Business Card Face Off: Chase Ink Business Preferred vs. Amex Platinum Business

Looking for a new credit card for your business expenses? If your pick has come down between the Ink Business Preferred Card and the American Express Platinum Business (read more), here’s everything you’ll want to consider before signing the dotted line.

1. Annual Fees

It’s no secret that both the Amex Platinum and the Amex Platinum Business come with some hefty annual fees (learn more).The Ink Business Preferred Card only charges $95, which isn’t that much different than many of the personal cards out there. The Amex Platinum Business comes in at a much higher $450 and it’s just going to go up again.

One thing to consider, is that you do get some fee credits and waivers with the Amex Platinum Business, which, if you take advantage of, can technically bring the cost down to around $150. At that price point, there’s not too much of a difference. The fee credits include a $200 annual airline fee credit and a $100 Global Entry application fee waiver. If you travel a lot, you can easily make use of these, but if you don’t, they might not be enough to actually help you out. One non-travel related credit for Amex Platinum Business cardholders comes next year, when a credit for Dell purchases is added.

2. Travel Perks

However, one other thing to really consider is that the Amex Platinum Business comes with a whole host of travel perks that the Ink Business Preferred Card just doesn’t have.

For example, Amex Platinum Business cardholders get access to the luxurious Centurion Lounges as well as Delta Sky Club when flying Delta. They also receive a Priority Pass membership and, starting soon, access to co-working spaces around the world. These can be pretty pricey if you’re paying for them outright. Again, though, if you’re not a frequent traveler, you likely won’t care.

As far as travel perks with the Ink Business Preferred Card, you get trip cancellation and interruption insurance, trip delay reimbursement, baggage coverage and a few other types of insurance.

3. Earning Structure and Welcome Bonuses

You also obviously want to consider more than just the cost and the perks. There’s also all that earning you have to think about.

With the Ink Business Preferred Credit Card, you can earn…

• 3 points per dollar spent on the first $150,000 in combined purchases on business costs such as telecommunications, shipping, business travel and advertising
• 1 point per dollar spent on all other purchases

Then, you can redeem your points as either cash back at 1 cent per point, or as Chase Ultimate Rewards points at 1.25 cents per point.

The welcome bonus for the Ink Business Preferred℠ Credit Card is 80,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first three months. So given the above, if you redeem your points as Chase Ultimate Rewards points, you’ll get $1,000 to spend on travel.

With the American Express Platinum Business, you receive…

• 5 Membership Rewards points per dollar spent on flights and prepaid hotels booked through the Amex travel portal
• 1 Membership Reward point per dollar spent on everything else
• 1.5 Membership Reward points on purchases over $5,000

You’ll also receive 50 percent of your points back as a bonus if you use Membership Rewards Pay with Points to pay for a flight.

The American Express Platinum Business welcome bonus (learn more) gives you 50,000 Membership Rewards points after you spend $10,000 and an additional 25,000 points after you spend another $10,000, all within the first three months.

Given all of the above then, the Ink Business Preferred Card is better in terms of earning potential if you plan to spend more on actual business costs, up to $150,000. The American Express Platinum Business is better if you are going to be spending more on flights and hotels.

The Bottom Line

With all the information above, picking between the two cards shouldn’t be a difficult decision. After all, even though they’re both technically “business” cards, they don’t have too much in common. The earning potential applies to far different categories and the perks are vastly different as well. It all comes down to your spending and travel habits.

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