American Express Business Platinum Card

The Business Platinum targets owners whose company travel is heavy enough that airport access changes their working week. It carries an $895 annual fee, and American Express expects excellent credit, roughly 740 or higher, on the personal guarantee behind the account. The welcome offer in the terms Amex links from its card page is 150,000 Membership Rewards points after $20,000 of eligible purchases in the first three months, and Amex notes that offers may vary. That deserves caution, because $20,000 in ninety days is a genuine cash flow event for a small business rather than a rounding error. Earning splits cleanly into travel and not travel. You get 5x on flights and prepaid hotels booked through Amex Travel, 2x on eligible purchases in key business categories and on single purchases of $5,000 or more, up to $2 million per calendar year, and 1x on everything else. The 2x band can apply to the large, lumpy invoices a company pays rather than only to retail spending. Outside those lanes the base rate is still 1x, so a business whose money goes to payroll, rent, and vendors that do not accept cards will not produce enough points to justify $895 on spending alone. Judge the fee on a three year view rather than on year one. A 150,000 point welcome offer makes the first twelve months easy to justify. The honest question is year two: strip out the bonus, count only the points your ordinary spending would generate plus the benefits you would genuinely use, and see whether that clears $895. If the answer depends on routing all of your travel through Amex Travel rather than booking direct, factor in that you are trading flexibility for the multiplier. Treat it as a pay in full product. Amex's offer terms list Pay Over Time APRs of 17.99% to 28.74% variable (accurate as of October 14, 2026), with a penalty APR of 29.99%, so do not plan on financing the $20,000 bonus requirement or pulling purchases forward that you cannot clear at statement close. Skip the card if company travel is occasional, if your spending is concentrated in categories that earn 1x, if the three month gate would force artificial spending, or if you are a sole proprietor whose expenses are really personal expenses. In those cases the $895 fee is hard to justify.