Now this here is the American Express Platinum Card and it's a charge card that has an annual fee of 695 dollars a year which adds up to be a total of 57.91 a month to just hold this car. Now as most of my OG followers know, I didn't grow up in a wealthy family and I was raised to be a pretty Frugal person. but I've managed to keep this car for the last three to four years and with good reason Now, although thousands of dollars in annual fee payments to American Express I've actually made even more money back from just holding on to these cards. And in this video, I'm going to show you exactly how you can do the same.

So in this video, I'm going to share with you the 17 things that you need to do to make sure that you're getting the most value out of the American Express Platinum Card every single year and by watching this video till the end, you'll be able to unlock a minimum of six thousand, five hundred dollars of value. Starting first with the 200 Uber cash credit. With this credit, you'll get 15 of Uber cash every single month on top of a bonus 20 in December making for a total of 35 dollars in credits for that single month. It's worth noting that these credits have to be used within the calendar month and you can't stack them up over time, but what you can do is use it on both Uber rides and Ubereats orders to get the credit.

all you have to do is go into the Uber app and add your Amex Platinum card as a payment method within your account. and Boom! Just like that, at the start of every month, you'll get the credit on your account. What I love about this is you can also stack it with the 10 monthly credit you get from the AmEx gold, making it 25 a month in credits or 45 dollars for the month of December. Now, although I don't ever use Uber unless I'm traveling I consistently use Ubereats, especially on the nights that I don't want to cook and I don't want to go out to eat.

If you find that you don't want to pay the delivery fees or you know you don't want to tip the driver for whatever reason, you can also set up your order to pick up and that way you can avoid most of those additional fees and get pretty much a free meal back with the credit. Next up, we have a 240 Digital Entertainment credit and this comes in the form of up to twenty dollars in statement credits on your account every single month for the following: Services which includes audible Disney plus ESPN Plus Hulu Peacock SiriusXM and even the New York Times. Now to get this credit, you do have to be sure to enroll first. And to do this, it's very simple: go into your benefits tab in your Amex account, click on the digital Entertainment Credit benefit, and then click enroll.

Once that's done, just be sure to pay for the services using your item card and you should get a statement credit for them by the end of your billing period. Now, depending on what your cup of tea is, you can mix and match some of these subscriptions like for example I use Disney plus and Audible and Hulu So I know just from two of my subscriptions that I would be maxing out these credits. All right, the next eight benefits on our list is going to be travel related because this card is what I'd consider to be the king of luxury travel for any credit card holders. So first let's talk about the 189 dollar clear Plus credit and a little tip on how you can actually maximize it even further that you probably didn't know.

So first of all, what is clear. Well, this is pretty much a service that comes before TSA If you ever go into the airports, you're I'm telling you, you guys have seen it before. There's no way that you've never seen it within the Us and this just allows you to get through lines a lot quicker by verifying your ID using your fingerprint or your eyeballs instead of a photo. ID Now Clear Up Plus costs exactly 189 dollars every single year and conveniently, you get a hundred percent of that back in statement credits with your your platinum card now in order to get the credit.

It's very simple. so when I got clear I showed up to the airport they were like yo you want clear I was like yo I think I get this with the Platinum car I was like all right and I just paid for it there on the spot but you can also pay for Clear online and then finish up the process the next time you go to an airport. so you could save a little bit of time if you didn't know. Though if you happen to be a student you can get something called preferred rates on clear so this ends up being just sixty dollars per year which I think is another little life hack.

By the way, whenever places ask if you're a student or not, sometimes the way they verify that is not that difficult. So if you even have access to your old College email account, you might be able to sneak through. hey look, your miles may vary. but I'm not going to say that I've never done that before.

I will say I have not done that recently though. Now if you're a status member with United or Delta one data point on Reddit also said that they saved sixty dollars by doing this and you'd end up just paying 129 instead of the full amount that we mentioned. This is because if you happen to have a spouse that also travels with you, normally it's just an additional seventy dollars on on top of the 189 to get them registered on your clear account. So if you happen to be using Delta United and you have one platinum card, you can get a spouse added onto your account for essentially just 10 bucks.

Now like always, your miles may vary it. but regardless, the value goes Way Beyond Because with the 189 dollars that you pay to clear, let me tell you that this has saved me a lot of time. Time that allows me to go into lounges time that also has saved my head from additional gray hairs from not worrying about missing my flight. and I love the Wombo Combo of just using my clear going through TSA Pre And for someone who lives in the DMV area I go to Dulles a lot it's just a breeze.

I Remember the last time I flew to Austin Texas which is like four weeks ago. all I had to do was get dropped off at the airport I walked straight in went to clear. boom did the whole retinal scanning thing took me to TSA Pre there was no line there I went in and then I was like just you know outside of security it's like wow that was easy. That was worth it I didn't have to take off my shoes I didn't have to take off my underwear.

You know the things that normally happen next. You can also get up to a hundred dollars with global entry or TSA pre-check with this credit. here. you'll get a 100 statement credit every five years for Global Entry or an 85 credit on a five-year TSA pre-check membership.

I'd recommend that you use this on global entry because if you do get approved for it, you'll automatically get TSA pre-check anyways. so that's just a free bonus for anyone who doesn't know. Global Entry Just allows you to get easier entry into the country by skipping lines and paperwork as well as typically Expediting the entry process with the Customs agent. Now by the way yes guys I know I look a little weird in my Global Entry card I feel like the agent or the officer that day he tried to do me dirty.

He basically didn't even give me a heads up that he was taking the photo. He whipped out a webcam like this and just like and I was like turning my head Midway that's why I look I got the worm neck effect Anyways guys I got Global Entry I got TSA pre-check I Love having these items and the AmEx Platinum pretty much saves you the amount of paying for it Anyways, Now this benefit here is actually one of my favorites and once again out of security. The question is, what do you do? Well, you could be sitting in those seats, you know, shoulder to shoulder with people on a busy flight. Or you could be waiting in a nice lounge with access to free food and free drinks.

With the AmEx Platinum Card, you get access to the AmEx interior, Lounge you get access to the Delta Sky Club and the entire Priority Pass collection. Basically, you'll 100 be able to access a lounge as long as it's not overflown with people in pretty much every single major airport around the world. For the Centurion Lounge, it's really simple. All you have to do is just show up, have the physical card with you while you're traveling, Present it with your boarding pass, and they'll allow you to get in.

Now be real though, towards the end of last year, the Centurion lounges weren't really as great as they used to be. There were a lot of instances where it was just over packed, overcrowded and it seemed like the quality was going down. But back in February Amex introduced a new rule that they would charge fifty dollars for adult guests and thirty dollars for little children coming into the lounge. Now those rules have helped it a lot, but in the that there's no Centurion Lounge, you can also get access to the Delta Sky Club by adding your Platinum card as a payment method in your Delta Sky Mouse account.

If for some reason, the Delta lounges and the Centurion lounges just aren't cutting it for you. you also get Priority Pass Select which gives you access to over 1300 lounges worldwide for the priority Pass membership. A lot of people don't use it, they don't even know that they have it. But it's really simple.

Just sign up for the membership via the Priority Pass website and they'll send you a card in the mail within two weeks. Adding this all up, the Delta Sky Club membership costs about 695 dollars a year. The Priority Pass Select card is worth about 330 a year, and just with those two third-party passes alone, you're getting over a thousand dollars in value. We're also not accounting for the Centurion lounge and all the free food and drinks that you can eat and consume.

So if you happen to be chilling there for many, many hours, you're trying to do work and you want a quiet place to stay with free Wi-Fi I Don't know what you would value that at, but I would definitely say if I stayed at a lounge for more than two three hours, I can at least get twenty to fifty dollars in value worth of free food. Next up, we got the AmEx 200 Hotel credit to utilize this. all you have to do is book through the AmEx Hotel, Collection or Amex Fine Hotel Resorts portal and you'll get that 200 statement credit on your purchase every single year in order to access this. It's very simple guys.

it's just Amextravel.com and then sign into your Amex account and it's super easy to use and the prices are usually on par with what you'll find on Google But the best part is if you do decide to book through say example the AmEx Find Hotel Resort program, you're going to be getting even additional benefits to normally what you're booking wouldn't provide if you just went through Expedia or Google. So add that 200 credit into the tab and that segues very easily into the next benefit. and that is what those exact benefits for the hotel. Fine Resort Collection offers you so with this: I've used it plenty of times.

I Actually look at hotels on this list normally first before booking my travel just because the benefits have been so good to me. You get 12 p.m check-in you get guaranteed 4 pm checkout you get complimentary Wi-Fi You get daily breakfast for two, You get a 100 experience credit and room upgrades when available. Now these perks Elevate the experience of traveling a lot more and for me I've been able to get some of these upgrades where as an example: I stayed at the Ritz Carlton in La back when you know the Crypto Bull Market, your boy got flown out to the Crypto.com stadium to go watch one of their basketball games for free. stayed at the Ritz Carlton it was right next to the stadium.

really nice hotel I pulled up guys they gave me the full swing of benefits 4 pm checkout and they even upgraded me to their Executive Suite which later when I got home and Googled how much it was worth it was costing 2 800 a night to stay in a room like that. Now look I'm not gonna price that into the fact of this card because your miles may vary. Sometimes you may get a huge upgrade, sometimes you might not. But the fact that this card gives you a benefit such as this where it can make your experience traveling just a bit better I Think it's completely worth it and it's something that I would still add to the equation for that trip.

I got the 100 experience credit I got breakfast for two 2 which is normally about sixty dollars a day so that right there is two hundred forty dollars in total and then my upgrade would have been an extra eight thousand. Two hundred thirty six dollars for the amount of days that I stayed at the very least. If you do travel for a week every single year with your family or loved ones, I Still think that this here would be valued at a minimum of five hundred dollars. While we're on the topic of hotels with the AmEx Platinum you also get Hilton and Marriott status memberships.

So just by starting out with this card, there's a few things that you need to check off and one of those is getting your Hilton Honors gold status and this year is going to unlock food and beverage credits, room upgrades, and an 80 boost on your point earning rate with Hilton stays. For this, just go into the AmEx dashboard, click on benefits, and enroll in the Hilton Honors program. If you already have a Hilton account, you can add your number or you can create a new account from there at the same time that you're in there. You can also enroll in the Marriott Bonboy Gold Elite benefit too.

And with this, you're going to unlock enhanced room upgrades, guaranteed 2 pm late checkout, and 25 bonus points on your stays. Now if you're wondering, well, Brian if I have Amex fine hotels and resorts, why why the heck would this matter? Well basically let's say you've used that 200 Hotel credit that we talked about just a few points before and let's say the hotel you're trying to get is actually not on their listed program or their portal. The next option is to then book directly with their hotel to see maybe if they have a better price or if it's actually just available to book on it. I Think getting these benefits is better than nothing.

Still, and if you show some of these hotels that you have benefits, usually depending on where you go, they may recognize it and also give you that room upgrade for free. Combine that with the 20 sandwich hack where you pretty much get your ID card. you put a 20 bill in between that and then you put your credit card. underneath of that, you know, slide them a little twenty dollar tip.

I would say you're also increasing your ability to get that room upgrade maybe like 10 20 per 20 trade-off I Always like to gamble with whoever's working there and it's worked out pretty consistently within my favor in terms of how much some of these values are worth, The Hilton Honors gold status is going to be valued at twelve hundred twenty dollars if you were to earn it through stays and Marriott Gold Elite would normally cost you eight hundred and five dollars and that's going to give you another total value of 2025 bucks. Now we're only halfway there and you've already gotten about 4 454 dollars in value. meaning you're net positive by over thirty seven hundred dollars after that annual fee. By the way, if you're interested in getting this card and you haven't done so already, be sure to use the link down below as it helps support the channel at no extra cost to you.

That being said, if you have a friend that has a platinum card, make sure to get their referrals. They can benefit as well. Now after that, let's take a look at the 200 Airline fee Credit Now This one here has some very specific limitations that you need to be aware of. First of all, you have to pick an airline to link this credit with first go into your benefits tab.

You can link with your airline of choice and then you'll get a 200 in statement credits on airline fee charges every single year. Now to be a bit more specific, this is only for fees and it's not for ticket prices. So if you pay for a seat change, checked bags, or in-flight entertainment and amenities, you'll be eligible for the statement credit. Now let's say you choose Delta at the start of the year, but decide instead that you want to start flying with American more.

As long as you haven't used any of the credit yet, you should be able to switch the airline partner that you're using. But once you've used some of that credit, it seems like there's a lot more data points that show that people were not able to change afterwards. Now this resets about every year, but it's probably safer to pick one Airline and stick with it or to just not devote yourself to one Airline until you actually decide to book your travel just in case that wherever you decide to go doesn't have whatever preferred. Airline you initially chose and for the last one in this Travel section, let's talk about the rental car status membership that you get with the AmEx Platinum card because I personally find a lot of value in this.

Like I said, your miles may vary with certain people who may not ever rent a car and depending on where you go, they may overlook this: status when I went and I used it in LA I actually got myself a Dodge Challenger and it completely changed my trip. It's the same way as a lot of these benefits, you can enroll in the benefits Tab and then link your Amex account. you would get Avis preferred you get Hertz president Circle and then National Emerald Club executive. With all these statuses, you can get discounts, upgrades, and access the priority lines when you're renting a car.

And on top of that with some of these programs, you can earn free day rentals and a bunch of other perks I'd Recommend just signing up for all of these so you don't have to worry about it just in case you do travel and then you find out that hurts you know they don't have an employee work in there and then you got to go to Emerald Now Ladies and gents, your value on this is going to vary for me. I Would say this would be around 500 bucks. On the conservative side just because I was able to skip a huge long line last time I went to LA On top of that I just have the Comfort the ease of Mind knowing that I present in circle. it's usually something that they recognize and if I didn't get that Dodge Challenger I would have gone like you know there's no problem with Kias and and Hyundai's you know I'm Korean y'all get that, But man, that Challenger was fun whipping that through La It was fun.

Nothing really beats a V8 Anyways, that upgrade would cost me a pretty penny. so that's why I would value this at the minimum of 500. This next section, we're going to be talking about all the shopping credits that you get starting with Saks Fifth Ave. Now this one comes as two fifty dollar credits every year, one from January to June and one from July to December.

To be honest, a lot of the stuff at Saks Fifth Ave tends to be a bit more expensive, but right now I've seen offers for 50 off your purchase this month, which stacked with their 50 statement credit that you use, you can end up saving even a hundred dollars on your purchase regardless if you want to make sure you're not overspending in order to just utilize this credit. Something that I love! Purchasing is cologne every single year and this is because I've checked the market prices on cologne on different websites and it seems like they're consistent even on sax. Like with most of these tabs, Be sure to enroll in the benefits tab before actually purchasing to make sure that you get the credit. If you do plan on buying on some of these other websites, I Always make sure to use something like Ebates also known as Rakuten now in order to make sure that I'm getting an additional cash back By the way guys, if you don't have Ebates if you don't have Rakuten it's a free Chrome extension.

It allows you to save money just automatically and it's given me a lot of cash back over the years. On top of that, you can also sync up your Amex membership Reward Points So if you guys want to get a free 30 dollars as well, check out the link Down Below in the description for that. By the way, as we go through the rest of these credits, you're probably gonna want to set reminders in your calendar to use these up. As an example, the Saks Fifth Avenue one comes every six months, so you want to make sure you set the reminder if you use it.

Check it off, and if you need a reminder if you actually used it because that's something I do I would just go in my email inbox and type in Saks and if I see that I bought it within that six month period Then I know that I'm good to go. Now this next benefit might not be as valuable for every single person, but you'd be in luck if you have an Equinox that you're already going to or if you want to check out any one of their digital memberships. Now, this credit here is plain and simple: it's just 300 every single year, But when you also consider the fact that the lowest Equinox membership costs you two thousand two hundred dollars, it might not actually be worth getting. I Also, live in the DMV and here the equinoxes just aren't great and I've been to different ones like New York City and also in California I believe I was also in one in Austin and those are just way nicer for me.

I Already have two gym memberships the ones that are close to my home and I Just don't find any value in adding something like this so your miles may vary on whether or not you find Value But if you happen to be someone who happens to go to Equinox you're already paying the membership. It's a free 300 that you're getting back within your pocket. Next up, we have the 155 dollar Walmart Plus Credit Now This applies in the form of a monthly credit of 12.95 that you get back on your account. Now guys, I know probably most of y'all aren't using Walmart plus I Didn't consider it either until I Started doing the research for this video, but it turns out it could actually be pretty helpful, especially if you're getting this membership for free anyways.

So with Walmart plus first of all, Walmart guys, you're getting some of the best prices that you can. Everything is generally very cheap there, but you get free delivery, free shipping, you get fuel savings, and you also get a Paramount Plus subscription which can give you even more access to movies or entertainment now. I Also did a little bit of digging to find what I really resonated with from someone over on. Reddit Who says just because? I like the Centurion Lounge benefits Sky Club access and fine hope tell Resort credits doesn't mean I don't want deodorant, salad dressing and diet Dr Pepper delivered to my door within hours with no minimums.

In some cases I get more out of my Walmart plus than my Prime Membership because it comes quicker with no 35 dollar minimums. this person says my staff or my girlfriend needs anything I know it'll be there in two hours. and like most of you who may be holding this card I'm a busy, a business owner executive with the family and I'll take free convenience any day. So to get this credit, make sure the subscription is on your Amex platinum card and you're pretty much good to go.

Number 14 here on this list is Rezzy! So let's say you wanted to eat at your favorite restaurant but when you go to book, there's nothing available for that day. This happens to me quite often here in the Rockville area. It's always like Friday and Saturday nights. I Guess when people are getting off of work, everyone's looking out for a place to eat.

But basically with this app you can book reservations at restaurants based on what's available and then with your platinum perk, you'll also get priority notifications over other people currently on the waiting list if someone does decide to cancel. So if you ever have a hard time booking, you know a last minute dinner with you and your girl or your man or your family. You can do this by linking your Platinum card to your resi account and you can get priority on reservations and cancellations. Add to that exclusive offers and dining experiences that you get with this card and I think it's a pretty solid benefit.

Now it is worth noting that maybe Rezzy isn't getting you the reservation you want though and you want to try something else. This is where something like the AmEx Platinum concierge can come in handy. By having the AmEx Platinum card, you have access to a concierge service that gives you assistance in Booking reservations at restaurants, General travel questions, buying event tickets, and even sometimes completing simple shopping requests like sending flowers to someone. Just remember that if you do ask them this, you know that they don't charge their own car that never bills to you.

They're going to be building your own card, but you're going to be able to use them for a convenience measure. Now, back when I was super busy, there was a time where the Bull Market was here I was trying to scale this YouTube channel I didn't have a team in place I was still spending six to eight hours like scripting, editing, filming, publishing thumbnail like I did everything for YouTube Now I have a team built in place that I've worked very hard with in collaborating to make sure that everything and the quality is the best that we can do. But back when I was doing everything guys I actually had to use a concierge service because I literally had no time especially when I was traveling or when I was in my office knowing that I had an appointment at a set time but I could not make it. In my experience, a concierge service has come out clutch I've Loved using it and to access it, all you have to do is call the number on the back of your card and select the concierge option or just go on Google and type in Amex Platinum concierge line and then you can contact them there.

Last but not least, what I really love is the AmEx offers tabs. So this is right next to the benefits tab in the AmEx dashboard and this is where you can get access to exclusive deals to save money on your spend. Now these offers do rotate and they usually have expiration dates listed there. so if you see an offer you like, enroll in it and make sure you hit the requirements to activate did and get the full reimbursement.

Some past examples of my favorite offers is a 25 statement credit after I spend a hundred twenty five dollars at Lululemon or earning a sixty dollars after I spend 300 with Hyatt or even just getting 2x membership reward points on purchases at Target I've also gotten a lot of money back from buying at Ray-Bans and just random stores. I'll see some offers and be like okay, that's a restaurant that I like that I Haven't checked out in a while and it gives me an incentive to go back there to make sure you're staying on top of this. you guys can also join our Facebook group link Down Below in the description. Also join our newsletter where I'll give you some updates if I see any banging offers where you can save some money I'll give you guys an alert there or you can manually just check it out every single month to see if there's any offers that interest you.

Now for number 17. Last but not least, welcome bonus offers. If you do end up getting this card right now, the offer is 80 000 membership reward points after you spend six thousand dollars in six full months. Six months is Huge! Back in the day used to be three months Amex extended it so y'all aren't overspending in order to hit that well bonus offer.

And on top of that, if you're able to get these points and add a conservative one point to one cent Redemption rate that's 800 more in value that you're getting right there now. I've been able to get much higher redemptions than just 800 with my American Express points. I've actually made another video going over all the ways that you can redeem your IMX reward points for max value. so be sure to watch that video as well.

By now, if we add up all the benefits that we mentioned, you'll be getting over six thousand five hundred dollars in value, which after spending 695 dollars for the annual fee, is about five thousand eight hundred five dollars in net profit. We're also not accounting for the Cash Back Rewards that you're getting and all the other more harder to quantify travel benefits that you would get such as the room upgrades or even just any little perks that some of these Hotels May throw at you for just being an Amex platinum card holder. But I also want to play it more conservative because there are some benefits and I know that maybe all of you guys won't use like for me I ain't using that Equinox credit. so I could probably deduct like three hundred dollars from that.

It's all about getting creative like you know? if I know someone who loves going to Equinox I would just say yo can I just use my AmEx Platinum for like the one month that you pay and then you just pay me at all and then I split the credit with you. It's a little bit of work, but it's a win-win situation at the end of the day. So in order to get the max amount of value from this card, just make sure that first you enroll for all the benefits, spend like 15 to 20 minutes doing that. And another thing too is to set calendar reminders to make sure that you're meeting all the spending requirements and that you're doing all the things that I mentioned.

So guys I know this is a lot of work, but as an example, we're at the end of June right now I Sent out an email to our credit card newsletter and made a post within that Facebook group. So if you guys want to join so you never miss out on any of these reminders, be sure to check out the links Down Below in the description. And like always guys, check out the American Express Platinum Card If you guys are looking to sign up, there are usually some higher welcome bonus offers, so check out the link. Sometimes it may give you a Higher One there.

Thank you all so much again for watching this video. Subscribe to the channel, that's about it and see you all soon!.