Different Flavors Of The American Express Platinum Card

Update 4/15/19: Updated this page to reflect changes to the ameriprise card and the fact that the Mercedes Benz verison is no longer available.

A lot of people don’t realize that American Express offer multiple co-branded versions of their Platinum credit card. I thought it would be fun to look at each of these cards and also create a table to compare them. This is particularly interesting as American Express have moved to a one bonus per lifetime rule on their personal cards, but you should (YMMV) be able to get the bonus on each of these cards once.

The Cards

• Platinum Card From American Express. This is the original card that is offered directly from American Express.
• Mercedes Benz Platinum Card from American Express. No longer available
• The Platinum Card from American Express Exclusively for Morgan Stanley.
• The Platinum Card from American Express Exclusively for Goldman Sachs
• Platinum Card from American Express for Ameriprise Financial.
• American Express Platinum Card for Schwab

There are also a few other partners with which American Express used to offer co-branded platinum cards with: First Republic Bank & Guaranty bank.

Comparison Table

All of these cards come with the same staple of benefits, so I am only going to focus on the things that are actually different: annual fees (for both primary and additional card holders).

?	Platinum Card From American Express	Morgan Stanley	Goldman Sachs	Ameriprise Financial	Charles Schwab
Annual Fee	$550	$550	$550	$550	$550
Additional Cardholders	First three are $175, each additional is $175	First one free, then $175 each per year	First three are $175, each additional is $175	First three are $175, each additional is $175	First three are $175, each additional is $175
Sign up bonus	60,000 points after $5,000 in spend within three months. Possible to get a 100,000 point bonus?	60,000 points after $5,000 in spend within first three months	10,000 points after first purchase	60,000 points after $5,000 in spend within first three months	60,000 points after $5,000 in spend within first three months
Spending bonus	None	$500 after $100,000 or more in spend within a card member year	40,000 points after $100,000 or more in spend within a card member year	5,000 MR points after every $20,000 in spend (limit of 30,000 MR points)	none
Availability	Everybody	Must have MS account	Must have GS account	Restricted to those with AF account, but not enforced	Must have Charles Schwab account
Additional Benefits	None	None	None	None	Redeem points for 1.25 cents per point. $100 statement credit if funds $250k+, $200 if funds 1,000k+

Best Card Platinum Card

On the surface the original American Express platinum looks one of the weakest (Goldman Sachs card is by far the worst option) but you need to remember that people often receive sign up bonuses of 100,000/150,000 MR points (the best way to check for these offers is with the American Express pre-approval tool). The best option will really depend on what cards are available to you and what you value more (e.g cash or MR points) – I can see benefits to getting each of these cards. Considering you can only get the sign up bonus on each of these cards once, I’d recommend getting cards when they have increased sign up bonuses. Here is what I’d look for:

• Original American Express Platinum: 100,000+ points
• Morgan Stanley: ??
• Goldman Sachs: ??
• Ameriprise: 25,000 points with annual fee waived. Annual fee is no longer waived, so anything above 60,000 would be a better offer
• Charles Schwab: Hasn’t had an increased offer