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by colingoodman 701 days ago
The AmEx platinum seems like a fancy coupon book full of credits I mostly wouldn’t use. Maybe if I cared about airport lounges more I would feel differently, but I agree with your sentiment. I have a hard time understanding the value prop of their charge cards.
1 comments
kstrauser 701 days ago
I regularly go through their coupon book to see what I’m already using that they pay for. Clear (the airport fast check in thing) is fully reimbursed. They give me a $15/mo Uber credit. I wanted to buy some stuff from Walmart when they had a really good online sale, and Amex pays for the Walmart version of Amazon Prime. I don’t travel an awful lot, but get $200/yr in Southwest credits, so WiFi and drinks are basically always free for me.

I’ve signed up for a couple of things I wouldn’t have otherwise, but mostly I get reimbursed for things I was using anyway.

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rty32 701 days ago
For the vast majority of Americans, they don't use Uber even once every month and $15 credit is money thrown away (Unless they order Uber Eats, which is not common either -- I found that most people I know rarely order food delivery). So the credit and Uber membership is really targeted to a certain group of their users.

And when you look at their Walmart+ and upcoming Dunkin credits... Well, it gets very confusing who the target card holders are. It seems to me one is very likely to lose money on the annual fee unless they really travel and dine out a lot.

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kstrauser 701 days ago
Fine, but my point was that those are things I use that they pay for. They also have a Disney subscription discount and things like that. I don’t use those but lots of people do.
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Dalewyn 701 days ago
>unless they really travel and dine out a lot.

I mean, these are travel cards first and foremost.

AMEX Gold and others with similar bonuses like AMEX Delta Platinum also cater to local use (groceries and dining), but if you can't/don't make thorough use of the No Foreign Transaction Fee benefit you really should be looking at other cards AMEX or otherwise.

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avgDev 694 days ago
It's a "travel" card not accepted in most of places in EU.
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avgDev 701 days ago
Walmart+ is absolute garbage. They have special pricing online and won't give that price in store. Same day pick up often becomes next day after you order.

As much hate Amazon gets, they are a much better business than Walmart.

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