American Express has a wonderful benefit associated with the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA): They waive the annual fee on every single one of their credit cards for all active duty military personnel and their spouses! While this is true for every Amex card, it is an especially valuable perk on the exclusive The Platinum Card® from American Express.
We wrote about this several years ago, when we discovered it to be one of the best perks in all of travel rewards. Since then, some other issuers have jumped on board to offer waived fees on top travel cards to active duty military members, too. That’s great–and certainly benefits service members even more! But we have to give a special nod to Amex for being pioneers in offering this benefit, going above and beyond what SCRA requires. AND we think the deal on the Amex Platinum card is the overall best available to active duty military. Yes, the Amex program is still going strong in 2024, so this remains a great option for active duty service members and their spouses.
SCRA Background
In 2003, the US Congress passed the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA), which Military.com describes as follows: “The SCRA provides a wide range of protections for individuals entering, called to active duty in the military, or deployed servicemembers. It is intended to postpone or suspend certain civil obligations to enable service members to devote full attention to duty and relieve stress on the family members of those deployed servicemembers.”
Many of these protections are aimed at credit card interest rates and fees, and as part of the response, American Express also took the additional (and impressive) step of eliminating all annual fees on their credit cards for active duty military members.
I would highly suggest that military members use this incredible perk to open some top-tier credit cards that might otherwise be out of reach because of high annual fees, namely The Platinum Card® from American Express.
Platinum Card Benefits
Normally, The Platinum Card® from American Express is truly an exclusive card because it has a $695 annual fee that is (for everyone else) not waived. However, this is an opportunity for military members to have the most exclusive card around for $0 in annual fees.
This card has a welcome offer of 80,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend $8,000 in the first 6 months your account is open. Terms apply.
There are too many additional benefits offered with this card to list them all, and American Express lists them as ‘over $1500 in Platinum value,’ which further adds to this card’s allure.
Getting the Fees Waived
In order to have American Express apply your active duty military eligibility to waive the annual fees you need to call them (the number on the back of your card or 1-800-253-1720) and inform them you are serving on active duty and you’d like to request that they designate your account in accordance with the SCRA.
It is conceivable that the phone representative will not have heard of this program, in which case you should ask to speak to a supervisor. You will have to answer a handful of questions about your personal military situation and once American Express verifies this information (many report 4-8 weeks as the normal processing time) you will receive a ‘secure message’ on your account login stating you’ve been approved and all your fees will be waived.
Firsthand Experience with this Amex Benefit
My friend Derek is an active duty Army colonel (major at the time) and he opened The Platinum Card® from American Express and I wanted to report his firsthand experience getting the fees waived. He initially called right after he received the card, and they told him he needed to wait until the annual fee charge posted to his account before they could initiate the process.
When the annual fee did hit his account, he called and the initial American Express representative he spoke with knew exactly what he was referring to, and she asked him some very basic questions (officer or enlisted? year of commission or enlisted?); the entire call took less than 5 minutes. They told him it would take 45-60 days to process (they have to verify with their DoD database) and the fee would credit back to his account. He did have to pay the annual fee out of pocket upfront and was reimbursed for it within 2 months, so the net cost was $0 for this and all future years.
Update 2: Another Army officer I’m working with opened this card and this was his experience: “Amex handled my request within 2 days. Never even charged me outright- worked seamlessly.”
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