This week, American Express Platinum cardmembers gained a new benefit — well, sort of. While there is now another perk to the card, it’s not one being directly offered by Amex. Instead, the Walmart+ benefit that the card added in 2021 has suddenly become more valuable as it will soon come bundled with the Paramount+ streaming service.
Earlier this week (and following reports that the retailer was in talks with a few different streaming services), Walmart announced that users of its Walmart+ membership would have access to Paramount+’s Essential Plan as part of their subscription. Retailing at $4.99 a month, this Essential Plan is an ad-supported tier of the service that includes “tens of thousands of episodes & movies” as well as the NFL on CBS live and more. Notably, despite the addition of Paramount+, Walmart+ will be retaining its current membership prices of $12.95 a month or $98 a year. Although Walmart says that this addition to the service will happen “soon,” it’s currently unclear exactly when it will begin.
I actually signed up for Walmart+ last fall when the American Express Platinum card added a monthly credit that offsets the entire cost of the service’s membership. Since then, I’ve used the Scan & Go feature that’s unlocked by my subscription a couple of times, while not really making use of the free shipping or gas discounts I’m also entitled to. Thus, I’m pretty excited to now have a benefit I’m more likely to utilize — especially for free.
Funny enough, Paramount+ is now among a few streaming services that Platinum cardholders can gain access to thanks to the card’s credits. That’s because Amex already offered a $20 a month Digital Entertainment Credit, triggered by purchases of Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+, Peacock, Audible, Sirius XM, and The New York Times. Of course, with streaming services becoming the new cable, it’s helpful to have a few of them bundled or discounted in different ways if you can.
For all of the benefits and perks that cardmembers enjoy for their eye-popping $695 annual fee for the Amex Platinum, it’s always fun to discover some of the hidden benefits of the card as well (such as my status matching adventure that’s still going for me but has sadly been killed off for newcomers). I’d put this Paramount+ subscription perk in that category as it may be difficult for Amex to advertise it but it is available to those who look beyond the Walmart+ label and dive into what that membership actually now entails. Considering that I was already getting positive value from the Platinum card before this or other hidden perks are tallied up, news like this is just icing on the cake.