Good news for Amex Platinum cardholders: while the previous temporary COVID credit card enhancement statement credit offers expired on 12/31, Amex has now launched a $30 monthly credit for PayPal purchases for US consumer Platinum cardholders from January 1, 2021 through June 30, 2021. That’s up to $180 in statement credits that will likely be very easy for most cardholders to use, making a great deal even better for those who opened the card recently.
The Deal
- Amex has added a $30 monthly statement credit for PayPal purchases from January 1, 2021 to June 30, 2021
- Direct link to FAQ page
Key Terms
- No registration required, just select your eligible American Express Card at PayPal checkout.
- Eligible purchases do not include fees or interest charges, purchases or reloading of prepaid cards, purchases of gift cards, person-to-person payments including those for goods and services, or purchases of other cash equivalents.
Quick Thoughts
Keep in mind that person-to-person payments are excluded – even if they are for goods or services. You can of course still use the credit when paying at checkout at countless merchants online, just not for buying prepaid cards or gift cards. It should be very easy for most readers to collect the full $30 in statement credits each month (and I’m sure that gift cards will work at some merchants despite the terms, though this will be so easy to use on legit purchases that I likely won’t bother with gift cards).
On our Frequent Miler on the Air podcast this week (you can find links to watch it in video form or podcast form in this post), we determined that for many / most people, the Amex Platinum 100K + 10x offer was the deal of the year for 2020. While that deal was a bit better for those who applied in December because of the potential to triple dip airline fee credits, Saks credits, and an extra Uber credit or two, the Platinum card offer remains very strong in 2021. Getting an extra $180 on top of everything else is pretty awesome in my opinion. Those who open the Platinum card now stand to earn up to:
- $200 in airline incidental credits in 2021
- $100 in Saks credits in 2021
- $200 in Uber credits in 2021
- $180 in PayPal credits in 2021
- $200 in airline incidental credits in 2022
- $50 in Saks credits in 2022
- $15 in Uber credits in 2022 (or possibly $30)
All of the above is possible before the second annual fee would come due — meaning that you could get over $1,000 in statement credits alone in the first year. That’s to say nothing of the current 100K welcome bonus on $5K spend and the 10x at US Supermarkets and US Gas stations for 6 months on up to $15K spend. Amex will continue to make a push for the 2021 Deal of the Year conversation with an offer that strong. And if you did open in December and you also got $200 in airline credits, $50 in Saks credit, and $35 in Uber credits last month, the win just gets bigger here.
Obviously this isn’t as mathematically valuable as the two $20 credits that Amex temporarily offered last year, but at the same time this $30 credit should be plainly easy for everyone to use whereas the $20 credits last year were potentially less universal. I think this is a net win for all consumer Platinum cardholders.
H/T: Doctor of Credit
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Added $30 to Starbucks balance via PayPal/AmEx on Feb 1. Still waiting for credit 🙁 Worked right away in January.
Any way to use this deal without having a PayPal account? I recall not so long ago being able to use a credit card with a vendor through PayPal even though I don’t have a PayPal account. TIA
I can’t think of any way to do that.
Is this for the standard Platinum Card or only the Business Platinum Card. I cant find it anywhere on their site when I log in. But mine is not Business.
Consumer Platinum, not business. Won’t matter whether you see it or not, it is a temporary benefit for consumer Platinum cardholders. I do see it mentioned in the Amex Offers section — but like I said, it won’t matter whether you see it there or not as this is not targeted. See the link under “The Deal” for more information directly from Amex.
If you did one of those 90% Rakuten Lifelock deals that go on pretty often for the most expensive option and using this as a $30 discount, you could buy around 26k MR for just under 1 cent a point; or net ~$67 if you go the Schwab route (someone may want to double check my back of the envelope math).
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Just added $30 on Starbucks App after adding Paypal account as payment source (and adding Amex Platinum to Paypal first as default payment source). Will need to remember to remove all these things after 6 months 🙁
Any word on Amex Business Plat credits for 2021? Also, forgive me but was is ‘P2’ that so many refer to here? Thx
I am assuming the promotion os good for the personal Plat card only
P2=Player 2…if you have a spouse or another partner who also is “playing the game”. Also, I have the same question regarding the Amex Business Platinum Card.
Any thoughts on if this would work to reload amazon balance by using paypal key as a buffer?
“After January 4, 2021, American Express cards can no longer be used with PayPal Key.”
Just opened a new PayPal account and PayPal would not allow me to load my Platinum card. It would allow me to load my Freedom Unlimited. I tried also to load it through AMEX and they said it could not be loaded at this time. Anyone having this problem? And if so did you find a solution?
Add the card number instead of using Amex login. May have to verify a bank account if that doesn’t work? It’s been a while for me.
For those who “don’t want to think about it,” you can set Paypal as your default Uber (Eats) method after Uber Cash (Platinum) credits to effectively turn your $15 credit into a $45 one for the next 6 months.
Has this been confirmed to work? Credit+paypal refund?
Why wouldn’t it? The Uber Plaitnum credits show up in your Uber app, they never hit your statement. So a direct Uber purchase via Paypal for any excess is exactly how this credit is designed to be used.
Can Player 2 use my Paypal account and also get the credit, or P2 needs to use their own PP acct?
I don’t know for sure. I think it would probably work with just 1 PayPal account, but as long as P2 hasn’t been shut down by PayPal it should be easy enough to set them up with their own account I’d think. If there’s a reason not to do that, then I do think using their card in your PayPal account is very likely to work.
This is awesome! A credit that actually can be used for most anything you need and/or want. I’m only a year or so into churning and my P2 was a bit taken aback by the annual fee for this card but since November I’ve already had over $300 in statement credits. So grateful for your blog, thank you!
Glad it’s working out for you!
Any thoughts on how long 10x might last? P2 is at 4/24 just getting the freedom flex yesterday. Figure at least one month for Amex to show up on experian? So maybe get in Jan and then hit chase Feb 1st for a ink cash/personal card combo?
Of course this requires getting out of pop-up jail…
No idea. I never would have expected it to last this long, so your guess is as good as mine. As to how long before the new Amex card shows up, I have no idea. When we opened in November, the first statement cut date was a week or two after opening, so I’d assume it reported at that point but I didn’t check.
Just logged into my platinum card there is no information on the AMEX website about this which I find kind of unusual
See the link under “The Deal”. It goes directly to an FAQ page on the Amex website.
Thanks. Found it. Still odd that nothing on the website. Without your column nobody would know about it if they simply log into their AMEX card
Other blogs wrote about it yesterday. I think Amex just hasn’t “officially” announced it yet but rather just made the FAQ page live early. My bet is that they’re going to announce it on Monday since the 1st was a holiday, but I don’t know that for sure.
That makes sense. Thanks much