Negative Changes for Amex Platinum Card
American Express surprised us today with several important changes to the popular Platinum Card. Most changes are negative and include a higher spending requirement for the welcome bonus, more restrictions about eligibility, higher annual fees for authorized users, and updates to the entertainment credit. Let’s get into the details.
Welcome Bonus
The new public offer on the Amex Platinum Card has a bonus of 80,000 Membership Rewards Points. Normally you can see targeted bonuses as high as 150,000 Membership Rewards Points. But there’s a change in the spending requirement which has always been $6,000.
Now that spending has been increased to $8,000 within the first 6 months, which is considerably more for those that struggle to generate lots of spend.
Eligibility Restrictions
The Offer & Benefit Terms on the application page now have new language concerning eligibility for the welcome bonus.
The new terms state that “you may not be eligible to receive a welcome offer if you have or have had this Card, the Platinum Card® from American Express Exclusively for Charles Schwab, the Platinum Card® from American Express Exclusively for Morgan Stanley or previous versions of these Cards.”
Previously each flavor of the Platinum card was considered a different product. Now the lifetime language includes all Platinum flavors. So if you recently had the Platinum Card® from American Express Exclusively for Charles Schwab, you may not be eligible to get the bonus for The Platinum Card® from American Express.
Authorized User Fees
The annual fee for the Platinum Card® remains $695. However, the annual fee for each Additional Platinum Card is $195. This is a big increase from the previous fee of $175 for three Additional Platinum Cards.
There is no annual fee for for the Additional Gold Card, which is now referred to as a Companion Platinum Card.
Monthly Entertainment Credit Changes
Starting on October 2, 2023, Audible will no longer be a participating partner for the monthly $20 digital entertainment credit.
On the plus side, The Wall Street Journal has been added to the list for the digital entertainment credit. Eligible purchases for The Wall Street Journal include any subscriptions, for example, news bundles including The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s, MarketWatch and/or Investor’s Business Daily, made directly through http://www.wsj.com/subscribe. Eligible purchases do not include advertising services, WSJ events, gift cards or purchases from The Wall Street Journal Online Store.
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Man. Already they are dragging butt on credits for stuff, which makes me mad. Waiting over a month now on the Saks credit on two Plats so I gotta pony up then wait for the credit and now this stuff? I guess they feel they need to have LESS people have the card and pay the fee. Fine with me, I am done with Plats when the AFs hit this time. Just too much work for the coupon books! Cap 1 Venture X from here on out, at least for now!