Update: Annual fee has now been increased to $695.
The Offer
Direct link to offer (need to be logged in)
- American Express is offering increased bonuses on the Charles Schwab & Morgan Stanley Platinum cards.
- 100,000 points after $6,000 in spend
- 10x points per $1 spent when you Shop Small in the U.S. and restaurants worldwide on up to $25,000 in spend within your first six months month
You can find which establishments are considered Shop Small using this map locator from AmEx. There might be some creative places like Fluz that you’ll find as well.
Card Benefits
$550 annual fee$695 annual fee- $240 digital entertainment credit. This is a credit of $20 per month and can be used on Peacock, Audible, SiriusXM and The New York Times.
- $200 hotel credit. This can be used on select prepaid bookings (Fine Hotels + Resorts® and The Hotel Collection) when using American Express Travel
- $179 Clear credit
- $300 Equinox credit. This is a $25 credit each month
- Global Dining Access by Resy
- The Global Lounge Collection
- 5x MR on Air and prepaid hotels (up to $500,000 per calendar year)
Our Verdict
Annual fee on these cards hasn’t been increased on these cards to $695, but I suspect that will happen at some stage. Think these are the highest offers on these cards that we have ever seen. The 100,000 offer is great, even better if you can take advantage of the 10x as well. Obviously $550 annual fee is huge, so you’ll need to decide if you can take advantage of the card benefits to help offset that. For a lot of people it’s worth getting for the bonus and then ditching it after that.
Hat tip to US Credit Card Guide
I can’t link external accounts on Schwab or set up a pull from another bank unless I order checks from Schwab. To Schwab, it’s ok, they show numbers for dds but for outgoing transfers you need to order checks. It’s a little ridiculous.
Ok, everything works now, I can initiate transfers and already redeemed my big amount of Amex points at 1:1.1 to Schwab. I am pleased, only my Plat card info is not showing on Schwab website and Bill pay feature is not letting me to enroll. I am writing because I saw some videos where the guy is saying that you can open Schwab, apply for Plat card and redeem your Amex point all together right away in one sitting, like in 40 minutes 🙂 Well not really. I guess that guy got instant card number after approval and was able to link his Schwab and a new card, but I had to wait for physical card to arrive.
Fresh DP! I just opened Schwab One brokerage account and applied for Platinum. All my CRAs locked, so it was no HP for to open Schwab and no from Amex as I am existing cardholder! 🙂 I didn’t receive card’s instant number 🙁 and registered card on my Amex account but don’t see Invest with Rewards option 🙁 hope it will show up later.
My DP: I just got approved immediately for the schwab platinum while holding regular plat, no popup or pending status. Opened the regular one 08/2021, got the bonus in 01/2022 and pretty much no spend on it since. Good credit and maybe 2-3 new cards per year.
Thanks for the DP. Got the vanilla late April, just got the bonus. Probably going to wait 2-3 months before I get the Schwab.
This is my plan as well. Still working on doing the spend on vanilla Platinum for 150k. Should get bonus by Nov 22. Plan to apply for Schwab in early 2023.
Is there a reason to apply for vanilla Platinum first? I jumped on the Schwab Plat first. I thought they are different products and you can get both SUBs no matter in which order.
Most people like to do other MR card bonuses first just to build up their MR pts balance then get Schwab Plat to cash it out (that’s what I did) — vanilla Plat recently had increased 150k signup bonus as well so that was higher than usual.
Was able to cash out most of my MR pts last year when Schwab used to have 25% bonus value — cashed out remaining MR pts earlier this year for current 10% bonus (canceled Schwab Plat after 1yr)
Oh I got it! Thank you 🙏
Jatan
Anyone else not getting the 10x On Shop Small/Restaurants Purchases offer? It’s not coming up on the offer page when I log into Schwab.
Is the annual fee waived the first year?
Is this considered a different card than Amex Plat personal? I got the plat personal last year and want to apply if SUB applies.
Yes
anyone know how long this schwab 100k offer will go for?
No pop up but went to pending. I guess that is progress?
Did you get your application approved? My application for Amex Plat Charles Schwab back in June was pending initially but was approved 2-3 days later. I just applied Amex Plat Morgan Stanley and same thing. It went to pending. Amex asked me whether I wanted to add AU. Hopefully, mine get approved.
I just got my first AMEX Platinum approved this month. Can I apply for this Schwab version this month to get the SUB? Thanks
You should be able to, though you might encounter the pop-up. Plus you’ll have a lot of spending to do. If you spend that much in a short time, you might be better off waiting on one of those bigger offers for huge spending.
mmmm. It sucks… I’ve got the dreaded Pop up from these mother effers… I ‘ve never had a platinum ever. unfortunately I have 350K point I can’t transfer to my schwab account… man it sucks. How do I get out of this pop up hell?