Why You Should Consider Offsetting Your Platinum Card's S$1,712 Annual Fee with Membership Rewards Points This Year

A couple of months ago, American Express unveiled a Double Rewards campaign to offer Centurion and Platinum (charge card) members more value during this period. As part of this initiative, members were able to use their Membership Rewards (MR) points to offset charges made on their cards at a favourable rate. While the Double Rewards campaign ended back on 20 July 2020, it appears that American Express has extended the benefit for members looking to offset the S$1,712 annual fee on this card until 31 December 2020.

Click HERE to apply for The American Express Platinum Card and get 40,000 more MR Points!

Photo Credit: American Express

On a regular day, members can offset S$4.80 worth of charges with 1,000 MR points but during the aforementioned promotional period, members got to enjoy double value on statement credits (1,000 MR points = S$9.60). In fact, MR points used towards offsetting the annual fee had an even greater value of 1,000 MR points = S$11. Now, I typically do not advocate 'wasting' points on things like statement credits but this is actually a fantastic opportunity with all things considered, so if the annual fee of your Platinum Card is due from now until the end of the year, you might want to pay close attention to this.

The American Express Platinum Card in Singapore comes with an annual fee of S$1,712 each year and despite the high cost of owning this metallic card, it has always been a relatively easy decision for me. The perks of The American Express Platinum Card are great and I have been a member for two full years now - the card is up for renewal later this month and despite being unable to travel (and fully utilise the travel perks that come with this card), I have once again decided to extend my card membership for another year. With an enhanced redemption rate of 1,000 MR Points = S$11 (valid from now until the end of the year), the S$1,712 annual fee of The American Express Platinum Card can be fully offsetted with 155,636 MR points.

As a quick refresher, MR points on The American Express Platinum Card can be redeemed for airline miles at a 400:250 rate, so 155,636 MR points will get you approximatley 97,272 Miles. Depending on your cost of acqusition and the value that you extract out of these miles, you may value them anywhere between 1.6 cents to 2.0 cents each. Therefore, if we were to assume a relatively-conservative valuation of 1.6 cents per mile, 97,272 miles are worth approximately S$1,556.35. Using your MR Points to offset the S$1,712 annual fee of The American Express Platinum Card (at 1,000 MR Points = S$11) from now until the end of the year gives you an approximate value of 1.76 cents per mile.

Obviously, you may choose to pay the S$1,712 annual fee of The American Express Platinum Card the usual way and there is nothing wrong with that. However, American Express does not run promotions like these all the time and getting S$11 for every block of 1,000 MR points is actually pretty fantastic (especially if you already sitting on a treasure trove of air miles) and I will definitely be jumping on this opportunity this year. Planning to get an American Express card? Using any of the following MGM referral links will earn you either bonus MR Points of KrisFlyer miles depending on the card that you will be applying for:

• The Platinum Card - 40,000 MR Points Bonus.

• American Express Platinum Credit Card - 12,000 MR Points Bonus

• American Express Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Ascend Credit Card - 7,500 KrisFlyer Miles Bonus