The Platinum Card® from American Express has lots of great benefits, and one of those is that you get a $200 annual Uber credit. Well, Amex has just changed up how this works, and it seems like it’s a positive change.
Basics Of Amex Platinum Uber Credit
Those with the Amex Platinum Card get up to $200 in Uber credits annually, valid for US rides. You get a $15 Uber credit at the beginning of each month, and in December you even get a $35 credit ($20 more than usual).
In order to do this you have to link your Amex Platinum Card to your Uber account. You don’t actually have to pay for any residual Uber amount with your card, but rather the card just has to stay linked.
The credits expire at the end of each month, so they’re valid for that month only. This is intended to get people consistently using Uber, which I imagine is why Amex is able to offer this benefit, since they’re likely only paying a fraction of the retail value of the credit.
How Amex Is Making It Easier To Use The Uber Credit
The way it was set up, your Amex Platinum Uber credit was added to your Uber Cash balance. You’d then have to manually select Uber Cash as your payment method, since it would otherwise default to whatever your usual payment method was.
So while I wouldn’t say it was hard or tricky to use, for many people it wasn’t necessarily intuitive.
That’s finally changing.
As of this month (September 2019), Uber Cash will be set to automatically apply to your next ride so that you can easily take advantage of your benefit every month. In other words, you’ll no longer have to manually select Uber Cash as your payment method to use your Amex Platinum credit.
As far as I can tell that’s good news, as I don’t see any “catch.” If you don’t want to use your Uber Cash towards your first ride every month, you can manually select a different payment method.
This change is at least worth being aware of, since I know many people were so used to the old system.
Would love to see this just be the first $15 Uber charges to the Platinum card per month. Cash is USA-only, which sucks on a travel-centric card. That would also let us separate the month-to-month Platinum credits from the non-expiring credit from Visa Local Offers or manually added Cash.
@D3KingAmerican, I find I tip more when I have a $15 credit and the ride was $10. Why would I let the other $5 go to...
Would love to see this just be the first $15 Uber charges to the Platinum card per month. Cash is USA-only, which sucks on a travel-centric card. That would also let us separate the month-to-month Platinum credits from the non-expiring credit from Visa Local Offers or manually added Cash.
@D3KingAmerican, I find I tip more when I have a $15 credit and the ride was $10. Why would I let the other $5 go to waste? Can't speak for others.
@SC, It only goes to the main cardholder. Family accounts don't work, either. (Agreed, @Eileen)
So I realized last month that, despite having linked my Amex, that I had it received my Uber credits for the last like 5 months. (Because if the aforementioned Uber cash system) I called Amex and they credited me for the full benefit. YRMV
I do tip UberEats as, unless I’m missing something, they get a nominal amount from the food and basically that and the delivery fee.
Why would anyone tip a rideshare? It has nothing to do with being cheap. It’s dumb. If a person is already getting 80% of the fare why would I then tip on top of it?
They used to not even allowed tipping and actually used to advertise it as a benefit. They only added it as due to people trying to tip from not knowing any better.
Hmm, maybe I'm missing something... Ive got my Uber account linked to my platinum card for personal, and my corporate gold card for business rides. I have all my personal Uber rides charged to my personal card, and I usually tip commenserate with my experience (which usually means quite well). AmEx just credits my account with $15 each month, no need to fool with 'cash account' or any limits on my tipping. If I travel...
Hmm, maybe I'm missing something... Ive got my Uber account linked to my platinum card for personal, and my corporate gold card for business rides. I have all my personal Uber rides charged to my personal card, and I usually tip commenserate with my experience (which usually means quite well). AmEx just credits my account with $15 each month, no need to fool with 'cash account' or any limits on my tipping. If I travel on business, I just charge the ride to the other card, no biggie, and my credit has never been used for business travel.
@d3kingamerican - I am Amex Platinum and have a 4.96 Uber rating. I always tip but the rating by the driver is usually entered before they know that. Maybe I have almost a 5 star overall rating because I am considerate, respectful to the drivers and always text to let them know exactly where I am so don't keep either of us waiting.
Not sure why you would post that Amex Platinum don't tip. I'm...
@d3kingamerican - I am Amex Platinum and have a 4.96 Uber rating. I always tip but the rating by the driver is usually entered before they know that. Maybe I have almost a 5 star overall rating because I am considerate, respectful to the drivers and always text to let them know exactly where I am so don't keep either of us waiting.
Not sure why you would post that Amex Platinum don't tip. I'm willing to bet they tip a lot better overall than the average person taking an Uber because they usually are people with (a) more disposable income and (b) travel more so are more aware of the tipping process.
You are either a very disgruntled Uber driver or maybe just a troll
Thanks to CT and Max B for pointing out this was how it originally worked. Possibly this blog convinced Amex to go back. Was about to discontinue the Amex Plat card 'cause of this issue and the possibility the airline credit will no longer be available on gift cards. Hey Ben, can you use your influence with Amex to have them go back and allow gift cards to be used for the $200/yr airline credit! Thanks. Fly more. RayFlyer
Lucky - surprised you didn’t mention that this was how it originally worked. They changed it presumably so less people would redeem the benefit and probably changed it back after a barrage of complaints.
@D3KingAmerican: "VIPs never tip why would they use their free uber credit towards a tip ? If you are an AMEX platinum holder you will be given a 1 star by your driver. "
Is this a joke? Just my family and friends datapoint, of course, but I don't know ANYONE who doesn't tip Uber/Lyft drivers, and we all use Amex cards. If someone's cheap, it has nothing to do with which card they're using...
@D3KingAmerican: "VIPs never tip why would they use their free uber credit towards a tip ? If you are an AMEX platinum holder you will be given a 1 star by your driver. "
Is this a joke? Just my family and friends datapoint, of course, but I don't know ANYONE who doesn't tip Uber/Lyft drivers, and we all use Amex cards. If someone's cheap, it has nothing to do with which card they're using -- they're just cheap all around.
One thing I do wish they'd change would be to allow card AUs to use the Uber credit. Right now, only the primary account holder can use it ... which stinks for us, since my husband (the primary) almost never uses Uber/Lyft :-(
I'm not a habitual Uber user. Thus is great for me. Having to use the "credit" first was bullcrap. It should automatically come off your total and then you pay with your stored card. To me it was a way of cheating you out of the credit if you didn't jump through their hoops.
Is the credit only going to main cardholder, or authorized user as well?
Wait are they going to automatically apply my hard earned Uber cash too? If they do that then I'd just get out of both amex Plat and Uber all together. Dumbest idea ever.
That's horrible. If Uber does that I will just save Uber for personal rides and use lyft for all business rides. I guess I won't be Uber Plat anymore.
@d3kingamerican it's not because credit users don't tip. It's because Uber prevents tipping in certain situations when use your under cash. I've had several instances where it limits my tip to the amount remaining in Uber cash after ride. For instance, $15 credit, a ride fare of 14.78. That leaves 22 cents in the account after the fare. In theory, you should be able to tip using your credit card on the account but it...
@d3kingamerican it's not because credit users don't tip. It's because Uber prevents tipping in certain situations when use your under cash. I've had several instances where it limits my tip to the amount remaining in Uber cash after ride. For instance, $15 credit, a ride fare of 14.78. That leaves 22 cents in the account after the fare. In theory, you should be able to tip using your credit card on the account but it won't all you to do so. You're limited to the 22 cents remaining on the account for the tip.
@Shawn I’ve given over 15,000 uber rides. Business people use expense accounts when traveling on business. They submit their Uber receipts to their employers for reimbursement. I can tell when someone is on business. From my experience 85% of business people that use expense accounts tip. But with VIP meaning they have AMEX platinum they don’t. (Or are unable to for some unknown reason)
Wow! I'm actually taking Uber to arbitration over this very issue! They had the audacity to claim I intended to pay with cash last month instead of using my free credit. They refuse to refund me since the credit has since expired. Ridiculous.
They should seriously be thinking of removing its month to month allowance and make it available annually as it is a travel credit card not a day to day credit card. For that purpose there is AMEX Everyday!
Average people may take two to three vacations every year and during those vacation times may be able to use their UBER credit.
Also, it is very cheap of AMEX to keep it as a month...
They should seriously be thinking of removing its month to month allowance and make it available annually as it is a travel credit card not a day to day credit card. For that purpose there is AMEX Everyday!
Average people may take two to three vacations every year and during those vacation times may be able to use their UBER credit.
Also, it is very cheap of AMEX to keep it as a month allowance for its high end credit card. They need to be constantly reminded that it is not AMEX Everyday card.
Rode with uber last night twice and my uber cash wasn't automatically applied to the fare...
This change is welcome. I don’t have an Amex Plat but I do use Uber Cash exclusively as you save 5% when you reload in increments of $100. Most of the time it seems to automatically select the Uber Cash balance but it also frequently defaults back to a credit card. For the life of me, I’ve been entirely unable to figure out the programming logic that causes this, it appears wildly inconsistent.
I'm going to LAX tonight with Uber, so I'll see if it works.. using my Sept credit just under the wire. Thanks for the info because I was already sweating trying to remember about uber cash etc.
@d3kingamerican - so someone who has an Amex platinum credit won’t tip? Using your rationale why would someone tip at a restaurant if using a gift card.
In other words, it doesn’t make sense.
Maybe people don’t tip because I believe youre getting what 80% of the fare.
If people don’t tip I bet it has largely nothing to do with the Amex credit.
I appreciate the change but it's actually going back to the way it was in the beginning. I can't tell you how many times I missed out on my Uber credits after they made the change to manually selecting Uber cash.
A. I am clearly an idiot as I never even knew about this.
B. I am still confused.
Theoretically, that’s good, but I still haven’t been able to get Uber to stop violating my corporate policy by charging tips from an Uber Cash personal trip to my corporate green (not Platinum) Amex card that is not set as my default card and which wasn’t selected as a payment method for the Uber Cash trip. I’ve had to stop using Uber on business trips. I’ve finally found someone who swears it’s been escalated and...
Theoretically, that’s good, but I still haven’t been able to get Uber to stop violating my corporate policy by charging tips from an Uber Cash personal trip to my corporate green (not Platinum) Amex card that is not set as my default card and which wasn’t selected as a payment method for the Uber Cash trip. I’ve had to stop using Uber on business trips. I’ve finally found someone who swears it’s been escalated and they’re looking into it, but I’m not holding my breath. Trying to deal with their customer service on a non-routine issue is extraordinarily frustrating since customer service personnel tend to start from scratch without reading (or possibly not even having access to) the entire history. I still think they need to fix programming associated with Amex Platinum Uber Cash rides. Ultimately, I’ve had to dispute the charges via Amex since I gave them authorization to charge my Chase Visa, not my green corporate Amex card.
Uber tells drivers when the passenger is AMEX platinum because they are designated VIPs. And VIPs never tip why would they use their free uber credit towards a tip ? If you are an AMEX platinum holder you will be given a 1 star by your driver. I hate AMEX platinum card holders that use uber. Cheapskates take uber x .
It's a huge change I think for casual users........I used to use Uber 4-5 times a month and got so irritated with the change to having to manually select Uber cash that I just stopped riding.........this change will make a difference for me.........
@Beachfan: If you use Uber business profile for work travel (and you should) it uses different payment options that don't interfere.
Never mind, I see you point out the way around, but it’s now harder for me, most of my use is on business.
Is there a way around this? This sucks for anyone who uses Uber for work. I only want to use it on personal travel. If Uber cash is being drained on my business trips( instead of my corporate credit card) this is awful.
@Kaz
We have two Amex Platinum cards in our household, both linked to the same Uber account
We get $30 ($15x2) added to our Uber account every month (and $70 in December)
For those who don’t Uber, use Uber Eats when your order food delivered
It’s about the same cost as Other delivery services
You are implying it’s Amex making this easier to use but Uber credits aren’t just Amex. I get Uber credits from dining etc as well. It sounds like Uber is changing how they handle Uber credits.
Am I missing something?
The result is the same but I think it’s a misrepresentation that Amex is doing anything that would improve the customer experience. Everything they have involves hoops.
Super, I had missed the process before although when I called AmEx, the SCA credited my account for the 6 months ($90) I’d missed
I wonder how this will work for those that have more than one Platinum card. Would I only be able to use $15 per ride or food order?
That's somewhat good, however i hoped they would give this credit for the whole year or even in 6 months increments like the Saks credit. I wouldn't even mind if they gave the credit at the end of the specific cycle (just to avoid people using the credit and then downgrading/cancelling the card).
A good number of people (like me) use Uber while traveling and do not necessarily travel every month but within a 3 month or 6 month period, most would do.