What is the new Amex Platinum $200 Oura Credit?

According to some rumors/based on Amex's site, the revamped The Platinum Card® from American Express is coming out with a unique, new $200 Oura credit. For Oura ring lovers, this is fantastic news. For those interested in the health wearable space, this is a pretty interesting addition to the space.

What is Oura?

Oura is a Finnish health technology company that is best known for their product, the Oura Ring. The Oura Ring tracks a wide range of personal health data through a ring that you wear on one of your fingers. It tracks your stress levels, sleep data, heart rate, activity level and your readiness for the day ahead.

The Oura Ring is connected to the Oura app you can get on your phone which gives you all the info mentioned above.

The Oura ring itself sells for $349 (lowest price) for their newest model, the Oura Ring 4. The price can go up to $499 if you choose gold or rose gold for the color of the ring. The silver and black colors sell for $349.

An underrated option is to purchase the Oura Ring Gen3 as it sells for cheaper. The Oura Ring Gen3 is a bit different as you can choose the style of the ring AND the color. There’s the Heritage design that Oura markets as a “classic, plateau design.” That sells for $199 at its cheapest price. The Horizon design is marketed as a sleek, uninterrupted design by Oura. That style starts at $229—also more affordable than the Gen 4.

The Oura ring subscription is free for your first month with Oura as a trial month. Then you pay $5.99 a month or $69.99 for the year.

The Oura Ring is best known for sleep data and is known to be more accurate than competitors like the Apple Watch. It tracks your sleep across a number of categories including how long it takes you to fall asleep, what time you go to bed, deep sleep, REM sleep, restfulness (tracks you moving around or getting up), and total sleep time.

What can the $200 Oura credit be used on?

While it’s pretty safe to say that the $200 Oura credit can be used on the actual Oura ring itself, it’s unclear whether or not it can be used for Oura ring subscriptions.

Is the $200 Oura credit useful?

The Oura credit on the The Platinum Card® from American Express will be valuable but the question is how valuable?

According to the terms and conditions, the credit has several exclusion:

Excludes Oura membership purchases, other hardware purchases (e.g., chargers, add-ons), extended warranty purchases, Oura gift card purchases, and purchases made using third-party retailers, delivery services or other intermediaries.

Since the Oura credit only goes towards the ring itself, it is still valuable but only for the first year of having the The Platinum Card® from American Express (or whatever frequency you buy Oura rings at). This is a bit unfortunate. That said, you could use the credit to cover the entire cost of a Gen3 Oura Ring.

Now (in theory) if the Oura credit goes toward BOTH the ring and subscription, this is the maximum value you could receive with the Oura credit. You could purchase the Oura Ring Gen 3 Horizon style for $199 and use the credit for the first year of the The Platinum Card® from American Express. And then the following years you could use the credit towards subscription use. If you wanted to splurge on a brand new ring, the Oura credit would make it much more affordable and then you still wouldn't have to worry about the subscription costs after the first year. This would be incredible, but based on the leaked terms and conditions, it's not very likely this will be the case.

With the $200 credit going towards only the ring, it means that the credit is only useful to you for the first year of the The Platinum Card® from American Express or if you keep the card for 2-3 years (or more) and you want to buy a new ring. Or if you wanted to buy a ring for a friend. Or if you wanted to pay for a friend’s subscription using your card.

If you are already dead set about getting an Oura Ring, this credit will be useful regardless. You will save a considerable amount of money on the ring itself.

What was the experience like with an Oura credit on the American Express Gold card?

With my American Express Gold card, I was able to use a different Oura credit where if I spent $250 with Oura, I would receive a $50 credit to my account. The problem was that I had already purchased an Oura Ring for myself before I got the card.

However, I knew that my sister was envious of my Oura Ring and was interested in getting one. I proposed to her the idea of buying her one for her college graduation. She was beyond excited. Perfect opportunity to use the Oura credit on my American Express Gold card.

Does the $200 Oura credit help justify the annual fee on the revamped The Platinum Card® from American Express?

As of today, the The Platinum Card® from American Express is the most expensive personal credit card on the market with its annual fee of $895.

There’s another article where we get into where they evaluate the benefits/credits on the The Platinum Card® from American Express before the Oura credit rumor got out.

Based on our valuation of the credits, you are getting $1,170 in value at minimum with the The Platinum Card® from American Express. That means with the addition of the Oura credit, you could be getting up to $1,370 in value.

I’d say the Oura credit definitely helps justify the hefty annual fee for the The Platinum Card® from American Express as you are getting an extra $495 in value on top of the $895 annual fee. And that’s not even mentioning the welcome bonus and earning rates. Notably, the Gen 3 ring is essentially “free” with the Amex Platinum.

That said, each person’s situation will be different. So the card may not be the best choice for you, depending on how you think you’ll use the credits.

My review on Oura

It took some getting used to but I love my Oura Ring. I have the Oura Ring Gen3 and I’ve had it for almost a year now. When I was thinking about getting the Oura Ring, I was deciding between an Apple Watch and the Oura Ring but I did not want to have another screen distracting me. Full disclosure, I have two phones and two computers and I already spend enough time on those devices. I also heard anecdotally from friends and read online that the Oura Ring was much more accurate about tracking sleep than the Apple Watch.

Anyways, I bought the ring and paid for the subscription for the first year upfront. The sleep feature is by far the best feature on the ring. There are all sorts of categories in the sleep feature but the overall score is most helpful to me. Based on the overall score I adjust my sleep. I’ll try going to bed earlier, exercising early, turning off the lights a bit earlier, etc etc. You may say, isn't this obvious? Well, no because if my sleep score was good then I wouldn’t change anything. And I would only know this with more certainty with something like the Oura Ring.

One feature I really enjoy is the readiness feature. The Oura Ring gives you an overall readiness score for the day when you wake up. Sometimes in the morning I feel really groggy or tired and I’m like ah my readiness score must be not great. But it turns out I have a high readiness score for the day. Or I check my readiness score in the morning after some light-medium exercise the previous day and my Oura ring is telling me to rest and that my readiness score is low. I find that super helpful to prevent injuries or over straining myself.

Another important health feature that could be great for older folks or those with a heart condition is the monitoring of your heart rate. Oura Ring has a score listed that tells you your heart rate throughout the day. I noticed the other day that my heart rate was irregularly high via my Oura Ring and I stopped drinking caffeine for the day. Now this was minor for me as I’d like to think I’m generally a healthy young person. But for someone with a heart condition or someone older, the Oura Ring could alert you that your heart rate is either too low or too high. You could then seek treatment more quickly and head to your doctor or in more urgent situations you could go to Urgent Care or the ER with this notification from Oura.

Final remarks

The Oura credit is an intriguing new benefit that American Express is offering. Either way, if you are looking to get the The Platinum Card® from American Express and are looking to get an Oura ring or already have one, this is a superb benefit.