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Amex Cell Phone Protection details
American Express continues to add cardholder value with the addition of a new cell phone insurance benefit that will be added to a list of their premium Amex cards. Beginning April 1, 2021 Amex will cover 2 claims per 12 month period of $800 a piece with a $50 deductible. Covered items include when a cardmember’s cell phone is lost or stolen, a cracked screen, and reimbursement can go towards repair or replacement costs. The cracked screen is a big one – many other credit card cell phone insurance policies don’t include this benefit.
Don’t forget that Amex Business Platinum earns 5x on mobile phone purchases through June. This would be killer if it became permanent.
*The biggest stipulation is that the covered cell phone must be listed on the cardmember’s wireless bill and the prior month’s bill was paid by an eligible card – listed below. US only. It doesn’t stipulate that you had to have purchase your phone with that card which is a biggie.
American Express Platinum Card
Amex Cards that will offer Cell Phone Protection beginning 4/1/21
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Platinum Card® from American Express
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Business Platinum Card®
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Centurion® Card from American Express
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Business Centurion Card®
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Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card
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Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business American Express Card
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Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card
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Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card
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The Platinum Card® Exclusively for Charles Schwab
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The Platinum Card® Exclusively for Morgan Stanley
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The Platinum Card® Exclusively for Goldman Sachs
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The Centurion® Card Exclusively for Goldman Sachs
Further proof Amex gets it
Last year we saw Amex add a cell phone reimbursement perk to many of their cards ( I carry Amex Platinum, Business Platinum, and Green and they all had benefits – I saved $50 a month ) . This added benefit resulted in me pivoting my cell phone bill from my Chase Ink Business Preferred to Amex. While there are cards that charge far lower fees, and I would have loved if Amex added this benefit to their cheaper cards like Gold and Green, the added cracked screen benefit is enough to sway me to put my bill on Amex.
How does this compare across the space?
- Chase Ink Business Preferred
- $600 claim ( 2 per 12 months ) with $100 deductible
- note that this card does earn 3x on these purchases
- Chase Freedom Flex
- $800 claim ( 2 per 12 moths ) and $50 deductible
- Chase IHG Premier
- $800 claim ( 2 per 12 months ) and $50 deductible
- Citi Prestige
- $1000 claim ( 2 per 12 months ) with a $50 deductible ( But you can only have a total of $1500 total in 12 months )
My cell phone bill is a business expense and I’m not planning to cancel my Amex Business Platinum anytime soon so it will be happily collecting points from those purchases.
Don’t forget about all of those wonderful transfer partners
Which is how we have flown like this…
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.