Card issuers have added all kinds of temporary perks in light of the current pandemic. A few weeks ago I wrote about the latest such benefit on the American Express Platinum Card, which is offering a one-time credit that most cardmembers should be able to get value out of.
I wanted to first recap this perk, and then share my experience using it yesterday.
In this post:
Amex Platinum offering $100 Dell credit
If you log into your US-issued personal Amex Platinum account and scroll down to the “Amex Offers” section, you should see an offer for $100 back when you spend $100 or more on dell.com by January 31, 2021. In other words, you can get $100 worth of stuff from Dell, more or less for free.
There are some things to be aware of, not surprisingly:
- You need to register through the Amex Offers page in your account
- You must spend a minimum of $100 over one or more transactions
- The offer is valid for purchases made online at dell.com/amexplat, through the Dell mobile app, or via phone at 800-291-3355
- Gift card purchases are excluded
- Not valid on purchases shipped outside the US, Puerto Rico, USVI, and Guam
- This is separate from the annual Dell statement credits available on the American Express Business Platinum Card
How valuable is this offer?
Many may initially assume that this is worth almost nothing. I don’t know about you guys, but prior to this, the last time I purchased a product from Dell was when I was using dial-up internet.
However, Dell sells a variety of products that could prove worthwhile, at least when factoring in the $100 credit. For example:
- You could buy a Kensington international travel adapter for ~$31
- You could buy Bose SoundSport wireless in-ear headphones for ~$129
- You could buy an Aluratek portable battery charger for ~$37
- If you’re getting ready to buy the brand new Microsoft Flight Simulator, you could buy a Saitek yolk system for ~$170
Those are just a few examples of things that travelers might find to be valuable, though there are thousands of products to choose from. There’s value in seeing if Dell has something that you might otherwise buy elsewhere.
My experience using the $100 Dell credit
Yesterday evening I finally placed an order to use my credit, so I just wanted to share a few observations:
- While Dell offers free shipping, the company almost seems to be punitive with it; if I wanted free shipping it would only arrive in four weeks, while it could arrive within a few days if I paid
- Shipping and taxes qualify towards the $100 minimum spending requirement
- Dell lets you split payment across multiple cards, and this can be done on the final payment page; this is ideal if multiple people in your household have an Amex Plat, and you want to use your credit towards a larger purchase
Since Ford also has an Amex Platinum, I ended up making a purchase for $203, which included taxes and expedited shipping. I split the payment so that there was just over $100 charged to each card. Within minutes of confirming the purchase, we both received emails from Amex confirming that we would receive our statement credits.
What did we order? Nothing too exciting, but I got a couple of international travel adapters (those always come in handy), a portable battery charger, and a couple of USB-C to USB-A cables (which I needed, as I lost my previous one).
Bottom line
Those with the Amex Platinum can register to receive a $100 credit when they spend $100+ with Dell by January 31, 2021. While I hadn’t made a Dell purchase in years, I finally took advantage of this yesterday.
Shipping and taxes count towards the minimum spending requirement, and Dell even lets you split payment, so you could make a $200+ purchase and split it across two cards, should have multiple people who are primary cardmembers on an Amex Platinum.
If you have the Amex Platinum, do you plan on taking advantage of this $100 Dell credit?
I added the offer and went through dell.com. I mistakenly didn't go through dell.com/amexplat. Will this be significant that I won't get the credit since I didn't go through dell.com/amexplat?
i have been an amex plat since 85 this offer does NOT show up I chatted with AMex, they say sorry we are unable to ad this to your account, its target WTF
Nevermind, chatted with customer service and they say it is still on my account. It must not be showing because I have added so many offers.
I added this offer to my AmEx Platinum when it was first offered and was waiting to use it until I could buy something for a Holliday gift since it was not supposed to expire until 01/31/21. Today, I went to double check my account and no longer see it listed in the offers added to my card.
I was told it was targeted , and was not on either of our two platinum cards.
My experience:
- Added the offer
- Went through the dell.com/amexplat website
- Placed $109 order
- Immediately received email from Amex saying congrats on using your offer.
- Weeks go by, and then I receive an email from Dell saying that my order was cancelled with no further explanation.
- Contact Dell rep who tells me there's a "processing issue".
- Place a new order for a...
My experience:
- Added the offer
- Went through the dell.com/amexplat website
- Placed $109 order
- Immediately received email from Amex saying congrats on using your offer.
- Weeks go by, and then I receive an email from Dell saying that my order was cancelled with no further explanation.
- Contact Dell rep who tells me there's a "processing issue".
- Place a new order for a different product. Still around $109.
- Again, I immediately received email from Amex saying congrats on using your offer.
- Weeks go by again, and then I receive an email from Dell saying that my order was cancelled again with no further explanation.
Has anything like this happened to anyone else?
bought two noise canceling ear buds for the wife and I. Good to have when we can travel again.
Hmmm. Amex Business Platinum (and I assume regular Platinum as well) has had a real incentive this year: Dell $100 credit doubled between Jan 1 and July 31 2020, meaning $200 in my pocket, which I got on a new printer. The same offer now exists from Aug 1 to Dec 31 2020, doubling the $100 credit through Dell. I just got it for ink for that printer I bought. I don't understand why in...
Hmmm. Amex Business Platinum (and I assume regular Platinum as well) has had a real incentive this year: Dell $100 credit doubled between Jan 1 and July 31 2020, meaning $200 in my pocket, which I got on a new printer. The same offer now exists from Aug 1 to Dec 31 2020, doubling the $100 credit through Dell. I just got it for ink for that printer I bought. I don't understand why in all these comments, somebody else hasn't reflected this. That's $400 for the year back by using your Amex Platinum card at the Dell website. A sweet deal.
@Ben – Thanks for the tip on “only 100 deals” showing up at a time. I do not have a platinum card so I did not get this Dell offer, but I did accept over 20 offers on my Amex card before my available offers dropped below 100 available. I had no idea that I had offers buffered that I could not see. Now if I can just get rid of all the clutter on the offers that I added to the card that I will never use!
Lucky, did you not get the $200 Dell offer?
I have this on my Amex Biz Platinum, and also a 10% off offer. I got Samsung ear bids for $170 and a new external hard drive for $40. I ended up receiving 10% off both of them (bought a month apart), and having my Dell credit applied to the full price after my 10%, getting both items for free.
This is certainly making the annual fee more palatable, especially too with the cell phone discount.
Honestly, this has been a pain in the ass more than anything. I ordered a bose soundbar about a month ago, after 3 weeks of no shipping, I got an email saying my order had been delayed until November. I cancelled and order a different soundbar, one that was in stock (the bose one was in stock as well) and now this soundbar shipping has been delayed until Sept 25.
While I like my...
Honestly, this has been a pain in the ass more than anything. I ordered a bose soundbar about a month ago, after 3 weeks of no shipping, I got an email saying my order had been delayed until November. I cancelled and order a different soundbar, one that was in stock (the bose one was in stock as well) and now this soundbar shipping has been delayed until Sept 25.
While I like my platinum and find all of their offers pretty useful, this one has probably taken about 2+ hours of my time to actually use, and who knows if my product will show up later this month.
I guess if you're incredibly patient, this is a great offer.
Interesting - My husband and I both had the offer on our Amex Plats with an expiration of 8/31/2020. We bought a $230 TV split across both our cards!
I signed up for the offer when first announced. I had my eye on a new Sony TV. Sony is running a sale now on the model and Dell has the same sale price as everyone else on the internet. So the $100 off is going to sweeten the deal. Waiting on a counter offer from someone on greentoe.com where it would be the same $100 off so I could keep the Dell credit for something else - if no one bites I'll use the Dell credit on the TV.
Create an account on dell which gives you expedited shipping for free.
It worked for me on my Personal Platinum card... picked up a Belkin wireless charging pad, Lightening to USB cable, and Kensington Mouse ... and AMEX has already confirmed my $100 credit. Net cost for all the above with tax: $4.85
Not showing on my Morgan Stanley Platinum either.
The Biz Platinum has $200 credit at Dell - $100 Jan - June and $100 July - December
I had not used before, but this year with Covid, they doubled it to $200 each 6 months so bought some battery backups and a Solid State Drive
And they are giving me a $200 credit towards the renewal of $595 - so the whole membership is rebated this year
I will certainly be using the 2...
The Biz Platinum has $200 credit at Dell - $100 Jan - June and $100 July - December
I had not used before, but this year with Covid, they doubled it to $200 each 6 months so bought some battery backups and a Solid State Drive
And they are giving me a $200 credit towards the renewal of $595 - so the whole membership is rebated this year
I will certainly be using the 2 x $100 credit every year going forward, now that I know about all the smaller items that essentially are free.
It's really frustrating to see this headline twice and not have it apply to me because I have the Schwab Platinum. There have been absolutely zero positive data points anywhere of any Platinum card other than the regular one receiving this credit, and given the audience of this blog I think you should make that note.
Hey Ben - we took advantage of this deal when you first posted the story. I checked my account and quickly zeroed in on the Dell offer. Then I went to the site and found an i-robot mop for $215.00 (no one needs this but it's 20202 so why not) with an October delivery unless we paid for expedited shipping. Since we didn't have a floor emergency, I skipped that and paid with my AMEX....
Hey Ben - we took advantage of this deal when you first posted the story. I checked my account and quickly zeroed in on the Dell offer. Then I went to the site and found an i-robot mop for $215.00 (no one needs this but it's 20202 so why not) with an October delivery unless we paid for expedited shipping. Since we didn't have a floor emergency, I skipped that and paid with my AMEX. Almost immediately ,got confirmation from AMEX and when I checked my account a few days later the credit was there. The best part, aside from the $100.00 credit, is that just a few weeks later my new robot arrived! So, thanks for the tip, my floors look great!
Some DP's to share in case it might help anyone:
1) Received the Dell offer immediately (early August) on my "vanilla" Plat AMEX AND my wife's AU card and added both offers then
2) I then ASSUMED the offer would also be on each of my 2 sister's AU cards and didn't get them to add it immediately; they checked last week (late August) no offer to be found; lesson learned, look for...
Some DP's to share in case it might help anyone:
1) Received the Dell offer immediately (early August) on my "vanilla" Plat AMEX AND my wife's AU card and added both offers then
2) I then ASSUMED the offer would also be on each of my 2 sister's AU cards and didn't get them to add it immediately; they checked last week (late August) no offer to be found; lesson learned, look for it and add it immediately!
3) I used my wife's credit for an Epson printer and related ink cartridge. Dell split the payment into ~$85 and ~$22 charges. They actually shipped together AND more importantly the credit was processed correctly within a a day or two of shipment
Thanks. Great post and good info. I'm going to pick up the yoke for Flight Sim.
@John G . . . cancel the order! Problem solved and find some other items you might like to have.
it's sort of "FREE" money you get instead of other services AmEx would have on that card, see it that way.
Way to go, BENJAMIN! . . . . . I like that! :-)
I just had that on 1000$ spent with the MARRIOTT Brillant Card, US$100,- conformation from AmEx minutes later.
That is almost as good as an orgasm these days!
Well DONE AmEx!! ... or in your words: Way to go . . . . ha ha ha
These credits are kind of a pain to use because of the way dell does their billing.
They merely authorize the card at the purchase and only charge when they ship. They also split charges up by item. I bought two monitors trying to claim the business platinum credits and the way they billed it totally messed everything up.
FYI- that yoke system, I ordered it and now my delivery date changed to February.
I logged into dell.com/amexplat and my Rakuten add-in popped up with a 2% offer.
If I go through Rakuten to earn 2x more points, will that negate the Amex offer for $100 off $100v
@ Loren M -- Nope, that shouldn't negate it.
that is great, mine didn't work like that. Dell split the order by product so anything less than $100 did not combine into one Amex purchase. I had to reorder something that by itself was over $100 to get the credit. Dell said they do this so that items may ship at different times, etc.
@ JL100 -- I saw my order was split up as well, but I don't think that should be an issue. You can spend $100+ across multiple orders, as not everything has to be in one transaction.
The offer didn't show up when this blog originally posted, but now it's at the top of the list in my offers. Maybe it was a slow roll-out or I had to wait for other offers to lapse. Just FYI if anyone didn't see it at first.
I made a purchase of $103 on the dell site (after tax) of gaming headphones; received an email from Amex that I used the $100 credit offer an hour or so after purchase — this was 3 days ago. Then i received the credit on the account today.
I made the purchase but have not received the credit. Can anyone tell me how long it took to get the credits? TY
How are they treating sales tax? If my cart on Dell is less than 100 pre-tax (sales tax puts it over the $100 mark), will I get the credit?
Not available on my Schwab or Morgan Stanley either
@Fernando, Thanks
Did not know about the split charge 3 ways benefit on Dell
Will come in useful if offer shows up in our accounts
Getting 300$ off a Bose headphones ....
I also don't have it on my Morgan Stanely Amex Platnum, must only be regular non-branded Platnums... which is fine for me since MS reimburses me $550 a year for the annual fee every year I have the card.
Same here. not available on morgan stanley amex plat...
Same here. Not available on my Schwab Amex Plat.
As for the comment above about credit appearing next April, I’ve found that to not be the case with all of my recent uses of the offers. My most recent was wineaccess and it says the credit will post after a date in September, but I’ve received the $50 credit three times just 2 days after the charge posts. Can anyone here speak to how soon the dell credit posts?
i did not receive this offer yesterday but i had 100 current offers, i added 15 or so yesterday and i checked again today and one of the now 100 offers was the 100 off 100 dell. So keep checking back if you didnt get this yesterday!
@Pierre: I don't see it either. Almost seems targeted even though all the blogs say it shouldn't be
@ Angelia:
Scroll further down, it's there. This doesn't seem to be a targeted offer but it's way down from the double points.
I got a new gaming headset for $100 and doubled down on the offer with the +1 per dollar spent on dell offer too. Free stuff is always great.
Watch out! At checkout on Dell's site, it defaulted to "use points for purchase" and I had to delete the dollar amount to stop it from taking my MR points.
"the last time I purchased a product from Dell was when I was using dial-up internet."
What does this even mean? Dell is the second-biggest seller of PCs in the US, and the XPS models set the standard for most business laptops.
Not offered on my platinum card, just 1 extra point per dollar at Dell. I have 98 offers.
Just got a a JBL Charge 4 Bluetooth speakers - thanks Lucky!
I got the credit and may end up getting some accessories. The portable battery pack for laptops comes to mind...or just a 2nd battery pack.
@anthony " Honestly dude you inject your subjective judgments into products and services way too often" lolz. Having too many subjective judgments (AKA "opinions") on one's own website?! The scandal!!! Would you rather we make our subjective judgments on YOUR site?
Ben - two comments
1) I don’t see this offer on my Schwab Platinum
2) Your comment about Dell is badly outdated. Dell XPS 13” has consistently been the best rated laptop for the past three or four years. I am saying this as a MacBook guy - I have seriously considered buying one this year. And with many people now working from home and logging into Windows office machines remotely, a Dell laptop (or...
Ben - two comments
1) I don’t see this offer on my Schwab Platinum
2) Your comment about Dell is badly outdated. Dell XPS 13” has consistently been the best rated laptop for the past three or four years. I am saying this as a MacBook guy - I have seriously considered buying one this year. And with many people now working from home and logging into Windows office machines remotely, a Dell laptop (or even desktop) may be incredibly useful for some. Honestly dude you inject your subjective judgments into products and services way too often
They have some monitors priced around $100. I've wanted to add a second monitor to my WFH setup, so to get one basically for free is a great deal. Plus (at least as of yesterday), it seems they are also offering fee expedited shipping, at least on some purchases.
I've set up a little spreadsheet to see how the various AmEx credits are offsetting the $550 annual fee. Between the streaming credits, the $200 travel...
They have some monitors priced around $100. I've wanted to add a second monitor to my WFH setup, so to get one basically for free is a great deal. Plus (at least as of yesterday), it seems they are also offering fee expedited shipping, at least on some purchases.
I've set up a little spreadsheet to see how the various AmEx credits are offsetting the $550 annual fee. Between the streaming credits, the $200 travel credit, and this $100, my April 20 renewal will more than pay for itself.
They also sell Nintendo, Xbox, and Playstation gaming systems, games, and accessories, which might also be of interest to many people.
Plus, monitors, keyboards, and mice may be useful to those who are working from home for the forseeable future.
Both the lovely Mrs. Reaper & I had both the $100 and +1 MR point offers on our personal Platinums. I'm sure I'll end up using it.
@Ben Wait there is a maximum 100 offers per card rule??? So should i always be adding offers even if they have no chance of ever being used just so i can hopefully receive more and better offers.
Offer on my personal plat. None of my AU’s have it.
@AK
The Dell Amex Offer says to use Dell.com/amexplat which is not compatible with shopping portals
My coworker told me about it two days ago and I got it on personal Platinum. In the last month, Rakuten has had a couple of 8X bonus days for Dell. I am looking to combine. Or does this have to be through the Dell/amex portal link? Thanks.
Based on data points at Doctor of Credit, it seems unlikely you'll see this on a Schwab platinum.
@Zach, AU's are targeted. my P2 has it.
Ben - I have the offer on my account, but it didn’t show up on my girlfriend’s authorized user account. Any word on whether authorized users are eligible for this?
I added a bunch of useless offers to get down to 96. Still not seeing it. Who told you it wasn't targeted?
Yeah my Dell offer is +1 point per dollar spent. Meh
Dell allows you to split up to 3 different payment methods. so if you have 2 AU's with the same offer, you can potentially save $300 on a single purchase.
I only see Rewards and benefits. No "Amex Offers"
I have 13 offers on my Platinum and no Dell offer. Either it is targeted or they are very slowly rolling it out to accounts.
@ Ben - Quite the contrary. I only have 21 offers on my personal plat and 19 on my Schwab plat. At some point over the past year or so I stopped receiving a high number of offers (close to 100). It's interesting because my wife's accounts always have close to 100 offers.
I also don't see it on either of my personal vanilla plays. I have less than 100 offers showing on each so I'm not sure why I don't see it.
AskAmex (on Twitter) didn't seem to know about this offer: https://twitter.com/AskAmex/status/1290380668753543168
Any suggestions? :(
What I didn't like about is it seems from the wording even if you buy now you don't get the credit until April, 2021.
Is this targeted? I don't see it on my personal or Schwab plats.
@ Jo -- I'm told it's not targeted. Do you maybe have the maximum of 100 deals showing on your Amex Offers account? If so, you may need to add some to your card so you can see this offer.