AMEX Platinum Card Unveils Enhanced S$200 Fashion & Dining Credit

One of the highlights of the AMEX Platinum Credit Card is its annual S$200 Lifestyle Credit, for use at participating dining and shopping merchants across Singapore. This can help offset a big chunk of the S$327 annual fee, and since it’s issued half-yearly, cardholders can potentially enjoy up to 3 x S$100 credits in their first membership year, with no obligation to renew the card for a second year. But American Express has just announced a revamp of the Lifestyle Credit for 2026, which changes the rules of the game significantly. First, it’s been renamed as the Fashion & Dining Credit, which is probably a more accurate description anyway. Second and more importantly, the new system aligns the timing of credit disbursements more closely with the annual fee payment. It effectively sunsets the ability to enjoy 3 x S$100 credits in the first membership year, and some existing cardholders will be harder hit than others. How the 2026 Fashion & Dining Credit works Fashion & Dining Credit Similar to 2025’s Lifestyle Credit, the 2026 Fashion & Dining Credit will be issued as 2x S$100 half-yearly credits, over two redemption periods: Redemption Period 1: 20 January to 30 June 2026 (technically later than 20 January because you need to wait eight weeks for the enrolment link to arrive) Redemption Period 2: 1 July to 31 December 2026 Any unused credits will not be rolled over to the following period, and will be forfeited. This benefit is only for principal cardholders, and spending made on supplementary cards will not trigger the credits. Previously, obtaining the Lifestyle Credit was a two-step process: Register for Lifestyle Credit via landing page Receive enrolment link via email within 8-10 weeks The benefit could only be used after completing step (2). With the 2026 Fashion & Dining Credit, American Express has done away with step (1). But before you get too happy, you should know that the new process will be bad news for some existing cardholders. For existing cardholders Here’s how the 2026 Fashion & Dining Credit will be implemented for cardholders whose last annual fee came in 2025. If you registered for the Lifestyle Credit in 2025, and your annual fee was billed between June and December 2025, you will receive the enrolment link within eight weeks from 20 January 2026 If you registered for the Lifestyle Credit in 2025, and your annual fee was billed between January and May 2025, or if you didn’t register for the Lifestyle Credit in 2025, you will only receive the enrolment link within eight weeks from paying 2026/27’s annual fee The table below summarises the possibilities. Registered for Lifestyle Credit in 2025? 2025/26 Annual Fee Billed Enrolment Link Received Yes Jan to May 2025 8 weeks from payment of 2026/27 annual fee Yes Jun to Dec 2025 8 weeks from 20 Jan 2026 No Anytime in 2025 8 weeks from payment of 2026/27 annual fee ⚠️ Approval vs Annual Fee Billing date Do remember that there’s a time lag between approval and annual fee billing. The annual fee is usually billed one month after approval. For example, my AMEX Platinum Credit Card was approved on 19 September 2025, but the annual fee was only billed on 14 October 2025 Now, if your 2025/26 annual fee was billed between June and December 2025, you’ll be fairly indifferent about this change. I downgraded to the AMEX Platinum Credit Card in September 2025, and managed to spend my H2 2025 credit before year-end. I will now receive H1 2026’s credit sometime in March 2026, and then H2 2026’s credit in July 2026. Come October 2026, I’ll have the option to cancel my card, having already spent 3x S$100 credits. At most, I lose the flexibility to spend the credit in January/February 2026, because of the eight-week time lag. But that’s really the best-case scenario. There are two other possibilities. 2025/26 Annual Fee Billed Managed to Spend H1 2025’s Credit? Credits Enjoyed in 1st Membership Year Jan to May 2025 Yes S$200 (H1 2025, H2 2025) Jan to May 2025 No S$100 (H2 2025) Jun to Dec 2025 No S$300 (H2 2025, H1 2026, H2 2026) If your annual fee was billed between January and May 2025, you will only be able to spend 1-2x S$100 credits in your first membership year. There will also be one group of particularly unfortunate cardholders who were billed the annual fee in late May 2025. Given the time lag involved with receiving the enrolment link, they may have missed out on H1 2025’s credit, and only managed to spend H2 2025’s credit. They might have been expecting to receive another S$100 statement credit in January 2026, but that’s not happening anymore. With the new system, they’ll need to pay 2026/27’s annual fee before getting another credit. In other words, they only enjoy 1x S$100 credit in their first membership year! In fairness, this is a bit of an edge case, and it’s worth pointing out that even though the credit cycles run Jan-Jun/Jul-Dec, American Express will award H1 2026’s credit to cardholders whose annual fee was billed from Jun-Dec 2025, which provides a month of buffer. For new cardholders If your AMEX Platinum Credit Card was approved in January 2026 or later, you’ll receive your Fashion & Dining Credit within eight weeks of paying your 2026/27 annual fee. You will basically enjoy 2x S$100 credits in your first membership year, and here’s where we see the ultimate endgame of this new system: eliminating the “3x S$100 credits in Year 1” scenario. There is now a much closer alignment of the timing of credit disbursements with annual fee payment. While it was a nice little windfall to get 3x S$100 credits in Year 1, that’s probably not what American Express originally intended. Will it really take eight weeks to get the credit? Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the entire setup is the need to wait up to eight weeks to receive the enrolment link required to activate the credit. This could very well simply be an appalling IT setup, though the suspiciously long lag time invites more sinister conspiracy theories (or a good application of Hanlon’s Razor, i.e. don’t assume malice when incompetence is more likely). It means you’ll want to avoid applying for this card in May/June and November/December periods, lest the eight-week delay cause you to miss out on a credit. For example, if you were approved for the card in June 2026, you will lose out on H1 2026’s credit if the registration link doesn’t arrive by 30 June 2026 (and it’s unlikely to). For what it’s worth, back in 2025 I registered for the Lifestyle Credit on 30 October 2025 and received my enrolment link on 8 December 2025, which is a wait time of just over five weeks. But given that this is a new system, 2025’s data points may not hold much weight. Participating merchants for 2026 Overall, the list of participating merchants for the Fashion & Dining Credit has been significantly expanded from 2025, though there have also been some removals (most notably Uniqlo). The Credit may not be available at all locations of a given merchant, so be sure to refer to the PDF for the authoritative list. Fashion 👗 Participating Fashion Merchants & Other Stories Ba&sh* Benjamin Barker Brunello Cucinelli* Calvin Klein Charles & Keith Chloe Club 21 Coach Cos Decathlon Dover Street Market DKNY Emporio Armani* Giorgio Armani* Hugo Boss Love, Bonito Lululemon Marks & Spencer Manolo Blahnik* Massimo Dutti Michael Kors Montblanc* MUJI Pedro Polo Ralph Lauren Saint Laurent Stone Island* Swatch *Also 10Xcelerator partner Some of these merchants are also part of the 10Xcelerator programme, which offers AMEX Platinum Credit Card members an enhanced rate of 3.47 mpd, versus the usual 0.69 mpd. That may not sound as impressive as the 4 mpd of other cards, but believe me, this is already considered excellent by AMEX standards! Dining Love Dining partners 🍽️ Participating Hotels Copthorne King’s Hotel Connections Princess Terrace Cafe Tien Court Restaurant Fairmont Singapore Anti:Dote Asian Market Cafe Prego The Eight Grand Copthorne Waterfront Singapore Food Capital Riverside Terrace Sansara The Lobby Lounge JW Marriott Singapore South Beach Akira Back Beach Road Kitchen M Hotel Singapore Cafe 2000 The Buffet Restaurant Orchard Hotel Singapore Bar Intermezzo Hua Ting Restaurant The Orchard Cafe Pan Pacific Orchard Singapore Mosella Florette Paradox Merchant Court Blue Potato Crossroads Bar Ellenborough Market Cafe Pullman Singapore Hill Street Madison’s MOGA Resorts World Sentosa CHIFA! Soi Social Singapore Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel Crossroads Cafe Crossroads Buffet Lobby Lounge St. Regis Singapore Sophia The Tea Room The St. Regis Bar Yan Ting Sofitel Singapore City Centre 1864 Racines Swissotel The Stamford Clove Kopi Tiam SKAI Bar SKAI Restaurant Stamford Brasserie The Fullerton Hotel Town Restaurant The Capitol Kempinski 15 Stamford Restaurant Capital Bistro Bar Patisserie The Bar at 15 Stamford Lobby Lounge W Sentosa Cove WOO BAR SKIRT Kitchen Table 🍽️ Participating Restaurants Bacha Coffee Barossa Steak & Grill Cali Cultivate Cafe Escape Harry’s Jia He Chinese Restaurant L’Angelus La Nonna Lawry’s The Prime Rib Les Bouchons Napoleon Oud Restaurant Peach Garden Quenino Sanctuary Tearoom Santi’s Pizza & Produce Sarai Fine Thai Sen of Japan Si Chuan Dou Hua Spizza Tablescape Restaurant & Bar Tanoke Tapas 24 Vineyard at HortPark Wooloomooloo Steakhouse Xin Cuisine Chinese Restaurant The Fashion & Dining Credit is stackable with Love Dining discounts; all that matters is the nett amount charged to the card. For example, if I were to dine as a party of two and spend S$167 on food: The 50% Love Dining discount would cut the bill to S$83.50 After 10% service charge and 9% GST, the bill becomes S$100.12 This will trigger the S$100 Fashion & Dining Credit, making the total out-of-pocket cost just S$0.12 Note that some Love Dining restaurants (like Sen of Japan) apply the service charge and GST to the pre-Love Dining price, so your calculations will be slightly different in that case. Michelin-Starred Restaurants 🍽️ Participating Restaurants Candlenut Odette Pangium Established Dining Concepts 🍽️ Participating Restaurants Belimbing Restaurant Cedric Grolet Singapore Claudine Como Cuisine at Como Orchard Cote Singapore Fico Ippoh Tempura Bar Marche Somma Restaurant Tanjong Beach Club The Coconut Club Established Chinese Dining Brands 🍽️ Participating Restaurants Crystal Jade Golden Palace Crystal Jade Hong Kong Kitchen Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao Crystal Jade Palace Crystal Jade Pavilion Imperial Treasure Cantonese Cuisine Imperial Treasure Fine Chinese Cuisine Imperial Treasure Fine Shanghai Cuisine Imperial Treasure Huai Yang Cuisine Imperial Treasure Steamboat Restaurant Imperial Treasure Super Peking Duck Imperial Treasure Fine Teochew Cuisine Pu Tien Qin Restaurant & Bar Sufood Tong Le Private Dining Treasures Yi Dian Xin Tunglok Heen Tunglok Peking Duck Tunglok Seafood Tunglok Signatures Uncle Fong Hotpot Restaurant Ushio Sumiyaki & Sake Bar Conclusion The AMEX Platinum Credit Card has relaunched its Lifestyle Credit as the Fashion & Dining Credit for 2026. While the quantum is the same, the disbursement is now more closely aligned with the payment of the annual fee. If you paid your annual fee between June and December 2025, you’ll still be able to receive 3x S$100 credits in the first membership year. But if your annual fee was paid before June 2025, or from January 2026 onwards, the best you can now do is 2x S$100 credits in the first membership year. If it’s any consolation, there has been a significant expansion in the number of places you can use the Fashion & Dining Credit, so it shouldn’t be difficult to find a place to spend it.