This morning, Frequent Miler was running a story about Amex removing the Saks 5th Avenue credit from Platinum cards. This is something that one could reasonably expect, following the Saks Bankruptcy filing.
However, when I took a peek at the Amex website, Amex is still advertising the $100 ($50 semi-annual) Saks credits.
Further, the benefit is still listed in the terms and conditions of the Amex Platinum card offer, so I would assume that the credit would be offered to new cardmembers. Maybe this was a temporary change, or maybe Frequent Miler is getting information through a media representative. But as it stands right now, based on the information on the Amex website, I’d expect that you could earn this credit.
Quick take: Saks credits are probably not long for this world.
Aaron Hurd
Executive Editor of Cards and Points
While it looks like the Saks credits are still around for current and new Amex Platinum cardmembers, I’d expect that at some point in the future, Amex will discontinue this credit. Saks likely pays for this benefit and I would expect that their commitments to Amex will be one of the things that they will be happy to jettison as part of their bankruptcy.
That said, if you’re a current Platinum cardholder, you probably want to use your credits as soon as possible, if you do use them. And if the credits are still around come July, use those as soon as possible as well.
Personally, I’ve used the Saks credits for random small clothing purchases, but I found it hard to find items that I actually needed that were in the $50 range at Saks… I probably spent more time trying to capture the value of this credit than it was ultimately worth.
Ultimately, the Saks credit isn’t going to make or break your value calculation on the Platinum card, but if you shopped at Saks anyway, when the Saks credit dies, your Platinum card will be about $100/year less valuable to you.
