If you're carrying an American Express Platinum Card® and burning your $25 monthly entertainment credit on a single Hulu subscription, you're leaving money (and shows) on the table.
If you're unfamiliar, the Platinum Card gives you up to $25 in statement credit each month (up to $300 per year) when you pay for eligible streaming and digital services. Eligible partners include:
- Disney+ or a Disney+ Bundle (Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN)
- Hulu
- ESPN
- Peacock
- Paramount+
- YouTube Premium
- YouTube TV
- The New York Times
- The Wall Street Journal
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Before we get to the fun stuff, there are three rules to know about this benefit:
- Enroll First: The credit isn't automatic. You need to log into your Amex account, find the entertainment benefit, and enroll before you subscribe to anything. You only need to do this once.
- Bill Direct: Sign up through each service's own website. Subscriptions through the Apple App Store, Google Play, or Roku will not trigger the credit.
- Pay Monthly (Not Annual): The credit is $25 per month, not a lump sum of $300 each year. If you pay $200 upfront for a year, you'll get exactly one $25 credit back. Pay monthly, and you get $25 back every month, all year long.
- There's also a freebie a lot of people miss: The Platinum Card reimburses your Walmart+ membership at $12.95 per month, which includes a choice of Paramount+ Essentials or Peacock Premium at no extra cost.
Now, here's where Max from Max Miles Points takes it to the next level. He laid out a clever stack that turns the $25 monthly credit into four or even five streaming services for $0 out of pocket.
His favorite combo is what he calls the Disney Triple Play. You sign up directly through Disney for the Disney+, Hulu, and HBO Max bundle (with ads) at $19.99/month, and you've still got about $5 of your monthly credit left to throw at a promotional New York Times or Wall Street Journal subscription, both of which regularly run $4/month deals. Four services for zero dollars. Add your Walmart+ pick, and you're at five.
The second combo is sneakier: An Apple TV+ workaround. Apple TV+ isn't officially an eligible partner for the entertainment credit, so if you sign up directly through Apple, you won't get reimbursed. But Peacock offers a bundle that includes Peacock Premium and Apple TV+ for $14.99/month, and because the charge appears on your statement as Peacock (an approved partner), Amex reimburses it. You just have to sign up through Peacock's website … not Apple's.
That puts you at $14.99, leaving about $10 of your monthly credit. Tack on YouTube Premium Lite at $8.99/month for ad-free YouTube on most videos, and your total runs $23.98 – comfortably under the $25 cap.
Three services (Apple TV+, Peacock, YouTube Premium Lite) for $0 out of pocket. Then swap your Walmart+ freebie over to Paramount+ since you're already getting Peacock through the Apple TV+ bundle, and you're at four.
Is the Platinum's annual_fees annual fee (see rates & fees) a lot? Yes. But the entertainment credit alone is worth up to $300 each year, and if you're already paying for these streaming services, that makes the annual fee math easier to justify.
It's also one of the only credits the card offers that you can truly automate once you set it up – making it one of the easiest benefits to take advantage of.
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