cfabar1

The VZW situation had to be known by Amex, or they are just incompetent. They didn't care enough to make the benefit meaningful.

krazykanuck

So are you suggesting the benefit should have been $30/mo for VZW customers, $20 for all others, and $0 for cell phone services that Amex doesn't consider cell phone services like Google Fi?

You can't be everything to everybody in every situation

mia

Verizon is offering $10.month to discourage credit card use. American Express is offering $20 per month, plus 1 point per dollar. How is that not meaningful?

cfabar1

I am not suggesting an uneven credit for Verizon Customers.

I am suggesting if you are going to use a “credit system” make the credits wide and easy enough to use that they can be easily done. One of the two major carriers is going to charge you MORE to use this credit - both reducing the value of the credit, and increasing the chance you will end up paying more the first month (maybe more) that the Amex credit ends if you are not extremely careful. To me, it is too much of a hassle. A better way to do it would have been to include all forms of Streaming/Communications/Connectivity into one blanket credit of $40 a month. I am baffled as to why for example, Comcast, Cox, etc. could not be included in this benefit. My biggest complaint about the Amex Credits is that in recent years, other than the Saks Credit, they have not become natural and super easy to use due to restrictions.

That said, it may just be that I am not interested in the credits. Uber is useless right now. Uber Eats has, in my view, limited use. Products are overpriced, you have to pay additional service charges, delivery fees, etc. compared to just doing takeout, or in some cases by using the Restaurant’s app or website directly. Especially with many restaurants in my area moving to a curbside/contactless pickup anyways. The airline credit, after many changes made with the Delta benefit has also become very irrelevant to me.

I think it is a shame they did not add Grocery/Essential Stores multipliers like how they were added onto the Delta SkyMiles Card or the Hilton cards. I also think, though was not expecting, they should have temporarily done a pay with points promotion making the cash back value a little more attractive.

There may be some use that people are thrilled about these credits. I think what I may be learning, is that unless COVID-19 goes away, the Amex Platinum is not going to be the card for me much longer.

kdm31091

I am somewhat surprised they didn't do anything to the actual earn rates on the Platinum card, but at the same time, it would take a lot of spend for an extra 1-2x to add up to $40 (the two credits each month), so this is probably a better value if you can use the credits.

There's always going to be someone for whom the credits are a bad deal for. If that's the case just cancel or downgrade when the fee comes up.

I think Amex has now made it even more clear that their position on the Plat card remains that it is a card for perks and not so much for earning tons of points. They are apparently not interested in adding any further multipliers to the card beyond the travel ones.

Adelphos

Amex’ position seem to be that if you are a points focused consumer, you need to hold a Gold or Green card. They they then try to “upgrade” customers from those products to Platinum despite a lower earn rate for most spend. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Gold/Green fees increased eventually

mhdena

Has any Platinum cardholder had a direct communication from Amex about these bonus credits?

Other than sites like this how would the non FTalker/redditer/blog reader know?

notquiteaff

from their press release?

https://about.americanexpress.com/pr...esses-get-most

And no, I have not received any email yet.

mia

Green, Gold and Platinum existed before there were any rewards, and the product differentiation was based on benefits. This is still largely true, but American Express blurred the positioning some by adding rewards to Green that overlap with Gold. I don't know what their path forward is, but I do not expect it to include higher rewards on Platinum, except to the extent that specific merchant partners will directly bear the cost.

mhdena

I got this email from Chase for my Marriott Biz card April 30.

Special Offer: Now earn 6x points at grocery stores

notquiteaff

yup, that one I got, too. But nothing from Amex... or Chase regarding the offers for my other cards.

CObigtimefan

If you have Verizon prepaid, there is no credit charge. This Amex credit is a huge win for me. Buy your phone outright, move to prepaid, and you’ll save a lot of money. Sure, Verizon doesn’t charge interest on the phone you’re paying off each month... but the plan is significantly more, so in the end you are.

Zorak

I got a similar email for my Bonvoy AMEX card but it was sent from Marriott, not AMEX. Like others I have not received anything from AMEX and only know about the other new features from FT/friends.

Gasolin

I did a chat, and got grounded here for copy / pasting exactly what apparently mia already posted. Apologies!

For me, I use Verizon and T-mobile.

I decided that I'd add Disney+ (that I do not really need but now I'm being curious, for $7 / month) and maybe Showtime to finish the last season of Homeland ($11 / month).
And I put all the other $20 on T-mobile since as others have mentioned, the autopay $10 credit is not removed when using a credit card, and there are no fees.
I was sure I used ACH because before, there used to be a fee for credit card, but whatever...

I don't really care about those benefits, I don't think I am too bothered by the annual fee of the card with 1 AU, but well, maybe I'll use it.

diesteldorf

I have Verizon and Sprint and don't get an autopay discount with either because of the plans I have, but it should be possible to keep your cell phone bills on autopay to maintain your discount and also use your Amex cards to make prepayments toward future service.

I routinely prepay my cell phone bills when I am trying to meet a minimum spend bonus for credit cards and I think Verizon allows you to have up to $500 worth of credit on your account at one time. Verizon, Sprint, AT&T and TMobile (I have used all 4 at one time or another) seem happy to take whatever money you are willing to give them.

I really hope this works for you. Just go into your account under Payment options and it should allow you to remain on autopay and also make prepayments.

If your bill is normally $50 and you prepay $20, the autopay should just take $30 instead of the normal $50. If that doesn't work, I would recommend calling your provider and asking if they can help you make a onetime payment over the phone.

Autopay typically means that if you do nothing, the merchant will automatically take money out of your account when the bill is due. However, if you've already paid the bill early, autopay won't kick in. Again, these are just my observations, but hopefully this helps.