Deal has ended, view more American Express deals by clicking here.
The Offer
- American Express is offering cardholders one year of Blinkist for free
The Fine Print
- This offer is eligible to users w/ an American Express Card valid for a limited time only through February 28, 2021.
- After your 1-year trial, you will be charged the full amount of $99.99 and will continue annually until you cancel your subscription.
Our Verdict
Looks like Blinkist condenses non fiction books into 15 minute audio segments with the key pieces of information from those books. Interesting idea as sometimes these books have a lot of filler. Keep in mind this enrolls you in auto billing so you need to cancel before the year is up otherwise you’ll be charged $99.99. American Express is also offering free Calm membership and credits for Variis by Equinox.
Hat tip to reader Daniel C
I just got Lasik so am trying to reduce screen time. This and the Audible free trial will be good to keep me entertained.
I got this offer in my email yesterday. I don’t think it’s worth a Benjamin to me, but for a free year, I’ll give it a try.
Err
I personally find this valuable, since I’ve been using the free version of Blinkist. Essentially the service summarizes a variety of nonfiction books into 15-20 minutes, and even have an audio versions of these summary. It’s a great way to discover new books, and I personally listen to it when I go to bed.
Why spend all of the effort putting together this product, and then name it something stupid like Blinkist?
Dump the junk, lower the fee. Canceling my schwab plat tomorrow after cashing out (no retention). Gold goes in the trash in December.
Why not use the last 2 months of credits first?
Fee posted on Sept 25. $550 annual fee for $40 in credits? (I use the streaming credits out of spite but they’re worth $0 to me. I don’t even own a TV). Uber also worth $0. More headache than it’s worth.
Streaming credit can be used to get Amazon GC.
Uber credits can be used on UberEats for picking up food with no fees, how can that be worth $0 to you?
$200 airline fee resets in January.
3 extra months of Amex Platinum = $137.50. Downgrade to a Green card for $150 annual fee and you’ll have to pay $112.50. That plus the $137.50 = $250 spent to get $200 in airline credits and a bunch of credits. You’ll come out ahead.
Or play the game even better and cancel the Green card within the first 30 days of the downgrade and you should get away with no fees other than the $137.50 you paid for the 3 months of Platinum.
If you don’t like the headache, I get it. But you’re leaving so much value on the table.
Anytime you want to order me a $15 meal to a restaurant near me so I can pickup, I’ll gladly Venmo you $7.50. 🙂
I wasn’t aware you can get gift cards with it. That’s much better, I’ll look into it.
Uber Eats marks up their prices $1-2 per item. Also, you’ll find many restaurants offer 10-25% off for calling in orders. Uber sucks. We ‘used’ them twice in the last year. First time the food was cold and items were missing. Second time after two hours they just canceled the order.
The $200 credit is a pain in the ass to use. Plus, no one should be travelling right now.
“If you don’t like the headache, I get it. But you’re leaving so much value on the table.” — By your own math it’s $200-300 for all that effort/distraction. That’s not a lot of value.
Amex could be working to attract high-dollar clients but they create these stupid ‘benefits’ that moderate to high income earners largely roll their eyes at.
My math showed $137.50 for $305 in credits. If you don’t like the effort in extracting value, by all means cancel. A lot of us on this forum are here for exactly this sort of value extraction.
I never argued that Amex is doing a great job or that the $200 airline credit is easy to use, but that won’t stop me from profiting from them.
By the way, Uber doesn’t mark up anything, the restaurants set their own prices and many of them inflate it to make up for the commission they have to pay. Many of them don’t understand the numbers or view being on UberEats as a marketing expense, so the prices match the menu item. You have to know which restaurants in your town don’t mark up the prices on the apps. To make it easier for you, most of the chains don’t mark up.
Best of luck whether you decide to collect $167.50 for your efforts or cancel. It sounds like canceling would probably be best for you.
Excellent value discussion, veeRob’s spot-on.
However, the credits should only be valued at what you’d otherwise spend. If I’d normally cook a meal for $8 but replace that with a $15 Uber Eats order, the $15 credit was only worth $8 to me. Buying $50 socks from Saks is only worth the $30 they’d cost at a normal retailer.
Exactly. I wish more people pointed this out. The $15 credit isn’t really worth $15 if you weren’t spending that much anyway.
Would you please explain how to use AMEX Plat streaming credits to buy Amazon gift cards, and which gift cards, exactly, qualify?
Sigh, Amex. More stuff most people have never heard of, would not otherwise pay for, and you’ll call it “added value”, instead of adding broad and useful things for today’s consumer like Chase has been doing.
Amex really needs to stop with the gimmicky add ons.
If they would make their travel credits work in buying tickets I would be more ecstatic. It’s the reason I went from amex plat to gold.
How is it better for the gold card? I have both. What is more useful and how does this work with travel credits?
Signed up. Used Paypal and immediately went into Paypal to cancel the billing agreement — because I *know* I will otherwise forget!
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Have to give credit card for sign up. Will charge $99 after one year. Tried giving a VGC but it would not take it. Gets denied from the card end.
you can cancel auto renew right away and your membership continues for a yr
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I used PayPal and yes, like the other comment you can cancel the trial right away and keep the year
Awesome, congrats!