Amex Business Gold vs Platinum: is the Platinum fee worth it?

At a glance

Amex Business Gold costs £0 in year one, then £195. Amex Business Platinum costs £650. Both are charge cards issued by American Express Services Europe Limited, both earn Membership Rewards points, both charge 2.99% on non-sterling spend, and neither accepts sole traders. Platinum adds £600 Amex Travel credit, £300 Indeed and £150 Dell statement credits, a bigger welcome bonus and travel benefits.

This page is research from Amex’s own product pages, checked on 15 September 2026. I have not held either card. I use Capital on Tap’s free card in my agency, which is why it appears as the third column: it is the no-fee Visa that many Amex business cardholders carry alongside, and the site earns a referral bonus when readers apply for it through our link.

• Choose Gold if you want transferable points, a free first year and an Amex that costs £195 a year after that.
• Choose Platinum if you already spend through Amex Travel, hire through Indeed and buy Dell hardware, and will use the lounges.
• Choose neither if your suppliers do not take Amex, a lot of your spend is in dollars or euros, or you would rather have cash back than points. A free Visa such as Capital on Tap does that job.

Side by side

Amex figures are from the Gold and Platinum product pages and Amex UK’s page on using your card abroad, which is where the currency conversion fee is stated. Capital on Tap figures are from its card page, FAQ and credit agreement. The wider field of Amex, bank and fintech cards is in the all-cards comparison.

Annual fees and the break-even

Gold’s fee is £0 in year one, then £195. Platinum’s is £650 from the start. In year one the gap is the whole Platinum fee, because Gold costs nothing; from year two onwards Platinum costs £455 a year more than Gold.

That £455 is the number to beat. The base earn rate is identical (1 Membership Rewards point per £1 (2 per £1 with Amex Travel) on Gold; 1 point per £1 (2 per £1 with Amex Travel) on Platinum), so Platinum does not earn you more points on everyday spend. Every pound of the extra fee has to come back through three things: the statement credits, the travel benefits you actually use, and, in the first year only, the difference between the two welcome bonuses.

Put simply, ask: “Of the credits and benefits Platinum offers, which would I have paid for anyway, and what are they worth to me in cash?” If the honest total is more than £455, Platinum wins. If it is less, Gold is the better card and you keep the change. Do this before you count the welcome bonus, because the bonus is a one-off and the fee recurs.

Platinum’s statement credits: only worth what you would have spent

Amex lists Platinum’s credits as £600 Amex Travel credit, £300 Indeed and £150 Dell statement credits. Added up at face value they look larger than the fee. That is the point of the marketing, and it is also where people go wrong.

A statement credit is only worth its face value if it replaces spending you would have made regardless. If your business already books flights and hotels through a travel agent or direct with airlines, the Amex Travel credit asks you to change how you book, so compare the prices against where you book now. If you do not recruit through Indeed, the Indeed credit is worth nothing. If your next laptop was going to come from somewhere other than Dell, the Dell credit is worth nothing, or at best the saving on a purchase you only made because of the credit.

So price each one honestly. A company that recruits regularly on Indeed and already buys Dell hardware might count those credits in full. A two-person consultancy that buys Apple kit and hires by word of mouth might count none of them. Most businesses land in between, and for them the break-even usually hinges on travel: whether you fly often enough for the lounges and the Amex Travel credit to matter.

Earn rate and welcome bonuses

Both cards earn Membership Rewards points at the same base rate, with a higher rate on Amex Travel bookings. Gold: 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 (2 per £1 with Amex Travel). Platinum: 1 point per £1 (2 per £1 with Amex Travel). The welcome offers differ: Gold gives 40,000 points plus a £100 Selfridges eGift Card after £6,000 in 3 months (limited offer for applications by 12 January 2027; the page strikes through 20,000); Platinum gives 100,000 points plus a £150 Selfridges eGift Card after £12,000 in 3 months (limited offer for applications by 12 January 2027; the page strikes through 50,000). Both require the spend within three months, so they are only worth chasing if that spend was going to happen anyway.

We do not put a pence-per-point value on Membership Rewards, because the value depends entirely on how you redeem. Points spent on statement credits or gift cards tend to be worth the least. Transferring them to airline partners and redeeming for flights, particularly long-haul premium cabins, is where most people get more than a penny a point; how much more depends on the route, the dates and the taxes and surcharges. If you will never transfer to an airline, compare Amex’s points against straightforward cashback, such as Capital on Tap’s 1 point per £1 where 1 point = 1p (1,000 points = £10), before paying a fee for them. Our guide to earning Avios on business spend covers the airline route in detail, including Capital on Tap’s own conversion (10 points = 8 Avios on the free card).

Charge cards and the Flexible Payment Option

Gold and Platinum are charge cards, not credit cards. The deal is that you clear the balance in full every month. Amex does let you spread some purchases with its optional Flexible Payment Option, at 29.1% p.a. variable, and neither product page shows a representative APR because the core product is not a credit line. If you might need to carry a balance for more than a month, that rate matters more than any perk.

Capital on Tap is a revolving credit card: no interest on purchases if you pay the statement balance in full by the due date, and interest if you do not. It advertises rates as low as 13.86% APR (variable) and does not publish a representative APR; your rate depends on your personal and business credit history and the Bank of England base rate. The practical differences between the two card types, including limits and what happens when you miss a payment, are in our guide to business credit card vs charge card.

Foreign transaction fees

Amex UK’s general statement puts the currency conversion fee at 2.99%, and it applies to both cards. It is not shown on the product pages, which is easy to miss. On £1,000 a month of dollar spend, 2.99% is about £30 a month, or roughly £360 a year: enough to eat a real share of Gold’s fee-free value, and a cost Platinum’s credits do nothing to offset.

Capital on Tap charges 0% non-sterling transaction fee. For a business paying for US software, cloud hosting or advertising, that alone can justify carrying a second card. The FX fee calculator shows what your own non-sterling spend costs on each card.

Eligibility and employee cards

Gold: Ltd or LLP only; director or member; £20,000+ personal income. Sole traders are not eligible. Platinum: Ltd or LLP only; £35,000+ personal income. Sole traders are not eligible. The personal income floors are the main difference, and they are floors for the applicant, not the business. Neither card is available to sole traders; Amex points them to its British Airways Accelerating Business card instead, which is covered on our Capital on Tap vs Amex Business page.

Employee cards: Gold offers up to 20 complimentary, with limits you set; the main cardmember is liable for their spending employee cards. Platinum offers complimentary Business Gold employee cards plus one complimentary Platinum employee card. For accounting, Amex lists QuickBooks and Xero on both pages. Capital on Tap offers unlimited free employee cards with per-card limits and syncs to Sage, Xero, QuickBooks, FreeAgent and more. For a business with several spenders, Amex’s Gold allowance may be enough; if you need more cards than that, or per-card limits, Capital on Tap has no cap.

Our Amex Business Gold review goes deeper on Gold alone: the application, how the points are paid and what the fee-free year really gets you.

Lounges: Platinum vs Capital on Tap Pro

Airport lounge access is one of Platinum’s selling points. Our data file does not yet record the detail of Platinum’s lounge programme, so check the Platinum product page for which lounges, how many guests and whether employee cardholders get access before you put a value on it.

If lounges are the main attraction, compare Capital on Tap Pro. It costs £299 a year and gives unlimited Priority Pass lounge access for the main cardholder, with two free guest passes a year, then £30 per guest per visit. Capital on Tap puts its own value on the Priority Pass membership (Capital on Tap values Priority Pass at £467 a year); that is its figure, not ours. Pro keeps the free card’s 0% non-sterling transaction fee and Visa acceptance, earns 1% on ordinary credit spend, same as the free card, and adds a boosted 1.25% on preloaded spend (and Daily Repay via Smart Repay). It does not have Platinum’s statement credits or Membership Rewards transfers. The Capital on Tap Pro page does the break-even maths.

Carry a Visa alongside either

Amex acceptance is narrower than Visa in the UK and abroad. Plenty of UK suppliers, tradespeople, independent shops and overseas merchants take Visa and Mastercard but not Amex. That is why a common setup for Amex business cardholders is two cards: the Amex where it is accepted and the points are worth having, and a no-fee Visa for everything else.

Capital on Tap fits that second slot well. It is a Visa card with £0 annual fee, 0% non-sterling transaction fee and 1% cashback on everything, so the places Amex is refused still earn something, and non-sterling spend avoids Amex’s 2.99%. Staff can have unlimited free employee cards with per-card limits, and the account syncs to Sage, Xero, QuickBooks, FreeAgent and more. It costs nothing to hold if a month goes by with no spend on it.

The split is simple: Amex for sterling spend where it is accepted and you are chasing points; Capital on Tap for suppliers who refuse Amex and for anything priced in dollars or euros. The catch is eligibility: Capital on Tap is for a Ltd, LLP or PLC only and is not available to sole traders, the same restriction as Gold and Platinum, so if you qualify for one you will usually meet the company-type rule for the other. Applying involves a soft search on your personal credit file when you apply.

Which to choose

For most small limited companies, Gold is the sensible Amex: the free year lets you find out whether you actually redeem points well, and the fee after that is modest. Platinum makes sense for a business that already lives inside the Amex ecosystem and travels, and for almost nobody else. Whichever you pick, pairing it with a no-fee Visa for non-sterling spend and Amex refusals is cheaper than paying 2.99% on every foreign transaction.