Amex Platinum $695 Annual Fee Worth It?! Everything You Need to Know (2021)

$695 upfront down the hole to ultimately, maybe end up with a $100 or $200 benefit at the end of the year? That's atrocious. The only Amex card I'm fully confident being worth its AF (for most middle income city or suburban dwellers) is the Amex Gold. You need to spend just $520 monthly on groceries and restaurants combined to earn 25,000 MR points a year, which even at a modest 1 c/p valuation offsets the $250 AF. It's such a simple calculation to make, and one that I think works out for a lot of people. That's even before the monthly $10 Uber and $10 Grubhub/Shake Shack credit, which I tend to utilize about 75%. Don't forget that you also get 3X on flights, and additional authorized users are free too, so you can split it with your SO or whoever.

I'd argue that folks who spend $1,000/year on flights, and spend just 3 to 5 times a year in a lounge, can NOT make the Amex Platinum use case work. If that's you, consider getting the Hilton Surpass card, that gives you 10 priority pass access vouchers per year for $95 AF, Hilton Gold status, the opportunity to earn a free weekend night, plus a decent return rate on gas purchases. For Plat, I think you should be looking at at least $5,000/year on flights.

On top of that, I've always found the value proposition for earnings on the Amex Platinum quite odd. The only real rewards you earn are on booking flights. However, Amex' MR points are most effective when tranferred to airline partners. So, how are you spending your points if you're trying to maximize your points earning by booking flights in cash? Again, Amex Gold makes so much more sense…

While Sebby did mention looking at other cards in your wallet, don't forget that you can get no AF cards these days with pretty decent rewards, including Citi's Custom Cash. If you were to spend $300 monthly in any single category per month (restaurants, groceries, gas – your pick), you'd already have the same $180 that you might have fidgeting around with the Amex Platinum's coupon booklet. BoA Cash Rewards, Discover It, Chase Freedom Flex and Citi DoubleCash are also not half bad and can easily net you $100-200/year in cashback each.

Sebby, this calculator is great. With the Delta variant on the rise, and my value for the card only making a difference to me in year one, this makes my decision simpler before I'm charged the increased annual fee. Thank you!

I wish I could’ve gotten the 150k bonus 🥺 oh well. I love the streaming credit, pays for my audible.

I am so happy I came across maskoffweb, they did hack for me and sent me 5,000 thousand to my cashapp account

Look at all the people paying to have a credit card in a specific color to make purchases with borrowed money. All to play along with a made up credit system that makes money on consumers while making them slaves to pay off their debt and giving them an illusion that they are somehow winning in this scenario!

Very clear explanation

wait did you say you ONLY have access to Centurion lounge if you fly only Delta? i might have heard wrong or misunderstood you. In the past 3 months i traveled through 3 different airlines none of them were Delta and i had access to the Centurion lounge every time with my Platinum card. BTW the new fee hasnt applied to me till January and i might call them to get a retention offer or something either way i think im a give the card another year and see if its worth it to pay the higher fee.

What credit card has the most recognized flex value? I think it might be the Amex Centurian followed by the Amex Platinum

The way I see it is this. $700 fee minus $200 uber(500) minus $200 hotel(300)( i travel 2xs a yr) minus $100 minus Saks 5th Ave(200) minus $179 clear credit(21). Just those right there I'd pay $21 a yr for this card. Especially with lounges & skipping airport lines.

The biggest problem of the AMEX Platinum holders is that these days most of the charges are paid thru Apple Pay and instead of showing the bulky card, we just lean the iPhone toward the POS and the transaction is done without even showing to the young blond bar tender that we are AMEX Platinum’s holder. You may pay with an Apple Card and she doesn’t even know it… you better try to show the keys of your Ferrari on the bar if you mean to be something….

Hi – do you get lounge access? even if you didn't book the flights via the card?

What’s about the Delta Reserve American Express card. How does that stack up?

Thank you

Active Duty paid 0.00 on annual membership fees

I have the Bank of america Visa Signature cash rewards with a really good credit line. but they charge the card fees if i use it internationally

I’m content with my Amex Gold

Thanks for creating this great video. For the MS method, after depositing the min amount to waive monthly fee and setting up the $5K monthly deposits , how easy/hard is it to withdrawal the monthly deposit rather than have $25K to accumulate to $30K, $35K ?

Enjoyed your contents and presentation a lot. If there is anything I would like to see improved, it might be using the word "anyway" instead of "anyways", as "any" dictates singular noun.

so even when I selected not eligible, I still get like $2k for the 1st year, $1k for the 2nd. If I select Eligible, I get like $5k for the 1st year.

For those of us paying for Amex cards we’re just paying for them to shove critical race theory on their employees. Someone has to pay for that racist crap. I’m cancelling my Amex cards!!!