The best way to apply for a Platinum or Gold Amex business credit card is with a paper mail offer. Those mailers bypass the usual pop-up that blocks bonuses for people who currently have or previously had the card.

Without a mailer you’ll likely see: “since you received/earned the bonus before, you are not eligible to receive this bonus now.”

The strongest mailers: Platinum at 250,000 points for $20,000/3mo spend, and Business Gold at 200,000 points for $15,000/3mo. At a baseline $0.01/point, that’s roughly $2,500–$2,000 in value.

By applying with a mailer, you can have 2, 3, or even 4 cards at the same time, on the same name/social security number.

You can list your own name as the business name and choose “sole proprietorship” to skip a tax ID. Amex business cards don’t report to your personal credit, and with an existing Amex card there’s usually no hard inquiry.

Platinum benefits include $150 Dell credit, $600 semi-annual hotel credits, and $200 airline credit; with the 250K bonus, that’s easily $3,500–$4,000 in value. Business Gold offers a $20 monthly office supply credit (I buy Staples gift cards for other retailers), effectively lowering its net cost to ~$135 after $240 in annual credits. I carry multiple Gold cards and use the credit each month.

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