One of the perks of having the American Express Platinum Card is the $240 Digital Entertainment Credit. This is a $20 monthly credit for purchases from Disney+, a Disney Bundle, ESPN+, Hulu, The New York Times, Peacock, and The Wall Street Journal when you purchase directly from one or more of the providers.
Since I upgraded to the Platinum Card, this is the one benefit I’ve been able to use every month. That’s because we have a New York Times All-Access digital subscription. This costs $9.75 per week and is charged $39 every four weeks.
American Express Uses Math To Skip Payment
Every month since I had the card, AMEX has issued the $20 credit on 1-3 days after my New York Times bill is charged to my Platinum card. Except for April.
When I called AMEX in May to ask why I hadn’t received the credit for my $39 charge, the representative told me I had already received my $20 credit for April. Because the NY Times bills me every 28 days, I ended up with 2 payments posted in the same month. The American Express credit is monthly—not every 30 days or every 4 weeks, but based on the calendar month.
When my next bill hit on May 28th, I did receive the $20 credit.
Silver Lining
While I could be upset about this, I’m not. While researching for this post, I realized I didn’t need to pay for an All Access subscription, as all we need is the news, which only costs $20 every 4 weeks.
My AMEX Platinum Digital Access credit will cover the entire subscription, except for the 1-2 times a year when I have two charges per month. This will save me $19 for each payment, for which I have AMEX and the NY Times to thank for having me look closer at my account.
Want to comment on this post? Great! Read this first to help ensure it gets approved.
Want to sponsor a post, write something for Your Mileage May Vary, or put ads on our site? Click here for more info.
Like this post? Please share it! We have plenty more just like it and would love it if you decided to hang around and sign up to get emailed notifications of when we post.
Whether you’ve read our articles before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!
This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
5 comments
I had my subscription go up to $20/mo after the initial trial period. I chatted with their support and told them point blank it was worth at most $10/mo to me. They reduced the cost to $9/mo for the next six months without much pushback.
NYT is a company you can definitely negotiate the price with, FWIW.
Leaves me room for a WSJ subscription and a peacock ad-free package also covered by the plat credit.
im paying $1/week for all access. find yourself a better deal
I’ve run into this issue with other digital platforms when they bill on the wrong days, etc. I think Walmart+ did this to me in 2022. I always wonder why people subscribe to the NYT or any digital newspapers anymore but yikes. I didn’t know it was $39 a month! Even with Amex paying $20 of that it’s still $19 a month or $228 a year for content that’s mostly available for free elsewhere.
If you cancel the NYT and sign up at thanksgiving then it is 1$ a week – fully covered by Amex along with wsj, barrons etc etc
You’re way overpaying. Thanksgiving is the answer. My NYT all access is $4/mth, Peacock $1.99/mth, Disney/Hulu $2.99/mth. The only splurge is ESPN $10.99 which I only did as I didn’t want a subscription to anything else. Total: $19.97.