The Best Credit Card for Business Owners in 2025? Amex Business Platinum Card

You'll get $300 for every half a year. So $600 per year. That's a brand new credit being added. Right now, if you wanted to book a stay for next August, you could book a stay right now for $300 using that credit for next August. In January, you could book another night for that August stay. And then in August, you could book another night. So you could book kind of three nights back to back to back with one platinum card covering $900 of booking. >> I understand there is one big pain point with this upgrade. >> What's changing now is that you no longer get that 30% rebate in business or first class in any airline in the world. You only get that on the airline of your choice. >> Let's take a step back for one second and tell me what you're talking about here. >> Yeah. So, you can pay your taxes, your federal income taxes, your quarterly estimates or your annual taxes on your credit card and earn miles. And if you are a business owner, you are spending $250,000 in a year, I think it's a must get card. >> Yeah. If you have an American Express Business Platinum card or you're thinking about getting one in the future, we're going to break down all of the new benefits, existing benefits, and how to best utilize this card so it makes sense for you to have it. Dan, tell me about it. So, the business platinum card has been around since 2002. So, not quite the same history as the consumer platinum card, which has been around since 1984. >> It's a good year. >> Yeah, I like 1984, too. That's the year I was born. And they're doing some more minor refreshes, I would say, on the business platinum card compared to this consumer platinum card. >> Uh the annual fee is also going up from $6.95 to $8.95. So, same price point as the consumer platinum card. They're adding a nice perk. They're adding the same $600 hotel credit, the FHR and THC, the fine hotel and resorts, and the hotel collection credit. You'll get $300 for every half a year. So, $600 per year. That's a brand new credit being added. So, I think for most people that'll really cover the annual fees. So the annual fee goes up by $200, but you get a bonus $600 in hotel credits that doesn't even exist at all today on the business platinum card. >> And I know we talked about it a little bit in our podcast on the consumer card, but just tell me a little bit about the FHR hotels, how it works, where it could be redeemed, is it a gimme credit, is it something that you're going to have to uppay? >> Sure. So FHR hotels, you have over 3,000 of those and you have over 1300 THC hotels. That's fine hotel and resorts and the hotel collection. The difference between the two are the FHR hotels are a little more higherend. You only need to book one night for those to get all the benefits. Okay? Um and you get guaranteed 4 p.m. checkout at FHR. At the THC hotels, those are not quite as high-end and you need to book them for at least two nights to get the benefits. And you don't get a guaranteed 4pm checkout on those ones. >> Are you getting any other benefits like breakfast? >> Tons of benefits, resort credits, >> at least minimum with FHR, you're getting free breakfast, minimum $100 hotel amenity if not more, lots of other perks. Um, with both of those through booking through MX, you also get your elite benefits. Apply for those FHR hotels if you have elite status with the brands. >> Oh, you do? >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Oh, that's really nice because usually when you go through a third party booking site, you don't get your your chain benefits. >> Yeah. So, MX worked that out with FHR to get those benefits. >> That's that's a nice perk. >> Yeah. >> So, you get $300 every half a year. So, like I said in the consumer platinum one, what I would do is right now, if you wanted to book a stay for next August, you could book a stay right now for $300 using that credit in for next August. In January, you could book another night for that August stay. And then in August, you could book another night. So, you could book kind of three nights back to back to back with one platinum card covering $300, 300 to $900 of bookings. And if you have like a consumer and a business platinum card, you could do that six times. So, you can get $1,800 of a stay kind of like six nights booked like that. So, if you plan it right, you could really utilize this credit to get a week vacation somewhere in a beautiful hotel. >> Yeah. Yeah. And especially like in Las Vegas, there's amazing values. Like I said, I stay at the Bellagio and got all kinds of credits on a free stay. So, yeah, there's lots of great options for that. I use Max FHR uh website to uh to find great values, FHR hotels around the world. So, >> so if done right, it's a gimme credit and easily justifies the $200 increase in annual fee that just happened. >> Yeah. Yeah. you shouldn't have any problem getting that kind of value out of it. At least I think for most people that would be a fair tradeoff. >> I'd like to take a moment to thank our host, The Theorist Podcast Studio. If you're ever in New York City, they have beautiful studios as you could see with lighting. This is by far the bougiest podcast that we've done to date and I highly recommend checking them out. I'm going to tag them down below. I dealt with Asher personally and he was an absolute pleasure to work with. Highly, highly recommend. in New York City. The podcast studios, look them up. It is a dream pleasure to work with over here. And you could also book your podcast space and time on the studios.com. Yeah. So, FHR bookings, you're going to get the minimum $100 amenity. It could be more than that. Uh yeah, some pretty super unique stuff that you can get with that in addition to free breakfast, free Wi-Fi, guaranteed 4pm checkout. So, lots of perks there. All your elite benefits apply when you book through FHR or THC. Um, so those are are pretty valuable. Yeah. >> What's the typical checkout time at a luxury hotel these days? Like 10 a.m., 12 p.m. >> Yeah, it could be 11:00 a.m. something like that. Yeah. So 4 p.m. checkout is really nice, especially if you have a later flight. >> Um, that's a nice perk. >> Yeah. Especially because with a lot of elite statuses, it's like up to 400 p.m. checkout or like we stayed at the plaza last night and we have platinum status for the core and they're like we could do 2 p.m. Yeah. >> So knowing you could actually rely on it every single time. Yeah, because most elite statuses say they could offer 4 p.m. It's not guaranteed or there's wiggle room around it. So there's FHR it's guaranteed a 4pm check >> and you're also getting the potential sweet upgrade like with other statuses. >> Yeah. When available that's not guaranteed, >> right? >> Yeah. And then I'm not sure if like that amenity applies if you're going to book like multiple stays using multiple credits on like backtoback days. I don't know that hotel is going to give you like the amenity for every single stay. I mean, I I guess what you could do is if you're going with your spouse or someone, you could book like one night in your name and then another night in her name. >> You might have to move rooms, >> but you might have to move rooms for that. >> Oh my god. I do not recommend that. >> I'm not saying you should do that. Yeah. >> Right. I mean, you could reach out to the hotel in advance and ask them if they'd be open to it. >> Yeah. Or just play, you know, play by ear on the spot. >> Yeah. When I was younger and single, I'd like go chase like I'll I'll I'll stay in the room for 12 hours if I get this suite and uh you know car rental. You try to get the best car. Now I'm kind of just like I want to relax on vacation. >> The room's the room. The car is the car. >> So even if you do book for yourself though in three separate days, you may or may not get additional amenity. But you could just email the hotel and say, you know, you have these three bookings. Can you just link them together? I want to stay in the same room. That shouldn't be a problem at all. >> Right. Okay. That's that's super useful and and easy added benefit justifying that $200 annual fee. >> I understand there is one big pain point with this upgrade. So, let's jump into that. >> Yeah. So, unfortunately, effective September 18th, you no longer get the 35% rebate unless you're registered for the airlines. >> 30% rebate on what? >> Yeah. So, currently, if you redeem your MX points um for airfare, so let's say there's a $1,000 airline ticket you want to buy and it cost 100,000 points, you'll get back 35,000 of those points as a rebate. Previously, that applied on the airline of your choice in economy or on any airline in the world in business or first class. What's changing now is that you no longer get that 30% rebate in business or first class in any airline in the world. You only get that on the airline of your choice. And that's just the domestic carriers. So, American, United, Delta, JetBlue, those are really your options now for that rebate. >> So, that's a big loss to the international travel community, especially people that like to travel to Israel because you're able to do that for LL. >> Yeah. So, you could still book LL through Delta as a code share and you would get that rebate. Okay. >> So, Delta sells LL flights. So, you could do that. >> Okay. >> Yeah, that's an option still for LL, but you won't get like LL credit, right? >> That's with Delta. So, Delta's holding that ticket, >> right? So, basically how it used to work is you could book it through LL and then you have this fallback. If the flight didn't work for you, you could convert whatever you paid with your points into an LL credit and then you could use that for any flight in the future. Yeah, if you added like the LL protect service, you could turn that into a voucher, but yeah, that won't be applicable anymore >> because you won't get the rebate on that. >> I feel like that's a painful loss for a very small subset of the niche travel community, which we're a part of. So, it hurts for us. I don't know how many MX consumers were actually using that perk, >> right? And >> yeah, I agree. It is a pretty niche perk. It's unfortunate that it's going away, you know, on the consumer platinum card side. nothing was devalued, but this is a pretty hefty devaluation in my opinion. >> Yeah, I'm so curious if it was devalued because it was overutilized or honestly underutilized. Like it could just be such a small percentage of consumers were using it and I'm sure it cost them to be able to be able to maintain it. Um, and every benefit that MX offers, they put so much into it to make sure it's flawless and seamless and to integrate with that many airlines worldwide to book business class. That's manpower at the end of the day. >> Yeah. >> For a small subset of consumers that loved it and are now going to miss it. >> And I do think there were people that kept the business plan card specifically for the rebate. So I wonder if they're still going to keep it now that the rebate is only good on the airline of their choice. Right. >> The good thing is MX is pretty good about letting you change the airline of your choice. It's officially once per year you could change it, but I've always been able to chat with them and change it as I need. >> Yeah. In general, they're very customer centric. So So if they can, they will, I think. So, it's probably still worth keeping it just for the airline of your choice, but it's definitely an unfortunate loss that it no longer works for any airline in the premium cabins. >> Is there any other losses with this update? >> That's the only loss that I'm aware of. There are some other perks being added, though. >> Okay. >> Yeah, you're going to get now two points per dollar on all large purchases. So, $5,000 plus purchases now. >> This is a This is >> huge. Yeah. >> Earth shattering update here. >> Well, previously it was one and a half and now it's two. That's big. Yeah. Especially for like tax payments. So, you're going to earn two points per dollar now, right? >> And you can do MX tax payments are usually at a higher fee, but what you could do is you can actually pay through PayPal. >> I think this is something people are so unaware what we're talking about, paying taxes with a credit card. Let's take a step back for one second and tell me what you're talking about here. >> Yeah. So, you can pay your taxes, your federal income taxes, your quarterly estimates or your annual taxes on your credit card and earn miles. >> So, there's a charge for that. And the charge, >> where do you do that? There's two processors. You could find them on the IRS site or we could link to it below. Okay. Where I talk about how to pay tax on your credit card. It's either a 1.75% or 1.85% fee. Um, but usually AMX is at a higher rate. But the workaround is for the processor that charges a 1.85% fee. Even though they charge a higher rate for AMX, if you pay through PayPal, the lower fee applies. So, you could just link your AMX card to PayPal, pay your taxes through PayPal, and then you pay a 1.85% fee. So, if you're earning one and a half points per dollar and you're paying a 1.85% fee, you do come out ahead depending on how you use your points. But if you're earning two points per dollar at a 1.85% fee, that's a no-brainer. That's under 1 cent per point cost. And you may also be able to deduct the cost of that 1.85% fee for your business spending. Um, talk to your accountant about that. But even without any deduction, earning two points per dollar for 1.85% fee is under one cent per point. That's a no-brainer to earn points at that rate, >> right? Especially thanks to that 35% rebate, you're getting 1.54 cents per point guaranteed >> or more potentially on Delta because AMX also has AIP discounts, international airline program discounts where for airlines I work with about two dozen airlines, you get discounts in premium cabins on selected carriers such as Delta or Qar, uh, Lufans, other airlines as well where you get discounts in premium cabins. So you might be able to save 20% off airfare on Delta and premium cabin and you could stack that with a 35% rebate. So you really could earn, you know, potentially two cents per point like that, >> right? Wow, that's incredible. So So that two, so that two points per a dollar. >> Yeah. If you're earning >> really over a 3% cash back value, >> uh yeah, potentially 4% cash back for a 1.85% fee. So you can really earn a lot on your tax payments. And that's besides for like earning a sign up bonus or things where you're like going to like earn even more points per dollar. And besides for obviously transfers to partners, which is where the most outsized value comes in the entire points industry. >> Yeah. Yeah. Lots of great options there for mileage transfers to fly in like Singapore suites or all kinds of crazy first class redemptions at bargain values. >> See, that's a very business owner focused benefit, right? Over $5,000 purchases, two points back. Is there a cap on that? >> Yeah, there's a cap on that. Yeah. So, it's $2 million of spending cap per year, and that's across large purchases as well as business spending category purchases such as shipping, electronics. Uh, >> one second. So, you get 2x points on any purchase over $5,000. >> Correct. >> And now there's also a subset of categories that on any purchase size, you're going to earn 2x. >> Yeah, exactly. You're going to earn 2x on any purchases on US construction, hardware, software, cloud spending, shipping, any electronics retailer. Those all earn uh 2x points no matter how big that spend that purchase. So that's up from 1.5 uh previously. And then the $5,000 plus purchases, that's good anywhere that was previously 1.5, now that's two. And there's a $2 million cap on those earnings per year. >> Wow. So that's that's a huge boon for this card and especially for business owners. >> Yeah. Yeah. That's a definitely a nice value ad there. Um, so that's also going to help justify that annual fee increase besides for that hotel $600 hotel credit that you're going to get now. >> So there's there's some other new benefits for this card, right? >> Yeah. So if you spend $250,000 per calendar year, you'll unlock this earned value credit. >> Okay. >> Um, basically you will get $1,200 of AMX travel flight credits in the following calendar year. So if you spend $ 250 in 2025, then in 2026 you'll unlock your earned value. You'll get $1,200 towards MX travel flights. Any flights that'll be covered. So besides for that $1,200 flight credit, you'll also get a $2,400 credit for MX1 accounts payable solutions that business owners may appreciate. This podcast is sponsored by Tfillin Connection. Thanks to your generous support, we've been able to distribute over 2500 pairs of Tfillin since 107. We've distributed to over a,000 IDF soldiers. There is truly a revolution in the IDF right now of soldiers that grew up with little to no connection to Tyra and mitzvah that are now wearing tits. They want their own pair of tofillin. They want to wrap every single day. As we all know, tfillain is expensive, but we have a generous matching donor that is matching all tofillin donations through our cause match page. I will link it down below. For just $350, you can get an IDF soldier their own pair of tofillin or we also have civilians from all around the world requesting their own pair of tofillin that you can enable them to do that mitzvah every single day. And I do want to talk about the current benefits and the best way to utilize those. But let's just talk about there were a few other new changes to this card. I think there is a hotel status they added. >> Yeah. So they added leaders club sterling status. Uh, so at Leaders Club Hotels, you can get free breakfast and you get upgrades in advance and other perks at Leaders Club Hotels. You can't transfer MX points to Leaders Club, but you could transfer city points over to Leaders Club. And then with having the MX Platinum or business platinum card, you'll have Sterling Elite status there. >> That's so interesting how they play off each other to benefit. And that's really kind of the whole point of this podcast of explaining to people how there are things you can do to completely level up your credit card portfolio to be working for you instead of against you, you know. >> Yeah. And we mentioned like in the other personal MX Platinum Card podcast about various Leaders Cup hotels that are awesome in Israel, the King David Jerusalem and the Satai Tel Aviv. And you were talking about the >> the Niara Delbokas with the overwater bungalow in Panama with kosher food included. I am so psyched to go there one day, especially with now that I'll be able to have Sterling status. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. And then transfer points from city to book it. >> Exactly. Super excited for that. And I think what some people are going to be most excited about this change, especially existing card holders, but new card holders as well that for a limited time, the card's beautiful, right? >> Yeah. You get the new mirrored card. It's a beautiful mirror basically out of a credit card. They've really done a nice job at designing it. It's gorgeous. It It's the most beautiful credit card ever made. >> Yeah. Yeah. Right. Agreed. >> It just is. >> Yeah, it is. >> So, new existing card holders will get that and then existing card holders can call for a limited time and upgrade their card to the mirrored card. >> Are they releasing the Centurion card in mirrored? >> I don't know >> because probably >> that's going to hurt the Centurion card holders. The Platinum card is more gorgeous than their, you know, Rolls-Royce of credit cards. >> The black card is a prestige course. >> I don't think they're going to mess with it. >> I hear that. But this card is >> so nice and it's so cool that existing card holders can request that for a limited time. >> Yeah. >> If you are an existing card holder, >> hurry up. >> Yeah. Yeah. Just call IMAX or chat with them online. >> Yeah. Super cool. Now, let's jump into the existing credits. Um I know there were some recent changes to the Dell credit. Yeah. >> Um tell me all about it. >> Yeah. So, the Dell credit is now $150 per year. That's just a statement credit. So you get $150 off the bat and then if you spend $5,000 you'll get another $1,000. So a total of $150 off 5,000 or just 150 of free credit at Dell. >> Okay. So for business owners, you're buying a really nice computer or something. And that doesn't have to be in one purchase, right? That's over an entire year of spending. So your toner, your printer. >> Sure. >> Okay. >> That'll all add up to it. >> And nice couple laptops or desktops and you'll be you'll be there and you'll get the statement credit. So potentially a benefit, more likely a downgrade for most people compared to that $400 per year credit that we were getting. >> Well, that happened a few months ago, that changed. Yeah. So the $150 though, you could still buy, you know, toner for your printer, accessories for your computer if you don't want to buy a new computer. >> Now, run me through the current benefits and credits on the business platinum card. So, there's a $200 airline fee credit which you could use for any baggage fees or seat selection fees or even if you want to fund your United Travel Bank, which is funds for future air travel, it does work on that. >> Um, not officially, but it's been working for the past 10 years. >> Um, so that's a nice perk there for $200. You also get a $10 monthly wireless credit, um, which is nice. Pay your cell phone bill, you get $10 off with that. There's a $250 off $600 annual Adobe credit. There's a $90 quarterly Indeed credit. There's a $50 quarterly Hilton credit. So $200 per year at Hilton. >> And that works at the the Waldorf Spa, right? >> I mean, it works anywhere. Any Hilton you go to that you swipe your card, you're going to get $50 off per quarter. If you do want to just lock in funds, yeah, I've been locking in gift cards at the Waldorf store of Jerusalem. It's good for their dining and their spa. And I go there frequently, so I could just buy gift cards online. And that that credit applies for that. So a whole bunch of $50 gift cards to go there. or I could use it for shabas meals when I'm there. So, that's pretty cool. >> Yeah. >> And then there's the $29 annual clear plus credit which gets you to skip those lines at the airport in addition to the TSA PreCheck Global Entry credit every four years. And the same thing applies with a business platinum card where if you have a free additional user card, those still qualify for that Global Entry TSA PreCheck credit every four years. So, you could open up up to 99 free additional user cards and give all of your family and friends. >> People don't even believe me when I tell them about those. And you could literally get all of your family and friends free global entry, free pre-check, which is awesome. >> Incredible. >> Yeah. >> What other benefits are there? >> We mentioned the two points per dollar. Now, that's new. But additionally, you still have the five points per dollar for flights and hotels booked by MX Travel. And you also have all the other perks like on the consumer card. You have the Hertz benefit with that 4hour grace period to return to cars. You can rent a car for 28 hours and only pay for one day. And you have all the other perks like Marriott gold status, Hilton gold status, and the new uh Sterling status with leaders club. Sure. Um so lots of perks there. You also have the lost item protection where if you lose an item that you buy within 90 days, you could just tell MX you lost it and they'll cover it as well. >> That's a crazy benefit. >> Yeah, it is a crazy benefit. >> How How much is that up to again? >> $10,000 per item. Yeah. >> Return protection. And if you have an item that's final sale or has a limited return window and you don't like it for 90 days, you can return it to MX up to $300 per item up to $1,000 per year. >> That's incredibly useful with Amazon >> cracking down on 30-day returns. >> Yeah. >> And they're so easy and nice about it, too. >> Yeah. >> So, tell me what else you're getting with this card. I know there's a lot of stuff for travel, like travel insurance and lounge access, right? >> Yeah. All kinds of travel insurance is everything you need there. Lounge access at Centurion Lounges, at Escape Lounges, Plaza Premium Lounges, Priority Pass Lounges, Delta Lounges, Luanza Lounges. Yeah, LMX lounge access is fantastic. >> It's the largest lounge access of any card, I think. >> Yeah, no other card will give this access to that many lounges. So, that's great perk. Um, and of course, like we said before, that 35% rebate, even though it's now limited to the one airline of your choice, is still very valuable for all of your MX points. >> So, in summary, what do you think about these changes and what do you think about the business platinum card? I'm bummed about that rebate loss. The MX Consumer Platinum card had no takeaways. This is definitely a takeaway, but the 2x points on tax payments should be awesome for people. MX doesn't really have double points like that except on the Blue Business card, which is capped at $50,000 of spending. This benefit of 2x points on large purchases is good for up to $2 million of spending. So, it's a huge perk to earn that many points on your purchases. >> So, overall, pretty good change with the hotel credit at being added. $600 credit raising the annual fee $200 like overall the benefits wise to the annual fee is great I think. >> Yeah. So I think people that are spending a4 million a year are going to get that $1,200 earned flight credit and the $2,400 accounts payable credit and also combined with the double points that you can now earn. So for example, if you have a tax payment of a4 million that you're paying, you're going to earn half a million points plus the $1,200 flight credit for that earned value credit. So, that's really going to be super worthwhile. >> It's a big benefit for business owners, which is a business card. I like to see that. I like to see cards differentiating their benefits and their credits to who they're actually targeting for the card. >> Really, for any consumer business that has a large tax bill,4 million a year, >> it's a no-brainer, right? You're getting half a million points plus a $1,200 flight credit. >> That's incredible. >> That really is. >> Yeah. >> Very, very cool use of the card. So, this update, just like with the consumer card, it's very customer focused. They're actually looking at what people are spending on, what they want to get, and that 33% increase from 1.5 to 2x points is a huge boon for business owners. And I think people are going to be very happy with this update. And if you are a business owner, you are spending $250,000 in a year, I think it's a must get card. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Absolutely. So, that's a wrap for the business platinum card. So, be sure to subscribe, like, share, and follow along as we teach you everything you need to know about credit cards, how to utilize them, benefit from them, and which one is best for