The American Express Business Platinum card has a monthly credit for wireless services that requires enrollment. We have a few Business Platinum cards in my household, so each month I manually make several ~$10 payments on my T-Mobile bill (one with each of my Business Platinum cards) and the credits usually show up automatically a week or two later. However, those with Google Fi for their cell phone provider have had a major headache because for a long time, Amex has not automatically recognized Google Fi payments as wireless payments. A reader from our Frequent Miler Insiders Facebook group pestered Amex about this and it sounds like Amex may have fixed this recently. Please share your February/March 2024 data points if you’re a Google Fi user.
All credit here goes to reader Tom in our Frequent Miler Insiders Facebook group. Here was his report in his own words:
Google Fi & failed Business Platinum credits now resolved.
In January, after years of frustration & having to politely fight with reps via chat monthly to get the wireless credits posted (and sometimes having those requests rejected) I finally reached out to Amex’s VP of International Card Services.
His staff got back to me that same week, said they were working on it, and within 2 weeks had the solution worked out – not sure if it was a merchant code change or a software fix on Amex’s end. A win either way.
Credits posted automatically for me on 3 cards in February 8 days following the Fi (manual) payment on the 1st.
The exciting part (I hope!) is that Tom reports the credits posting automagically for him in February. In the discussion that followed, another reader noted that after having to chat to manually request credits in the past, this worked automatically for them last month also.
If you’re a Google Fi user and you are also a Business Platinum cardholder and you’d given up on using your wireless services credit benefit, it’s probably worth revisiting it.
If you are looking to make a manual Google Fi payment for less than the entire cost of your bill, you can do that here under “Subscriptions & services”. Select “manage” under your Google Fi account and then you’ll see a “Pay Early” button. You can then choose “other amount” to pick how much you’d like to pay.
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April update
I switched to Google Fi in January and have been billed for the service three times now. After the first credit did not automatically apply, I reached out to customer service chat to have it manually applied which the agent was able to successfully (and competently) perform.
It did not automatically post for the second or third billing cycles.
To make matters worse, I just got done chatting with one of their idiot CSRs who tried to tell me the credit shouldn’t have been applied for the first one and that it is Google’s fault that they categorize themselves as something other than a cell phone company (lol) cause they have multiple lines of business (like Verizon and other companies don’t have anything but cell phones going on lolololol). So I would not get the credit and got a bonus lecture on how business works from some Gump making $3 a month overseas. Fun times.
Anyways, going to HUCA and hope I get someone that isn’t a total moron on the next attempt.
Bottom line, issue is still not resolved for automatic payments. And the world is getting dumber and lazier.
It’s been almost a month (Marth 28th) and no signs of a credit for the $10 Google Fi charge I made. Charge posted on March 4th. I don’t think it’s going to happen. Will report back if anything changes. And before anyone asks, yes, I am enrolled in the benefit.
I did see my Google Fi credit automatically happen last month, it was confusing so it’s good to see that others have gotten it. Hopefully it’ll continue. I’m not going to spend time messaging them every month.
2024.03.05. Feb 16 google fi charge has not (yet) been credited.
2024.03.13. Feb 15 charge still not credited. Assuming it won’t be.
data point: 1/14/24 and 2/14/24 google fi bills did not trigger $10 wireless credit on my amex plat business. had to chat to request manually.
[…] Those with Google Fi for their cell phone provider have had a major headache because for a long time, Amex has not automatically recognized Google Fi payments as wireless payments. But now it sounds like Amex may have fixed this recently. ➡️ Read more […]
On a related note one of the reasons I just cancelled my Platinum card is because of the struggles I had to get my monthly wireless credit (AT&T). They finally resolved it and I had a $15.00 credit remaining on the Platinum card. I asked them to transfer it on Friday to my Blue Business card. They said they would and it would take 1-2 business days. It was removed from my Platinum card but hasn’t shown up on my Blue Business card yet. I really like Chase.
Was this because it coded as a bundled service (U-Verse)? I have had this issue
Yes, it was. I talked to a wonderful lady named Bea who had once worked for AT&T and she explained everything to me. It was coded as U-Verse because it had a free DirecTV streaming account listed. AT&T cancelled that account and set up a new account and I did get the credit correctly once before I cancelled the card.
Still a struggle for me. Spent a long time on chat and still didn’t get the January credit. Have had to chat for nearly every one – it just isn’t worth my time. Not thrilled.
Great news. Finally no need to fight for the credit via chat and Amex can save some of their customer service cost. The frustrating thing is different reps would give different answers too. Some said it did not qualify. Surprised it took them so long to fix this. Charged 2/24 and I still haven’t seen the credit yet.
Data point: Feb 21 my google fi autocharged and still has not credited.
My December charge was automatically reimbursed in January.
I didn’t see a credit post for my January charge, however. I’d notice Amex had some pretty long turnaround times this winter for credits posting. Still, I was getting impatient (it can be confusing to communicate with the agent which charges still need to be credited if I wait too long), so I used web chat to request the credit be applied manually.
I’m curious as to what will happen this month.
Will using authorized user cards also trigger the credit (assuming the account is enrolled in the benefit)?