Online shopping is the status quo nowadays. It’s simply much easier for consumers to click a few buttons and have items show up directly at their door than it is to venture out to brick-and-mortar stores.
There’s no doubt that Amazon and its Prime service was the pioneer in the online shopping space, but now the proliferation of online shopping has its competitors wanting in on the action.
Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, has a delivery subscription service of its own dubbed Walmart+, and it’s complimentary for those who have The Platinum Card® from American Express.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to sign up for the Walmart+ membership that’s included in your Amex Platinum card’s benefits, break down the benefits of the service, and analyze how it stacks up against Amazon Prime.
Overview of the Amex Platinum Card
Key Benefits of Amex Platinum Card
A complimentary Walmart+ membership is an exclusive benefit of the Amex Platinum card, but the card offers numerous other benefits that make it a worthwhile addition to your wallet. Despite its rather hefty annual fee, you’ll get a ton in statement credits to help offset it, including perks like a $240 digital entertainment credit, a $200 Uber Cash credit, and a $200 prepaid hotel credit.
Plus, for those that are frequent travelers, the card offers some of the best travel benefits of any card on the market, including access to over 1,400+ airport lounges worldwide, not to mention complimentary Hilton Honors Gold and Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite status upon enrollment, fee credits for Global Entry/TSA PreCheck and CLEAR, along with rental car elite status and a bevy of other benefits.
Not only does the card offer great perks, but it also earns American Express Membership Rewards points, which are some of our favorite points to have thanks to their flexibility and ability to be transferred to airline partners to book top-notch business and first class airline tickets.
What Is Walmart+?
Image Credit: WalmartWalmart+ is the retailer’s take on expedited delivery service and typically costs $12.95 per month.
Members receive the following benefits and services:
- Free shipping on items with no minimum purchase requirement (excluding items not shipped by Walmart)
- Free grocery delivery with a $35 order minimum
- Rx for less: get select prescriptions for as little as $0 and save up to 85% on thousands more at Walmart pharmacies
- Save 10¢ per gallon on fuel at Walmart, Murphy, Exxon, and Mobile stations
- “Scan & go” contact-free checkout
- Early access to special promotions and events, including online Black Friday deals, product releases, and more
If you’re someone who shops at Walmart fairly often, then these benefits would likely be pretty useful. In fact, the retailer claims that Walmart+ members save $816 per year on average thanks to their benefits.
Of course, the utility of the membership is location-dependent because — as surprising as this may be — not all areas have a Walmart nearby. If you live in such an area, you wouldn’t be able to benefit from the grocery delivery or the discounts on prescriptions and gas. However, you’d still be able to receive free 2-day delivery for online shopping done through Walmart.com.
The Amex Platinum card’s Walmart+ credit covers the monthly cost of the standard $12.95 monthly fee, so even if you’re someone that only orders from Walmart once in a while, you’ll be able to keep the benefits of the membership in your back pocket for no added expense.
Hot Tip: Use your Amex Platinum card for the complimentary Walmart+ membership, then consider one of our best credit cards for shopping at Walmart when making your purchases!
How the Walmart+ Statement Credit Works
Activating your Walmart+ membership as an Amex Platinum cardmember is quite simple. All you need to do is follow these steps:
Step 1: Head to the Walmart+ and Amex Platinum card landing page.
Image Credit: WalmartStep 2: Click Get Started.
Step 3: Next, sign in to your Walmart account, or create one if you don’t already have an account.
Image Credit: WalmartStep 4: From here, all you need to do is enter the payment details of your Amex Platinum card, and then click Join Walmart+ with Platinum Card.
After you’ve done that, you’re all set! Your Walmart+ account will be active and you can start taking advantage of all of its benefits.
Where Is Walmart+ Available?
Technically speaking, Walmart+ is available to anyone who is able to create a Walmart account. That said, many of the benefits will not be all that useful to you if you don’t live in an area that has a Walmart nearby, as you won’t be able to use the food delivery benefit, nor will you be able to receive the gas and pharmacy discounts.
However, you do not need to live near a physical Walmart to benefit from the free same- or 2-day shipping for online purchases you make through the Walmart website.
Walmart+ vs Amazon Prime
For those of you wondering how Walmart+ stacks up against Amazon Prime, here’s a full comparison chart:
| Benefits | Walmart+ | Amazon Prime |
| Item Delivery | Free item delivery with no order minimum (same day and 2-day) | Free item delivery with no order minimum (same day and 2-day) |
| Grocery Delivery | On-demand grocery delivery ($35 order minimum and limited to service area) | On-demand grocery delivery (2-hour response time and limited to service area) |
| Gas | 10¢ off per gallon on fuel at Walmart, Murphy, Exxon, and Mobil stations | N/A |
| Prescriptions | Get select prescriptions for as little as $0;
save up to 85% on thousands more prescriptions | Free 2-day shipping on prescriptions from Amazon Pharmacy; exclusive savings when paying without insurance |
| Shopping Benefits | - Scan & go contact-free checkout
- Early access to special promotions and events, including online Black Friday deals, product releases, and more
| - Prime Member Deals at Whole Foods Market
- Prime Day: savings and discounts across all Amazon products
- Prime Exclusive Deals: discounts exclusive to Prime members
- Prime Try Before You Buy: Try on clothes from the comfort of your home with no upfront charge, and pay only for what you keep
|
| Streaming and Digital Benefits | N/A | - Prime Video (Amazon’s streaming service)
- Prime Music: 2 million songs with no ads; millions of podcast episodes
- Prime Gaming: free games to keep each month
- Amazon Photos: unlimited full-resolution photo storage and 5GB for video storage
|
| Other Benefits | N/A | - Prime Reading: rotating selection of thousands of eBooks, popular magazines, comics, and audiobooks
- Free upgraded shipping at Zappos
|
| Price | - $12.95 per month
- $98 per year
| - $14.99 per month
- $139 per year
|
As you can see, Amazon Prime does offer significantly more benefits than Walmart+ for a relatively small premium — it’ll cost you just $2 more per month or $41 more per year.
That said, whether or not that added expense is worth it to you depends on what benefits you actually value. You might not have any use for many of the Amazon Prime benefits and instead prefer the gas stations savings that Walmart+ can offer you. Alternatively, you might love Amazon Prime for the added streaming and digital benefits it offers like Prime Video, Prime Music, and Amazon Photos.
However, if you’re an Amex Platinum cardholder who currently only uses your Amazon Prime subscription for access to free 2-day delivery, you may want to see if the types of products you order through Amazon are available at Walmart. If they are, you may be able to save some cash by canceling your Prime subscription and activating your complimentary Walmart+ membership.
Depending on where you live, you may even find that having both an Amazon Prime and Walmart+ subscription could be to your advantage, as you can switch back and forth between whichever program offers the best discount or deal for a given item.
Final Thoughts
Walmart+ is one of the few genuine competitors to Amazon Prime when it comes to delivery options and the breadth of available items, and you can get complimentary membership just for being an Amex Platinum cardmember.
Again, its utility will depend on how close a Walmart is to where you live, and how often you shop online with the retailer, but most would agree that it’s always better to have multiple options.
For rates and fees of The Platinum Card® from American Express, click here.
Featured Image Credit:
American Express
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