Price is only an issue in the absence of value, and the American Express Platinum Card brings value. Keep reading as we share the valuable benefits that may make the $695 annual fee seem cheap compared to other credit cards that don’t offer as many benefits.
Yes, the American Express Platinum Card is one of the most expensive credit cards on the market. Depending on your spending and amount of travel, you may get huge value from this card. On the other hand, some of you may be better off with another credit card with a lower annual fee.
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Keep reading as this fun financial planner shares how to evaluate whether the $695 American Express Platinum Card’s annual fee is worth it. The value of some benefits is easily quantifiable, and others will depend on your personal needs and travel habits.
The $240 Digital Entertainment Credit
You can get a $20 monthly statement credit to help offset the cost of Audible, Disney+, Hulu, Peacock, Sirius XM, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. Spending $20 or more per month on these services is easy. In my book, this is a valuable benefit. With the ever-increasing cost of streaming services, every bit of savings helps.
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$200 Hotel Credit From Amex
Even if you don’t travel much, spending $200 at hotels is easy each year. To qualify for this benefit, you must book a prepaid hotel stay via American Express programs. This includes the Fine Hotels & Resorts and the Hotel Collection.
$200 Uber Cash Benefit From Amex
You will receive $200 in credits throughout the year to use on Uber or Uber Eats. This is easy to use, assuming you take a rideshare or order delivery at least once per month. The benefit appears to be to use or lose it, so if you don’t take an Uber Ride in a given month, you lose the monthly credit. The good news is that Uber Cash can be used on Uber Eats, making it a bit easier to use.
$100 Shop With Saks Amex Platinum Benefit
You will receive a $50 statement credit every six months on purchases at Saks Fifth Avenue. Pretty straightforward. It does take spending money to receive the benefits, and as you may have guessed, there are only so many items at or below the $50 price point at Saks.
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$189 Clear Credit
I get a discounted Clear membership from my airline status, which brings the cost down for the annual $189 credit for Clear is enough to pay for my spouse and me to have this time-saving membership each year. I don’t know about you, but I don’t love waiting in security lines, and Clear helps speed up getting through airport security.
$200 Airline Fee Credit
If you are like me, I’m sure you hate paying onerous airline fees. However, the $200 airline fee credit is the most frustrating American Express Platinum benefit in my book. This benefit often isn’t quite as generous as it sounds. First, you must select the airline for which you want American Express to pick up the fees. If you are a frequent traveler, you likely don’t incur many fees; if you do, they are on an airline you don’t fly often. Hence, I don’t get much, if any, value from this Amex benefit each year.
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This is the first year I’ve fully utilized the $200 airline fee credit. I paid to fly our fur baby with us. Luckily, the airline fee credit covered the cost in one direction.
Additional Travel Benefits From American Express
The value of the travel benefits will vary depending on how often and how you like to travel. I’ve found great value in booking Amex Fine Hotels when traveling, and there are some great benefits here. This could be valuable if your home airport has a Centurion Lounge. I’m not a big fan of the new Centurion Lounge at LAX (it always has a waiting list and seems to be situated in the airport basement), but it will do if I need access to another lounge when flying internationally.
You can also find some good flight deals when booking via Amex’s International Airline Program. Remember that this is like booking through a third-party site and may cause issues if the flight schedule changes or you need to rebook.
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Free Walmart+ From American Express
American Express Platinum cardholders are entitled to a free Walmart+ subscription, which costs about $155 annually. The main benefit appears to be that there is no minimum purchase for free shipping. If you are already paying for Walmart+, it will save you money. If not, I’m not sure how valuable this benefit is. I live in West Hollywood, and there is no Walmart for miles.
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$300 Equinox Gym Credit
This is an excellent benefit if you are already a member of Equinox. You can receive a $25 monthly statement credit when paying your dues on the Amex Platinum credit card. This can also be used for the Equinox online app subscription. If you don’t live near an Equinox or want to avoid paying the cost of the company’s gym membership, you likely aren’t getting much value from this benefit. In case you were wondering, the Equinox+ app is a whopping $39.99 + tax per month.
American Express Platinum Sign-Up Bonus?
A sign-up bonus can make year one of the American Express Platinum Card a no-brainer. In addition to the benefits listed above, the sign-up bonus will likely give you enough Amex points to offset the initial annual fee.
The bottom line is that this fun financial planner suggests you consider the overall value of a card rather than just the base annual fee. The more you travel (especially internationally and to higher-end hotels), the more value you can get each year from the American Express Platinum Card. Even if you don’t travel a ton, it may be easy to wrestle more than $695 of value each year from this premium credit card.
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