Here in my hand is the American Express Platinum Card Now this card here is no everyday card because it has a steep annual fee of 695 dollars per year which makes many people question whether or not this card is actually worth getting now. I Got this card over two years ago right before the start of the pandemic where many of the Airlines and even just overall travel had gone shut down. As someone who's got this card mainly for travel but couldn't actually use it, you might be wondering how come I still have this card today and how come I never canceled it? Well in this video I'll be going over just that and more now. Whether you're someone who already owns this credit card like I do or you're interested in applying for it for the very first time.

I Will guarantee that you will learn something new in this video that can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars. So ladies and gents. With that being said, I'm excited for this video. Hopefully you guys are too.

Let's get started. So at the time of filming this video, you can actually find a public welcome bonus offer for 80 000 membership reward points after you spend six thousand dollars in the first six months of card membership. Now that right, there is a pretty solid offer just because the public standard offer a few years back had been a fraction of that, so usually it was around like 50, maybe 60 000 Mr points instead. Also, America Express has extended the time length on how long it would take for you to spend that money.

Normally it would be three months, but the six months or half a year in order to hit those minimum spend requirements to get that welcome bonus is insane. On top of that, with this card, you can get 5x points on flights booked directly with the airline or through American Express Travel on up to 500 000 in purchases per calendar year. You'll also be getting 5x back on prepaid hotels booked on amixtravel.com and One X back on all other purchases. Now, when applying for this card, you're also going to get three different variations of this credit card personally for me.

I Highly recommend that if you do have this card already or if you plan on getting it just the OG Classic Platinum You can't go wrong with that. All the other ones with like the little and spazzle and this and that I don't know I I'm just personally not a fan of it, but I do think it's cool that they try to mix it up and add a little bit of variation to one of their most popular cards. Now it's actually stated on their public website that you can unlock over fifteen hundred dollars in free benefits. and if we do the math, if we're going by their calculation of fifteen hundred dollars and we know that the annual fee is seven hundred dollars, even just by holding this card for only a year, you'll know that you'll be doubling the ROI or 2x in your money by signing up for a card like this.

Now we'll say though, there are way more benefits to this than just Fifteen Hundred dollars, which I'll share with you when I go across the 10 secret tips and tricks to give you the quick rundown though of at least the benefits that you'll get with this card, you'll get a 200 Hotel credit which is 200 back in statement credits each year on prepaid fine hotels plus Resorts or the Hotel Collection booked through the American Express Travel portal. Using your Platinum card, you also get a 200 Airline fee credit where you select one qualifying Airline and then you'll receive up to 200 in statement credits per calendar year when incidental fees are charged by the airline to your card. On top of that for the start of this year, something new that they added was a 155 dollar Walmart Plus Credit. Now just like how competitive Amazon has been, a lot of these other e-commerce shops have been moving into the space and believe it or not, I've actually heard a lot of great things about Walmart Plus.

so you'll be getting a full membership completely for free by holding this card. On top of that, something that came out during the pandemic was actually this 240 dollar Digital entertainment credit. With this, they state that you can experience the latest shows, audiobooks, music, news, and recipes and you get up to twenty dollars in statements credits each month when you own the platinum card. So for anyone who's wondering, this actually includes Audible Disney plus the Disney bundle, the ESPN plus you get Hulu Peacock Series XM and the New York Times when you purchase directly from one of them and you use this card on that.

This is probably the easiest subscription that you can have because I don't know a single person who does not have one of the following when it comes to getting something free like the Audible, You know, free audio books to continue learning new things. Or even the Disney plus I mean Disney's got a lot of great things on there too, So that right there is an easy way. If you already are paying for the subscription you put this on there, you're saving yourself a good amount every every single year going through it. You also get a 200 Uber cash credit.

And the way this works is that you get 15 in Uber cash every single month. and for the month of December you get a bonus twenty dollars. If you add that up, it'll be a total of two hundred dollars. And if you might be thinking yeah, American Express they make me go through the loops a little bit.

I Wish 200 could come all at once and then you know I don't have to fight for getting my credits every single month. This really is just the name of the game when it comes to credit card up points and rewards. Now I'm not using the Uber Ride service but I'm using Uber delivery and you can also use Uber to pick your food up. So if you're buying Chipotle anyways and you're trying to just use up this benefit every single month and you don't want to deliver to you for whatever reason, you can just set Uber to pick it up.

pick up the food, you got a free meal just from your Amex Platinum card. On top of that, something else that I really found amazing is this: 300 Equinox credit and also a soul cycle at home Buy credit now I went to the Equinox Hotel in New York I Do not have an Equinox membership here in Maryland just because. uh, the gyms here are a little booty hole. is that is that a viable opinion? They're just not as good around here for some reason.

Either way, it's really nice to know that if I do ever decide that hey, I want to check out that gym for whatever reason or I want to check out their Equinox Plus Membership or even get into a little bit of cycling, you have access to that and almost you're able to try it out for free by using this card for a year. now. on top of that, every single year you'll be getting a 189 Clear Credit Which is really nice because I just got a notification from Clear that they charged my card for 189 dollars I travel probably four or five times per year I Know that the Clear membership is held on this card so I got a free credit just there. and for anyone who doesn't know what Clear is, it's pretty much when you go to the airport you have TSA pre-check where you can you know fast forward go to the Speedy Gonzales line or you can also Wombo Combo that up and pretty much use TSA pre-check with Clear and you can find yourself just cruising right through TSA For me I Love getting frisked.

On top of that, you'll also be getting a 100 statement credit annually for Saks Fifth Avenue This one is split up for 50 dollars every six months within that year. so all I do is make sure at the beginning of the year I spend something around 50 bucks and what has been perfect for me is my collection of cologne. So I bought a lot of my cologne over from Saks Fifth They don't actually jack up the prices on there with cologne like they do with some of the other items. I actually really like having this card because it's almost like me getting free cologne twice a year now.

In addition to that, you'll notice I have two cards in my hand and I actually got this for free as well holding the platinum card and this is my Global Entry card and this is my TSA Sorry, this is not my TSA pre-check This is my priority pass card pretty much. They also give you credits for allowing you to get TSA pre-check Global Entry completely for free. And you also do get priority pass which means you have access to a ton of lounges including the Centurion Lounge Now Ladies and gentlemen, I Mean, even through all those benefits, if you do the math, that's over three thousand dollars or more depending on how you value those membership reward points that you would get from the initial welcome bonus offer. But look, there's actually more.

And before we get into 10 additional secret tips and tricks about this card. if you are interested at all and signing up for the American Express Platinum Card be sure to check out the link Down Below in the description or scan the QR code on your screen. Like always, make sure your offer that you're looking at is competitive. At the end of this video.

I'll also be going over what the highest competitive offer is and how you can actually access it too. So for the first and probably one of the most crucial tips that I've done ever since I've gotten this card is to utilize the American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts program. So to access this benefit it's really easy. You can just hop in on Google or find a verified link on going to the American Express Fine Hotel and Collections website once you're on there.

If you find a hotel that you like and you decide to book through them rather than going through Google or Expedia or whatever it may be, you're gonna get daily breakfast for two people completely for free. You're also going to be getting a complimentary room upgrade by the way. I've talked about it a few times on my channel, but that room upgrade is nuts. When I was staying at the Ritz Carlton that I booked through the American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts program I actually got upgraded to their biggest sweet.

It went from like a little queen size hotel room then to like just a hotel room that was bigger than my apartment I'd like a dining section, a living room section I had a whole hallway for a closet. It was unexpected. It was crazy. and it was literally just because I had applied using this card I didn't pay any extra money I got free value in return.

In addition to that, you can also get an amenity credit valued at a hundred dollars for that property. So if you happen to see you know some food or some you know drinks that you like all for free. Out of all that, my favorite is these two things. You get guaranteed 4 pm late checkout and you get noon check-in if available.

Those benefits right there have been so clutch whenever you gotta force yourself to wake up at like 9 or 10 a.m so you can meet that 11. A.M Checkout You know you don't want to stress yourself out when you're on vacation. 4 P.M Checkout It's nuts. It is insane and it's come in so handy many, many times now.

The second tip that you want to fully utilize if you do have this card. if you plan on getting this card is all of the lounge access. Now By using their app, you can actually check out which lounges are available to you. And up until recently the American Express Centurion Lounge it was.

It was actually getting a little bit packed, but they recently came out the new rule that people can't be bringing in all their kids and it's been getting a lot better. So if you do happen to travel, I'm telling you, instead of just sitting around right outside the boarding area where you got people's buttholes right inside of your face, you can actually sit at a comfortable Lounge You get free food, free drinks, you get good. Wi-Fi You get comfortable chairs and I find that when I'm traveling, it's oftentimes when I get a little bit of creative I want to do a bit more work and lounge access before you fly off has been so amazing. now.

The lounge access that you get with the American Express card opens it up tremendously. I Know that if you're holding like a beginner a starter card like the Chase Freedom Card you will not be getting any of those huge benefits like you would with this card with the American Express Platinum Card A Lot of people forget that you also get automatic status upgrades. so with Hilton and Marriott you'll be turned into gold Elite status which comes with some additional benefits too. And sometimes if they see that you're a gold member, they'll also be giving you a free hotel room upgrade then as well.

These benefits are a little bit harder to quantify, but I remember even staying in New York I'd mentioned hey, I'm a Marriott Gold Elite status? They can actually see it on their computer when checking you in and that usually does prompt a room upgrade where it might be double or triple the cost of your current room. Following that, you also get high Elite status at car membership places. So if you're ever traveling somewhere and you know you don't want to be ubering all the time, normally what people would do is consider renting a vehicle. Now with the American Express Platinum Card What? I really love about this is the fact that they give you Avis Preferred or Hertz's President's Circle membership or national Emerald Club This is amazing because anytime I've gone to rent a car at any one of these airports, there's always a huge line.

But then there's a separate line that says Hertz's President's Club Only by having this card, you can automatically enroll yourself to make sure that you do have that President's club membership. and by doing that, you'll often get an upgrade on your car. You'll skip a one hour wait line. sometimes.

if it's that long, sometimes they just treat you better knowing that you do have certain status with that car rental agency. Now on top of that, a huge underrated benefit of this card is the fact that you have access to the Platinum Card at Concierge Service. So their version of the American Express Concierge service is similar in every way to the American Express Centurion Black Card Service except it's not as good. They give you 24 7 assistance with booking.

Diner Reservations You get worldwide access to reservations tickets I mean sporting games. If you ever have trouble finding a gift or you know you just need help with anything travel related, these people are here to help for me personally. I've used this benefit and the last time I did this I made a YouTube short about it I was traveling to La like a few years back with a few of my friends and we're trying to find a place to eat and it was like a midday. Saturday All the restaurants are booked out and I actually called them.

They were able to get me a reservation for a giant table as a party of like six or nine people at that time like they did it like this like instantly and I'd call that same restaurant and they told me that you know they couldn't seat me down. So it's pretty rare that I do use the AMX concierge service, but the few times I have used it, it's been coming in clutch. On top of that, the American Express Platinum Card is actually another card that I used frequently when I'm booking travel because I do get those benefits. but I also get a ton of excellent travel insurance protection.

So say my trip gets canceled or there's some type of weather delay. Amex will actually reimburse me for any non-refundable deposit up to ten thousand dollars per trip. If there happens to be a delay, they'll also give me a reimbursement for eligible expenses up to 500 if the trip is delayed by more than six hours or more. you know, going back to the car rental thing if I get any type of damage or you know the car gets stolen.

I Also get insurance by using this credit card by the time of booking for up to 75 000 that the car Evans get lost or stolen or you know something bad might happen. Even in addition to those benefits, American Express gives you a premium Global Assist hotline. So if you're happening to be traveling and something bad happens, you just need help. For whatever reason, they literally have a dedicated line to help you out for that.

I will say I've not ever used that line before but I've read some data points online showing that they do a good job and they're a simple things such as if you're not even traveling, you're driving on the road. They actually have an amazing program where you can access a wheel and repair service and I've heard very, very good things from that too. Now this next secret little benefit was not something I included within my notes for this video, but it just came to my mind and this is actually the American Express Auto program. So this is formerly known as the Auto Purchasing Program where American Express works together with TrueCar and if you happen to be in the market to buying a new car or you know, getting a used car, they actually allow you to get some of the best deals possible.

So someone who's owned you know four or five cars now at the age of 26, two of them being rather luxury cars. I do own a Lamborghini I Hate saying it out loud, but for the purpose of this video, I do own some more expensive cars I do have a Lamborghini and I know the car market very very well. If you're ever looking to save money by owning an American Express credit card, you can actually have access to this portal here which allows you to get some of the most competitive prices on any one of the cars that you're trying to buy. So instead of just walking into a dealership where sometimes you know there's trying to rip some of the best deals off of you, this is very similar to the Costco auto program which has been very well known to be amazing and get you some of the best benefits.

and if I was interested in, just say a new Toyota Camry All right the TRD ones, they look very nice. If I were to get one of those cars instead of walking to the dealership seeing the sticker price and then having to negotiate down from there by using the American Express Auto purchasing program, I can get a sticker sheet of what it would look like. Maybe I would save just three four thousand dollars, but I could take that to the dealer and they would not fight you on it. They would match that price and from there you can negotiate down even further, saving you even couple thousands of dollars if not more.

On top of that. One of my most favorite favorite benefits of the American Express card is that anytime I buy something expensive and I know it's not going to fit within a five percent category or I'm not gonna be able to get more than 2x back from it I actually decide to get 1X back on that purchase using this card knowing that American Express has such a good policy on items that may get lost, damage, or stolen after I bought it. There was a time when I bought new airpods and one of those airpods were lost. they just completely disappeared I couldn't use them I couldn't just walk around with one airpod in my ear.

It was noise canceling. It wouldn't have been good I called up American Express They actually went ahead and reimbursed me for the whole purchase there now. I Want to say please don't take advantage of this and ruin it for everyone else but they are very generous with it and if you are buying something, they have coverage up to ten thousand dollars per event and they give you up to fifty thousand dollars per calendar year. On top of that, their return protection is so amazing.

So if a merchant won't accept a return of an item that's purchased within 90 days, American Express will refund the purchase price minus the shipping and handling up to 300 per item up to a total of a thousand dollars per calendar year. On top of that, if you do happen to buy something, say like a laundry machine, a washing machine I don't know there's something expensive and say that thing breaks right after the day the warranty expires. Well, if you had bought it on your American Express Platinum Card they will give you an extra year of warranty protection beyond the manufacturer's original warranty which comes in so so nicely. now.

last but not least, ladies and gents, something in my hand right here. This is actually the Caesar's Diamond reward card and this is actually something that I got holding the American Express Platinum Card. And this is the tip here that I mentioned earlier that Gurus will charge people thousands of dollars to know. Well, I'mma drop it here on YouTube for free.

So by having the Platinum Card you have free access to the Caesar's Diamond reward status. And if you don't know what this gives you, it actually allows you to have no resort fee on any hotel stays where applicable. This is going to be a lot of those hotels in Vegas I know New Jersey Atlantic City There's going to be a lot of those too. You also get a free 100 celebration dinner credit.

You get a complimentary valet and self-parking voucher. You get complimentary access to a lot of shows and attractions and you also can gain access to their VIP lounge called The Laurel Lounge. You get complimentary stay at their Atlantis Paradise Island in the Bahamas. So I actually took full advantage of this because I had the Caesar's Diamond reward status for like four years now.

So I went ahead and took a full advantage of staying at the Atlantis Paradise Island in the Bahamas completely for free by owning the platinum card and then doing the tip that I'm going to share with you in this video. But not only that, they actually give you two free nights at Caesar's blue Water in Dubai too. Now they didn't do this a few years ago, but for the start of this year they actually give you a 20 a month free online sports betting credit too. So you know if you happen to be into that stuff, this is a free 20 Bill back in your pocket.

Get the American Express Platinum Card I mentioned earlier how you get Marriott Bonboy Gold status. You then go on to Wyndham and you use the Marriott Bomboy Gold status to mash it into Windham. You send them an email, there's a website link for it and you tell them hey, Ameripomboy Gold I want to be Windham Diamond status They'll give you Windham Diamond status for about 90 days and what you do then is to match the Wyndham Diamond status over to Caesar's reward Diamond status. That right there was like the one to two minute lesson on status matching for beginners.

It's actually nuts what you can do with benefits like that and it's truly so amazing. So now that I went over the benefits, the secret little tips and tricks, the question I want to answer is this is the American Express plan with card actually worth 695 dollars? Well let's do them of all the credits and the benefits that we mentioned. So first of all, a welcome bonus offer of 80 000 points right here! CNBC is actually going to Value it at two cents per point I'm gonna do a conservative one cent per point, but there are even instances where you can get up to five cents per Point making that eight hundred dollars times five. Yeah, it's actually four thousand dollars you get back, but we're gonna play this a bit more safe.

So you get eight hundred dollars, You get that 200 Hotel credit. You also get the 200 Airline fee credit. You get a 300 Equinox credit you get 155 Walmart credit You get an airport lounge access where you know say you eat twenty to fifty dollars worth of food and free drinks. That right there will add it in.

You also get a 200 Uber credit you get a 240 digital Entertainment Credit you'll get a hundred dollar TSA pre-check and Global Entry Credit you'll get 189 Clear Credit you'll get a hundred dollar Saks Fifth Avenue credit Marriott Bonvoy Gold which allows you to get diamond Wyndham which allows you get diamond Caesar's reward and even just from that, you get a free 100 celebration dinner credit where you can use it at one of their luxury buffets or whatnot. And on top of that I mean the list goes on and on like if you happen to get a nice hotel room upgrade like what would we quantify that as so for the first year holding the American Express Platinum Card This is an absolute yes by doing the math, it's well over 3 500 in value. maybe four to even five thousand dollars plus I Almost think of it as if you get this card and you don't even do any travel and you just soak up all the benefits you are making money. You're spending money to make money.

Now say you are someone who travels a bit more. You're gonna be finding so much benefit for this card. Now here's what I'll say: this card undeniably has a high annual fee. so definitely after the first year I would reevaluate whether or not it's worth keeping.

But even if you decide hey, maybe I want to downgrade it, they will give you something called a retention offer where they'll say okay, we'll reduce your annual fee or how about we give you like 200 and free credits to hold this card. You'll actually be getting even more money in order to hold this card for a bit longer. So ladies and gents, that is going to be the full video on everything you need to know about the American Express Platinum Card for this year. If you are are interested in signing up for this car, be sure to check out the link Down Below in the description or scan the QR code on your screen.

By opening up that link, you should be seeing that 80 000 Point offer. I'm also going to be linking another tool and this tool is called the Credit card match tool where they'll actually pre-scan your credit profile. You won't be getting a hard pull or anything like that on your credit profile, but they will see whether or not you qualify for an even better offer because there are some offers floating around where it's a hundred thousand hundred twenty thousand and there's a mystical 150 000 Point offer I've never been able to get the hundred thousand Point offer I Said you know what? 80 000 point is good enough for me, but those things are floating around so I want to make sure that you guys still do get the most competitive offer Down Below On top of that I built up a pretty cool Facebook group. It has over 30 000 members and if you guys want to join that and have access to my exclusive credit card email newsletter where I'll give you some of the best travel deals and also some of the best credit card offers, be sure to sign up for that link Down Below in the description.

With all that being said, ladies and gents, thank you all so much again for watching this video and I Hope you have an amazing day! Peace out.