Art of the Triple Stack - Combining Other Deals with Amex's Business Platinum Dell Credit for Increased Savings
One of the card's benefits to the American Express Business Platinum is an annual $400 Dell Credit split into two $200 reimbursements, one valid from January through June, the other from June through December. As we recently turned the clock into a new year, I recently made a purchase using the first of these $200 credits on Dell.com. When making the purchase, I also activated a cashback offer from Rakuten and split the payment between my AMEX Business Platinum and my Amex Gold Card, which I had loaded in my Amex Portal to save $50 on Dell Purchases of $250 or more. By taking advantage of these three deals, I hit the triple stack, saving a few more dollars off a purchase of a camera I was hoping to scoop. I'll quickly rehash what I did.
The Item
I've been in the market for a new do-it-all versatile video camera, great for capturing my adventures on the go. I'm not too gadgety despite already owning an excellent DJI for my water pursuits. Instead, recent trips have made me realize that I could benefit from an easier way to capture some of my experiences (and rely less on my cell phone), so I turned my attention to the Insta360 X4, an action camera boasting 8K resolution. They are for sale on Dell for ~$500, which, when factoring in the credit, would make it the best price around for scooping up a new one—time to swing into action.
Activating the Offers
The Amex Business Platinum Dell Credit is pretty easy to use. Before making your purchase, you must enroll in the offer on Amex.com. Since I was already enrolled, I was good to go on that front.
As the $50 off $250 offer on my Amex Gold was temporary, I needed to add it to my card from the 'Offers' section of my Amex dashboard. Once that was done, I was all set.
Finally, when I was ready to shop, I went to Rakuten to activate a 5% cashback offer. The website Cashback Monitor revealed that this was one of the best current offers for sites offering cashback on Dell purchases, so given the consistent tracking I've had with Rakuten, this was a no-brainer.
It's worth mentioning that if you're chasing status with an airline (or otherwise focusing on accruing airline miles) like American Airlines, you could click through Dell's page on the AAdvantage Shopping Portal (or the portal that corresponds to your airline of choice) to activate that offer, in lieu of Rakuten cash back. Doing so would earn you both AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points (toward status) for your purchase.
Purchasing the Item
After adding the camera to my cart and navigating through the checkout process, I made sure to split payment across the two credit cards, the AMEX Business Platinum and the Amex Gold, to satisfy each offer's terms. Dell offers a nifty feature that allows you to split payments, which makes it easy to charge precisely $200 on my Amex Business Platinum to exhaust the credit fully. I could have split the remainder between my Amex Gold and another card, say one offering cash back or bonus spending in its own right, but opting for easy, I put the remainder on my Gold Card.
Clicking 'Use multiple payment methods' will allow you to use up to 2 credit cards - Source: Dell.com
The post-tax total for the camera came out to $548.74.
Factoring in the $250 credits from Amex and the $24.95 in cash back I'll receive from Rakuten (the cashback is assessed on pre-tax amounts), my actual dollar cost will be $273.79, over $125 cheaper than the best price I could find for the item new elsewhere.
From my experience the Amex credits post rather quickly, usually within a few days.
Not bad savings for a few extra minutes of clicking around, right?