Last-Minute Valentine’s Day Plans? 3 Credit Card Perks That Can Help

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Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.

If procrastination is your style and you’re scrambling to put together Valentine’s Day plans without obliterating your budget, take a deep breath. That credit card you were planning to use to earn a bunch of points on your White Castle Valentine’s Day reservation may be able to help you in other ways.

A slew of common credit cards offer concierge services, and many top-tier luxury cards come with credits that offset dining and shopping purchases. Before you throw in the towel and plan for a homemade candlelit dinner, check your wallet for these overlooked perks.

Valentine’s Day credit card perks

If you need help booking dinner or making plans…

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card packs a punch for a $95 annual fee card, offering annual travel credits, comprehensive travel protections and more.

  • You can transfer rewards to all of Chase’s travel partners including World of Hyatt, Southwest Rapid Rewards and many more
  • Long list of travel and shopping protections
  • $50 annual Chase Travel hotel credit
  • Has an annual fee
  • Requires a high credit score

Good to Excellent670–850

18.49%, 24.49%, or 28.49% Variable APR

Earn a $200 cash rewards bonus

The Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card is great if you want simplicity thanks to its flat-rate 2% unlimited cash rewards on purchases and $0 annual fee.

  • High flat-rate return on purchases
  • Intro-APR for purchases and qualifying balance transfers for a year
  • No annual fee
  • Cell phone protection
  • Has a foreign transaction fee
  • Limited redemption options unless you pair it with a Wells Fargo card that allows point transfers

On the American Express site

The American Express Platinum Card® is a premium card loaded with annual statement credits, entertainment benefits, extensive airport lounge access, elite status perks and more. (Enrollment required for select benefits mentioned)

  • Access to 1,550+ airport lounges, including Priority Pass™ Select lounges (enrollment required) and Amex Centurion lounges
  • Statement credit offers worth up to twice what the annual fee costs
  • Elite status perks for hotels and rental cars (Enrollment required for select benefits mentioned)
  • High annual fee
  • Many statement credit offers are complicated and are earned in increments or limited to specific purchases

Highlights

Highlights shown here are provided by the issuer and have not been reviewed by CNBC Select’s editorial staff.

Balance transfer fee

Foreign transaction fee

Good to Excellent670–850

Earn 60,000 bonus ThankYou® Points

The Citi Strata Premier® Card has competitive rewards rates and unlocks access to all of the Citi ThankYou® transfer partners, which boosts the value of your points.

  • Unlocks point transfers to all of the Citi ThankYou® partners, including Emirates Skywards, Choice Privileges, Flying Blue and more
  • Generous bonus spending categories include dining, supermarkets, hotels and flights
  • Valuable welcome bonus
  • Has an annual fee
  • Car rental coverage is secondary, not primary

If you want statement credits on dinner or gifts…

Many of the best credit cards on the market come with generous annual statement credits that apply to purchases you may need to make for Valentine’s Day.

If you’re planning to take your loved one out to dinner, a handful of American Express cards have credits that apply to eligible Resy restaurant purchases. Resy is a popular restaurant reservation platform, and the credits offered by the following Amex cards can help cover your meal or other eligible purchases at over 10,000 U.S. Resy restaurants:

The Chase Sapphire Reserve® (see rates and fees) can also help cover your meal thanks to an annual $300 dining credit that applies to restaurants in the Sapphire Exclusive Tables program (up to $150 in credit semi-annually).

For last-minute gifts, the Amex Platinum offers a wealth of shopping benefits, including credits for eligible purchases at lululemon and Saks Fifth Avenue. If your partner is a fitness buff, you can get up to $75 in statement credits each quarter for eligible purchases at U.S. lululemon stores or lululemon.com (excludes outlet stores; enrollment required).

For ritzier purchases, the card offers up to $100 in statement credits annually for purchases at Saks Fifth Avenue or saks.com on your Platinum Card (up to $50 in statement credits from January through June and up to $50 in statement credits from July through December). No minimum purchase required (enrollment required).

The Sapphire Reserve also offers shopping credits in the form of a $250 credit for The Shops at Chase, but you’ll need to spend $75,000 on the card to unlock this (and other) benefits.

If you want discounts on Valentine’s Day purchases…

Before you pay for your Valentine’s gifts or make reservations, be sure to check which targeted deals are available for your cards.

Most major card issuers feature discounts to cardholders through card-linked offers you can activate online. These deals typically offer a statement credit or additional cash back or points on eligible purchases. They can be applied to almost any type of purchase, but frequently include benefits for restaurants and shopping.

Simply log in to your account to browse your available offers and activate them. Card-linked deals are offered by many card issuers, including:

Why trust CNBC Select?

For rates and fees of the American Express Platinum Card®, click here.

For rates and fees of the American Express® Gold Card, click here.

For rates and fees for the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card, click here.

For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card, click here.

Editorial Note: Opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the Select editorial staff’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any third party.




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