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Amex has had to get creative to try and keep cardholders happy during Covid-19. In particular, Platinum cardholders (who pay an annual fee of £575 for a range of predominantly travel related perks) have been offered a variety of different incentives to keep their cards. These have included bonus points offers, points value boosts, and 100% rebates at certain retailers.
Things had gone a bit quiet over the last couple of months though, so I’m sure fellow cardholders will be pleased to see there is a new 100% rebate offer (up to £100) on their card offers as of this morning:
“Save to Card and shop online and instore with Waitrose & Partners, Harvey Nichols, Selfridges and John Lewis & Partners store(s) and online at Deliveroo and we’ll credit your account for the first £100 of spend, up to 22/12/2020. Terms, locations, payment restrictions apply.”
Note that you need to log in to your account and save the offer, in order to take advantage.
There are a number of standard exclusions, but nothing too unexpected:
- Department store concessions and outlets are not included in the offer.
- Waitrose & Partners exclusions: Cellar, Florist, Garden, Pet, Cookery school, foreign currency, Gift Section.
- Harvey Nichols exclusions: International delivery, gift cards, vouchers and dining within restaurant.
- John Lewis & Partners exclusions: Finance and Insurance products, Parking and John Lewis Opticians.
- Selfridges exclusions: International delivery.
Bottom line
This is another welcome gesture from Amex – but also a necessary one.
So far, I’ve now received 20,000 bonus points and £200 in 100% rebates. I value that at approximately £400 in total, but the annual fee is £575. My card year starts and ends in November, so I did manage to benefit from some of the travel benefits before lockdown. Overall, I think I’ve got my money’s worth out of the annual fee this year.
With Covid restrictions now set to last for another 6 months though, the decision on whether to renew my card is a tricky one. At the moment, my hope and expectation is that Amex will continue adapting and finding new ways to provide value. On the other hand, £575 isn’t an insignificant amount of money…
The really good thing with Amex, of course, is that you can cancel for a pro-rata refund at any time, so you don’t need to fully commit for the whole year.
What do you think? – Are you intending to keep your Platinum Card, or have you already cancelled?
(Luckily?) I cancelled mine earlier this year (in March) based on what I thought might pan out for the rest of this year in terms of travel and got a decent pro-rata refund. We managed to benefit from some of the travel elements of having the card prior to that (mainly lounge access through Priority Pass and we also used the Centurion Lounge in Vegas in February on our way back to the UK). Had Covid not happened I think I would have kept hold of the card…
Presumably you also got £50 (or £100 with a supplementary card) of Shop Small credit, plus perhaps some other cashback offers.
I held off on contacting them about cancelling, and the most recent offer (which I accepted) was 35,000 points for not cancelling (my renewal is due in February).
So overall I’m up on in terms of cashback and points versus the card fee paid this year.
Yep, no complaints overall this year. I’ll probably give them a ring before deciding whether to renew or not though.