Two New American Express Charles Schwab Cards Are Available For Sign Ups + Eligibility Requirements

The Schwab Investor Card™ from American Express & American Express Platinum Card® for Schwab are now available for eligible Charles Schwab customers. You can read our full review of both cards in this linked post.

Here is a quick summary for the lazy:

• Investor Card:
  • No annual fee
  • Sign up bonus of $100 after $1,000 in spend
  • Card earns 1.5% cash back on all purchases with no cap
  • 0% Introductory APR on balance transfers and purchases for the first six months.
• Platinum Card:
  • Annual fee of $450
  • 40,000 American Express Membership Rewards points after $3,000 in purchases in the first three months
  • Ability to deposit American Express Membership Rewards points into your account at a rate of 1.25¢ per point
  • Receive a $100 Card statement credit if your qualifying Schwab holdings are equal to or greater than $250,000 or receive a $200 Card statement credit if your qualifying Schwab holdings are equal to or greater than $1,000,000, when measured following Card account approval and annually thereafter.
  • Card earns 1x Membership Reward point per dollar spent
  • Standard American Express Platinum Benefits:
    • Airport Lounge Access Program and Priority Pass™ Select
    • Fee Credit for Global Entry or TSA Pre✓™
    • $200 Airline Fee Credit

As I mentioned previously the Investor card isn’t worth considering since there are cards that earn 2% cash back on all purchases and cards with much higher cash sign up bonuses. I think the Platinum card is worth considering to get that 1.25¢ per point cash rate on Membership Rewards points and the ability to get the bonus again (more on this below).

Eligiblity Requirements

Update: There is currently a $100 bonus you should be able to get.

To be eligible for either of these cards you need an eligible Charles Schwab brokerage account (if you click the apply now link, it takes you to a redirect page). Here is what they define as an eligible brokerage account:

An eligible brokerage account means a Schwab One® Account or Schwab General Brokerage Account held in your name or in the name of a revocable living trust where you are the grantor and trustee

Schwab One® Brokerage Account

Direct link to account details

There are no monthly fees for this account, but you’re required to deposit $1,000 to open the account (this fee is waived if  you set up an automatic monthly transfer of $100 through direct deposit or Schwab MoneyLink or open a Schwab Bank High Yield Investor Checking account linked to your brokerage account).

You pay the following fees for trades, but I don’t see why you can’t just deposit $1,000 apply for the card and then withdraw it:

• $8.95 per online equity trade
• commission-free Schwab ETF online trades in your Schwab account

Schwab does do a hard pull when you open a High Yield Investor Checking account, I’m not sure if they do a hard pull (and another hard pull if you have the Investor Checking) or not. Let me know in the comments.

Schwab General Brokerage Account

There is no account listed as a ‘Schwab General Brokerage Account’, so it’s been discontinued or it’s another name for the account listed above.

Can I Get The Sign Up Bonus On The Platinum Card If I’ve Held Another Platinum Card Before?

As you should know by now, American Express only allows you to get the sign up bonus on each of their cards once per lifetime. There are many different versions of the American Express Platinum card, so can you get the sign up bonus on the Charles Schwab Platinum card if you’ve gotten the bonus on one of those other cards previously?

It’s too early to give a definitive answer (as the cards have been out for approximately 10 minutes), but I can make an educated guess. In the past American Express have considered all of these different platinum cards as separate products and because of that you’ve been able to get the bonus on each card. I don’t see why this card would be any different.

Final Thoughts

Not sure if I’ll try to wait out a higher bonus on the Charles Schwab Platinum card or not, not really in a rush to get it so will probably just wait as the 40,000 bonus is not being marketed as ‘limited time only’ meaning I think it’s likely to be the standard bonus on this card. I also want to find out if it’s a hard or soft pull to open the brokerage account.

Let me know your thoughts about the new cards in the comments below.