Many folks are finding that their Business Green and Business Gold cards are eligible for an offer to upgrade to the Business Platinum card and earn 120,000 points after spending $10,000 on purchases in the first 3 months after upgrading.
The Deal
- American Express is offering some Business Green card and Business Gold card holders the opportunity to upgrade to the Business Platinum card and earn a bonus of 120,000 Membership Rewards points after making $10,000 or more of eligible purchases on the Business Platinum card within 3 months from the date of upgrade. This offer is targeted.
- Direct link to log in and see if you’re targeted
Quick Thoughts
This is a very solid offer for those who can meet the spending requirements and particularly for those who have or have had a Business Platinum card before (and thus may not be eligible for the new cardmember bonus). We sometimes see targeted new cardholder offers for the Business Platinum card that yield as many as 250,000 Membership Rewards points after $20,000 in purchases (I wrote about where I found that offer last week), but these upgrade offers may be of interest for many people since they do not require a new account and they require only half the spend (while awarding a proportional number of points).
Between my wife and I, we have several Business Green and Gold cards that qualify to upgrade and earn these bonuses. We haven’t decided on our strategy yet regarding these upgrade offers, but the opportunity to earn a nice haul of points without needing to open a new account is certainly somewhat appealing. That said, keep in mind that you’ll be on the hook for the Business Platinum card’s annual fee (though of course you’ll get the benefits like the airline incidental fee credits once per calendar year, the Dell benefit once before December 31, 2024, and more).
Since my wife’s account has been showing the targeted new cardholder 250K offer, it might make more sense for her to try applying through that first since it would offer the opportunity for 250K points with only one $695 annual fee. However, if she tried that and got the pop-up saying that she isn’t eligible for the welcome bonus, it might make sense to consider upgrading a Business Green or Business Gold card.
Overall, it’s great to see Amex continue to march on with its Points Parade, this time offering Business Green and Business Gold cardholders an incentive to consider upgrading.
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please take this post down
They should actually leave it up, we think.
Can you guys read Mandarin or no?
Where did this link come from? Seems like there could be shutdown risk for using it?
From Chinese reddit-like forum
I have a Biz Gold and do not have this upgrade offer. However, I see an offer to add a second Biz Gold for 125,000 points after 10k spend. Worth it?
It’s borderline since some gold offers have been higher. Personally I’d take it since it’s an easy offer and likely no NLL.
Those of you who are targeted, are you seeing the offer somewhere under your login? I see the offer when I go to the link and log in, but I’d prefer to see it just show up somewhere.
has the product change gone through for anyone? I got an email confirmation yesterday, but the app still shows a business gold
Worked for me. The card in the app has already changed and my prorated annual fee has already posted.
Same
same
[…] Green or Gold card to a Platinum card floating around in the darker corners of the internet, and it’s now public. A few notes:– If you have a Green or Gold to upgrade, get employee cards first (see item […]
Does this mean if I get/have 5 employee Gold cards, upgrade to the Biz Plat and have those cards converted, then spend the $4k per card I will get the 15k points + have the spend count towards this upgrade offer?
Yes
my 15k/4k spend available even after upgrading
received on both Business Gold accounts. One Biz Gold from NLL and one was previously a business platinum, downgraded to business Gold.
Not targeted on either p1 or 2
Thank you. I am not targeted but p2 is. His annual fee for business gold is due in November so this is perfect timing since we were planning to close it, as he has another gold business card he just opened NLL in June.
Any risk in upgrading a card that I just got a month ago? I literally just got the bonus for it
There is probably some sort of risk, however, one DP for the Biz Delta cards. I signed up for the Delta Biz Gold last year, earned SUP in 1 month, took upgrade offer to Plat, earned bonus in less than a month, took upgrade offer to Reserve, earned bonus in less than a month. The real risk is downgrading. Upgrading is almost certainly ok.
Any data points about how long these offers are around? Myself and P2 are both targeted but considering waiting on one to stagger the spend requirement a bit. Also, I’m eligible for multiple cards (a Green and a Gold). Could I theoretically do both or will the offer disappear once I upgrade one?
I just upgraded my Business Gold and Business Green about an hour apart from each other. You should be able to do both.
Ah… just completed the welcome bonus for the recent opened biz gold (June 2024). If I am eligible, I assume I should be able to upgrade it in order to save it a bit for the annual fee?
June 2024: $375 fee – biz gold (150k MR, $10k spnding)
Sep 2024: $695 fee – biz plat (upgrade from biz gold, 120k MR, $10k spending)
Sep 2024: ~$280 prorated refund from biz gold
Sounds like a okay deal to get 270k pts with $20k spending by combining both offers.
Very same situation for me
Does spend done while waiting for the new Biz Platinum card to arrive count toward the minimum spend?
Yes i just asked on chat
Yes, it says on the approval page you can continue using your existing card, and I confirmed with a rep via chat that the card numbers won’t actually even change.
I recently applied for the biz gold 200K and am now working towards the $10K welcome offer.
If I’m targeted later (not this round), would this upgrade tag along with the biz gold welcome offer? do I need to spend a total of $20K to get both, or just $10K?
Thanks!
I have the same question, but my new Biz Gold with a 200k $10k welcome offer that I’m still working on is now targeted for 120k upgrade offer to Biz Plat. I’m assuming I would need to meet the $10k spend first for the 200k welcome bonus before upgrading and spending another $10k to get the 120k? I’ve already had done the Biz Plat bonus years ago and currently hold a Biz Plat.
>I’m assuming I would need to meet the $10k spend first for the 200k welcome bonus before upgrading and spending another $10k to get the 120k?
Correct. As I said in another comment, I did this with Delta Biz cards.
I opted to upgrade one of my Business Golds that I just opened up in May. Do they prorate the annual fee at all with the upgrade offer? I was charged $375.00 on June 10th.
Yes usually you will pay a prorated difference in annual fee
And during the second year, does the $695 post on the original biz gold annual fee date? And if so, is it safe to close or downgrade the card then, or is it safer to wait til one year after upgrading?
The renewal date will be the same as the original Gold card. Yes the annual fee will be charged then. From my understanding you need to wait a year after upgrading before cancelling, but others may have more info about that.
wow. does that mean you are actually potentially locked in for 14+ months? I applied for the Biz gold NLL back at end of June. If I upgrade now, I’ll get Prorated biz gold fee back but I cant cancel biz plat till next sept? and not next June? that would mess up the refunding no?
I did a little research and yes, you need to keep a card open for one year after the date of upgrading.
Example:
If you just cancel the Plat, you will not get the annual fee back. You only get the annual fee refunded within 30 days of it posting on your account.
However if you downgrade for example to the Green, you will get a prorated amount of the Plat annual fee back less the prorated Green annual fee.
This doesn’t match my understanding though.
My impression is that
Upgrading a card does not change the renewal date. It stays the same as the original open date.
Yes, it won’t reset the renewal date. My understanding is wrong.
Thanks for clarification.
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/credit-cards/upgrade-amex-card/#:~:text=You%20may%20also%20want%20to,charge%2C%20you%20can%20avoid%20paying
No under this scenario the new year fee will post for $695 on May 1. On Sept 26 2025 you could downgrade to biz green and get around $300 refunded (pro rata of $600 fee difference).