At the start of October 2019 American Express stopped accepting applicants for the American Express Ameriprise Platinum card. Existing cardholders have started to receive letters stating that they will be converted to the ‘vanilla’ (aka unbranded) American Express platinum card on March 26th, 2020. This all but confirms the card has been discontinued rather than temporarily stopping accepting new cardmembers.
If you haven’t already received the sign up bonus on the vanilla Platinum card then it’s likely that this forced product change will make you ineligible for that card’s sign up bonus in future. In that case you’ll either want to sign up for the vanilla variant before the forced product changed, or simply cancel your card before then. For more information regarding the different variants of the Platinum card read this post.
Hat tip to sexy_kitten7
I would want to add a datapoint that if you received a mail saying your Ameriprise Platinum will be converted to the Vanilla Platinum, it will most probably only take effect on the date your letter shows. Most probably March 26th for all of us. I did not have a Vanilla Platinum before, so I was afraid I might not get the bonus once it converts automatically at that point.
So I decided to pull the trigger when I saw that I was pre-approved for the Vanilla at 60k SUB after 5k spend from the “Recommend cards for you” section in my AMEX dashboard. While it is not the highest SUB by any means, I didn’t get the warning message about ineligibility for the sign up bonus when I submitted my application. I got an instant approval after submitting my application on February 15th. I received my card yesterday Feb 19th, and after activating it, contacted AMEX CSR to ask if the welcome bonus was indeed attached to my account, the response was that the SUB is indeed attached, and will be paid out when I complete my minimum spending.
An even weirder observation was that the AMEX Regular Gold card, was shown as “Request an Upgrade”, instead of “Apply Now” like the other cards, when I was logged in and visited the “Recommend cards for you” section. And when I clicked through, it was prompting me to “Upgrade your Platinum Card®”… (referring to my Amerprise Platinum card).
https://imgur.com/6D5kPoV
On a side note, on the same day I was approved for the Vanilla Plat, I also applied for the Delta Skymiles Platinum 100k SUB after 3k spend, and was approved instantly as well. Great timing as that means I can plan my Summer trip when the bonuses post. The card came one day later than the Vanilla. And interestingly, there was no inquiry on my credit report at all even till today.
Simba, Amex does things differently. They do one hard pull when you first become a customer with them. After that you will never get an inquiry from them (they use past history for future approvals). However their cards will hit your credit report eventually, but that’s no big deal. They I have noticed from talking to them through the past year of going through cards are on your side. As long as you play by the rules and don’t abuse the system (trying to cancel card as soon as you get bonus and at least waiting until month 13), you are going to be fine.
Apparently the conversion has already taken place — while new cards will be send on 3/26, Amex stated they converted on 2/8. My info now shows Amex platinum.
Good luck if you’re trying to get a sign up bonus on a vanilla card..
Did they tell you they’ve converted your card on 2/8? In my Amex app, my card picture is still showing the Ameriprise version.
Just chatted with them, not looking good. Within my Online Dashboard, it already shows “Platinum Card” with no mention of Ameriprise. The agent said the Ameriprise card was discontinued and converted (date of 1/28/20) for all existing cardmembers. I don’t recall receiving mail showing this date whatsoever. Pretty shady move, as I’ve lost the SUB on Vanilla Plat.
is the move to apply for schwab plat instead? should still be different from the vanilla plat.
It was shown as “Platinum Card” for long time while the icon of the card is still with “Ameriprise Financial”. The official mail said it will be converted at March 26th.
What about the gold version?
Received the notice that the Ameriprise Gold will be converted to an Amex Green ($150 membership fee, lounge buddy) on the same day (March 26th).
I hold the Ameriprise Gold, through my own error, missed the no annual fee cancellation window on the Ameriprise Platinum, but could still downgrade to the Ameriprise Gold with the lower annual fee.
Confirming Jab’s point above, looks like you can cancel the Ameriprise Gold by March 25th and get a prorated refund on the annual fee, so that’s a plus.
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Cancelled through chat and representative gave me the dollar amount of the prorated refund credit.
I currently hold Ameriprise Plat. I’ve never held Vanilla Plat. Can I cancel Ameriprise before March and still be eligible for Vanilla Plat SUB ?
apply for Vanilla Plat now and get that SUB..
Amex chat CSR told me that the change has already taken place, i.e. any current (now former) AMP Plat holders are now locked out of the vanilla signup bonus due to already holding the card. YMMV, grain of salt, etc.
This is my worry. Online, it already shows “Platinum Card” with no mention of Ameriprise. My “Schwab Platinum Card” in the same login has no ambiguity…
i was told that the conversion was done not at one shot. If you’re unlucky, your card is already converted. Meanwhile, you can still cancel if you card has not been converted. Just called the rep, and cancelled the card.
Hmm, I didn’t get the same experience. When applying for the Vanilla, lookout for the warning message when you click Submit, to see if you get the ineligibility for SUB message. I didn’t get it when I submitted, and was instantly approved with SUB attached to my card. Read my data point somewhere below if interested.
2 Special platinum cards down, 2 to go 🙁
I had just gotten a retention offer to keep the my Ameriprise for another year earlier this month. The rep never told me anything about converting to Vanilla Plat, even sent me a contactless version of the Amerprise. I also haven’t gotten a letter from them about this yet.
I sure hope this doesn’t apply to everyone!
It does. This happened to me for MB Plat soon after I accepted my retention. I had to scramble to get a vanilla plat.
I got a retention bonus last month as well. Can you have two Platinums at the same time?
Yup
I currently have Ameriprise and Schwab plats. Just applied for Vanilla and instant approved with 75k referral link.
Same here. But the question is if they will honor the referral bonus. Are you guys immediately cancelling the ex. Ameriprise version?
Notice says if you cancel this card before it auto changes to vanilla, you’ll get prorated annual fee
Can you point me to this “notice?”
It was sent via mail
I was going to cancel and get my annual fee pro-rated as per the mailer, however the rep recommended I wait until after my first year is over so that points don’t get clawed back. I’d rather not risk the points getting clawed back and just close this account, and personal and keep Schwab when the time comes this year.
Anyone with a link with annual fee waived first year would be greatly appreciated.
Pretty sure those days have been dead for a while. Sure was a fun one to flip for a while there though.
This was the only Plat variant card that had AF waived first year, and it has been discontinued. If there was a link with AF waived still in the wild, it would have been outed by now (and also pulled). Those days of ch’ing are long gone..
Yeah, we got 4, old days that never will come back unfortunately :(, P2 closed all and i’m only keeping my Amex Schwab, RIP.