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This article was originally published on the author’s personal WeChat public account, Meika Guide. Feel free to share your DP data points or any good ways to use these offers. If you are not in a rush, my personal suggestion is to wait patiently—most AMEX offers expire at the end of June, and there should be an optimal time to use them.

【Update 2021.6】Many AMEX offers expire on June 30, 2021. If you still haven’t used them yet—especially the near-free-money ones—it’s time to figure out a way to use them. Feel free to share your ideas.

【Update 2021.3】According to a DP from WeChat reader Qing, buying Home Chef gift cards can trigger the $50 off AMEX offer, and Rakuten also has cashback at $10/1000 MR each time. If you still haven’t jumped on this, don’t miss out. The DP screenshot below is from reader Qing, who made two separate purchases; each purchase was for a $50 gift card and received cashback. Home Chef states that only the first purchase is eligible for cashback, so to be safe, it may be best to create additional Home Chef accounts if you want to complete multiple reimbursements and cashback transactions.

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【Update 2021.2 #2】This month’s PayPal reimbursements have finally started posting. Many people made purchases on February 6 and got reimbursed on February 9. However, purchases made at the beginning of February—especially on February 1—did not receive reimbursement at all. The author had February 1 purchases on 6 cards, and none of them triggered the reimbursement. It seems the previous system issue may not have been fully fixed yet. Let’s wait a bit longer.

【Update 2021.2】Recently many WeChat readers reported that this month’s PayPal purchases were not triggering reimbursements. At first we thought the reimbursement was simply delayed, but then people in the US discovered that February’s reimbursement actually continued using January’s balance—in other words, this month’s $30 reimbursement did not reset. HT: DOC, travelinpoints, Reddit. Screenshot below:

Image from http://travelinpoints.com/

In the screenshot, the February PayPal purchase was reimbursed using the unused portion of January’s credit. Similar DPs have also appeared on Reddit. AMEX will likely fix this issue soon, so if your reimbursement has not posted yet, be patient.

【Update 2021.1 #9】WeChat reader ipmai pointed out that Home Chef allows ID.ME verification before checkout. People in pandemic-related industries or those with an .edu email can get 50% off the first order (up to $60 off) and 10% off subsequent orders. If interested, give it a try.

【Update 2021.1 #8】Buying Home Chef gift cards can trigger the reimbursement. HT: V1ctor. I personally tested it below and it did indeed trigger. Screenshot below. In addition, the SB $35 offer is back as well. HT: 青葉. Click here for HomeChef tips.

【Update 2021.1 #3】Since this PayPal benefit is also for the Platinum card, and the blog already has many related articles, I merged the Platinum card’s PayPal reimbursement content into this article. Click here. WeChat reader 罐哥 also shared a Pay-in-4 method, which lets you split payment into four interest-free installments (up to 2 cards per month). I’ll briefly introduce it here as well.

【Update 2021.1 #4】Some gas apps also support PayPal payments. If you were newly approved for the 100,000 Platinum card offer, gas purchases also earn 10x MR. If you don’t have the Platinum card yet, this could be a good time to consider getting one.

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【The following was originally published on January 5, 2021】

Before we begin

At the start of the new year, AMEX rolled out a total of $180 in PayPal reimbursement for personal Platinum cards. See here. Then unexpectedly, yesterday AMEX also pushed out a large batch of very good AMEX offers—these are almost like free money. At the moment, they mainly target AMEX personal Platinum cards (the standard version and several co-branded versions) as well as AMEX Business Platinum cards.

There is also a targeted $500-$25 spending offer, with up to $250 back.

If you do not see good offers, it may simply be because too many junk offers are taking up space. You can use the “one-click add” method: find a card you do not use and add all the junk offers to it first: AMEX | A quick trick to one-click add all AMEX offers

Platinum Card PayPal $30/m, up to $180

This benefit is relatively easy to use. Both existing cardholders and new cardholders get it automatically, with no registration required. PayPal is accepted by a very wide range of merchants. Just use it for regular spending as needed. Also, the Platinum card currently has a 100% 100,000+ supermarket/gas 10x link, and paired with this $180 benefit, it is definitely worth getting!

Use it on everyday spending

Number porting or buying SIMs

Number porting can actually be quite profitable, or let you get an iPhone very cheaply. After porting, you can also use it for future top-ups, such as Visible, which can conveniently help use part of the monthly credit.

Reloads and donations

  • Apple reloads
  • Utilities/internet
  • Various non-P2P donations
  • Weee!【$10 coupon for signing up; reloads available】

Gift card purchase apps

Any app that accepts PayPal can potentially be used and may trigger the reimbursement. However, since this may not comply with the Terms, it is unclear whether there could be a clawback later. Typical examples include:

  • Fluz app 【can buy Amazon gift cards】
  • Slide app 【can buy Apple gift cards; $20 sign-up bonus】

QR code payments

Actually, QR code payments also work, but the current fee is 1.9%+$0.1 per transaction. Afterward you can Cash out the funds. Note that sending this way to a US PayPal account also carries some risk, so think carefully before doing it. Sending to PayPal accounts outside the US is generally less of an issue.

  • You can send to PayPal accounts in Hong Kong or Europe; PayPal fees in Europe are only 1%

No longer available

PayPal Key + Amex used to trigger the reimbursement, but unfortunately it no longer works.

Pay in 4 Feature

You can split each purchase into four payments, one every two weeks. This is a good fit for combining payment across two Platinum cards so you can trigger the PayPal credit on each separately. If you're interested, see this 101 news post:

$500-$25, up to$250

Spend $500, get $25 back, up to 10 times, for a maximum of $250 back. This offer was probably highly targeted. Very few people were likely targeted, and it appeared mainly on business credit cards. Screenshot of the offer below:

Personal Platinum Cards

These offers were for AMEX personal Platinum cards, including the standard version and several co-branded versions, with the following characteristics:

  • The card must have been opened on or before November 1, 2020, including authorized user cards
  • Authorized user cards only get some of the offers, while the primary card gets all of them
  • Each login can add the offer only once [a typical AMEX Offer characteristic]
  • Offer period ends on June 30, 2021
  • Personal cards include two types of offers: near-free-money offers and discount offers (20% to 50% off)
  • All personal card offers are online only and do not work for in-store purchases

Also, note that purchases made through PayPal will not trigger these offers, but purchases through Apple Pay can.

Near-Free-Money Offers

There are 5 of them in total, and they are close to free money. Interestingly, authorized user cards only get the last two, which are a bit weaker. Details below:

1️Bestbuy.com: $50-$50, limit 2 times, so $100 total [Not available on AU cards]

  • The terms say you cannot buy BBY's own gift cards
  • BBY's own eGC charges incorrectly (via Cashstar), so they definitely will not trigger the offer
  • Third-party gift cards can trigger it, such as Amazon gift cards and Apple gift cards
  • BBY's own physical gift cards can also trigger it
  • You can buy $100 in one transaction and trigger the credit twice directly, though splitting transactions is safer

2️HomeDepot.com: $50-$50, limit 2 times, so $100 total [Not available on AU cards]

  • Gift card purchases are not prohibited, but HomeDepot's own eGC or physical gift cards will not trigger the credit (Cashstar)
  • Required: Ship to Home or Store (then pick up)
  • You can buy $100 in one transaction and trigger the credit twice directly, though splitting transactions is safer
  • Shopping portal cashback: RebatesMe up to 8.1% (selected products)
  • RebatesMe signup bonus: $10

3️HomeChef.com: $50-$50, limit 3 times, so $150 total [Not available on AU cards]

(Note: originally it was only 1 credit, later changed to 3)

  • Gift card purchases are not prohibited. DPs show they can trigger the credit, and you can also get shopping portal cashback. You can stock up on gift cards first, then later try combining refer and a shopping portal (for example, SB's $35), YMMV
  • A single $150 purchase will not trigger 3 credits. You must split the purchases, and that also lets you earn portal cashback multiple times
  • There is a refer bonus: $35 off the first order: Click here to sign up
  • WeChat reader ipmai noted that HomeChef allows ID.ME verification before checkout. People in pandemic-related professions or those with an .edu email may get 50% off the first order (up to $60 off) plus 10% off future orders. Worth a try if interested.
  • Shopping portal cashback: Swagbucks $35 CB; other cashback sites offer $10 [Swagbucks signup link]. Gift card purchases can also trigger cashback.
  • The refer bonus and SB bonus may conflict (needs testing; DPs welcome). You may want to register three HomeChef small accounts to do this
Swagbucks users can earn $35 cash back by making a purchase of any of the plans when using the Swagbucks link.

4️WineInsiders.com: $30-$30, limit 2 times, so $60 total [Available on AU cards]

  • Recommended to make separate purchases of $30+ each to trigger the credit
  • This one is not easy to maximize; feel free to share DPs

One thing to note is that the AMEX WineInsiders offer specifically says: Excludes Refer A Friend promo codes at checkout. See terms for exclusions. This language may even exclude shopping portal cashback. So you may need to make a plain purchase only. HT: Maggie

Be careful with referral offers and Rakuten first-order discounts, as they may cause the AMEX Offer credit not to trigger! If you accidentally used them, it's not the end of the world—WineInsiders is very friendly and may still honor the credit, YMMV.

5️Scribd.com: $9.99-$9.99, limit 5 times, so $50 total [Available on AU cards]

Other than Scribd, these are all pretty strong offers. Full set below:

Usually AMEX Offers explicitly prohibit gift card purchases. This time only the Best Buy terms mention gift cards, and it seems to be aimed at Best Buy's own gift cards (BBY offers have had this same language for years, so no need to worry too much):

Excludes GeekSquad.com, PartStore.com, Best Buy Private Store, Best Buy Business, Best Buy Education, Best Buy Ignite, Best Buy Secondary Markets, Best Buy Auction site, corporate gift cards, electronic gift cards, group gift cards, phone purchases and purchases shipped outside of the U.S., U.S. Virgin Islands or Guam.

However, Best Buy offers have historically worked on some third-party gift cards, such as Amazon gift cards and Apple gift cards. Of course, if it doesn't trigger or gets clawed back later, don't blame me.

Discount Offers

Besides the near-free-money offers, there are also several solid discount offers (20% to 50% off). See the image below:

Instacart and Samsung are both pretty good. For the former, grocery delivery has had lots of discounts lately, so if you're not in a hurry, you can wait for a new promo and stack it. For Samsung, you can think of it as a large purchase at effectively 20% off.

🥕Instacart

(The carrot's first-order referral bonus is not the best one; after you register, the system may automatically send you a better first-order offer.)

A few promos may be stackable:

1️Instacart Walmart: $10 Off $35+ With promo code WALTAP20

2️Target $50 coupon

This appears to have been sent automatically by the system. Check your account email. It requires spending $100 each time to get $50 off, limit 2 times. HT: WeChat readers. Screenshot below:

Goldbelly

The terms do not restrict gift card purchases. According to a DOC reader DP, gift card purchases do trigger the email confirmation, though it is still unknown whether the credit will post as expected. HT: WeChat reader 废物墙

Goldbelly does have a refer-a-friend program: for every 2 people you refer, you get a $50 credit. The other person needs to spend $50 to trigger it [gift card purchases do not qualify]. Sending a referral requires entering the other person’s email, which is a bit of a hassle. Since this deal needs to be triggered three times, self-referring with an alternate account may be possible. If you do not want to deal with alternate accounts, you can ask for a referral in the comments.

TopCashback offers cashback [gift card purchases or paying with gift cards do not qualify]:

  • 4% on the first order for new users
  • 1% for existing users

Business Platinum Card

The Business Platinum Card does not seem to have a strict cardholding-time requirement, but reportedly newly opened cards do not have this offer either. The offer on older Business Platinum Cards is an extra 4x MR in each category, with up to 80,000 MR back per category:

  • Advertising
  • Shipping
  • Office supplies
  • Cell phones and wireless service
  • ️ Gas

The Terms here do not prohibit gift card purchases, and unlike the offer on personal cards, the business-card bonus rewards also allow in-store purchases, so this should be much easier to use.

Conclusion

Recently, asking AMEX online chat for retention offers has not been as rewarding as it was at the beginning. It is unclear whether that is related to these kinds of “retention offer”-like promotions. For now, the benefits are noticeably concentrated on the Platinum cards. Hopefully AMEX keeps it up and adds some temporary perks to its other credit cards as well.