What Are The American Express Income Requirements In The UK?

American Express reintroduced minimum income requirements for its UK credit cards back in 2023, after several years of taking a more holistic view of applicants' finances.

Between 2016 and 2023, Amex looked at the broader picture. Household income, the gap between what you earned and what you spent, your overall financial health. A single person living at home on £25,000 was treated very differently to someone earning £35,000 with a mortgage and two kids. It made sense. But Amex scrapped that approach and moved to a blunter system based on stated personal income thresholds.

Those thresholds were then tweaked slightly in 2025, with a handful of cards becoming easier to qualify for.

Here is where things stand now.

Personal cards: the current income thresholds

The personal card range splits neatly into three tiers.

£35,000 minimum income:

• The Platinum Card (£650 annual fee)

• British Airways American Express Premium Plus Credit Card (£300 annual fee)

£20,000 minimum income:

• American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card (£195 annual fee, free in year one)

• Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card (£95 annual fee)

• Nectar Credit Card from American Express (£30 annual fee, free in year one)

• Amex Cashback Credit Card (£25 annual fee)

£15,000 minimum income:

• British Airways American Express Credit Card (free)

• The American Express Rewards Credit Card (free)

• Amex Cashback Everyday Credit Card (free)

Business cards: the current income thresholds

For business cards, the income figure always refers to your personal income as the applicant, not the revenue or profitability of your business. This catches a lot of directors and sole traders off guard.

It is also worth noting that since January 2026, The American Express Business Gold Card and The American Express Business Platinum Card are only available to directors of limited companies and members of limited liability partnerships. Sole traders can no longer apply for either of those two cards.

£35,000 minimum personal income:

• The American Express Business Platinum Card (£650 annual fee)

£20,000 minimum personal income:

• The American Express Business Gold Card (£195 annual fee, free in year one)

• British Airways American Express Accelerating Business Card (£250 annual fee)

The BA Accelerating Business Card is the only Amex business card still open to sole traders, which makes it a useful option if you do not have a limited company.

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Why this matters

The income thresholds matter because they don't just determine which cards you can apply for. They shape the entire strategy of how you collect sign-up bonuses across Amex.

Amex cards sit in different reward families. The Platinum Card and Preferred Rewards Gold both earn Membership Rewards points, so they're in the same family. The British Airways cards are in their own family. The Nectar card is in a third. The eligibility rules for sign-up bonuses are based on these families, not on whether you've had any Amex card at all.

That means if you earn £35,000 or more, you can potentially work through multiple card families, picking up separate sign-up bonuses on each one. You could hold a BA Premium Plus card and still be eligible for a Platinum Card bonus, because they sit in different families. Getting the order right can be worth a significant number of Avios.

If you earn between £20,000 and £34,999, the Preferred Rewards Gold is a strong starting point. It's one of the best entry-level cards in the UK for anyone getting into points (you can read why here). You also have access to the Marriott Bonvoy and Nectar cards, which sit in different product families and keep the door open for premium card bonuses later if your income rises.

If you earn between £15,000 and £19,999, your options are more limited but the free BA card and the free Rewards Credit Card are both available and worth picking up.

A note on what counts as income

This is the bit that trips people up, so it is worth spelling out clearly.

Amex asks for your "annual personal income" on the application form. That is not the same thing as your salary. The application lists specific income sources you can tick, and the full list is broader than you might think. It includes: salary (including contractual bonuses), pension income, investment income (dividends, savings interest), rental income, state benefits (though Amex specifically excludes Housing Benefit), private benefits such as spousal maintenance, and trust fund or inheritance income. Student grants and bursaries also count.

This is good news if you are retired. A pension is explicitly listed as a qualifying income source. If your state pension plus any private or workplace pensions total £20,000 or more, you meet the threshold for cards like the Gold. If they total £35,000 or more, The Platinum Card and BA Premium Plus are within reach. You do not need to be in employment.

It also means that if you are a director paying yourself a modest salary with dividends on top, both count. If you have rental income from a buy-to-let or interest from savings, that counts too. The key is that everything you declare needs to be your personal income. You are declaring a total figure and ticking the boxes for where it comes from.

The bottom line

The income requirements are a blunt instrument, but they are what they are.

The key takeaway is that you do not need to be a high earner to get started with Amex. A £15,000 income now opens the door to several cards, and a £20,000 income gives you access to the Preferred Rewards Gold, which is comfortably one of the best entry points into the miles and points world.

Sam

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