American Express Platinum Card For Free! @AmericanExpress #AmericanExpress

American Express Platinum Card For Free!

Actually, better than free. The Amex Platinum card benefits are so generous, that I am actually going to run a profit from my account this year. That’s right, the monetary value of the benefits that I am going to receive will be greater than the cost of the card, which is $550!

American Express has automatic benefits for each level of card, here are the ones for my personal (vs. business) Platinum card (and these are just the ones I use):

-$200 airline credit for incidentals. Baggage, etc., and also includes lounge access if you want to bring a guest in to the Delta lounge, which is free for Platinum card holders, when flying Delta.
-$100 TSA credit every five years. Haven’t gotten your TSA approval yet? Amex will pay for it!
-$100 Saks Fifth Avenue annual credit, earned in $50 biannual increments. Every six months I get $50 credit for charges at Saks Fifth Avenue, in store or on-line (does not work for their related outlet store, Off Saks)..
-$200 Uber credit. We get $15 a month free Uber credit, and a bonus in December. Not riding during the quarantine? The credit is also attached to your Uber Eats account! I always combine that with an Uber Eats coupon!
$600 total in monetary value, plus a Priority Pass airline lounge card for you and 2 guests, just request the card when you become a member.

Your automatic benefits pay for your annual card free!

Let’s now see what extras I received in 2020 due to the pandemic:
Up to $20 a month credit for Amex auto-billed phone services.
Up to $20 a month credit for streaming services.
I didn’t realize this right away, and I will never let that mistake happen again! Now I read everything, this worked out to a bonus from May – December of $40/month, or an extra $320 credit! I charge everything for the miles, so this was easy!

2021 Pandemic Benefit:
$200 Airline credit when using Amex travel. Yes, this works for buying an airline ticket!

2021 Platinum Offers  Expiring June 30, 2021 – you have to have these added to your card in order for them to be active on your account:
-$100 Best Buy – credited, for charging $50, 2 separate times before June 30. Mail order only
-$100 Home Depot – credited, for charging $50, 2 separate times before June 30. Mail order or in-store pick-up.
-$100 Instacart – $50 credit for charging $250 in a billing cycle. I am a Costco member and have delivery through Instacart almost every week, so this s a great bonus!
-$180 Paypal – Connect your Amex card to your paypal account and choose the Amex option when you are paying with paypal. You will receive up to $30 a month.
-$100 Goldbelly credit – You get $50 for spending $100.
-$150 Home Chef credit. In increments of $50/order. I just signed up and am getting $20 off of my first 4 deliveries. And then I will get $50 back for the first three deliveries. I will cancel after the third delivery.
$730 in bonus offers.

American Express Platinum Card has a $550 fee, and I am going to get back $1580 in monetary value for 2021, if everything goes to plan. And there may be new bonuses added for the second half of the year.

There are additional benefits and offers, these are just the ones I am currently using. And the truth is, I am the secondary on my husband’s card, and my card is not eligible for all of these items, so I just use his! My extra card is not inexpensive, but since I travel with Delta, I get free lounge access when traveling and always manage to grab snacks and beverages in those lounges for the plane ride!

We can both get rewarded if you’re approved, plus you can get up to 60,000 bonus miles (you usually have to spend $3000-$500 in the first three months for the bonus miles, if that means paying a fee to charge my rent, it is still worth it) which is also like getting money! Let me know if you want to apply, but please check your credit first, not everyone can get approved for this one!

NOTES!
Since I started writing this article, I have gotten $320 in credits, just for the last month. This is from the last list, the extra offers, not the auto benefits and airline credits. I have the rest of the year to work on those, and I am going to be traveling very soon!
The only item that did not work for me was the Goldbelly credit, it doesn’t seem worth it, so I will not be using that one twice.