Well, I did it. When I was sharing my 2026 credit card strategy, I noted that I was mulling over the idea of adding the Charles Schwab version of the American Express Platinum Card to my wallet, with the intent of then phasing out the “vanilla” version. With that plan stuck in my brain for weeks, I went ahead and applied for the card exactly one month ago. And while there are a few things I want to try and test before writing a full review, I did want to share some first impressions.
Starting with some bad news, unlike in the old days, Amex no longer allows you to earn a second welcome bonus if you’ve ever had any flavor of the Platinum Card. This means that I had to forgo the Schwab Platinum’s 80,000 bonus point offer. That’s a bummer because this bonus would have nearly paid for my first year’s annual fee, but at least I no longer have to worry about trying to hit the minimum spend.
Of course, the main reason that I decided I wanted this version of the card was because of its Schwab-exclusive superpower: the ability to redeem your Amex Membership Rewards points at a value of 1.1¢ each for a deposit into your Charles Schwab account. That 1.1¢ rate is key as redeeming for a regular statement credit values points at just 0.6¢ each and redeeming to Amex’s Rewards Checking is only slightly better 0.8¢ per point. I’m a little bummed that I missed the era of the Schwab card when deposit redemptions were valued at 1.25¢ each, but I digress.
Since my main goal with getting the card was to take cash for my sizable pile of points, I was a bit worried when I couldn’t find this option in my Amex dashboard. I figured I probably just had to wait until my physical card arrived. Yet, even after that, I was still unable to locate the redemption option. Luckily, I found a link on Reddit that sent me exactly where I needed to go.
For my initial redemption, I decided to cash out three-quarters of my available points — so 300,000. This meant that I’d be receiving a $3,300 deposit into my Schwab account. Before hitting “send,” I opened my account page just to double-check that all of the numbers and everything matched (which, of course, they did).
Although the confirmation page warned that the processing time would be 4 to 6 business days, when I refreshed my Schwab account mere seconds later, the cash was already there. Moreover, I was then able to initiate a transfer from Schwab to a bank account right away.
As for what aspects of the card I’m still exploring, well, that has more to do with how to use two Platinum Cards at once. For example, I’m curious to see if I can split tenders on some purchases to use credits from both of my cards at once. In the meantime, I’ve also been using my Schwab Platinum’s Digital Entertainment credit to enjoy some temporary subscriptions to services I don’t have, including The New York Times (which also unlocks their games app) and ESPN. And, although we already used our vanilla Platinum’s Resy credit this quarter, we still have another free meal coming thanks to this card.
In some ways, getting the Charles Schwab Amex Platinum Card and cashing out my points represents the death of a dream for me. After all, I thought I’d keep saving up my points and would one day book a luxurious getaway, business or first class all the way. However, I realized that, for now, I’m better served by having cash earn interest in the bank (or investing, which is kind of the intent) rather than waiting for a travel redemption at a time when loyalty programs continue to devalue their currencies. With that in mind, I’m happy with this version of the Platinum Card so far and look forward to exploring more in my full review for Fioney.