American Express has quietly rolled out its biggest welcome offer yet on the Business Gold Card: up to 200,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $15,000 on eligible purchases within the first three months. For context, this card has typically topped out at 70,000 to 100,000 points, so the current offer is in a league of its own.
The catch is that Amex shows different offers to different people, based on your card history, spending patterns and how many welcome bonuses you've already earned. You can check what you're eligible for by starting an application — if you decline the offer shown, there's no hit to your credit score. If the top offer doesn't appear, targeted emails, refer-a-friend links or CardMatch are worth a look, though offers tend to be person-specific rather than tied to the application channel.
The spending requirement works out to roughly $5,000 a month, which is substantial. The workaround is timing: apply before a big business expense like an ad campaign or inventory purchase, prepay bills, or shift cash purchases onto the card. Just clear the balance in full — interest charges would quickly eat the value of the bonus.
So what are those points worth? The source values Membership Rewards points at about 1.7 cents each, putting 200,000 points at roughly $3,400 in value. Points transfer to a wide range of airline and hotel programmes, including Air France-KLM Flying Blue, Emirates Skywards, Singapore KrisFlyer and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. Real-world examples: 60,000 points to Avianca Lifemiles buys a one-way ANA first class seat from Tokyo to Honolulu (about $81 in taxes), and 75,000 points to Aeroplan covers SWISS business class from Miami to Zurich with around $57 in fees.
Eligibility follows Amex's 'once in a lifetime' rule — you can't have held this card or earlier versions before. But you can still get the bonus if you hold other Amex cards, including the Business Platinum or the personal Gold. Notably, you don't need a registered company: freelancers, side hustlers and landlords qualify as sole proprietors. The card also doesn't count toward the Chase 5/24 limit or Amex's five-credit-card cap, since it's a charge card. A credit score of 700+ helps, though approvals vary.
Beyond the bonus, the card carries a $375 annual fee and earns 4x points in your two highest-spending categories each billing cycle, chosen from six: US advertising, electronics and software, restaurants, gas stations, transit, and wireless phone service — capped at $150,000 of combined annual spend in those categories. Flights and prepaid hotels booked through Amex Travel earn 3x. There's also up to $845 in annual statement credits, spanning ChatGPT Business, Grubhub and office supplies, a Walmart+ membership, and Squarespace subscriptions. No foreign transaction fees apply.
For travellers who put business spend on cards anyway, this is one of the strongest welcome offers currently available anywhere — the hurdle is purely the spending requirement and whether Amex deems you eligible for the full 200K.
