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We have written quite a bit about how to turbo-charge your potential points earnings from the (fantastic) 105,000 point welcome offer on the Amex Business Platinum. If you play it smart, you should earn at least 140,000 Amex Membership Rewards Points.

[Note that the welcome bonuses below are now lower, but they are actually irrelevant to the main point of this post]

Relatively speaking, we’ve neglected the Amex Business Gold, which comes with its own hefty 52,000 point welcome bonus and has the added advantage of being completely free for the first year!

Like many readers though, I’m sadly not eligible for either welcome bonus, because I already have a personal Amex that earns Membership Reward Points (eg. Amex Gold or Plat). Remember, the welcome bonus eligibility rule for the business cards are as follows:

“You will not be eligible for any Welcome Bonus award if you currently hold or have held any Membership Rewards enrolled American Express Card in the past six months.” Basically, if you already have a personal (or Business) Amex Gold or Platinum, or have had one in the last 6 months, you will not receive the welcome bonus. If you have any other Amex cards like a British Airways one, you will get the welcome bonus.

However, I decided that, even without the bonus, it still made a lot of sense for me to apply for a Business Gold.

Why I got an Amex Business Gold, despite not being eligible for the welcome bonus…

There are two main reasons:

1. I can still earn 15,000 Amex Membership Rewards Points simply by adding 5 supplementary cardholders to my account. If I were to transfer those to Avios and then cash them out at 0.9p each (or 0.8p via Nectar), that would net me £135. Not bad at all!
2. I will cancel my personal Amex Gold, and can then start cycling through the Business Amex Gold/Plat cards. After I also cancel the new Business Gold, I will be eligible for Business Gold/Plat welcome bonuses after just 6 months has passed. I can then repeat that every 6 months. In the meantime, I will also be resetting the 24 month clock on personal Gold/Platinum welcome bonuses.

Bottom line

By getting a (free for first year and easy to cancel) Amex Business Gold, I’ll end up with at least £135 of value.

I will also then be eligible for Business Amex welcome bonuses just 6 months after cancelling, and will be able to receive personal Amex Gold/Plat welcome bonuses in 24 months time too.

Are you tempted to apply as well? The requirements for a Business Amex aren’t particularly difficult to meet:

• The business has a current UK Bank or Building Society account
• You/The business have/has no County Court Judgements for non-payment of debt
• You are aged 18 or over
• You have a permanent UK home address