Travel perks still aren’t what they used to be, and it’s going to be at least 3-6 more months before they are once again. For travel heavy premium credit cards, that means it’s time to get creative. Once again, American Express has. After offering $20 monthly credits last year for streaming or mobile devices, Amex is offering a broader credit for 2021, with $30 in monthly PayPal credits, for 6 months. Here’s everything you need to know.
Amex Platinum PayPal Credit For 2021
If you have the personal Amex Platinum Card in the USA, congrats, you just got $30 of your PayPal purchases covered each month, for the first six months of the year. That’s $180 towards purchases you make with PayPal, including shopping at most major retailers.
The only catch – person to person transactions don’t count. With the $30 credit, the amount will automatically come off of any tallies you rack up over the month. So if you were to buy some Yeezy’s for $200, you’d receive a credit back of $30, making it $170.
Good to know: the credit resets monthly, so if you don’t spend at least $30 in PayPal each month, you won’t get the full $180 in perks over the six months. You’ll basically want to spend at least $30 each month via PayPal. If you don’t already, it’s quite handy for shopping, since it saves all your details and makes checkout both faster and more secure.
PayPal and Amex have a partnership explainer page, which hammers out the rest of the details you might be curious about. For example – all transactions must be made in USD.
With an annual fee of $550 on the Platinum Card, $180 back in the first six months, plus all the 18+ other useful money saving benefits like $180 in Uber credits, $100 Saks credit and a $200 airline fee credit, plus Fine Hotels & Resorts offers still makes this a compelling card.
If you don’t already have the Amex Platinum Card, Amex is currently offering a sign up bonus of 75,000 Membership Rewards Points, plus 10X points on the first 6 months of gas and groceries, which can add up quickly.
PayPal has been a popular partner with credit cards in recent months, as Capital One added its name to the list of rewards points currencies which you can redeem directly on PayPal to cover some, or all of a purchase, instead of paying cash.
Amex has long offered integrations with Amazon and PayPal to present ways to use points for daily online purchases directly, but they typically don’t represent the best value. That honor still goes to travel, and holding onto American Express Membership Rewards points for when travel recovers is most likely the way to go.
Here’s some inspiration.
Gilbert – happy new year. Any news if they will do this benefit with the UK Amex Platinum card? Or any new benefits to try and claw back the ridiculous annual fee!
Hey Nik, The programs run pretty much entirely separately, but it’s not unlikely that UK Platinum would be cooking something up!
Any idea if any credits are going to be added to the Business Platinum Card?
No knowledge yet, but I can ask!