Amex Business Platinum: $680 in Statement Credits!

Last month, American Express Platinum Card holders were incentivized to continue carrying their card despite the nullification of travel benefits via the lucrative Double Rewards promotion, and now it’s the turn of the American Express Business Platinum Card.

The majority of Business Platinum cardholders, if not all, have received Amex Offers worth up to $680 at Dell, FedEx, and mobile service providers, all of which can be used to cover 100% of your purchases if you choose. These are some seriously strong offers that, if maximized, more than offset the card’s $499 annual fee, so let’s take a closer look at how each offer works.

We’ve also added these offers to our dedicated resource on COVID-19 temporary benefits and relief measures

Mobile Service Provider Offer: Four Credits of $40

This offer will probably be the most widely applicable to every cardholder. As long as you have a cell phone bill, internet bill, cable bill, or any other type of wireless plan with a telecom provider in Canada, then you’ll be eligible for a credit of $40 on a $40 purchase, up to four times, for a total of $160 in statement credits.

You have until December 31, 2020 to unlock these credits.

The terms state that each credit is unlocked by “one single qualifying purchase or cumulative qualifying purchase(s) that total at least $40 (CAD) after taxes”, which means that you’d unlock a $40 credit if you made two separate purchases of $20 as well. 

However, there’s no real need to wait until you actually have mobile bills to pay: most telecom providers allow you overpay your bill and leave a credit balance on your mobile account, so that’s exactly what you can do in order to trigger the $160 in credits immediately. 

You’ll want to make four separate transactions of $40 each in order to trigger the four credits. Note that some of the mobile companies’ online dashboards (in my case, Rogers) do not allow you to make payments in the same amount from the same credit card in quick succession, so you could simply make payments of $40.01 or $45 instead.

Overall, this offer could not be more straightforward. Given that we all have cell phone bills to pay, it should result in an effortless $160 in savings for every Business Platinum Card in your household. 

Dell Offer: $250 of Free Stuff

Get in, we’re going shopping.

The Dell offer on the Amex Business Platinum allows you to earn a $250 credit on a $250 purchase, effectively giving you $250 worth of free electronics from Dell. You have until August 27, 2020 to unlock this credit. 

We’ve seen the Amex US Business Platinum offer Dell credits as an ongoing benefit of the card for the past two years, so it’s not a surprise to see their partnership up and running in Canada as well. 

According to the terms, the purchase must be completed through dell.ca/amex or over the phone with a Dell Technologies Advisor.

The dell.ca/amex URL doesn’t appear to be restrictive to any particular subset of items: it simply brings you to a landing page for the Amex & Dell partnership, and then you can use the search bar at the top to access the same wide range of items as you’d find on dell.ca itself (including some decidedly non-business-oriented items, like Nintendo Switches).

The terms state that each credit is unlocked by “ one single qualifying purchase or cumulative qualifying purchase(s) that total at least $250 (CAD) after taxes and shippings”, which means that you’d unlock the $250 credit if you made a few separate smaller purchases as well.

Meanwhile, what if you had multiple Business Platinum Cards in your household and you wanted to use the cumulative $250 credits to purchase something more expensive? That’s no problem: Dell’s checkout process allows you to split payments across up to three credit cards, so you could get a free $750 item by splitting the payment across three eligible Business Platinums if you wanted. 

It’s also worth noting that there’s a separate Amex Offer for Dell going on at the moment, which gives you 10% off your total purchase in the form of a statement credit, up to a maximum of $1,000 in credits. On a $250 purchase, this would give you a further 10% back, leaving you with a $25 profit.

(If you’ve received a 10% back offer on a separate Amex card, not your Business Platinum Card, then you can always use the split payments feature to take advantage of both offers in one fell swoop!)

It’s definitely not often that we get offers as good as this one, so make sure to have some fun with it and treat yourself to something nice. Don’t forget to maximize shopping portals as well – Rakuten Canada is offering 8% cash back on Dell purchases as we speak.

FedEx Offer: Six Credits of $45

The final offer is perhaps trickier to use for those of us who don’t have legitimate shipping needs. You’ll earn a credit of $45 on a $45 purchase with FedEx, up to six times, for a total of $270 in statement credits.

You have until December 31, 2020 to unlock these credits.

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Unlike the Dell and mobile provider credits, only one single qualifying purchase at FedEx of $45 or greater will trigger the credit; smaller purchases will not combine cumulatively to do so.

While business owners with shipping needs will be happy about the $270 savings, I must say that as someone who’s never shipped anything with FedEx, ever, I’m scratching my head at how to make use of these credits. 

Do FedEx physical locations offer gift cards that one could keep around for future use? I don’t know, but I suspect many of us will be finding out sometime this year. 

Otherwise, look around to see if there are any business owners in your circles who could benefit from some free shipping – maybe they’d be open to working something out and going 50/50 on the $270 credits, similar to how Canadians might work with their US-based friends to take advantage of the temporary perks on their Amex US credit cards

Previously: $100 Renewal Credit

Don’t forget that Business Platinum cardholders were also informed earlier in May about a $100 renewal credit, which will be granted within 6–8 weeks of renewing their card for another year (i.e., paying another round of the $499 annual fee) sometime in 2020.

Cardholders who already renewed in the first half of the year are automatically eligible for the credit, while those with renewal dates in the latter half of the year will receive the $100 credit upon choosing to renew. 

Conclusion

Adding all the credits together, the American Express Business Platinum Card is providing cardholders with $780 in additional value over the course of the year, which more than offsets the $499 annual fee. I can certainly see many cardholders being tempted into keeping the card for another year even though the travel benefits are much less meaningful at this time.

The $160 in mobile credits can be unlocked immediately after you read this article simply by pre-paying your cell phone bill, the Dell credit will treat you to some fancy new items, and the FedEx credits may require a bit more ingenuity for the average person to unlock – but I’m sure none of us will be leaving it on the table! 

29 Comments
  1. CT YOW

    I ordered Dell products through Aeroplan e-Store, on May 30
    Received item June 4th
    Charged appeared on Amex account on Jun 3rd
    Credited to my Amex acct: $250.00 on Jun 6th
    Aeroplan credited my regular points + 5X Miles Promotion.

  2. Harminder singh

    But their terms says the all these credits will be applied after December 31 2020, within first three months.

    1. Ricky YVR

      Pretty much everyone’s credits has been posting within a few business days of the purchase.

  3. noah

    I have a bunch of stuff I can’t get in the US I want to get. FedEx can ship it all for $331 USD. Does anyone know if I spend this, will I get the full $270 credit in one shot?

  4. Jeff H TOR

    Yup; I’ve got a free Samsung smart watch (249.99 + a usb cable 5.99) on the way. Thanks DELL + AMEX. Note that you don’t even need to spend $250 before tax since the requirement is 250 ‘AFTER taxes total’ so enjoy! Update: I called in (after I ordered) and talked to a rep at AMEX who confirmed that my purchase would qualify. She also left a note on my account guaranteeing I’ll get the credit.

    Fedex .. I do have occasional shipping needs so I’m sure I’ll benefit from some of that credit this year.

    I’m trying going to pre pay my phone bill as suggested. Again; thanks AMEX. As always they have great promotions.

  5. Lucy

    Could I apply for the Amex biz now and get these statement credit offers?

    1. Ricky YVR

      It seems like most new applicants haven’t been receiving the offers. I’m not sure what the cutoff date is, but I have one data point of someone who applied on May 13 who didn’t get the offers. Seems like it’s geared towards cardholders who are closer to their renewal date to encourage them to renew.

  6. Kendrick

    Looks like the Dell $250 statement credit will be posted to your account within 90 days after August 27, 2020. "You can earn a maximum of $ 250 (CAD) in statement credits per registered Card during the offer period. Statement credit will be applied to your registered Card account within 90 days after 27/08/2020,provided that American Express receives information from the merchant about your qualifying purchase(s)."

    1. Jeff H TOR

      The rep at AMEX i talked to on Friday hinted that if you do your purchase you can likely expect the credit sooner than indicated in the T&C

    2. Ricky YVR

      Many people ordered on the first day and have received their Dell credits already. "Within 90 days after 27/08/2020" simply refers to the latest possible date for the credits to post.

  7. thong

    this offer junk. what you doing with fedex or crappy dell laptop

  8. A S

    I really don’t see any way to get value out of the fedex credits, myself.

  9. jerry kam

    Does automatic monthly withdrawal from telecom/cell phone providers qualify for the offer?

    1. Ricky YVR

      It should!

  10. Cli

    “If you’ve received a 10% back offer on a separate Amex card, not your Business Platinum Card, then you can always use the split payments feature to take advantage of both offers in one fell swoop!”

    If the 10% is in my biz edge, and i do a split payment with my biz plat, the 10% credit will only be on the portion that is charged to my biz edge. Am I right? In this case, it’s not a really enticing offer to combine as there’s no $250 statement credit on my biz edge? Am i missing something?

    1. Ricky YVR

      Correct. If you’re buying a $300 item, you may as well split payments and get a 10% discount on the extra $50 – that’s the logic.

  11. Timbo2

    Reviewing the Amex fine print "terms" on these offers I noted that Dell credit will show up 90 days AFTER the date stated, which I think is your renewal date. For the Fedex and mobile credits it state that those credits will be applied after 12/31.20….or did I misread.

    1. Ricky YVR

      Most of the times, the credit has posted within a few days of the accompanying charge. I’d be surprised if that’s different in this case.

  12. Andy H

    I noticed that following the dell.ca/amex site to search will give you the "work" site, which only gives you 2% Rakuten CB. To be on the safe side I’d much rather lose the 6% CB, than to lose the $250 AMEX credit 🙂 Nevertheless with how good AMEX is, I wont be surprised if they will just give you the credits anyway.

  13. Geo@YQB

    How did you find the amex offers? Got the email, but when i log into amex.com there are no offers showing.

    1. Ricky YVR

      Should be at the bottom of your dashboard when you look at your Business Platinum Card.

  14. Kunal

    Also, if you do have a business, these are all expensable 😀

  15. Lesgag

    Just wondering if anyone knows if I could pay a different persons, my daughter, cell phone bill through my Amex business card.

    1. Ricky YVR

      Yes you may!

  16. Kevin

    I actually believe the dell Amex site is different from the regular dell site with 8% cash back.

    If you install the rakuten browser is extension, it will only show 2% on the Amex dell site. If you go to the regular site, activate 8% then go straight to the Amex site, the rakuten extension will reset and prompt you to activate 2% instead. So it knows it’s different.

    You can always just activate a 8% trip then manually request a adjustment afterwards, but ymmv if that will work

  17. Dino

    If the dell purchase must be completed through dell.ca/amex, how can we stack it with the ebates 8%? I believe you have to click on the ebates dell website link, right?

    1. JFR

      For the 10% credit on amex offers, i was also redirected to a specific section of the dell.ca site but at the end, i received the statements credit for every purchases i made. So i guess it will be the same here. I just don’t know if the 10% off credit will stack with the 250$ credit but we’ll see. At least, today, Rakuten will be very generous with me.

    2. Ricky YVR

      Like I mentioned, the dell.ca/amex only takes you to a generic landing page, so I don’t think you have to click through that link for the statement credit to trigger. You’d click through the Rakuten link instead.

      1. Anonymous

        Offer is for purchases made online at http://www.dell.ca/amex or made with a Dell Technologies Advisor by phone at 1-800-296-7154, and only valid on orders paid for in CAD and shipped within Canada.

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