100k Amex Platinum Targeted Offer is Back!

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According to the internet, a new round of people have been targeted for the 100k Amex Platinum offer. Time to check again! I still haven’t been targeted for this yet 🙁 but I hear of friends/family that do each time a new round of targeted customers surfaces. Hat tip to Doctor of Credit.

There is a targeted offer available through creditcards.com’s CardMatch Tool for 100,000 Membership Rewards for spending $5,000 on your new Platinum within three months of account opening. This 100k offer resurfaces pretty regularly, so while not uncommon, it is worth checking again if you weren’t targeted the last time as they seem to target different rounds of customers each time.

The current public offer is 60,000 Membership Rewards for spending $5,000 in three months, so this targeted offer is significantly better. I value Membership Rewards around 2 cents each, making it worth a whopping $800 more.

You can only get the bonus on an American Express card once per “lifetime”. Amex records seem to drop off for people around seven years, so in their terms a “lifetime” is about that long.

However if you were targeted for an American Express offer, sometimes you can still be approved even if you have had the card before. You’ll need to check the offer terms to see if it reads, “Welcome bonus offer not available to applicants who have or have had this product.” If it says that in the terms, then the loophole doesn’t apply. If it doesn’t say that in the terms, then it shouldn’t matter if you’ve had the card previously and you’re eligible for this offers’ bonus.

How to Check if You’re Targeted

Click here to navigate to the CardMatch tool. Fill in the information requested on the landing page, and click GET MATCHES at the bottom of the form.

Don’t worry, the site specifically states that a hard credit score will not be performed (so your credit score will not be affected).

Hopefully you see something like this (note that creditcards.com reformatted their site since this screenshot was taken, so it looks a bit different)…

I was not targeted but have friends and family that are and have been in the past.

Some people’s 100k offer shows up right away on the landing page after clicking GET MATCHES, but some may need to click CARDMATCH SPECIAL OFFERS in the toolbar on the left side of the landing page in order to reveal the 100k Platinum offer. Note that not everyone will have the CARDMATCH SPECIAL OFFERS box to check, so if you don’t see it, doesn’t mean something’s wrong with yours. It just means you weren’t targeted.

I, for example, was not given the “CARDMATCH SPECIAL OFFERS” box in the FEATURES column on the left-hand side of my screen. Some people are, some people aren’t. This is what my Cardmatch Tool results screen looks like:

Current Public Offer

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with 60,000 Membership Rewards after spending $5,000 in the first three months. Membership Rewards transfer to around 20 hotel and airline programs including Delta, Singapore, Etihad, Virgin Atlantic, and British Airways.

Summary of Benefits

The card has a $550 annual fee. But it comes with huge benefits like airline fee reimbursement (which you can also use to buy airline gift cards), airport lounge access, hotel status, $200 in Uber credit, $100 in statement credits for Saks Fifth Avenue purchases, and a 5x category bonus for purchases directly from airlines and prepaid hotels booked on amextravel.com. For more info on setting up and maximizing the benefits, see Get the Most Out of Your Platinum Card.

The targeted 100k offer comes with the same benefits package.

A $550 annual fee sounds scary, but it shouldn’t phase you if you travel often. You’ll get $200 in airline incidental fee credit (or if you don’t spend on incidentals, buy an airline gift card(s)) in 2019, another $200 in airline incidental fees/gift cards in 2020 before your second annual fee is due, $200 in Uber credit per year doled out monthly, and access to American Express Centurion Lounges (which are the nicest domestic lounges), Priority Pass lounges, as well as International American Express lounges and Airspace lounges for a year for that price. Not to mention the 100,000 bonus Membership Rewards should be worth roughly $2,000 if you transfer them to partners for one or several high value awards.

Eligibility

As I said above, you can only get the bonus on an American Express card once per lifetime, a “lifetime” being roughly seven years. However, targeted offers are the one loophole to the Amex “Once in a Lifetime Rule”. Scan the offer terms and conditions to see if the loophole applies to your targeted offer. If you currently hold or have held this card before, the terms must not contain any language referencing ineligibility. Do not apply if it does.

There are a few other things to remember when considering your eligibility for Amex cards. Read Issuing Banks Rules for Approvals and New Bonuses to learn more.

Keep an Eye Out for the Amex Gold

There’s also an elevated bonus for the Amex Gold Card floating around on Cardmatch right now: 50,000 Membership Rewards for spending $2,000 within three month. You can check if you’re targeted the same way as outlined in this post.

Bottom Line

Check to see if you’re targeted for a 100,000 Membership Rewards bonus for the American Express Platinum Card or for a 50,000 Membership Rewards bonus for the Amex Gold Card. No hard credit pull is performed when using the CardMatch Tool.

Good luck! Post your application results in the comments.