AmEx Customers Still Flock to Platinum Card at $695, CFO Says

(Bloomberg) -- American Express Co. customers are sticking with the tony Platinum card even after the company decided to ratchet up the annual fee. 

AmEx earlier this year rejiggered many of the rewards on its Platinum product -- from adding $200 in annual hotel credits to offering deals for chartering private jets -- as part of a broad revamp of the card. It also increased the annual fee to $695 from $550.

“The numbers of new cards that we’re acquiring with that higher fee, but the expanded range of benefits, is actually up from the pace we were running at prior to the refresh,” Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey Campbell said Tuesday at a conference sponsored by Barclays Plc. 

With more consumers getting back to traveling and dining out, banks have been rolling out new cards and offering special perks to try to attract some of that spending to their products. 

JPMorgan Chase & Co. last month announced new rewards for dining, hotel stays, car rentals and air travel purchased through its rewards portal for Chase Sapphire Reserve holders. Wells Fargo & Co. has said it’s looking to launch a new rewards card as part of a bigger overhaul of its offerings.

“U.S. premium consumer is hyper-competitive and always will be,” Campbell said. 

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