Get Started

Learn more about Credit Cards, Travel Programs, Deals, and more.

Amex Personal Platinum Retention Offer & An Interesting Data Point

This post may contain affiliate links - Advertiser Disclosure. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
Disclosure: Miles to Memories has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Miles to Memories and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities. Links in this post may provide us with a commission.

Amex Personal Platinum Retention Offer

Amex Personal Platinum Retention Offer, Interesting Data Point

PDX Deals Guy recently called American Express when his Amex Personal Platinum card’s annual fee posted.  I shared my wife’s Amex Platinum retention offer a few months ago and figured I would share his experience plus an interesting data point with you. I thought it would be beneficial to see his decision making process on whether or not to keep or cancel the card as well.

His Retention Offer

Once PDX Deals Guy’s $550 annual fee posted, remember to wait until your annual fee posts with Amex, he picked up the phone and gave them a call.  He had the Mercedes Benz Platinum card that was moved over to the regular Platinum when it was discontinued.  He wanted to see if American Express was willing to give him anything to keep his account open.

When he spoke with the retention department they offered the following offers:

  • $200 statement credit after spending $3,000 within 3 months.
  • 20,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $3,000 within 3 months. (The more valuable option)

Amex Personal Platinum Retention Offer

My wife also received an offer of 20,000 MR points after $3,000 in spend.  We decided to keep the card to pad our Membership Rewards balance and to keep my wife out of pop up purgatory.

PDX Deals Guy decided that neither offer was worth holding onto the card mainly because he has the Amex Business Platinum card and the perks overlap with the personal version. He also let me know that there was not a ton of spend put on the card over the last 12 months.

Interesting Data Point

PDX Deals Guy did confirm with me that he recently received a retention offer on his Business Platinum card too, only a few months earlier.  This goes against recent data points where people are only receiving retention offers once every year or two across all cards.  I wonder if they treat business and personal products separately for this rule in light of this data point.  It is something to be aware of none the less.

Final Thoughts

Sometimes an offer that is good for one person doesn’t make sense for someone else.  It appears that 20K Membership Rewards points is the most common offer for the American Express Personal Platinum card.  I have heard of others getting 30,000 point offers as well but that seems to be less common.

It also appears that the one retention offer per year may only apply to personal cards. Or maybe the rule is per business account and per personal account.  If you have some useful data points please share them in the comments section.

Disclosure: Miles to Memories has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Miles to Memories and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.

 Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is the old king of travel rewards cards. Right now bonus_miles_full

Learn more about this card and its features!


Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Mark Ostermann
Mark Ostermann
Mark Ostermann is a father, husband and miles/points fanatic. He left the corporate world after starting a family in order to be a stay at home dad. Mark is constantly looking at ways to save money and stay within budget while also taking awesome vacations with his family. When he isn't caring for his family or taking a weekend trip, Mark is working towards his goal of visiting every Major League Baseball ballpark.

Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

26 COMMENTS

  1. Amex Plat Schwab – Just got off the phone, got 50,000 MR points without any spend….. I could’t believe it. Of course I took that on the spot. They also offered $500 as an alternative but 50K MR Points are definitely more valuable to me.

  2. Another data point. I just called them again, and was offered either $300 credit or 30k Miles with $4000 spending within 90 days.

    I received the retention offer last year – It was $300 credit. I put $16000 spend on that card. I have the card for 24 years.

    • Awesome John – interesting that you got it in back to back years too! I think your level of spend helps out some but still good to see that they are not hard and fast on every two year rule.

      • Hi Mark,

        Bad news – The rep told me to call back for my decision whether to cancel or to accept the retention offer. I called them today to accept it, but they said the offer is no longer available. So at this point, I am prob just either going to cancel or downgrade it – not worth paying $550.

        I’m just going to do it early July, so I get my Uber credit and Saks benefit before changing the account/cancel.

        Do you know if I can downgrade to no annual fee? or it needs to be a charge card (green is the cheapest). Also, if I downgrade to gold, can I re-use the $100 airline credit even though I’ve used $200 this calendar year?

        Please advise – Thanks!

        • They pulled that on my wife so I told her to call back and say you offered me this, I want this or else…and they gave it to her. I would try that.

          Yes the green card is as low as you can go since it has to be a charge card.

          • I’ll give a call back again, maybe tomorrow or so. The chat gave me a direct number to that department at 1 (855) 857-7657. Will report back.

    • That makes sense why you got an increased offer on the card. Let us know what they say on the Gold card.

      • Following up. I called to cancel my Gold AMEX and was offered 10K points for a $1500 spend over next 90 days. I decided to stay with the card for another year as the $100 airline credit, $120 food credit and 10K points covers the $250 annual fee.

        • Awesome – glad to hear someone was able to get multiple offers so close together. What kind of spend did you put on the Gold card the past year?

  3. Just called AMEX earlier today to ‘cancel’ Platinum and received 30K points for $4K in spending. My Gold card annual fee ($250) is also due this week – what’s the chance AMEX will offer another incentive to stay with them?

    • I doubt they will give you a second one so close together but it is worth trying. All they can do is say no. The 30K offer is a solid one though. Did you have much spend on it?

  4. Do people actually use the Amex Platinum card for more than airline charges? It just seems that the Gold and Blue Business are such better cards for everyday spending in terms of point earning potential. I have yet to get 5x hotels because I’ve found booking through Amex travel to be often times much more money than using other sites. Such a shame that such a pretty card sits in a drawer all year…I’m strange I know, but I actually find the heft and smooth feel of the card very satisfying in the hand.

    • I think some use it for large purchases for the extra insurance (like a fridge etc.) but for most of us, no. Even for flights it not having any type of trip insurance/delay insurance is a huge concern for a lot of people. I do know some people (not in the points game) that just use it for everything and think it is great…but they are why we get what we get 🙂

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Related

7,703FansLike
9,903FollowersFollow
16,444FollowersFollow