Comparison of the American Express Personal vs. Business Platinum Credit Card

UPDATE: This offer is expired.

In the past few weeks, American Express announced a new offer for both the personal and business version of the American Express Platinum card. While both have a 40,000 point welcome offer after meeting their respective minimum spend requirements ($3,000 for the personal card and $5,000 for the business card, both within three months of card membership), there are some differences between the two cards. If you’ve been eyeing one of these two cards and were wondering which one to apply for, hopefully these pros and cons can help!

Similarities:

With both cards you’ll…

• Earn 1 point per dollar spent on everyday purchases
• Receive access to Amex’s Fine Hotels & Resorts program.
• Receive complimentary access to select airport lounges (this includes: Participating Delta Sky Club® lounges; Priority Pass(TM) Select (gives you access to over 700 participating airport lounges worldwide); Airspace Lounges in New York (JFK), Cleveland (CLE) and the Baltimore-Washington International (BWI) airports (learn more at airspacelounge.com); Centurion Lounges (Las Vegas McCarran airport and the Dallas/Fort-Worth airport (learn more at thecenturionlounge.com).
• Get reimbursed for your Global Entry $100 application fee
• Get complimentary Starwood Gold status.
• Receive purchase protection if you purchased an item using the card and within 90 days and the item is lost, stolen, or has accidental damage – you can be reimbursed for the item up to $10,000 per occurrence and $50,000 total per year.
• Receive return protection if you purchased an item using the card and within 90 days the merchant will no longer accept the item back as a return, you are eligible for a full refund up to $300 per item and $1,000 total per year.
• Pay no foreign transaction fees.
• Gain access to Regus membership. This gives you temporary office space – you can learn more about it here.

Differences:

• With the Personal Platinum card you:
  • Have the option to add up to three additional cardholders for $175 total. This entitles all three card holders lounge access (to partner lounges) and reimbursement for the Global Entry program. If you want to add an additional card holder to the Business Platinum card it costs an additional $300 per card member!
• With the Business Platinum card you:
  • Get access to American Express’s OPEN Savings program. I wrote more about this here, but essentially you can get up to 10% back as a statement credit at participating merchants (for example, 10% back at Hertz). The Personal Platinum card does not come with an equivalent program.

There is also one more benefit to the Business version of the card that is ending June 1, 2015. You can read more about the end of this benefit here.

So while the cards are very similar in nature, there are some distinct differences between the two. If you are deciding between the two, take a look at the perks and determine which one will work better for your situation.