benefit from the insurances etc. I can’t think of any ‘benefit’ she has derived from the card save the 40k upgrade bonus last year.

          • StanTheMan says:
            31 Oct31 October 12:54

            Fair enough. Treat yourself to something for £50 from Harvey Nicks for Xmas !

      • Sam says:
        31 Oct31 October 10:39

        Totally agree. Take our planned trips this year for example (Dubai, Lanzarote, Delhi) – none of these places have restaurants included on that dining list, so that’s £150 value wiped straight off. And these are hardly places that no one visits!

    • LittleNick says:
      31 Oct31 October 09:11

      Only one restaurant listed in Las Vegas when me and a mate were there earlier a couple months ago, we did end up using the credit there, we would have probably most likely visited a restaurant of the sort (maybe not that one) if we didn’t have the credit but more choice would have been better.

  • John Tickner says:
    31 Oct31 October 08:57

    I had difficulty obtaining the dining credit offer, and only succeeded by asking Amex to add it to my offers. Do I need to do the same for the Harvey Nichols credit ?

    • Sam says:
      1 Nov1 November 07:15

      Yes, with the HN credit they need to manually save it under your offers (as with the dining credit offers)

  • flyforfun says:
    31 Oct31 October 09:33

    “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. I have come to value this benefit and would probably continue to pay for it even if I cancelled my Business Platinum card.”

    I took advantage of a £1 per month for 12 months offer they flashed up at my free Times account last year. Then at the end of the 12 months I went to cancel, they offered me £2.50 for 6 months, then £10 a month, with the option to cancel (or haggle) at the 6 month mark.

    I only used to read the Times because the restaurant reviewer from the Guardian was poached by them and I used to read her column via the 2 articles free per week option. Now that I’ve had regular access to it, I realise how badly written a lot of the articles are, the poor quality of the opinion writers (reading the below the line comments usually confirms most are in agreement with me- and I say usually as there are the sad lot of what I suspect to be ex public school old boys that need to post the same tired old supposedly funny lines, and I’m definitely not confusing it with the BA forum on FT where I’m sure the same people post to get there number count into the stratosphere
    !), the constant return 5 days to the office agenda they push which just shows they are out of touch with current and modern working practices. The money pages seem to be written assuming you’re on at least £1M a year, and that you are not paying any tax on it.

    Occasionally there is a good health or travel article, but if I wasn’t getting such a discounted rate, I wouldn’t miss it if it went.

  • ClubSmed says:
    31 Oct31 October 09:40

    If I already have the BA Business Amex card, can I still apply for Amex Business Platinum?

    • Rob says:
      31 Oct31 October 09:55

      Yes, as long as you meet the other criteria re not having Membership Rewards-earning cards.

      Funny you should mention the Acc Bus card though ….

  • Kipto says:
    31 Oct31 October 10:25

    Worth mentioning that the £200 amex travel credit with the platinum business card changed a few months ago to only being credited if the booking is made online and not by phone through Amex’s travel team who I have found to be very helpful.

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

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