Best Time to Apply for the Amex Business Platinum Card

Now It’s the Best Time to Apply for the Amex Business Platinum Card

The Business Platinum Card from American Express is a product that comes with a big annual fee of $695. It also gives cardmembers lots of perks and benefits. Maximizing annual credits is one of the ways to make this card more affordable, and that’s exactly why this is the best time apply for the Amex Business Platinum card. Applying in December let’s you triple-dip the airline fee credit and Dell credit.

When you apply for this card, you can get the card number instantly upon approval. That means that you can start spending right away. There have been some issues with online registration, so that might require calling in.

This is a repost from last year, but it’s worth mentioning that towards the end of 2023, we have seen approvals harder to come by for several American Express credit cards.

Check out some of the best current offers for this card, and ideas on how to maximize your credits.

The Offers

Before figuring out how to use the card’s benefits, it’s important to find the welcome offer that is best for you. There are several options right now:

• Targeted Bundle Offer – 220K

  • Earn 150,000 Membership Rewards points after you spend $15,000 on eligible purchases with your new Business Platinum Card within the first 3 months.
  • Earn 50,000 Membership Rewards points when you open your first American Express Business Checking account, and:
    • deposit a total of $5,000 or more in “new money” into your account within twenty (20) days
    • maintain $5,000 average balance for sixty (60) days, starting on the date that your deposits of new money are equal to $5,000 or greater; and
    • complete 10 qualifying transactions within sixty (60) days of account opening (ACH, Wire, and Bill Payments)
  • Earn a bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points when you complete both offers.

• Phone Offer – 200K

  • Earn 190,000 Membership Rewards Points after you spend $15,000 on your new Business Platinum Card within the first 3 months of Card Membership.
  • Plus earn 10,000 Membership Rewards Points after you add an Employee Card and spend an additional $1,000.

• Targeted Offer with Lifetime Language – 190K

  • Earn 190,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $15,000 or more on eligible purchases on your Card within your first 3 months of Card Membership starting from the date your account is approved.

• Targeted Offer with No Lifetime Language – 155K

  • Earn 150,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $15,000 on purchases on the Card within the first 3 months of Card Membership.
  • Plus earn 5,000 additional Membership Rewards® points after adding a new Employee Card at the time of Card application and spending $1,000 in eligible purchases on the new Employee Card in the first 3 months of Card Membership.

• Amex Pre-Qualified Offers – 150K

  • Earn 150,000 Membership Rewards points after you use your new Card to make $15,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of Card Membership.

• Referral Offer – 150K (open in private browser, YMMV)

  • Earn 150,000 Membership Rewards points after you use your new Card to make $15,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of Card Membership.
  • Referral Bonus: Earn 10K to 45K Membership Rewards points

Card Details

• 5X Membership Rewards points for each dollar of eligible purchases made when you book on the American Express Travel website
• Earn 1.5X Points per dollar on

  • eligible purchases of $5,000 of more
  • U.S. Electronics goods, retailers, software, and cloud service providers
  • U.S. Construction materials and hardware supplies
  • U.S. Shipping providers

• Use Membership Rewards Pay with Points for all or part of an eligible fare and get 35% of those points back, up to 1,000,000 bonus points per calendar year.
• Get up to $400 in statement credits annually for U.S. purchases with Dell Technologies. Get up to $200 in statement credits between January and June, and up to $200 in statement credits between July and December. Enrollment required.
• Up to $120 annual statement credits for purchases made directly from any US wireless telephone provider, up to $10 per month. Enrollment required.
• Indeed – Get up to $360 credit ($90 per quarter). Enrollment required.
• Adobe – $150 annual statement credit. Enrollment required.
• Access to more than 1,400 airport lounges across 120 countries
• $200 in statement credits per calendar year for airline incidental fees. Enrollment required.
• Receive a statement credit every 4 years for Global Entry ($100) or every 4.5 years for TSA PreCheck (up to $85).
• Cover the cost of a CLEAR Plus membership with up to $189 in statement credits per year after you pay with your Business Platinum Card. Enrollment required.
• Complimentary membership in premium car rental programs, including Hertz President’s Circle status and other upgrades and discounts. Enrollment required.
• Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite status
• Hilton Honors Gold status
• Platinum Card Concierge available 24/7 to help with anything from special dinner reservations to finding the perfect gift. 
• Resy Dining Benefit
• No Foreign Transaction Fees
• Primary Cardholder Annual Fee: $695 (Rates & Fees)
• Additional Employee Cards Fees:

  • $350 annual fee for each Employee Business Platinum Card
  • No Annual Fee for Employee Business Expense Card

Best Time to Apply

The reason this is the best time to apply, is because you can take advantage of multiple annual credits listed above, while paying the annual fee only once. This is mainly about the airline and Dell credit which will get you an extra $400 in value if you apply now.

You can get a full refund if you cancel your Amex card within 30 days of being charged the annual fee. So you will be charged the second annual fee in December 2024 most likely. This means that you’ll have your card open at least through January 2025. This gives you time to take advantage of the annual credits for that year as well.

• Airline Credit

  • You get $200 every calendar year. So you can use this credit once in December 2023, then again in 2024, and once more in January 2025 before closing your card. That’s $600 in credits.
  • Make sure you select your airline before making a purchase.
  • I used these credits for Southwest purchases since flight credits no longer expire

• Dell Credit

  • You get up to $200 in statement credits between January and June, and up to $200 in statement credits between July and December. This means that you can get $200 in 2023, $400 in 2024, and another $200 in 2025. That’s $800 in credits.
  • Make sure you enroll for this benefit before making a purchase.
  • These purchases earn 1.5X Membership Rewards points.
  • You can use this credit for any purchase at Dell. It works even better if you can stack multiple Dell credits, and other offers.

• Wireless Credit

  • You get $10 every month. So by applying now you can use this credit for 14 months. That includes all of 2024, plus December 2022 and January 2025. That’s $140 in credits.
  • Make sure you enroll for this benefit before making a purchase.
• Amex Offers
  • There are many Amex Offer that expire at the end of the year. So if you apply now you should be able to use them.

Guru’s Wrap-up

As you can see, this is the best time to apply for the Amex Business Platinum card. You can easily get about $410 in extra credits: $200 for airline fees, $200 at Dell and $10 for wireless purchases. So in total you get $1,540 just from those three credits, while paying only one annual fee.

This card also gets you a bonus of at least 150,000 Membership Rewards points, which are worth at least $1,500. And, by having this card, you can cash out points at a value of 1 cent each through the American Express Business Checking account.

For similar reasons, this is also the best time to apply for The Platinum Card® from American Express. You can again triple dip the airline credit and get an additional $50 Saks credit.