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Big changes to American Express Platinum on the way, including a metal card and higher fee

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American Express is planning yet more changes to its UK card portfolio, this time on The Platinum CardFor once, you are getting four weeks notice of what is going to happen.

Whether you are a cardholder or just a potential cardholder, you have time to make your plans accordingly.

Here is the news in a nutshell:

The Platinum Card will be made from metal, not plastic – see the image below

The annual fee increases from £450 to £575, albeit with some modest improvements in benefits

The spend required to earn the 30,000 points sign-up bonus is doubling

New UK American Express Platinum metal card

The new fee and benefits come into effect from 11th June for new cardholders.  Existing cardholders will receive the new benefits from 11th June and will be charged the higher fee on their next renewal after 1st August.

Let’s look at the new package in detail:

A new Platinum card, made from metal

American Express launched a metal version of The Platinum Card in the US in 2017 and has been slowly rolling it out since.  Arguably they have missed the boat in the UK, since Curve, N26 (N26 Metal reviewed here) and Revolut (Revolut Metal reviewed here) have all launched in the last six months.

I have been using a metal Curve card for a few months.  They are surprisingly heavy and fall out of your wallet easily.  The good news is that I have never had a problem using it in a card terminal or ATM.

New cardholders from 11th June will receive a metal card automatically.  Existing cardholders will receive one when their current card expires.  If that is a long way away, I imagine that if you call after 11th June to say that you have lost your card, the replacement may well be metal …..

Platinum supplementary cards will also be issued in metal.

Looking at the image above, I image that – like Curve – your name, card number and expiry date will be printed on the back of the card to make the front look more stylish.

An increased fee, from £450 to £575

Existing cardholders will be billed £575 from their next renewal after 1st August.  New cardholders will pay £575 from 11th June.

If you apply before 11th June you will pay the existing £450 for the first year.

Additional Platinum supplementary cards go up from £170 to £285

Additional Platinum supplementary cards after the first free one will be charged at £285 instead of £170.

Whilst this is a sharp jump, the current £170 fee for additional Platinum supplementary cards is ludicrously cheap.  You can basically give someone full Priority Pass membership (admits two), Hilton Honors Gold, Marriott Bonvoy Gold, Radisson Rewards Gold, Shangri-La Golden Circle Jade, Melia Rewards Gold, Eurostar lounge access, full travel insurance etc for £170 per year.  It is exceptional value and couldn’t last.

Additional supplementary cards issued as Gold cards will continue to be free but will continue to not have any benefits except for being covered by The Platinum Card travel insurance.

A sharp jump in the spend needed to trigger the sign-up bonus

The sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card is a generous 30,000 Membership Rewards points.  This converts into 30,000 Avios or various other airline and hotel schemes.  Airline transfer rates are 1:1.  The hotel transfer rates are 1:2 into Hilton, 2:3 into Marriott and 1:3 into Radisson.  You can also convert at 15:1 into Club Eurostar.  You can see the partner list on the Membership Rewards site here.

From 11th June, new applicants will need to spend £4,000 within three months to trigger the sign-up bonus.  This is a sharp increase on the current £2,000.  You should apply before 11th June if £4,000 would be a stretch.

£10 per month of Addison Lee credit

Cardholders will receive £10 cashback per month on Addison Lee taxi rides charged to their card.  This does not accumulate if unused in any particular month.

If you use this, you will save £120 per year which offsets the fee increase.  This is fairly easy if you live in London but far more difficult if you don’t.

This benefit is only available to the primary cardholder and not to the Platinum supplementary cardholder.  The annual benefit is therefore capped at £120.

American Express Amex Platinum card

$200 credit on EVERY onefinestay house rental

This is potentially very interesting.  You will get $200 cashback each time you spend $200 or local currency equivalent on The Platinum Card on a onefinestay house or apartment rental.

(Rentals in the UK receive £150 cashback on stays of £150+.  Rentals in the Eurozone receive €170 cashback on stays on €170+.)

I thought this would come with a catch, but it doesn’t.  I have spoken to Amex and you will get the cashback on each and every booking.  The nearest thing to a ‘gotcha’ is that you must opt-in to this benefit via the American Express website when it goes live on 11th June.  If you forget to opt in, you won’t receive your cashback.

The only snag is with onefinestay itself.  Most of their houses require a three night minimum stays – not all of them, but most.  Looking at a low cost country such as Thailand, the cheapest place I could find is $185 per night in Koh Samui with a three night minimum.  The cheapest with a two night minimum is $450 per night – although you are, of course, getting a monumentally large Koh Samui villa for this!  If you think that you will be able to book yourself a cheap $200 property and essentially pay nothing due to the $200 cashback, you will be disappointed.

Other new benefits that I won’t insult your intelligence with by pretending they are useful

You will be able to book American Express restaurant partners via the Amex app instead of calling (some of these deals are OK, to be fair, and offer benefits such as a free glass of champagne to cardholders)

You will be able to message American Express from inside the Amex app

You will be able to use the American Express Centurion Lounge in Heathrow Terminal 3 when it opens later this year (I have no doubt that this will be an excellent lounge – Centurion Lounges have a great reputation – but Platinum cardholders would have got access anyway and there are already two good Priority Pass lounges in Terminal 3.  There is nothing new about this.)

Conclusion

For existing Platinum cardholders, the key question is whether you can easily use the monthly Addison Lee credit.

If you will, the increase in annual fee is offset and you are in a similar position to where you are today.  If you can’t use the Addison Lee credit, you are facing a £125 fee increase with very little in return, unless you become a heavy onefinestay user.

For potential new Platinum cardholders, the increase in target spend to £4,000 within three months to trigger the sign-up bonus could be a deal-breaker.  I strongly recommend applying before 11th June to lock in the existing £2,000 spending target if you can.  You can apply here – note that the website will not be updated with the new details until 11th June.

As a reminder, you qualify for the 30,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus if you have not had any card which earns Membership Rewards points – ie Gold, Green, Platinum, Centurion or the Amex Rewards Credit Card – in the past 24 months.

In general, you need to look at The Platinum Card like an iPhone.  You could, in theory, save a lot of money by scrapping your iPhone and buying a torch, alarm clock, Chromebook, portable hi-fi, calculator, stopwatch and a non-smartphone separately.  Most people don’t.

Similarly, you could drop your Platinum card and:

pay for travel insurance for your entire family and the families of five random people you would otherwise give a supplementary card

pay for car hire insurance when you rent (although insurance4carhire will sell you an annual policy cheaply)

pay for airport lounge access, potentially via a Priority Pass (or buy pricier tickets which include it)

pay more for luxury hotels rather than using Fine Hotels & Resorts (admittedly you can book many FHR properties with similar benefits via our hotel partner Bon Vivant)

pay more for Eurostar tickets to get lounge access via your ticket type

pay for better quality rooms and breakfast at Hilton, Marriott, Radisson, Melia and Shangri-La hotels instead of relying on your status benefits 

pay for an ice scraper for your car rather than using the new metal Platinum card

etc etc.  You need to do the maths based on your own personal circumstances.

Should I apply for The Platinum Card NOW to lock in the £2,000 bonus spend target and the £450 fee?

Probably.  You will get a better deal than usual, because you will only pay £450 but will earn 11 x £10 Addison Lee credits before your first renewal at the higher rate.

Wait until tomorrow, however, when I will run a full article on what The Platinum Card gets you.

The Platinum Card website is here if you want to apply or find out more, although the benefits I describe above will not be shown until 11th June.


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British Airways American Express Premium Plus

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80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

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Comments (665)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Alex B says:

    Had Plat for two years but that’s the end for me. Can’t justify that annual fee, don’t live in London, don’t use minicabs when I visit. Was getting value from the products but won’t at that level.

    I will keep the BAPP for now but once I’ve spent my current 241 I think that’s me out of the game.

    I guess this will come down to more effects of the EU fee caps but why are Virgin sign up bonuses going UP??

  • Alastair Ross says:

    I’ve been looking at applying for the personal or business platinum – do you know if the business card is changing ? Thanks

  • Qwerty Bertie says:

    What a disappointment! I knew a change was coming soon though this is a bit longer than I was told, and it was touted as being good, but this is rubbish.

    I do live in London, and I do know who Addison Lee are, but I don’t use them for a variety of reasons not least of which I have observed how most of their drivers drive!

    I don’t want to pay £125 for a metal card.

    They are extracting the urine! This is supposed to be a premier card for travel. That means planes, hotels and car hire. Perhaps trains. It doesn’t mean bloody minicabs, especially where only one company and only usable in the city where I live! As for the onefinestay thing, what a joke. I don’t want to stay in some random berk’s house or flat when I go on holiday, that’s what resorts are for!

    • Qwerty Bertie says:

      RE: minicabs only usable in London – I work in here regularly, travelling about the city quite randomly, and I can state from experience that 80% of journeys are faster on the underground than on the road.

      Even TFL credit would have been better than Addison Lee, though I actually think they have some real nerve including a London-only benefit! An insult to every cardholder outside of London, to offer them something useless not onky on holidays but more than likely whatsoever.

      Had it been onefinestay and, for example, National Rail, I still would havs been disappointed but at least not annoyed. This so called positive big change will probably cull me on principle…and I have never churned the card.

      • Alan says:

        Agree TfL would have been better, at least something I would actually use on a trip to London. I guess that’s why they picked this one though, list it as a ‘benefit’ but know almost no-one will use it!

        • Sundar says:

          A rail or airline spend credit would have been a lot more palatable. In this day of Climate change concerns, why why a Taxi credit !

  • Brian S says:

    This has finally pushed me over the edge, I’ll be cancelling before my renewal in November.

    Being based in the north east i won’t see the benefits of the Addison Lee addition and find no point of paying an extra £125 for a cosmetic change of a metal card.

    Amex have screwed up here big style.

  • Jaz says:

    What exactly are the “benefits” here. I can only see Amex taking more money & giving nothing extra. It’s a shame you’re probably being paid to put up this post which has a misleading title and only serves to mislead the public.

    The truth is Amex rewards are basically useless. They hype them up and leave us disgruntled when we realise the Avios points system still requires us to spend a fortune on flights (with BA adding their own fees on top of airport fees) which means the tickets end up close to what you’d find on Skyscanner – which is basically the market rate (after you also take into account the huge fee for this card).

    Heed the warning – I’ve been a platinum customer and cancelled it. Don’t get drawn in by the hype, you’ll only come to regret it.

  • Sandy says:

    It seems to me, Amex aims as a business to reduce their Platinium card holders. The gap between UK and USA perks is getting bigger and bigger.
    I can see HSBC and its Premier Travel insurance and World Elite MasterCard taking the direct benefit of this Amex move.
    Is this AMEX strategy change the result of their change of personnel at the helm of the membership dept.?

    • Qwerty Bertie says:

      HSBC has a minimum income threshold though, which has to be demonstrated. Platinum is anybody’s so long as they have a good credit history. That said, I suppose a higher than average percentage of readers here would qualify.

      I have their WE card, and I don’t rate it. Even if I paid £60 for my wife to have a card, that wouldn’t get the children in to lounges without further expense. No hotel or car hire benefits.

      Earning rate 1 avios per £1? Big deal, get that for free with the blue BA card. Only reason I have it was for the big bonuses, and as a spare for non-Amex acceptance, but that job has since been re-assigned to Virgin; will cancel before anniversary.

      • Alan says:

        Not being funny but if you are charging £575 per year for a card that has benefits only to a certain type of customer, I would have thought that most of those with a Platinum card would be on the earnings level required for HSBC

        • Polly says:

          Agree, l think hsbc will totally benefit from this amex change. It will be interesting to see what develops. I found hsbc can be flexible with the 50k salary savings issue. Buying an insurance you need with them helps too. Plus length of time with your bank.
          And they love it if you say you are totally fed up with amex antics. I used to quote how good amex cs were to them early on, as they seriously didn’t even know the t and c of their own cards. Their cs was dreadful, but now much better. Taken them a couple of years tho…

  • Qwerty Bertie says:

    Rob, you mentioned four weeks notice; have you had an email or a letter? How will the notice be delivered to existinf cardholders, and at what point?

  • Colin MacKinnon says:

    Oh dear!

    Bye bye Amex for good. Was already doubting value of Plat. No use for points earning – there are other cards better for that. Perks just not worth their fee.

    And metal card – with name and number on the back in type so small that over 50s can’t read. Bye bye!

    • guesswho2000 says:

      Re the number on the back, agreed – not on an Amex, but on one of my other cards the number on the back I struggle to read as it’s printed, rather than embossed. And I’m in my (just about early) thirties with fine eyesight, so I dread to think how it is for others.

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