Amex Platinum - value for money or not £600 annual membership

penners324

I hope you’re not using that card whilst abroad on holiday. It would be costing a fortune in foreign fees. There are cards out there offering no fee card transactions abroad 

Marchitiello

The Platinum Card may not be seen favourable my the majority of MoneySavingExpert readers but for some can be great, and this is mainly linked to Lifestyle. One can be a MoneySavingExpert that also like some lifestyle activities associated to big spenders, but they would do so aiming for the greatest Value for money. I think there are few inaccuracies in the original poster @Esterbrook142 understanding of the card and some of the replies, so I will try to answer as a fellow card holder:

The Platinum Card (not the cashback), exist in two versions, as a ChargeCard (legacy, only maintained by existing cardholders) and as a Credit Card (one open to current applicants). The OP, like me, looks to be holding the Charge Card version.

The Fee has changed few times, but the latest fee is £650 not £600.
For this it has a number of benefits, which to be fair can work great for some profiles and not so great for others but it looks like the OP is not using all of them and or is potentially getting the lowest return out of them, so I will summarise what those are and include some details and suggestion:

Free  Additional Cardholder - which basically double the lounge access benefits (see below)

Free Airport Lounge access - including + 1 guest Via Priority Pass + direct use of the card (or + 2 in Amex Lounges), but with additional Cardholder 
increase to 4 people in most lounges and 6 people in the Centurion Lounges (the one run by Amex).

Free Travel Insurance for the whole family (edit: this include a very valuable rental car insurance that means it will also cover the excess charged for a claim in the EU/UK as Minimum insurance cover is included in the price of rental). 

Free Hotel Group Elite Status - this may results in rooms upgrades, extra points earned on cash booking, special rate offers, free breakfast etc, so if travelling often this can be great (personally make great use of this) 

Free Car Rental Elite Status with Avis & Hertz: which results in some benefits like Car Group upgrade, Special Rate discounts, priority lane, and with Hertz, late return. Hidden benefits is that by gaining these two Elite statuses, you can extended to other operator by status match (Sixt, Enterprise etc). (again over the last two years I made great use of this, and in itself between car group booked and actually received, I have saved hundreds of pounds).

£100 per year to spend at Harvey Nichols: this is split in two spend of £50 per semester, but it is actually ending by June 2025, so next year it is only £50. Again, HN has higher prices than comparative retailers like Harrods and Selfridges, but I have been buying Gift Cards and then using it as £100 or £150 total  benefits at once to get a great bottle of wine from their wine department or spend on Beauty and Perfumes.

Dine in offer home and abroad: Currently this offer is for £150 at Home (UK) and £150 abroad per year, but it is changing from 2025 to £200 home and £200 abroad per year, but the change also include the fact that it is split by £100 per semester for each parts of the offer, which may or may not be worst for users depending on their dining habits (for people that do like to eat out in some special places anyway, and thus do not need to go out of the way to use this benefit, this is basically £300 back from the Annual fee straight away)

Cash-back offers: this are available to most Amex Cards, and  builds up during your customer life, but again can easily give a nice chunk of money back when using the card, and offers are generally more generous on The Platinum Card (I also have the BA Amex PP which give you Avios a earning offers so I chose between the two on which to use depending on what offers a better return).

Membership Points earning: the earning rate for the Platinum card is not the greatest, basically 1 MR per £ spent, but it can be easily boosted by “Introduce a Friend” offer, especially when they increase the bonus to 18,000 MR points per friend successful application (that can be for other Amex Cards, not only the platinum). 

Now, I have left the Membership Rewards points last because the OP mentioned that he/she used them as statement credit, and this is the worst way to use them as you basically get one of the lowest return on the virtual value of the points. The best way to use the points, especially if one of already a traveller, is to move the points to relevant frequent flyers schemes and then use those points for Premium Fares booking. The good things that you can transfers those points to a number of alliances and therefore have access to rewards seats across different alliances as well, instead of being restricted to Avios and thus OneWorld Seats. I had a friend that originally took the card when it was £450 per year just for the Lounge and Travel insurance benefits and was also using the points for statement credit, until I made him realise the return he could get on airfare and is still thanking me 5 years later.

edit to add: @Esterbrook142 I missed your reference to the BA Amex Card. The BA cards were relaunched a while back and from this year, the minimum spend increased to £15,000 for both cards, which however offers quite different level of rewards, so the one that one should really want is the Premium Plus, (black version), which I also have (so £1000 fee per year across the two cards but I am tracking at min £5k benefits we enjoy back as a family of 5 across both cards). This card open up extra availability for rewards seats and you can use your Companion Voucher all the way to first class (the Basic -blue version- only allow economy seat booking). Me and the wife have used  extensively for both couple and family trips (this year we used on a First class return ticket to Mexico).  You may want to re-evaluate this card, but in doing so, considering a way to maximise Avios earning from all possible avenues so to make best use of the companion vouchers  in addition to the 1.5 Avios per £ spent (or 3 Avios per £ spend on BA (avenues that include Barclays Premier Avios Rewards, Barclaycard Avios Mastercard - for the few times Amex is not accepted, Avios shopping portal, Nectar, NatWest/RBS Rewards, BPme, Uber, Avios Hotels, BA Wines Club, and few more)  

PS: as others have already said, before making your final decision, you should review the articles and forum posts about this card on a site like Heads for Points

Esterbrook142

Thanks @penners324

No we use a VISA platinum for all overseas expenditure like you say the Amex Platinum has a sting in that sense