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The Platinum Card® from American Express now offers a $30 per month spending credit with Paypal, effective today and running through June 30, 2021. That’s up to $180 in value over six months.
No registration or enrollment is required. Add your Platinum Card® from American Express to your PayPal wallet and use it paying with PayPal. Your spending, up to $30 each month, will be credited back to you.
While only one $30 per month credit is offered per primary Platinum account, whether the spending is done on the primary card or an authorized user/additional card doesn’t matter, the credit will post the same (spending on both cards counts towards the same $30 per month).
To be eligible transactions “must be made in USD at U.S. merchants with a U.S. PayPal account.” Despite the statement credit you’ll still earn points for your purchase. Purchases of gift cards, prepaid cards, and person-to-person payments aren’t eligible for the credit.
For May through December 2020 American Express offered $20 per month streaming and $20 per month cell phone credits. The Platinum card is a heavily travel-focused product, great for lounge access and status with a number of programs. Streaming and cell phone credits last year, and Paypal credits for the first six months of 2021, are ways to make the card worth keeping while cardmembers aren’t traveling nearly as much.
American Express has re-opened nearly all of its Centurion lounges. The card provides access to Delta lounges (when traveling on Delta same day), Priority Pass, Escape and Plaza Premium lounges. But many customers won’t be using these lounges much in the first half of 2021 At this point though it looks like summer 2021 onward has a high likelihood of travel returning closer to normal (at least for domestic leisure travel). $180 over six months is a pretty strong inducement to hold onto the product until that time.
And of course it comes in addition to the enrollment-required $200 airline fee credit and $200 in annual Uber credits, and the semi-annual $50 Saks credit (totaling $100 per year). Taken together these exceed the card’s $550 annual fee (See rates and fees) in value, even before getting to 5 Membership Rewards points per dollar spent on airfare (directly with airlines or via Amex travel, on up to $500,000 on these purchases per calendar year); lounge access; Gold status in the Marriot program, Hilton Honors and Executive status in the National Car Rental program; and more benefits like Fine Hotels and Resorts.
This past fall American Express introduced spending Membership Rewards points through Paypal (albeit at a low 0.7 cents apiece in value). It’s good to see them extending their partnership.
(HT: @RodgeJohnsonJr)
For rates and fees of The Platinum Card® from American Express, click here.
Both Business and Personal Amex Platinum cards? Credit given even if one already has a linked AX Plat card to PayPal arrangement?
Amex FAQs say “American Express Basic U.S. Consumer Platinum Card Members are eligible to recieve these statement credits.” – not Business Plat cards. 🙁
Wait – maybe it means US cards only! ??
@alliW- consumer platinum only, not business platinum. this doesn’t requiring a *new* linking, yes if your personal platinum is already linked you’re eligible
I got an offer for the Biz Platinum with a bonus of 100k pots after $15k spend on first three months. Worth it? (Currently an authorized user on my wife’s personal Platinum for the travel perks…)
Can’t wait for the 2025 Amex Plat, $2000 AF with at least 17 different worthless $5 a month credits.
@DrewK – I am right now spending on this offer – a great value in my opinion.
Gary, is this for the other Platinum cards as well – Schwab, Morgan Stanley? I cannpot see it anywhere on the AMEX site.
Thanks Frank! Leaning towards it, just trying to weigh the benefits of getting my own vs the $75 authorized user fee (that comes with the lounges, etc) from my wife’s card…
Sweet! Thanks for the heads-up!!
I’m unimpressed with this benefit. I don’t use Paypal nor have a need to do so. Yet, now I will feel obliged to set up an account just to use the benefit. I doubt that I am alone in this regard. Almost everyone was able to use the cellular phone credit and probably many could use the streaming credit. But those popular benefits are pushed aside for a benefit associated with a company that is probably not that widely-used by the Amex Platinum demographic.
The perks for the consumer card are great but the offers for the Business Platinum card are complete garbage. Consumer cards get hard cash back and Business cards get…some extra points, in a few targeted spending categories?
Useless. Really really lopsided. Unless they roll out something else for Business cards I’m going to finally cancel mine. And not get a new Consumer one either.
Does buying on EBay and paying with PayPal count?