American Express has become notably more aggressive this quarter, expanding promotions not only for personal cards like the Amex Platinum and Amex Reserve but also for its corporate and business cards to stimulate company spending.
The timing aligns with many businesses recovering from the impact of COVID-19 and beginning to restore revenues. Below are the latest offers effective from 1 April 2021 for American Express Corporate cards.
Table of Contents
- Spend Linked Offer
- Accelerated Rewards
- Bottomline
Spend Linked Offer
- Offer: Spend 40 Lakhs & get 1 Lakh points
- Offer Period: April 2021 to December 2021
This offer applies to businesses that applied for and received approval for the American Express Corporate Platinum card on or after 1 April 2021.
Effectively, the promotion doubles the reward rate for eligible cardholders, similar to previous double rewards promotions, but requires a minimum aggregate spend to qualify.
Under normal terms, the Amex Corporate Platinum earns 2.5 Membership Reward points per Rs.100 of spend (equivalent to 1 MR per Rs.40). By meeting the spend threshold, cardholders receive 2X rewards — which becomes 5 Reward points per Rs.100 spent.
In practical terms, spending 40 Lakhs INR yields 200,000 points: 100,000 regular points plus 100,000 bonus points.
That level of return represents a strong value proposition, translating roughly to a 2.5% effective reward rate (assuming a conservative valuation of 1 Membership Reward point = Re.0.50) once the target is achieved.
Accelerated Rewards
- Offer: 2X rewards on selected spend categories
- Eligible Spend Types: Amazon, Flipkart and foreign currency transactions
- Maximum Cap: 35,000 points per month
This is a useful incentive for businesses with e-commerce and international expenses, though for many foreign currency transactions the overall economics of using American Express corporate cards can still be less favorable compared with other payment methods due to FX fees or acceptance considerations.
Note: Similar accelerated-reward structures were offered in 2020 with different partners such as AWS, LinkedIn and Facebook advertising; this year the partner mix has changed but the concept remains the same.
While not revolutionary, this promotion aligns well with common corporate spending patterns. Routing eligible purchases through the corporate card can enhance returns for businesses that already transact on these platforms.
Bottomline
It is encouraging to see American Express increase its focus on the corporate credit card segment with clearer reward incentives. Business cards remain a relatively underexploited area for issuers in India, so these offers may help stimulate demand and usage.
The pandemic delayed adoption and development of many corporate credit offerings, but with these renewed incentives there’s reason to expect improved product activity in the coming years.
What do you think about these new Amex Corporate Card offers? Share your thoughts or experiences with the promotions in the comments below.