Amex Platinum revamps £400 dining credit

Get money back to your card when you eat out

The American Express Platinum card comes with a host of extras, including travel insurance, money to spend at restaurants, credit at Harvey Nicholls and airport lounge access. It all sounds pretty good and no other card offers as much.

But those perks need to be weighed against an annual charge of £650. That’s huge. As a result, I’ve not been convinced the perks are worth the fee.

Well, from January Amex is making changes to the free dining and Harvey Nicks credit Will this make it more worthwhile? Here’s how the Amex Platinum Dining credit works.

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What is the American Express Platinum dining credit offer?

There are two parts of the offer we’ll need to cover.

Amex Platinum £300 dining credit

The initial offer ran from summer 2022 and lasts until December 2024. You can get up to £300 credit on restaurant dining per calendar year. The £300 is split into two parts. The first £150 is for spending at UK restaurants. The next £150 is for spending at overseas restaurants. However, it’s only at participating restaurants.

You don’t need to spend the £150 in one go. You’ll get the credit on each eligible payment you make up to that cap of £150. And again for the overseas credit.

So spend £55, and you’ll get £55 back. But if the next spend is for £100, you’ll only get £95 credited to your account.

For overseas spending you will still have to pay the transaction charges for using the card abroad, so remember to factor that in.

Amex Platinum £400 dining credit

Rather than end completely at the end of 2024, the offer is going to last for another year, and the value will also increase to a potential total of £400

From January 2025 you’ll £100 to spend in the UK between January and June, and another £100 credit from July to December. It’ll work in the same way for overseas dining, with £100 of credit available every six months.

The other rules should remain the same, but we won’t know for sure until January 2025.

What restaurants are included in the offer?

There’s a big list of participating restaurants on the Amex website. The UK list seems quite good. Though it’s London centric, there are multiple options in big cities and The Ivy Cafes and Brasseries popping up in regional towns. Hopefully you’ll come across at least one location you regularly attend.

The overseas one is more limited. For example if you’re on holiday in Paris, then there are plenty to choose from – but nothing else in the rest of France. Likewise New York is really well covered, but there’s nothing in San Francisco.

Just be aware that this list can change, and probably will. So always check. It might be worth taking a quick screenshot before spending too, in case you need to claim at a later date.

Double check too for specific locations that are part of a chain. In the previous offer, only one Hawksmoor location was included, which nearly caught us out.

What is the Amex Harvey Nicholls credit?

Cardholders can also get £50 back on spending at the Harvey Nicholls department store every six months. It works in-store and online, as well as in related restaurants such as Oxo Tower.

This offer was also due to end on 31 December 2024, and has been extended – but just for another six months.

You might think you wouldn’t buy anything at Harvey Nicks, but don’t forget they sell a range of beauty and fragrance products.

How to get the dining and shopping credits

You obviously need to have the American Express Platinum card first. If you don’t already have one I’d probably wait to see if there’s a boosted welcome bonus available – and that might be available to existing American Express cardholders too – it depends on which cards you have had in the last two years),

You’ll also get free travel insurance with the card, but remember it isn’t cheap. As mentioned there’s an annual £650 fee. You can read my full Amex Platinum review here.

Once you have the card, to get the both offers, you’ll first need to activate them in your Amex account. When the new dining offer launches in January 2025 you’ll need to activate that as well.

Then, just use your main Platinum credit card to pay for the meal or shopping at Harvey Nicholls. It won’t work on supplementary cards.

It’s worth noting that third party payment systems, which can include some card readers used by restaurants, might mean the credit is rejected. There’s nothing you can do about this, except hope that won’t be the case when you pay.

When will you get the credit?

In my experience, the credit for similar offers is usually applied to your American Express account within a few days.

But it can take longer. And the terms and conditions for the offer say it’ll be within 30 days in most cases but could take up to 150 days.

This means that you might not get the money taken off the credit card bill before you need to pay it – so make sure you have enough cash available to cover it.

Also, I’d make a note in your diary to check the credit does come through. Sometimes something goes wrong and you’ll need to chase it.

Is the offer any good?