Remember the days of the worst word invented next to ‘hobby’ in the points game? Yes, I’m talking about the ‘app-o-rama’. Those days are dead thanks to a booming economy and bloggers like myself. I hide my precious UR’s like Gollum and hoard my MR’s like another mythical character. However, the time has come for his royal TPOLness to go on a trip. This required a 125k transfer from MR to ANA for an imaginary RTW flight that will take some effort to book.
Although I am excited for another marathon mission of a great awards booking, I am also nervous about my points balance. That is why I applied, was approved, and am happy to pay the $550 annual fee for the Platinum Schwab. The card comes with 60k points after 5k spend along with the usual Platinum benefits. Since the days of MS are literally dead and, since the plug may soon be pulled on churn (absent a great recession), I treat every approval like it’s my last.
How about you? How are you staying up in the air during these turbulent times?
TPOL’s TIPs:
- You do need to have a Charles Schwab account to apply for this card.
- You should have a Schwab checking account if you travel overseas because it eliminates those pesky ATM fees.
- This is the highest offer I have seen for the Schwab card.
- This is considered a different product from the Amex Platinum, the Amex Business Platinum, and the Amex Mercedes Platinum. You can only get the bonus once per lifetime for each.
Do you have to have a Schwab account to get the card?
Good question tbone. Yes you do. I updated the post.
If I previously had a regular AMEX platinum, can I get the bonus?
Yes, it’s considered a different product. I’ve had the platinum, business platinum, and now I also have the mercedes platinum. I’ll add that to the tips. Thanks.
I see that in addition to the regular platinum bonus there’s a Schwab appreciation bonus of $100-$250 if you have $250,000+ in your Schwab account. Not bad.
Safe to say that I did not mention that because it is inapplicable to me lol.
To clarify, to get the $100 annual fee credit you need to have $250K in your Schwab account. To get the $250 credit you’ll need $1M. For $250K, you can earn nearly $4K in interest in one year with an online savings account instead.