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150k Amex Platinum Offer
American Express is offering a 150k bonus offer on its American Express Platinum card. Still has a $695 annual fee, but this is the highest I've seen.
https://www.americanexp
https://www.americanexp
Created 04-11-2022
at 11:50 AM
by Tennistucan
in
Credit Cards
(4)
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In America having a family is still encouraged. But if you look at the rest of the world less people are getting married or are getting married at a later age. Elon says we need to have more children or else the world economy will start to suffer.
Also usually the "upgrade bonus" offers aren't worth doing at all unless it's on a card you've already had before (since they let you bypass the once per lifetime restrictions)
The entertainment credit, additional Uber credit over Gold as well as additional lounge access over what I already have cover the increased cost of Gold vs. Platinum pretty well. And I'm pretty sure they'll downgrade you if requested when/if the perks aren't worth it anymore.
In America having a family is still encouraged. But if you look at the rest of the world less people are getting married or are getting married at a later age. Elon says we need to have more children or else the world economy will start to suffer.
Generally speaking this isn't a card you keep year over year- you take the bonus and other credits (double dipping most of them) and then move on.
There's rare exceptions (folks who can get near full value from all the credits and/or folks who both fly a LOT and also have a centurion lounge at their home airport) but this won't be most people.
You can do that of course, but you're leaving a lot of money on the table compared to some combo of:
2-3 cards with category bonuses covering most of the your spend
1 card covering non-category spend
Churning new cards for bonuses (which is where the best value is)
So just to give you an idea of the math here, let's compared a 2% cash back card to churning cards over the course of a year.
2.5k/mo is $30,000 in spend.
At 2% cash back you'll net $600 in rewards.
With 30k in spend you could instead do these signup bonuses:
$500 Boa Premium card for 3k spend
$500 for US Bank AR for $4500 spend
$750 Ink Cash for $7500 spend
That's $1750 n cash--- it's potentially several thousand dollars more if used for travel.... and you've only spent through half your 30k spend so far.
You ought be able to pretty easily top 3k straight cash--- or a LOT more potentially used for travel, with 30k in spend doing new signups.
If you're not willing to churn though- at least strongly consider using more than one card.
There's a few routes for this.
If you can get platinum BoA status for example you can get a few cash cards that'll get you 5.25% cash back on gas, online spending, dining, etc- plus one that'll get you 2.625% cash on everything.
If you want travel rewards....well, again signups really are the way to go here- you can rack up north of half a million amex and chase points pretty easily/quickly....something that'll take you a lot of years of "normal" spending..... but otherwise you'll probably want to pick either the chase or amex ecosystem specifically.
This might be based on what airlines you have available to you and who they partner with... Chase points are the more valuable of the two, but might not be for you specifically. Then get the appropriate 3-4 cards in that ecosystem.
For chase for example it's the Freedom Unlimited (or ink unlimited- better signup there), Freedom Flex, Ink Cash, and then a sapphire card (probably CSR, but YMMV)
Typically airline-specific cards aren't great- again beyond signup bonuses- unless you almost exclusively fly a single airline... (in which case even the premium ones CAN be worthwhile if you fly a lot due to lounge access).
Hotel cards CAN be worth it beyond the signup bonus- as they'll often give you free nights worth more than the annual fee, or some hotel status of value... but worth it to keep, not to actually put normal spend on.
You are discussing two entirely different cards, though they're both issued by Amex.
You can get both. And the signup bonus on both.
The fees and benefits of each are also different.
You can get both. And the signup bonus on both.
The fees and benefits of each are also different.
Can we apply for both Amex Platinum and Schwab Amex Platinum cards ?
Any idea about the Morgan Stanley one which seems to offer waiving the fee?
There's rare exceptions (folks who can get near full value from all the credits and/or folks who both fly a LOT and also have a centurion lounge at their home airport) but this won't be most people.
I think the first problem is you sound like you want to only ever use 1 card.
You can do that of course, but you're leaving a lot of money on the table compared to some combo of:
2-3 cards with category bonuses covering most of the your spend
1 card covering non-category spend
Churning new cards for bonuses (which is where the best value is)
I was just recently disappointed when our current 2.5% card benefit went away because that was "good enough" in my opinion. Now I'm looking at cards that offer nil spending rewards, or travel cards that aren't really compatible with my non-travel lifestyle. Not much time to travel while raising kids and building careers. I think I'll hold off on Amex Platinum until closer to retirement. Who knows what the annual fee will be then.
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Mostly it improves your score.
Because you tend to have so much available credit that your utilization stays very low... likewise utilization on each individual card tends to be low.
And even closed cards stay on your report for years, so as long as you keep whatever your oldest card is alive your avg. age of credit will be fine too.
The only "bad" thing churning can do to your score is on # of hard pulls--- but those are typically VERY tiny hits that go away quickly.
I've churned through dozens of cards in recent years with a score comfortably north of 800
I was just recently disappointed when our current 2.5% card benefit went away because that was "good enough" in my opinion. Now I'm looking at cards that offer nil spending rewards, or travel cards that aren't really compatible with my non-travel lifestyle. Not much time to travel while raising kids and building careers. I think I'll hold off on Amex Platinum until closer to retirement. Who knows what the annual fee will be then.
As to your wife-
You can still get 2.5% cash back- no annual fee- with the Alliant card
https://www.alliantcred
Though the 2.5% caps at 10k spend... if HER spend isn't higher than that (ie YOU do the other 20k a year you mention) this might work for her.
Alternatively, if you can get plat status with BoA (most easily done with 100k in an ML IRA) you can get 2.625% cash back, no annual fee, on the Unlimited Cash Rewards card.
Bonus- if you can ever talk her into holding a 2nd card, you also get 5.25% back on the 3-2-1 Cash Rewards in a category of your choice, PLUS 3.5% back on grocery and warehouse club spend ($2500/quarter cap on that)
Can we apply for both Amex Platinum and Schwab Amex Platinum cards ?
Any idea about the Morgan Stanley one which seems to offer waiving the fee?
There's really no reason at all to pay the $695 annual fee beyond the signup year on any platinum card though unless you're in the tiny fraction of people who actually get full value out of all the various credits/perks.
The Morgan Stanley Platinum (again- a DIFFERENT card)- you can earn an "engagement" bonus equal to the annual fee each year if you hold certain amounts of money in MS accounts-- some details here:
https://frequentmiler.c
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I do get to usually knock out one more for state tax bill at least.