Amex Platinum Review UK: Is the £650 Card Worth It?

The Platinum Card is a credit card regulated by the Consumer Credit Act, so eligible purchases get Section 75 protection, which the older Platinum charge card didn't offer. The annual fee is £650, charged each year from your first statement; there is no monthly option, although the minimum payment includes a twelfth of it.

Credit limits start at £700 and depend on Amex's assessment. Purchases have up to 56 days interest-free if you clear the balance; after that the rate is 29.1% variable, and the representative APR, which includes the fee and assumes a £1,200 limit, is 685.3% variable. Cash withdrawals cost 3% (£3 minimum) and 36.3% interest.

Apply through a referral link between 7 October and 11:59pm on 3 November 2026, spend £6,000 in the first three months, and Amex pays 100,000 Membership Rewards points in two instalments of 50,000, up to four weeks after you reach the spend. The three months start when you are approved. Applying directly gets the public offer of 50,000 points for the same spend, and you can't switch to the referral offer after applying directly.

You won't get a bonus if you have held a personal Membership Rewards card in the last 24 months, and existing Platinum charge cardholders would pay two fees for no bonus. Amex itself warns that a lower credit limit can make the £6,000 harder to reach.

Disclosure: our link earns GetQuids Membership Rewards points if you are approved. Amex shows the referral figure on its own page; check it there before you apply.

The bonus plus the £6,000 spend gives 106,000 points. Amex's own statement credit rate is 50,000 points for £225, or 0.45p a point, which makes them worth about £477. Transferred to Avios, Head for Points uses 1p a point as a ballpark, or about £1,060. Add the dining credit, which runs £100 in the UK plus £100 abroad each half-year until it ends on 31 December 2026, so a new cardholder can use one half-year of it at most.

That puts year one at roughly £677 to £1,260 of value against a £650 fee, before lounges, hotel status or insurance. Year two has no bonus: spending £15,000 earns 15,000 points, about £150 at 1p. From then on, the fee is paying for the travel benefits.

The card gives access to more than 1,550 lounges in over 140 countries through the Global Lounge Collection: Centurion lounges, Priority Pass, Delta Sky Clubs when flying Delta, plus Escape, Airspace, Plaza Premium and participating Eurostar Business Premier lounges.

In Priority Pass lounges you and a Platinum supplementary cardholder can each bring one guest free; further guests pay the lounge's rate. UK cardholders also get eight pre-book lounge entries a year in 2026 and 2027.

Once enrolled, you get Hilton Honors Gold, Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite, MeliáRewards Gold, Radisson Rewards Premium and ALL Accor Gold.

Booking through Amex's Fine Hotels + Resorts adds breakfast for two, a 4pm checkout and other credits that Amex puts at an average total value of US$600 a stay. The Hotel Collection gives a US$100 credit on stays of two nights or more.

Travel insurance covers trips of up to 90 days once enrolled: £2m of medical cover (not if you are 70 or over, and pre-existing conditions only if accepted), £7,500 per person for cancellation where the trip was paid on the card, £2,000 for baggage and up to £50,000 of car hire excess, with a £50 excess on claims.

Purchase protection covers up to £2,500 per item and £20,000 a year, and refund protection up to £300 per item and £1,000 a year.

You earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1, or 2 on American Express Travel Online. Balance transfers, cash withdrawals, buying foreign currency, fees and interest earn nothing. Points don't expire while the account is open; if you close it, you have 30 days to use them.

Points move 1:1 to British Airways Avios (instantly, from 1,000 points), Iberia, Qatar, Virgin, Flying Blue, Cathay, Delta, Qantas, SAS and Nectar; Emirates is 2:1, KrisFlyer 3:2, Marriott 2:3, ALL Accor 3:1, and Hilton and Radisson give more hotel points per Amex point. Transfers to airlines are where the 1p-plus value comes from; statement credit and gift cards are worth 0.45p to 0.5p.

Every foreign currency transaction costs 2.99% of the sterling amount, which wipes out the points on it. Use a no-fee card abroad and keep the Platinum for UK spending and travel bookings.

The first supplementary Platinum card is free and gets the lounge and Priority Pass guest benefits; further Platinum supplementary cards cost £285 each. Supplementary cardholders can't use the dining credit.

On 11 October 2026 the Amex UK app was rated 4.8 from 617,877 ratings on the App Store and 4.8 from 30,880 on Google Play, while Amex's UK Trustpilot profile scored 1.3 from 929 reviews. All of these cover Amex as a whole, not just this card.

The recurring complaints are repeated identity checks at login, sudden credit-limit cuts, Direct Debit failures, unhelpful handling of disputes, accounts closed without explanation and a loop when enrolling in benefits such as the dining credit.

You need to be 18 or over with a UK bank account, a permanent UK address, no history of bad debt and an income of at least £35,000. Amex gives an instant decision without affecting your credit score; an entry only appears on your credit file if you are approved and accept the card.

You can withdraw within 14 days of receiving the card by calling 0800 917 8047 and repaying what you owe. After that, call the number on the card; Amex says you may be eligible for a pro-rata refund of the fee depending on how you have used the account. Use your points before you close.

Consider it if you fly several times a year and will use the lounges, if hotel status at Hilton or Marriott is worth something to you, and if you can hit £6,000 in three months on spending you'd do anyway. Plan to review it before the second fee.

Skip it if you would carry a balance, if most of your spending is abroad, if you can't comfortably reach the £6,000, or if you have held a Membership Rewards card in the last 24 months, because without the bonus the first year doesn't add up.