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A few days back, I wrote about whether the Amex Platinum Card is really worth the massive $895 fee. If you look for an answer, you’ll see that the card often polarizes opinions. There are people who love the card while others dismiss it as an expensive coupon book. On this blog, I always advocate that if you’re looking to cancel a card, it never hurts to ask for a retention offer. Credit card issuers like to offer incentives to keep the business of many of their most loyal customers. Sometimes it never hurts to ask, who knows, you may just get a sweet deal that goes a long way in helping offset that huge annual fee.
Unique Retention Offer on the Amex Platinum Card
Usually what happens is that card issuers offer customers a statement credit or points as a retention bonus. In most cases, card issuers attach a spend requirement to it. However, as per this Reddit post, this user was offered a retention bonus to use Membership Rewards points at a ‘bonus’ rate to ‘pay’ for the annual fee. In this particular case, this user was still being charged the old $695 annual fee. The Amex rep offered that this person could use 69,500 Membership Rewards points to pay for the annual fee.
Bear in mind that you can already use your Amex Membership Rewards points to wipe off charges on your statement. However, the ratio is an abysmal 0.6 cents per point. In essence, to pay for a $600 charge, you’ll need to use 100,000 Membership Rewards points. With this offer, Amex was making the ratio 1 cent per point, which is a massive jump from the standard 0.6 cents per point ratio.
I wanted to share my recent AMEX Platinum retention chat experience since it might help others who are planning to ask for an offer soon. I have been an AMEX member since 2005 and my total spend this year was around $53K on a single Platinum Card. I used a good amount of the available benefits this year including Uber, Uber One, Oura Ring, Hotel, Resy, and Lululemon credits as well as Membership Rewards earning.
I contacted AMEX through chat and asked if there were any retention offers available. The rep gave a long breakdown of the benefits I had used and the value of my Membership Rewards, then offered a “special redemption rate” to apply points toward the annual fee. The offer was to use 69,500 MR points to cover the $695 fee at an elevated rate of 1,000 points = $10.00. There were no alternate offers available. I decided to keep my points and declined.
Pro tip: Before my chat with AMEX, I used AI to scrape this sub for useful pointers on how to request a retention offer and also used AI to help formulate my replies to stay on point. I am also pretty sure AMEX uses AI now in these chats, so it felt like AI talking to AI.
I hope this helps others who are considering a retention request before the end of the year.
The Pundit’s Mantra
I’ve been in the miles and points space for over a decade and have enjoyed my share of retention offers. However, never have I been targeted for an offer like this one. Usually, I’ve received offers that are tied to a spend requirement. Every now and then, I just get lucky and get a bonus without having to spend anything.
Early next year, I’ll get to test the waters myself as my annual fee on the Amex Platinum Card is about to be billed in January. Since I currently have the Charles Schwab version of the Amex Platinum Card, I can ‘cash out’ at a rate of 1.1 cents per point, which is way better than the 0.6 cents per point rate that Amex offers to pay for charges posted to your statement.
Have you tried getting a retention offer on the Amex Platinum Card recently? What was your experience like? Tell us in the comments section.
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Credit Card Offers
American Express Business Credit Cards
- Earn 200,000 Membership Rewards points with the Business Platinum Card
- Earn 150,000 Membership Rewards and enjoy a 0% intro APR on the Business Gold Card
Chase Sapphire Cards
- Earn 125,000 bonus points with the Chase Sapphire Reserve Card
- Earn 200,000 bonus points with the Chase Sapphire Reserve Card for Business
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I have been a member for almostc38 years. I spend about $5-7k/months. What can U do to reduce the platinum increase?
You can request a retention offer the next time your annual fee is billed.
The card has more than paid for itself. Three hundred dollar discount at a hotel.
Three separate hotel credits of $100 each.
Free Walmart membership
$25 monthly credit for streaming.
75 lululemon credit
Upgrade to an $1800/night room.
The Sax credit is nearly useless as there is nothing to buy for fifty dollars
That’s fantastic!
I said no to the points bonus. They (in app chat) countered with $500 statement credit after $5k spent in 90 days. Was happy to give it a shot for another year for $295 fee. This was around October.
That’s a nice discount on the fee if you were planning on spending 5k in 3 months on the card anyway!
I am considering downgrading from the Platinum to the gold to keep my points. I do not expect to travel much in the short term so I don’t see value in the $895 fee. I assume I can transfer my points, any drawback or concerns in doing so?
@WillianRBowen: No, if you downgrade to the Gold card, your points will stay in your membership rewards account as they are.
I also used AI to reply for my retention bonus. I was denied at first Chatgpt told me to wait a couple of weeks and to try again. I did this again using AI for my replies. This time I was successful I was offered 50K for 3K in spend which I gladly accepted.
@jaeetee05: That’s a really nice retention bonus.Well done!
I have the Anex Platinum card and don’t use much of the benefits. I have two hundred and forty eight thousand points. I just received the amex Delta card and I want to put all my points over onto it and discontinue the annual fee for the platinum card and shut down that account.
Is there any drawbacks to doing that?
@RandyGuignard: The biggest drawback is the fact that you’re parking your points with Delta. If Delta devalues tomorrow, then you will be stuck holding that points currency.
I would love it if the Amex platinum card could spread their annual fee over the 12 month period.
if that is what you need, I don’t think the card is for you
I have had the Platinum Amex for almost 10 years. I use the Amazon dollars every month. Typically I will have between 45 and 100 dolllars any given month. I use all the streaming credits, I use the lululemon, I use the Delta/centurion lounge and miscellaneous charges credit, I use the uber credit when needed. Between all of these I think the card pays for itself. There are other features I will use this year, starting with the hotel credits. There are so many places to choose from and places we go and have gone to before. My only request is that Amex would just spread the annual cost over the year. I also have an additional family member card so that fee plus the 895 this year will be a little shocking.
@JenniferDickerson: Great that you find the card and its benefits so useful!