Almost exactly two years ago, the American Express Platinum Card introduced a new perk that enabled cardholders to enjoy a free Walmart+ membership — and I’ve been using this perk since day one. As it turns out, after activating the benefit, all you have to do is charge your Platinum card for the monthly Walmart+ membership fee. Then, the statement credit will be applied. It’s a pretty simple system when it works… but, unfortunately, I found a flaw earlier this week.
Apparently, the Amex card I had on file with Walmart was one that expired last month. So, “to ensure [my] membership renewal experience is seamless,” as they put it, they went ahead and charged a different card I had on my account and emailed me after. Of course, this “helpful” alternative meant that I would be missing out on my monthly Platinum credit since the payment wasn’t put on that card.
Upon realizing what had happened, I figured I’d try contacting Walmart support. After all, it should be as simple as canceling one payment and charging a different card, right? Of course not! For whatever reason, getting this fixed would actually require them to cancel my membership, refund the transaction, and then reactivate the account while charging the right card. While complicated, this wouldn’t be a big deal — except for one possible hiccup.
If you’ll recall, back in June, Walmart+ ran a special promotion where members could upgrade their included Paramount+ plan to Paramount+ SHOWTIME for six months. And while the chat agent said I’d be able to reactivate it after canceling, I didn’t quite believe them (they may have just meant that I could reactivate my Paramount+ without realizing I was referring to the free temporary upgrade). Not wanting to lose the last couple of months of this perk nor deal with any other unforeseen issues with this whole cancelation plan, I gave up and decided to just eat the charge.
Even though, at the end of the day, it’s only $12.95, I’m a bit annoyed with how this whole episode went down. For one, it would have been nice if Walmart informed me of the declined payment and gave me a reasonable amount of time to resolve the issue before charging a different card (which, by the way, was my Discover card that I had on file since it offered 5% back at Walmart last quarter). On top of that, I really don’t understand why they made the refund and repayment process so complicated. I can’t help but think this could eventually come back to bite them as people who might be less patient than I am might instead opt to just cancel altogether and never return when presented with this predicament.
In any case, while this “free” perk cost me $13 this month, I’ve made damn sure to update my card info so it won’t happen again. Plus, I did manage to get an article out of it! So, if you’re taking advantage of this Platinum benefit, be sure to keep an eye on your Walmart wallet to hopefully avoid a fate similar to mine.