I wrote recently how I was surprised to see Amex significantly improve the sign up bonuses (SUBs) of their cobranded cards and remarked that it is more common for them to do so with their mainline cards. Well I guess Amex decided to stager the changes because they just updated the SUB structure on their Personal and Business versions of the Gold and Platinum card. Similar to the cobrands they've tweaked primary bonuses, added new "stretch" spend targets, and added second year bonuses to the Gold cards which didn't have them before, they also have the same Aug 18th deadline. How does this compare to before and who should pick up these cards? Lets get into it.
I use a 2c per point value when given the Effective Return Rate (ERR) for a given sub tier and include both the points from the SUB and the points from spending, be sure to adjust the ERR% up or down if you value your points higher or lower than this. It was also calculated using the un-bonused multipliers (ie. 1x on the Gold for regular purchases and not 2x for travel)
Referrals and Disclaimers at the bottom.
Jump ahead
Personal Platinum Business Gold Personal Gold
Platinum Cards
Amex issues both a business and personal version of their Platinum card. Both have a hefty annual fee at $799 which is somewhat offset by extensive international lounge access, Marriott and Hilton Gold status and an annual $200 travel credit. The Business version gets an additional $10/mo back on cell services and $100 every 6mo on Dell, while the personal gets a $200 dining experience credit. The Business version earns 1.25 points per dollar on all spend, while the personal earns 2x on some categories and 1x on uncategorized spending. As a result, for very high uncategorized spending such as paying taxes, the Business card typically is the winner. If you're unfamiliar with Amex points you can find out why I love them here.
Business Platinum
The Business Platinum typically had the following SUB structure
80k points for $15k in 3mo - 13.17% ERR
40k points for any spend in mo 14-17
Totalling 120k
You could also find elevated offers for 90+40k, or access unlisted high spend offers for as much as 200k
This has been replaced with
110k points for $15k in 3mo - 17.16% ERR
60k points for $90k in 12mo - 6.23% ERR
30k points for any spend in mo 15-17
Totalling 120k
So they've increased the primary sub from 80-90k to 110k for the same spend, added what I call a "stretch" spend goal, and reduced the second year bonus by 10k. This is a clear improvement even if you ignore the stretch goal as you'd end up with +30k points in the first year with the same spending. Meanwhile for people with high expenses, this makes the value proposition very favourable. For people with particularly lumpy spending who could hit this spend target much faster than a year, there are some other options we can discuss. Even if the only way you can hit the spend is by corporate taxes on Paysimply, or personal taxes, office rent etc on Chexy, it's a big win because the effective earn rate is WELL above the transaction fee.
Personal Platinum
The Platinum Card typically had the following SUB structure
70k points for $10k in 3mo - 16% ERR
30k points for any spend in mo 14-17
Totalling 100k
You could also sometimes find elevated offers for 80+30k
This has been replaced with
100k points for $10k in 3mo - 22% ERR
50k points for $50k in 12mo - 8% ERR
30k points for any spend in mo 15-17
Totalling 120k
Similar to the business card this promotion is a definite win with +30k more points with the same spending. The "stretch" spend goal is slightly less lofty but still significant, but the high effective return rate still exceeds the fees of services you can use to capture typically non-credit card spend such as Chexy.
My overall take on the platinum cards - big win even if you wont hit the stretch goal, with high effective return rates even at very high spending these are amazing cards for tax spending.
Gold Cards
The differences between the business and personal gold cards is far more significant, to the extent that they hardly seem to share an identity outside of their visual appearance - different annual fees ($199 business, $250 personal), earn rates (1x on business, 1-2x on personal), perks (personal gets 4 plaza premium lounge passes), and credits ($50 q6mo Dell credit for business, both get $120 in instacart credits). I've also written before about how the business gold can be particularly appealing for tax spend of $20-40k/quarter as it gets a recurring quarterly bonus of 10k points for $20k+ spend.
Business Gold
The Business Gold had a lackluster SUB structure
40k points for $7.5k in 3mo - ERR of 12.67%
While not part of the sub, the card earns a 10k bonus every quarter where you spend at least $20k - first year ERR of 4%, but ongoing of 3%
this means the card can have an overall effective return of 1.5x or 3% ignoring the sub at this exact spend level, but for spend over this it starts to decline, favouring an uncapped 1.25x card
This has been replaced with
40k points for $7.5k in 3mo - ERR of 12.67%
40k points for $30k in 12mo - ERR of 7.33%
20k points for any spend mo 15-17
Ongoing 10k bonus every quarter where you spend at least $20k - first year ERR of 7%, yr 2 of 5.5% , and ongoing 3%
This is a dramatic revamp to the card adding a stretch spend bonus, and a second year bonus. The second year bonus is particularly surprising to me because even when this card historically had a higher offer of 75k points, it was all in the first year. With a lower annual fee and a spend multiplier sweet spot from the quarterly bonus, this card was already a great option for tax spending particularly for someone who doesn't value the perks of the more expensive cards. Even better, the stretch goal in this case is easily attainable by anyone planning to spend the $20k/qr.
Personal Gold
The Personal Gold had the following SUB structure
5k points for every mo you spend $1000+
Total of 60k points for $12k - ERR 12%
You could sometimes find offers with an additional 10k points
This has been replaced with
5k points for every mo you spend $1000+
Total of 60k points for $12k - ERR 12%
30k points for spending $20k in first 12 mo - ERR 11%
20k points for any purchase between mo 15-17
Totalling 110k
For people who were only going to put $1000-1600/mo onto the card and weren't planning to hold it a second year this has no impact. However if you're going to spend slightly higher at ~$1700/mo or hold the card for a second year it's an easy win. Given the gold card's 2x earn rate on travel an additional point when booking hotels and car rentals on the Amex travel portal, combining ~$1k/mo of general spending with a lumpy trip spend might be a great way to get both bonuses while also taking advantage of the elevated travel earn rate. The gap between the primary sub and "stretch" spend target is the smallest with this card, such that I am a bit reluctant to even use the term.
Stretch Goals
The platinum cards in particular have some pretty high spend requirements to unlock the full potential of their bonuses which can certainly be intimidating. By comparing the current offers to the previous ones we saw that even without hitting those targets you would be better off with the current deal versus before so it is very rationale for some to just ignore them. However, because they increase the effective return rate at a high spend level, they are well positioned for people to capture significant "inorganic earn". I classify any earning technique that requires atypical effort or a transaction fee as "inorganic", and in this case I'm referring to paying a fee to use a card for an expense that otherwise would not accept it - taxes, rent, contractor fees etc. Whenever considering an inorganic earning approach, the return has to clearly exceed the cost/effort.
Let's consider Chexy which charges 1.75%, a card like the business platinum can come out ahead with an ongoing ERR of 2.5% even without any bonuses. But the math is even more favourable if you had 22.5k in quarterly tax installments you put on this new offer. You'd spend $90k on taxes as you would anyways, $799 on the card fee, and $1575 on Chexy transaction fees. You'd earn ~114k points on the spend/fees and both the primary 110k and stretch 60k bonuses, totalling ~284k. Given that YYZ/YVR/YUL to Europe, round trip for two in business can be found for 240-280k points you'd be buying an amazing trip, plus the credits and perks of the card, for under $2400 (the cost of the economy flights for two). Even better if instead of personal quarterly taxes it was office rent/utilities/property tax, paying pre-tax money for the fee or if some portion of the spend was "organic" without a transaction fee.
The same strategy would apply if you had a big renovation with high associated expenses over the next year. If your contractor charges a high fee to use credit card (2%+), just use Chexy to pay them via e-transfer at 1.75% as a house/office expense.
Conclusion
Amex has released some incredible updates to their bonuses across their mainline business/personal platinum/gold cards. This has come in the form of new "stretch spend" bonuses ranging from $20k to $90k(!) in the first year, as well as the surprising addition of second year bonuses to the gold cards.
In just about every case this is an upgrade even if you can't hit the more lofty "stretch spend" requirements, but "inorganic earning" via tools like Chexy look more appealing than ever - if you were considering either a card for renos or taxes now is the time to act.
Referrals
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If you're on the fence, or wondering about other cards reach out to me for a free consult, and if you sign up for a card through my link, let me know and I will walk you through advanced tricks and personalized advice to help you get the maximum benefit both from earning and redeeming points - getting your travel journey going faster than you ever thought possible.
Check out my Keeper Cards series to see other cards worth exploring
Disclaimer
This should not be taken as financial advice and details are subject to change. I have made good intentioned efforts to be accurate but ultimately consult card terms and conditions
