Platinum Card from American Express for Ameriprise Financial

Platinum Card® from American Express for Ameriprise Financial

Free First Year
No first year annual fee for you and up to 3 authorized cardholders
Click Here to Apply

No Annual Fee First Year, Then $550

Info about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy.

Recent better offer: 25K after $3K spend (expired 6/30/15)

FM Mini Review: First year with no fee makes this card worth considering for almost everyone.

Card Type: Amex Charge Card

Base

1X
(1.82%)

Travel

5X
(9.1%)

Earning rate: ⚬ 5X points for flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel ⚬ 5X points for prepaid hotels booked with American Express Travel

Big spend bonus: 5K bonus points for every $20K spend, up to 30K bonus points annually

Noteworthy perks: This card includes all of the great perks that come with the American Express Platinum Card, plus a few perks specific to this Ameriprise branded version.

Rewards

Amex Membership Rewards points can be incredibly valuable if you know how to use them. In general, if you use Membership Rewards points to pay for merchandise or travel, you won't get good value from your points. One exception is with the Business Platinum card where you'll get a 35% point rebate when using points to book certain flights. This gives you approximately 1.5 cents per point value, which is pretty good. Another exception is with the Business Gold Card where you'll get a 25% point rebate when using points to book certain flights. This gives you approximately 1.33 cents per point value. If you don't have either card, then your best bet is to transfer points to airline miles in order to book high value awards. More details can be found here: Amex Transfer Partners.

Application Tips

Amex Application Tips

Safe to Apply: Amex is the safest bank for trying your luck at a new welcome bonus. They don’t usually issue a hard pull when denying your application. Plus, they’ll now warn you during the application process if you’re not eligible for the bonus.

Lifetime Rule: If you've ever had the same card before, you are most likely prohibited from getting a welcome bonus for the card if you sign up now. Fortunately you'll be warned during the application process if this is the case. Amex is known to "forget" that you've had a card after about 7 years.

5/90 Rule: In general, you can get at most one credit card within 5 days and 2 within 90 days. The 5 day limit is not enforced when your applications are automatically approved. Neither rule is enforced for charge cards.

5 credit card max:Amex usually won't approve applications for new credit cards if you already have 5 or more Amex credit cards open. This limit does not apply to charge cards.

Better Offers: You may be able to get a better offer than the best available public offer. Details here.

Hard inquiries combine into 1 when approved same day

Check application status here.
If denied, call reconsideration: 877-399-3083 (new accountholders); 866-314-0237 (current accountholders)

How to Meet Spend Requirements

In order to meet minimum spend requirements, people often look for options to increase spend in ways that result in getting the money back. These techniques are often referred to as "manufacturing spend". American Express has terms in their signup offers that exclude some manufactured spend techniques from counting towards the minimum spend requirements for the welcome bonus. For example, most signup bonuses have terms like this:

Eligible purchases to meet the Threshold Amount of this offer do NOT include fees or interest charges, balance transfers, cash advances, purchase of travelers checks, purchase or reloading of prepaid cards, purchases of gift cards, person-to-person payments, or other cash equivalents.

That said, many techniques for meeting minimum spend are perfectly fine. Here are some techniques that are safe for meeting Amex minimum spend requirements (click each link for more information):

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