In light of the pandemic we’ve seen card issuers get creative with adding new limited time perks. This is especially true on travel rewards credit cards, since card issuers want people to keep their cards.
In 2020 we saw The Platinum Card® from American Express (review) offer up to $40 in monthly credits, including a $20 monthly cell phone credit and a $20 monthly streaming credit.
While that expired in 2020, American Express has now introduced a new temporary card perk. This is also worth being aware of for anyone who might be considering applying for the Amex Platinum with its current improved bonus.
New Amex Platinum monthly PayPal credit
The Amex Platinum Card is offering a new $30 monthly PayPal credit:
- This valid between January 1 and June 30, 2021
- This is valid on the U.S. consumer version of the card only (and not the business card)
- There’s no registration required, but rather you just have to add your Amex Platinum to your PayPal account, and then select the card when checking out with PayPal
- In order to qualify, transactions must be made in USD at U.S. merchants with a U.S. PayPal account
- Person to person payments are not eligible for statement credits; this includes payments made to friends and family or directly to merchants for goods and services with the PayPal app
- You get a $30 credit per primary card account; spending by additional card members also qualifies, but it counts towards the primary card member’s $30 credit
- The terms state that “eligible purchases do not include fees or interest charges, purchases or reloading of prepaid cards, purchases of gift cards, person-to-person payments including those for goods and services, or purchases of other cash equivalents”
This is an easy $180 in value with the Amex Platinum
I have to give Amex a lot of credit here, because this makes it really easy to justify holding onto the Amex Platinum Card. In fairness, the up to $40 in monthly credits available in 2020 were worth more on the surface, but a single $30 credit is easier to use, and also gives you more flexibility.
Ordinarily I don’t use PayPal much, but there are plenty of merchants that accept PayPal, that should make this easy enough to maximize. My first thought is to simply use this to reload my Starbucks balance each month, since they accept PayPal. However, I’m not sure if that would technically be excluded based on the terms. If anyone has any thoughts or tips, I’d love to hear them.
In terms of the overall value proposition of the Amex Platinum, the card has a $550 annual fee. Credits this year include the following:
This makes it really easy to justify this card, not even factoring in the usual valuable benefits offered by the card, like lounge access.
Bottom line
The Amex Platinum Card is offering a $30 monthly PayPal credit for the first half of 2021, which should be a way to get up to $180 in value. I was curious to see what Amex would come up with for the Platinum Card, and I’m thrilled with this.
What do you make of the new Amex Platinum $30 PayPal credit, and how do you plan to use it?
