Great Card If
- You’re a Schwab customer who wants a premium travel and lifestyle credit card
- You want all of the benefits of the Amex Platinum card with added perks from Schwab
- You hold enough assets with Schwab to be eligible for the annual Schwab appreciation bonus
- You want the option of redeeming your Amex Membership Rewards points toward investments with Schwab
Don’t Get If
- You’re not a Schwab customer
- You don’t want a premium credit card with a large annual fee
Amex Schwab Platinum Card — Is It Worth It?
If you want a card that has all of the premium benefits and perks of the Platinum Card® from American Express with a few added benefits tailored to Schwab customers, then the Amex Schwab Platinum card is a good choice.
The card doesn’t sacrifice any of the excellent benefits of the standard Amex Platinum card, including best-in-class airport lounge access, hotel elite status (upon enrollment), and excellent travel and consumer protections.
It also includes all of the top-notch statement credits that help cardholders offset the annual fee. Please note that some benefits may require enrollment.
In addition to all of the same perks and benefits that come along with the standard version of the Amex Platinum card, the Amex Schwab Platinum card comes with a few exclusive perks, including the ability to invest your rewards with Schwab and an annual Schwab appreciation bonus depending on the amount of assets you hold with Schwab.
Amex Schwab Platinum Card — Top Benefits and Perks
With the Amex Schwab Platinum card, you can expect all of the benefits of the Amex Platinum card, with a few added benefits for Schwab customers:
- Over $3,000 in annual credits (some may require enrollment)
- Best-in-class airport lounge access
- Complimentary hotel elite status: including Hilton Honors Gold status, Leaders Club Sterling status, and Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite status upon enrollment
- Automatic rental car elite status: including National Emerald Club Executive status, Avis Preferred Plus status, and Hertz Gold Plus Rewards President’s Circle status upon enrollment
- TSA PreCheck or Global Entry credit
- Access to Amex Fine Hotels + Resorts, The Hotel Collection, and Amex International Airline Program
- Excellent travel and consumer protections, including trip delay insurance, trip cancellation and interruption insurance, car rental loss and damage insurance, baggage insurance plan, cell phone protection, purchase protection, return protection, and extended warranty coverage
- Invest with rewards: Redeem your Amex Membership Rewards points into your eligible Charles Schwab account at a rate of 1.1 cents per point, on up to 1 million points redeemed each year.
- Annual Schwab appreciation bonus: Receive an annual bonus statement credit of $100 if your qualifying Schwab holdings are greater than $250,000, a $200 statement credit if your qualifying holdings are greater than $1,000,000, and a $1,000 statement credit if your qualifying holdings are greater than $10,000,000, or if you are a member of Schwab Private Wealth Services or Advisor Services Ultra-High Net Worth.
Best Ways To Earn and Redeem Your Amex Points
The best way to earn more rewards with your Amex Schwab Platinum card is to use it for purchases that fall within the bonus categories of 5x points on flights purchased directly with the airline or with AmexTravel.com (up to $500,000 per year) and 5x points on prepaid hotels booked with AmexTravel.com. Otherwise, all other purchases will earn 1x points.
Once you’re ready to redeem your Amex points, you have all of the traditional options available to you that holders of the regular Amex Platinum card have, including a statement credit, as a payment method for select merchants, gift cards, through AmexTravel.com, and our favorite redemption method: Amex transfer partners.
That said, cardholders of the Amex Schwab Platinum card have an additional redemption method not available to other versions of the card, which is the ability to redeem Amex points into a Schwab account at a rate of 1.1 cents per point, with a limit of 1 million redeemed points per year. After that, the redemption rate drops to 0.8 cents per point. This offers you another great redemption option, exclusive to cardholders, to help you reach your investment goals.
Alternative Cards to the Amex Schwab Platinum Card
If you’re a Charles Schwab customer and want a card that rewards your Schwab balance, but you don’t want to pay the annual fee for the Amex Schwab Platinum card, then the Schwab Investor card is a better option for you.
With it, you’ll earn an uncapped 1.5% cash-back on all purchases, and those rewards are auto-deposited into your linked eligible Schwab account. The card has a $0 annual fee and offers perks such as car rental loss and damage insurance, purchase protection, and extended warranty protection.
The Platinum Card® from American Express Exclusively for Morgan Stanley
There is a version of the Amex Platinum card that functions similarly to the Amex Schwab Platinum card, but specifically for Morgan Stanley customers, who can receive exclusive benefits not offered on any other version of the card.
You’ll receive all of the benefits offered on the standard version of the Amex Platinum card, with a few added benefits for Morgan Stanley customers like the ability to redeem your rewards for investments in your Morgan Stanley account, a $500 anniversary bonus (when you spend $100,000 on the card in a year), and a $695 annual engagement bonus when you have a Platinum CashPlus account with Morgan Stanley.