I have had the Amex Business Platinum card since the beginning of 2019. That’s back in the AMEX Platinum card’s glory days, as you could imagine what happened to many of the perks in 2020.

Being a Digital Nomad – The benefits of the AMEX card are a luxury and a half!

In 2019 I thought the card was the best thing ever. I even managed to successfully refer my two friends to the card. One loves it, the other one not so much, but he kind of complains about everything. He’s one of those guys.

I made an awesome deal with one of my wholesalers who accept AMEX cards.

“If I get an AMEX Card, I’ll buy all my stock through you guys, on the condition you don’t give me any AMEX surcharge!”

I upped my main wholesaler for the rent. I gave them an Ultimatum. It worked.

I was putting through a bit over $1 million to these guys a year. So it didn’t take me long to get some points up. By the end of the year, I had flown from Tokyo to London via Singapore FIRST CLASS on a dodgy old Airbus A380, in my own cabin. Would I ever pay the cash value amount to do that? No way.

Would I do it again using AMEX points? probably not too. Business class is definitely adequate. As long as the seat lays down, I’m good.

How much does the AMEX Business Platinum card cost per year?

$1750 per year. So the fee is quite exorbitant, but the idea is to make the perks that you get with your AMEX Business Platinum card work for you. And they can. You just have to be a spender.

But I heard there are high fees with American Express cards?

You heard wrong. You will be surprised to know that a lot of local businesses are not charged anything in the first $75,000 they put into their banks from purchases made with AMEX cards. After that, they then go on to a new rate that is substantially lower than AMEX’s high charges from 20 years prior.

How many businesses accept AMEX cards?

Heaps. A lot more than you would think, and more businesses accept the cards than don’t.

What is AMEX Shop Small?

AMEX Shop Small is an initiative created by American Express that encourages merchants to accept the AMEX cards for that ultra-low rate of $0 for the first $75,000 put through the merchant facility. Therefore this also gives the customer a 0% card surcharge. In some cases using your AMEX Business Platinum card could be a lot cheaper than using a Visa or MasterCard.

What is the purchase limit with the AMEX Business Platinum Card?

Some have said it’s unlimited. AMEX gives you a line of credit type set up with the card. It can be very complicated at first, but I’ll try to explain it to you.

You have two ways of spending money with the AMEX PLATINUM CARD

• The first is the ability to be able to use it just as you would like any other Credit Card. The difference here is they give you an ‘unlimited spend’ amount. (My friends and I have tested it. It gasses out at $250,000.) This limit changes all the time, however. Every day the limit changes, and you can test it up to 3 times per day.
• The other way is some special scheme where you can use your limit and money available as a cash flow to pay merchants that don’t accept AMEX cards. You can even pay into your employee’s bank accounts with this money. I guess it’s designed to be used as a cash advance with less interest than a traditional Cash Advance.

Does the American Express Business Platinum card have a credit limit?

As I just stated, we got it maxed out at $250,000. That’s all they would offer. It works on a trust system. If you keep paying the AMEX off, they keep increasing your money lent amount.

250k, that’s a lot of money! By the end of 2019, I was certainly in trouble with over $100,000 owing at one time. And they certainly know about it. They hound you for the money pretty hard.

Get this.

Even if you have a borrowing capacity of $90,000 for example, and do one transaction of $72,000, they will call you within 30 minutes and ask you about it, and if you can make half a payment towards it.

How does that work? This is 100% true. I know this because it happened to me. “What’s the point of the borrowing limit then?”, I asked them. Was weird.

Of course I couldn’t pay them back half the money, so do you want to know what they did? They removed my ability to borrow the remaining $18,000 I thought I had up my sleeve with them. So keep this in mind.

BENEFITS OF THE AMEX BUSINESS PLATINUM CARD

Entry into the AMEX lounges at the airports is awesome.

Are you wanting to know how to apply for an AMEX PLATINUM CARD?

If my American Express Business Platinum card review sounded good to you, and you want one you can click this link to get an additional 300,000 Bonus AMEX points on sign up.

Some AMEX Cons to consider:

• The Priority Pass is NOT FREE. It’s quite costly actually. The Priority Pass can be skipped, better to just sit in the Food court and spend half of that. Depends on how long you are going to be there and your budget of course.
• You need to really consider if the $1750 sign-on cost is worth it to you. I still can’t convince my brother. I’d love the bonus referral points.
• Not all Wholesalers and retailers accept AMEX, as they do MasterCard or Visa. However, the list of accepting vendors is growing.