

Get a $100 statement credit if you have qualifying Schwab holdings are >$250,000 You’ll need to have a lot of money with Charles Schwab to qualify for the annual fee credits: It offers the same benefits as the vanilla Platinum Card, but also gives you the ability to cash out Membership Rewards at a 1.25 cents per point rate via Schwab. The Platinum Card has a few variations, including a co-branded Charles Schwab card. View our retention offer script in this post: 3. Your mileage may vary.Ĭheck out retention offer data points from our community here: The general rule is that you can get a retention offer every other year for a card. At a minimum, wait until the 11-month mark to ask for a retention offer. You can’t get a retention offer RIGHT away - for some reason people think they can get a retention offer immediately after opening a card (or even 3 months after opening).

This can get you banned from American Express for “abusing rewards.” The intention is to give you an incentive to retain you as a customer.Ī few guidelines before asking for a retention offer:ĭon’t cancel/downgrade a card within 12 months of accepting a retention offer. Retention Offersįor non-service members, retention offers are a strategy to recoup some of the annual fee costs.Ī retention offer is a targeted reward that’s typically offered to cardmembers who are up for renewal. The Platinum cards can only be product changed to the American Express Gold Card and the American Express Green Cards, which both have annual fees. Once you stop qualifying for MLA, your annual fees will hit upon renewal. Under MLA, you can get the Platinum (vanilla), Platinum Schwab, or Platinum Morgan Stanley - or all 3 - and the fees should be waived.īefore canceling the Platinum cards, you would want a solid foundation of cards with no annual fee downgrade paths to preserve your credit history. MLA is not to be confused with Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA), which no longer qualifies for waived fees. The Military Lending Act (MLA) waives the annual fees for personal American Express cards, but not business cards.

However, there are a few ways to get the Platinum card for less, and potentially down to $0 depending on your situation. The Platinum Card from American Express has a hefty $550 annual fee that might deter people from applying.
