Is AMEX Platinum Really Worth £650?

In this episode of Banking Without Borders, we ask whether the Amex Platinum is still worth £650 a year — and we've read the small print so you don't have to.

• The welcome bonus: 75,000–90,000 points, but Amex appears to be A/B testing the offer
• The £400 dining credit has six ways to accidentally lose it — including one Jan experienced personally
• Why Amex Platinum is a terrible card to actually use abroad
• The insurance is the most underrated benefit — but there are catches most people don't know about
• Is enshittification real? Harvey Nichols gone, Centurion guest cuts, Lufthansa lounges ending in October
• HSBC and Barclaycard offer similar perks at half the price — so why does Platinum still win?
• Our verdict: it's not a travel card, not a subscription bundle — it's a lifestyle accessory that only works if you work for it

Check out our website DepositScout.com for the latest savings rates. 

Connect with us (via LinkedIn)

Jan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jan-watermann/

Jonny: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jonny-pease

Got a question or topic you want us to cover? Drop us a message at jonny@technicallymoney.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

£650 a year. That's what American Express charges for their platinum card in the UK. And more and more people are starting to ask whether it's actually worth it. Some cardholders are genuinely coming out ahead, while others are basically paying for a heavy piece of metal and a dining credit they keep forgetting to use. And the difference between those people usually comes down to one thing, how well they understand what they've actually signed up for. Because we've been through the full terms and conditions, the insurance policy, the lounge access rules, the hotel benefits, and the small print on the dining credit, which by the way, if you're not careful, you could easily lose out on. And we're gonna look at whether this card is actually getting worse and whether that £650 is still a rational decision in 2026 or just a very expensive status symbol. So yeah, if someone got approved for Amex Platinum today, what are they actually getting?

SPEAKER_00 0:50

Johnny, they're getting quite a lot. And if they're lucky, they get an insane welcome bonus of uh between 75,000 and 90,000 points that you get when you first sign up. In order to get that, um, you gotta spend 10,000 pounds within six months. Why 75,000 to 9,000, 90,000? Because Amex seems to be A B testing this offer, which I find not quite transparent. Yeah. I looked at the website a few times. Yeah. I've been getting different promotional offers, which I find weird to be honest. Um, actually, also looked it up in the Wayback Machine. I had a look at the page how it looked yesterday, the day before, and I it just it just kept changing. So, how much are you actually getting probably depends on your luck. Yeah, either way, it's a good welcome offer. You can spend it, spend these points directly through MX's travel portal, or for example, convert them one to one to Avios. I believe Virgin Points as well and a few other airline mile programs.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

It's it's solid. I mean, you've got to qualify for it by spending 10,000 pounds across a six-month period, but that's £1,666 a month. Yeah, and I think most people are signing up for a credit card that's worth £650, you should be able to get that. I mean, there does uh it does come with a minimum income, I think, uh, of £35,000 to qualify. Possibly people earning just earning £35,000 probably shouldn't be spending that much money a month just on like a credit card, if that's not like you know, if that's not inclusive of bills. But generally, I think most people should be able to get this welcome bonus. So you're gonna have a great first year with this card. You also get £250 of Amex travel credit.

SPEAKER_00 2:20

Probably super useful, but you have to use it within Amex's travel portal, which I've heard I've heard a few times that um that it that the pricing slightly varies. It's not always the cheapest option. Yeah. Okay, if you have 250 pounds worth of credit, then you might as well use it.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

But I've done a little bit of research myself when looking. You could get accelerated points for spending on the Amex travel portal, which could be beneficial, but ultimately I found that booking direct, and I think most people will agree, booking direct can be the cheapest option.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

And let's not forget who doesn't qualify for the welcome bonus, people that held an MX for the uh that had an MX that earns rewards points within the last 24 months. And someone like you couldn't sign up, for example.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Yeah, exactly, exactly. I probably could get some type of upgrade bonus, which obviously isn't going to be 75 to 90,000 points. Just reach out to American Express and say you're interested in the Platinum card, and I'm sure they'll make you an offer that you you you can't uh refuse.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

Yeah, now that we talked about the welcome bonus, we should probably discuss whether that card is actually worth it.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

Yeah, the Sunday Times bonus that you get, the £312 worth of Sunday Times is it's arguably not even making a splash. I mean, that's one of the benefits. It's the dining credit for me, 400 pounds of annual dining credit, which actually is one of the big red flags, the big gotcha moments of um of this card. So much to look out for on this one, isn't there?

SPEAKER_00 3:40

Yeah, there truly is. So, from what I understand, first of all, it's not like you're getting 400 pounds worth of dining credit and that's it. No, you're getting um 200 pounds that you can use within the UK and 200 pounds that you can use abroad. Now uh it gets complicated. So you're getting 100 pounds for the period between January and June of the year, and then you're getting another 100 pounds for the period between July and December. And you can use that at over 2,000 participating restaurants, which sounds like a lot, but to be honest, I've had a look within my my region here. Um there yeah just isn't any availability, unfortunately. And what what what I really dislike is the fact that you have to register if you want to use that credit. So you have to register it, else you might be might be thinking, oh, alright, today I can I can splurge a little bit. You know, you might go ahead and order an extra glass of wine, fine wine, um, and then you figure out, oh, credit doesn't apply, right? And then you end up paying with your own money, and that's something you don't want, obviously.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

That's a gotcha. There's also the fact that only primary card holders can qualify for the dining credit. So if you have a supplementary card like your partner, and they transact with their card to pay for the dinner, the restaurant bill, whatever it is, that wouldn't qualify. I've actually had this problem with Amex Gold with the delivery credit and my wife paying for it on her gold card, which we she has a supplementary card and it didn't qualify for the five-pound delivery credit. That is slightly insignificant comparatively to this, but that is certainly something to be aware of. There's a couple of other gotchas, you know, it's like dining only, it doesn't cover takeaways. Um, you know, one thing to be aware of is, you know, Yan, this could catch people out. Don't dine on the final day when that credit uh qualification period ends, so to speak. So Jan said like you get 100 pounds of credit between January and June the 30th. Well, what if you dine on June the 30th and I don't know, the transaction's delayed or you pay for the bill at 12.05, um, just gone past midnight. Yeah, there's a couple of that's a I mean, that's pretty niche. I appreciate that, but it's a gotcha, right? That it's the beginning of something that we'll talk about in this video, something that we will elaborate on is the idea of an introduction of friction to Amex Platinum, which makes deriving value from the card harder. Something we'll touch on when we talk about the insitification of Amex Platinum. But that's yeah, there are certainly a few things to be aware of with this dining credit, right? And buddy, I'm I'm going on holiday in September. I'm going to Portugal. Nice. There are no restaurants.

SPEAKER_00 6:10

None in Portugal. In the whole country or just within the region you're visiting?

SPEAKER_01 6:14

There are no there are no restaurants available with this Amex dining credit in Portugal.

SPEAKER_00 6:19

Right, it's surprising because Portugal is is a very popular tourist destination.

SPEAKER_01 6:23

Yeah, what about Lisbon? You know, there's a town near me. It's one of the oldest towns in the country, possibly in the world. It's a Roman, old Roman town called Colchester. Someone listening or watching this may have heard of Colchester. There's a restaurant there that I can redeem this dining credit at. It's about 40 minutes away. But not in the whole of Portugal? Like, please, if there's anybody in the comments that are utilizing Amex Platinum, have you encountered this as a problem? It feels like this could be a big issue for some people. Switzerland isn't on there either, which is somewhere that I've visited quite frequently and I plan to go back to.

SPEAKER_00 6:57

It's absolutely ridiculous. Not sure what to think about it, is it all?

SPEAKER_01 7:00

It's less of an issue with lounge access.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

Lounge access, yeah. You should get availability um with with most airports. Um. You get a priority pass with the MX Platinum, which is better than the dragon pass that the Revolute Ultra card, for example, provides, and you know, other passes. I think priority pass probably is the um the gold standard when it comes to these kind of lounge access passes. Um you don't just get one, you could technically get two. Um, because uh with with an MX Platinum, you're entitled to a supplementary card, and that supplementary card can get their own priority pass. So let's say you're you you have a partner, your partner is traveling for business independently sometimes, then your partner will be able to enjoy lounges even if you're not there.

SPEAKER_01 7:42

It's good for a family of four as well.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

It is, you can bring bring a guest typically. In the past, actually, you've been in some lounges, you've been able to bring in more guests than than one. You you were able to bring bring in two, for example, in the centurion launch, I believe, and that's being being cut down. Something we're gonna talk about later, uh, which I find quite sad, but might be worth mentioning here right now. Johnny, you said that within the UK, typically at He Pro, other really, really busy airports, you have problems accessing lounges in in many cases, right? There's a there's a long queue.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:13

Or you know, you might not be able to get in at all as a priority pass holder.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

Yeah, look, I'm not the only person this is gonna have happened to. I'm sure there's many of you out there that are listening or watching this. I have had to queue for multiple lounges in the past and have learned the hard way that pre-booking is essential. You have to pre-book, and it can often come at a cost, which is quite ironic, really, because these uh lounge passes, this uh lounge access is meant to be included, it's meant to have already been paid for. Now, Amex are giving you eight pre-booking credits per calendar year. That's not much at all. I guess. I mean, this is the problem with lounge access. This is the commoditization of lounges, isn't it? But it's just become this saturated add-on feature that no longer feels very premium. And I'm afraid that's the problem here as well.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

It doesn't, Johnny. And I I do travel well, I've I've traveled business class quite often in the in the past year and uh the years before that. And I must say that whenever I had access to a lounge, it was super busy. There were many, maybe two or three exceptions where I really had a good time and it felt like a premium experience with you know fine wine, champagne. I had a seat, but in in many cases, especially especially in Central Europe, that's a big problem. Um, Zurich, uh, that's that's an airport that's that's well known for having super busy lounges, I guess because Swiss people are typically uh quite rich, I guess, on average. Uh last time I was there, I had a I had to stand literally. So I I picked up a I I think it was a sandwich and a coffee and I left and I went to my gate. And that can't be that can't be the purpose of this card.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

Well, I was about to say, what does that do then to the value of this card? Does it diminish the value of this card because it's just it's just lounge access really isn't that fancy anymore? And in fact, some people would probably rather be in a terminal just near the gate than in a stuffy lounge where even even with pre-booking, you get in there and it's full, the food, the buffet is empty, sparse, you can't get service, it's dirty. Yeah. Maybe at some point we're gonna see a split. We're gonna see some sort of product split here where there will be a greater tier of lounge access, a more exclusive lounge access. Yeah. I don't know. Something has to happen, right? Because it means that this feature has diminished in value, at least in my opinion. And I don't think people are necessarily drawn to Amex Platinum for this anymore, at least not those that know what lounges are truly like or can be like.

SPEAKER_00 10:31

You're absolutely right, Johnny. You're absolutely right.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

There were some additional benefits to the lounge access, right? Jan touched on it, you got access to Amex, you get access to the Amex Centurion lounges, for example, in uh London Heathrow Terminal 3. Which are good but busy. I've heard that as well. I've never been in one, but I've heard they can be busy. Lufthansa as well.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

Yeah, Lufthan Airlines of the Lufthansa Group. Um, so there's Lufthansa Swiss, Austrian, I believe, Brussels Airlines, um, and a few others. If you're flying on these, you get access to two lounges. But I think that's ending in October 1st, which is quite yeah, quite sad.

SPEAKER_01 11:02

Of course it is. Of course it is, of course it is. There you go. Arguably another case of insitification.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

Eurostar, that's that's the that's the train, right?

SPEAKER_01 11:11

The the underground, uh, you know, the You get quick, yeah, you you you you get quick access from somewhere like London to Paris, for example. There's also Brussels and Amsterdam. You get access to the lounges, although I don't believe you can bring a guest in. You know, that is a nice addition. There's no doubt there.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

I know them from Germany. If you're traveling first class with with Deutsche Bahn, it's it's not it's not premium at all. You might get a pretze. That's it. It's really not nothing fancy, really. It's it's nothing fancy at all. Um, so I'd be curious how these Eurostar lounges are. But uh yeah, that's just a just a side figure. I guess I'll figure it out eventually in my lifetime, but um for now I'm good.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

Let's talk about the hotels, yeah, and the hotel status stuff, because this can actually be very compelling and very lucrative when redeemed properly, right?

SPEAKER_00 11:54

Yeah, that's absolutely uh yeah, absolutely big benefit, especially for frequent travelers. Um, you get Hilton, Hilton Honors Gold, Merritt Bonvoy, uh Gold Elite, Redison, the the premium status, and gold status with uh Melia hotels. In my opinion, Hilton Hilton Honours and Merit Bonvoy are probably the the ones standing out here just because of the fact that they have a yeah huge network and most people have stayed at Hilton. I I've stayed I've stayed in a few in the past. It can also be a hotel of the Hilton group. The benefits really depends on where you're staying exactly. Um Hilton Honours get free breakfast typically. Um plus they they might upgrade you with Merit Bonvoy late checkout, plus they upgrade you if it's available. If they're if if it's not available because all the all the suites are booked, for example, um you gotta live with the the room category that you've booked. And um yeah, these other these other statuses, to be honest, oh not even worth mentioning um Radison and Malia, because on Redison you get a uh a 20% discount booster. Not sure what that means exactly. And also Melea gives you um 20% vouchers plus um two for one breakfast in case you decide to purchase it. Hmm. Yeah, skeptical about that. But Hilton Honors and Merit Bonvoy, good options. I I wish I had them myself as well. Uh yeah, it can be useful.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

I just checked, it covers 18. The Hilton Honors covers 18 hotel brands. Some other benefits you get include access to fine hotels and resorts or the hotel collection, as well as elite status with car rental companies like Hertz and Avis. And on paper, all of this sounds incredibly premium. You get hotel credit, room upgrades, late checkout, car upgrades, rental discounts. But as always, with Amex, the devil's in the detail. So with the hotel collection specifically, the stay has to be at least two consecutive nights booked through Amex travel, which likely won't be as cheap as going direct. And the cardholder actually needs to stay there, which I know probably sounds pretty normal, but that does mean you can't get this as a gift. Now, the important part that a hundred dollar hotel credit is not cashback, it's a property credit. So you can only get the value if you spend money at the hotel itself, which means, you know, booking a spa or spending money at the restaurant, which you might not do, but you have to if you want to make use of this credit. Also, problems arise because some restaurants or spas inside hotels might not qualify if they're operated by third parties, which is quite normal today. That means some people do get caught out when they expect the credit to apply and realize it doesn't. And things like room upgrades, early check-in, late checkout, those are never guaranteed. They're entirely based on availability. Then you've got the car rental, um, where platinum gives you elite status with Hertz and Avis. But again, there is friction. You don't automatically get the benefit just for having the card. You have to separately enroll in each loyalty program first. Once you do, you can get things like discounts on rentals. You know, you can get potential car class upgrades and uh extra flexibility on returns, which are which are all good. But just like the hotel benefits, a lot of the value will depend on availability as well as you know, location specific and whether you naturally travel in a way that actually uses these perks. You know, you've got to rent cars to make use of that. You've got to want to upgrade your car, you've got to want to seek these out. It's not that easy. And honestly, Jan, this is kind of the story of platinum as a whole. A lot of the benefits are genuinely valuable, yes, but they're also designed with layers of conditions that make them harder to fully redeem.

SPEAKER_00 15:37

You know where there's surprisingly little friction on an insurance benefit. MX has a an extraordinarily comprehensive insurance, in my opinion. So you get a medical insurance with two million pounds of cover that includes your partner, um, kids under 25, and grandchildren that are traveling with you. Um you can uh you get um uh car hire access protection. Um so you can literally decline the extra insurance when you hire a car. I believe it's up to 50,000 pounds of vehicle damage, so it should cover you know most middle class cars. Um cancellation protection, up to 7.5,000 pounds per person, baggage delay protection uh worth 300 pounds, I believe. And um something that I find pretty interesting, um, a gap year extension. So typically you're covered only, I believe it's 90 days, right? 90 days is the period you covered uh for trips. But if you have a kid who is, you know, who decides to go on a gap year, up that can be covered up to a year, which I find quite quite rare and uh genuinely valuable.

SPEAKER_01 16:37

You could see that being incredibly beneficial because I imagine gap year insurance to be quite expensive. You're asking for someone to cover a teenager traveling around the world for up to 365 days. It's not gonna be 650 pounds, all right? We know that. No one should get platinum just for the gap year insurance. There are a couple of catches though, like over 70, for example, the medical cover disappears entirely. It's not even reduced, it's just gone. Um, there's some pre-conditions, pre-existing conditions, sorry, uh like cardiovascular stuff that is just entirely excluded from medical cover. There's no time frame on that whatsoever. And most of the benefits of the insurance do require the trip to be booked on the card.

SPEAKER_00 17:18

But I believe not the medical insurance, right?

SPEAKER_01 17:20

No, no, you're absolutely right. Not medical, sorry. No, you're absolutely right. Medical cover is exempt and that's automatic regardless. It's solid, it's certainly not one of the things that's been cut or that has been a victim of insitification, which we we should probably clarify for those that aren't familiar with the term. At this point, I'm sure many people are, but it's basically the gradual decline in product quality or service quality as the value shifts away from the consumer, so like us to the shareholders, so like executives, people that are getting dividends from Amex. It's about shifting value to those people. And that's why you've seen the Harvey Nichols credit disappear. Because that was a hundred pounds of annual credit that you just had to show up, spend, and you and redeem. And now, yes, they replaced it with dining credit, but arguably there's more friction, right? Jan, it's harder to redeem, it's harder to derive value from. Jan mentioned the Centurion Lounge. That used to be, I believe, two guests. Now it's only going to be one guest from July the 8th, 2026. Again, Lufthansa. That's going in October, that uh lounge access benefit. The Concierge Service as well, Jan. Let's briefly talk about this. Now, if you're listening to this, watching this, and you've used Amex Platinum's concierge service, drop in the comments what your experience was like. We'd love to hear from you. But what we're reading online, what people are saying is it's becoming more and more less about human interaction and more about pushing you to like in-out chatbots or assistance. Which is ironic, really, Yan, because Amex Platinum, when it came out in 1991, was all about the human service. It was essentially like a hotline buddy that you could call if you had a problem. Lose your card in Rome because you're pickpocketed, call it up, and they will do everything they can to get that card back to you. It was all about human service, but I think one would argue that Amex Platinum and this concierge service at least is becoming less and less human. What about the retention officers as well? They're not they're not as enticing anymore either.

SPEAKER_00 19:14

So in the past you were able to get up to 50,000 points just by renewing your card. Um, and now that's typically yeah, much lower, I think 25,000 points, and you gotta spend a certain amount of of money in order to to trigger that that renewal bonus, which is yeah, you can you can see it's it's it's declining. It's declining. The question is just I mean the question is not is it declining? The question is is it still good? Is it still worth it, right? That's what people should ask themselves, and then make the calculation based on the facts that we just explained.

SPEAKER_01 19:40

I mean, who's it worth it for?

SPEAKER_00 19:42

You know, who is it worth it for? It's a good question, yeah. Is it a good travel card? Hmm, one would think so. Looking at the benefits that are included, lounge credit, uh lounge access, dining credit abroad, travel insurance. You would think this is an amazing travel card, but then then you read the fine print and figure out that they charge 2.99% every time you transact in a foreign currency. Hmm. That's not a travel card then. It's useless abroad. It's useless. Um you can't use it.

SPEAKER_01 20:09

It's hilarious, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 20:11

It's it's unfortunate, really. So it's not a good travel card, in my opinion. It's just uh it's a value bundle and a good domestic card, I guess, because you still earn one amex point per per pound that you spent. So it can be it can be somewhat worth it. But yeah, even even there, if you look at the if you look at cashback cards, there are probably better options out there. If you want to collect Avios at a at a good rate, there are there's the bark laced card, Avios Plus, I believe, that gives you 1.5 Avios per pound that you spend. So who is this worth it for? People that can yet make use of all these features. That's what it is. Um and it's it's probably its own product category because it's not a travel card, it's not a subscription bundle, um, it is a it's a lifestyle accessory. That's what it is, right? Um that's my my interpretation at least.

SPEAKER_01 20:57

Yeah, I mean there certainly are clear winners, people who this will be worth it for. I mean, frequent flyers, people that are going to able to fly to locations where the dining credit can be redeemed. Maybe they also like to read the Times, the Sunday Times. It can be done and it can be very beneficial, particularly in that first year. I mean, most people should be able to walk away in the green, right, with that 75,000 to 90,000 world bonus. Which is quite astronomical, really, isn't it, when you think about how easy it is to qualify for. I think Amex accept making a loss on the first year and they hope to tie people in, you know, and and maybe gradually, I'm afraid to say this, the value Yan will diminish further in over over time.

SPEAKER_00 21:40

Potentially, we can't we can't know for sure.

SPEAKER_01 21:42

We can't know for sure, but the alternatives aren't really screaming out either. You know, you briefly talked about the Barclay card Avios Plus two hundred and forty pounds a year. Yes, you get the Avios earn rate at one point five and the cabin upgrade voucher, but you're not getting lounge access. You know, the HSB C Premier World Elite card's available at £90 a year with priority pass and a dining credit at half the price. But you know, you're not getting the fine hotels and resorts, hotel status, you're not getting the breadth of priority pass, supplementary card holders. I think you have to pay for with the HSBC Premier World League. It doesn't really have a huge amount of competition either, does it? Which is making it arguably worth more. Um, you know, Revolut Ultra isn't really a competitor because it's a debit card, the lounge access, you don't get like a supplementary card holder or a guest. So I think that helps increase the worth or the makes this more compelling, Jan. But it's about being able to navigate the friction of deriving value from the benefits and looking at the fine print.

SPEAKER_00 22:41

Absolutely. Take a look at your own behavior, your own spending, your your travel behavior, what you actually consume, and then have a look at the details and make an informed decision. That's all I'm asking. And please write into the comments if you also agree with me that uh MX Platinum seems like its own product category, essentially, because it's not a travel card, it's not a subscription bundle, really. Um what what is it, right? It's a it's a it's a lifestyle accessory. That's what it is. And um let us know if you're using it. I'd be curious if you have made make made good experiences in the past. And um I hope you enjoyed this episode and um see you next time.

SPEAKER_01 23:15

All right, everybody. Thanks for tuning in.