Costs & Pricing

Metric	The Business Platinum Card® from American Express	Brex Card
Annual fee	$895 (new accounts since 09/18/2025; existing accounts moved to $895 on first renewal on or after 12/02/2025). Refundable if closed within 30 days of the Closing Date the fee posted.	$0 published for the card. Software is separate: Essentials $0/user/mo; Premium $12/user/mo; Enterprise/Smart Card custom. Do not treat Premium as a card AF unless the company elects that plan.
Employee card fee	$400 each Additional Business Platinum Card; $0 each Additional Business Expense Card; max 99 additional cards. Legacy accounts opened before 09/18/2025 and not notified of the change may still be billed $350.	$0; unlimited physical + virtual cards advertised
Purchase APR	Pay Over Time only: Prime + 10.99% to Prime + 21.74% (marketed 17.74%–28.49% variable); cap 29.99%. Does not apply to Pay In Full charges paid by the due date.	N/A — charge card, pay in full. Marketing “0%” is charge-card float (daily ~1 business day after clear, or ~30-day monthly statement), not an intro APR.
Intro APR (purchases)	Not offered	Not offered
Foreign transaction fee	$0	Marketing: no FTF. Official: FX rate markup of up to 3% on conversions (Mastercard wholesale, adjusted daily). Local-currency cards can avoid conversion on local spend.
Late payment fee	$39 or 2.99% of any past-due Pay In Full amount, whichever is greater	2.99% of delinquent balance or $38, whichever is higher, assessed once per statement that is 30 days past due (Card Program Terms, Apr 7, 2026)

Rewards & Value

Metric	The Business Platinum Card® from American Express	Brex Card
Base earn rate	1X Membership Rewards point per $1 on other eligible purchases	1x on everything else under Exclusive (1 point per $1 USD spend with a U.S.-based merchant). All customers enrolled in Exclusive unless the contract says otherwise. No published category caps. Non-Exclusive / second-card path may be flat 1x — source conflict with 2026 reviews; confirm on the live contract.
Welcome bonus	Personalized — marketed as high as 300,000 Membership Rewards points after $20,000 eligible spend in the first 3 months. Welcome offers vary and you may not be eligible. Do not treat 300k as a guaranteed public offer.	$1,000 USD statement credit after ≥$4,000 Qualifying Spend within 30 days of activation. Apply, be approved, and activate (first purchase) Sep 1–30, 2026 (legal offer revised Aug 10, 2026). Re-check Oct 1. Review sites still print 10,000 points after $3,000 in 3 months — not found as a current dated legal page.
Redemption value	Issuer does not publish a single cpp. Do not invent one. Pay-with-Points airfare is often treated near 1¢; hotel portal is frequently lower. Transfers can be higher or lower.	Brex Travel portal: 1 point = 1¢. Cash to Brex business account or statement credit: 1 point = 0.6¢ (admin must claim). Headline 7x rideshare is 4.2% cash only if Exclusive + cash path. Do not use 1¢ for cash.
Transfer partners	Membership Rewards program (not card-unique; ratios change). Most airlines 1:1; commonly cited exceptions include Aeromexico 1:1.6, JetBlue 250:200, Hilton 1:2, Marriott 1:1, Choice 1:1, LHW 4:1. Re-check membershiprewards.com. Typical minimum 1,000 points. One-way. No expiration while the account remains open / program rules are met.	Emirates Skywards, Avianca LifeMiles, Singapore KrisFlyer, Air France-KLM Flying Blue, Aeromexico Club Premier, Cathay Asia Miles, Qantas Frequent Flyer at ~1,500:1,000. Crypto (BTC/ETH) appeared in older guides at 0.6¢ — not on the current official redeem page.

Credit & Eligibility

Metric	The Business Platinum Card® from American Express	Brex Card
Personal guarantee	Required in substance. CMA: “The Basic Card Member and the Company remain jointly and severally liable for all Charges.” Not a no-PG product.	Not required in Brex marketing. Card Program Terms assign liability to the Company. Confirm the live issuer agreement at approval (Emigrant vs Fifth Third vs other).
Credit check	Marketed “Know if you're approved with no personal credit score impact.” Secondary: decision often before a hard pull; hard personal inquiry commonly reported if the card is accepted. Business bureau review may occur when an EIN is used.	Brex states SSN is for identity verification and is not used to underwrite or pull personal credit. No advertised personal hard pull.
Employee cards	Up to 99 additional. Platinum AU $400 with fuller travel benefits (lounge, hotel status, GE/PreCheck commonly reported as individual). Many statement credits remain account-pooled. Expense cards $0 without the full perk stack. Spend limits, alerts, freeze.	One employee card (physical or virtual) per user plus unlimited purchasing/virtual cards. Spend limits, merchant locks, policies, Apple/Google/Samsung Pay. Company liable. Auto-reissue on expiry.
Product type	Charge card with No Preset Spending Limit plus optional Pay Over Time (hybrid charge / limited-revolve)	Corporate / commercial charge card plus spend-management platform (pay-in-full daily or monthly; not revolving; no published purchase APR)

Pros & Cons

The Business Platinum Card® from American Express

Pros

• 5X on Amex Travel flights / prepaid hotels / prepaid STRs, transferable MR, and 35% Pay-with-Points airline rebate
• 2X on defined U.S. construction, electronics/software/cloud, shipping, and $5k+ tickets up to $2M
• Global Lounge Collection plus $600 hotel credit and FHR/Hotel Collection access; $0 FTF; NPSL
• Business credit stack (Dell up to $1,150, Indeed $360, Adobe $250, wireless $120, ChatGPT Business $300) if those vendors are already in use
• CLEAR+, Global Entry/PreCheck, hotel elite status, and cell-phone protection on a charge card

Cons

• $895 primary fee and $400 perk-bearing employee cards
• 1X on most everyday spend; 5X does not apply to flights booked direct with airlines
• Credits are fragmented, enrollment-gated, and easy to miss; marketing “$4,000+ value” assumes utilization the business may not have
• Pay-in-full late fee can be 2.99% of past-due PIF; POT APR is high if used as working capital
• Personal / joint-and-several liability; welcome bonus is personalized (“as high as”) and generally once per this product

Brex Card

Pros

• No personal guarantee and no advertised personal credit pull; company is the obligor
• $0 card annual fee and unlimited employee/virtual cards on Essentials
• Exclusive category points with no published earn cap; Brex Travel portal at 1¢/pt
• Native expense controls, virtual/vendor cards, and accounting integrations
• Local-currency cards in 50+ countries (plan-dependent); business-bureau reporting without personal-credit reporting (per Brex)

Cons

• Charge card: no revolving APR, no 0% working-capital window; late fee 2.99% or $38 after 30 days past due, plus possible 10% workout fee
• Sole props ineligible; funded startups commonly ~$50k cash; commercial revenue floors are messy
• “No FTF” marketing vs up to 3% FX markup
• Cash redemption 0.6¢/pt; airline transfers 1,500:1,000; Exclusive/contract multipliers are easy to misread
• Dynamic limits can fall with cash; Capital One ownership may change terms

Verdict

The Business Platinum Card® from American Express

Business Platinum is the lounge-and-credits SKU — not consumer Platinum (different credits, broader direct-airline 5X) and not Business Gold (lower fee, auto-4X ads/restaurants/gas). It pays when portal travel, 2X categories, and enrollment credits are real spend you already have. Unused credits make $895 a net loss versus Ink Preferred or a 2% cash card. Poor daily driver for flat cash back, 0% capital, no-PG underwriting, or flights ticketed direct with airlines.

Brex Card

Brex is a charge-card ops platform owned by Capital One as of April 7, 2026 — not Spark, not Ramp’s Visa SKU, and not a revolving bank card. Pick it for no-PG underwriting and policy tooling. Do not assume 1¢ cash, a guaranteed 7x, or true $0 FX. Sole props, revolvers, and simple 1.5–2% cash shoppers should use a traditional PG card or Ramp if the cash bar fits. The Sep 2026 $1,000 / $4,000 / 30-day credit expires Sep 30 — re-check Oct 1.