I am going to make $1,150.00 net profit in the next 12 months with my American Express Platinum Card for Schwab, utilizing careful planning, minimal spending, and a touch of badassity. You can, too.
This post has non-referral links. American Express Platinum Card for Schwab does
not utilize the referral program, nor does Schwab, so any links are non-ref. :-)
Step 1: Open a Schwab AccountTo get the American Express Platinum Card for Schwab ("Schwab Plat"), you will need to have a Charles Schwab investment account relationship. I do a lot of bank account churning, and have had a lot of experience with most of the national banks. Schwab is far and away my favorite bank, so I recommend that you open a High Yield Investor Checking Account anyway. You can check out the benefits
HERE.
1, 2 With every Checking account, you get a brokerage account, which you can leave empty or use.
1 Code: REFER - You earn $100.00 for signing up for a new Schwab Checking/Brokerage account combo. I do not earn anything on this, but free money.
2 Schwab Brokerage/Checking is a hard pull on your credit report, just as a heads up.
Running total for earnings: $100.00
Step 2: Apply for the card.The Schwab Plat has a standard offer of 60,000 Membership Rewards points after meeting a $5,000.00 minimum spend. This card comes with a hefty annual fee of $550.00 which is
not waived in the first year which attaches to the first statement. If you can't front this, don't sign up for the card, don't read any further. Since this is MMM, though, I'm going to assume that you have $550.00 available that you can spend on this to get that return on investment.
$5,000.00?! That's insane. Even over a 3-month period, I struggle to spend this much money. So we will be offsetting that spending with a few workarounds, too.Running total for earnings: $100.00
Step 3: Pick Your Airline, Get Your CreditI went with Delta because I fly that airline 2-3x per year for work. As soon as I received my card, I selected Delta as my airline. I then went to Delta.com, ordered four (4) e-Certs (gift certificates) of $50.00 each. It will take 2-3 days to post, and then 3-5 days for the reimbursement to post. $200.00 reimbursement here.
I highly recommend that you check the status of converting these credits for each airline on Flyertalk.com (Ex:
Delta Reimbursement Reports Thread) With some airlines, you can buy one $200 gift card and it will code as an incidental and reimburse, others will not. Delta requires $50.00 denominations, so I did 4x$50.00 in one transaction and it was fine.
Running total for earnings: $300.00
Step 4: Meet Your Minimum Spend RequirementSo the card requires that you spend $5,000.00 in the first 3 months of card membership in order to earn your 60,000 MR points. I typically spend about $1,500/month on all of my expenses, or $4,500 every 3 months. This would mean I would have to spend $500 extra to earn the bonus, and spending more than I normally would defeats the purpose of making money on the card. So in order to meet spend, you have a few options. You can use Plastiq to send checks for your mortgage, student loans, etc. at a 3% fee. You can head over to Toys R Us and pick up Gift of College Gift Cards in $500 denominations (rendering the $5.95 fee to 1.19%), or you could open another bank account
3.
BMO Harris Bank allows you to fund $1,000.00 with a credit card, including American Express. You can fund a checking, savings, and money market account for a total of $3,000.00 of your $5,000.00 spend, which makes the remaining $2,000.00 in 3 months very doable.
I will fund $1,000.00 in BMO Harris, and once the funds clear, will use them to pay off the credit card. Super simple. The other $4,000.00 I will spend by purchasing Gift of College gift cards x8 at Toys R Us, knocking out a big chunk of my remaining student loan.
Once you meet the minimum spend requirement, you will receive 60,000 MR points from Amex. You can use these for statement credits, travel, or transferring them to a Schwab Brokerage account (which you have now!) for 1.25 cents per MR point. That's $750.00 cash!
Running total for earnings: $1,050.003 Call AMEX prior to attempting to fund any bank accounts and ensure that you have disabled cash advances on the card. Some bank funding may code as a cash advance, in which case you'd be subject to heavy fees for "withdrawing" so much. If you disable cash advances, and the bank funding would code as a cash advance, it will simply decline the card, saving you a lot of trouble.
Step 4.5: More Money?!As a slight side note to the above, I used
THIS offer from BMO Harris. I will be (1) funding my AMEX and (2) churning another bank bonus for an extra $200.00.
Mini tutorial: Call AMEX, be sure your cash advance is disabled (mine was by default, but double check!). Then sign up for a BMO Harris Smart Advantage™ Account, turn off paper statements to waive the fee, and set up 2 qualifying Direct Deposits of $300.00 or more within 90 days of account opening.
Don't have the ability to change your direct deposit? No problem.
HERE is a list of transfers that will trigger the Direct Deposits for bonus purposes courtesy of Doctor of Credit.
THE BEST PART?? That brand new Schwab Brokerage account you just opened is one of the transfer sources that will trigger the bonus. So do a little money shuffling, and make an extra $200 while funding $1,000-3,000 of your Amex's minimum spend requirement.
Bonus $200!
Running total for earnings: $1,250.00
Step 5: Uber CreditsIn addition to the airline credit, Schwab Plat also gives you $15.00 in Uber Credits for U.S. rides each month, plus a $20.00 extra bonus in December. This can be used for Uber Rides, or Uber Eats if you don't rideshare much. Boom, extra $200.00.
Running total for earnings: $1,450.00
Step 6: Double- (or Triple-) Dip Your Airline CreditThe airline credit for Schwab Plat resets each calendar year. Which means if you apply for the card in December and purchase giftcards like I did, you get a credit in 2017, 2018, and in January 2019 within 30 days of your second annual fee hitting. You can then cancel your Schwab Plat, receive a refund of your annual fee (within 30 days of posting), and walk away with $600.00 in airline credits for the price of a $550.00 annual fee. Extra $200.00-400.00 depending on your timing. I signed up 12/19/2017 and will be triple-dipping this for a bonus $400.00.
Running total for earnings: $1,850.00Step 7: Fancy ExtrasI do not count these in my "earnings" for this card because I wouldn't purchase them anyway. That said, if the opportunity presents itself, I will use these. If you use them, then you're getting even more out of this card than I plan to!
- Global Entry ($100): includes TSA Pre✓, nice to have.
- Amex Global Lounge Collection (??): Tons of lounges, which is awesome for when you do travel. I always arrive to the airport early to get something complimentary to eat and drink, even if I just grab a snack for my purse.
- Elite Status Hilton+Starwood: Sign up for this once you get your card for free late-checkout and space upgrades.
- Marriott Gold Status: mini-hack: Use Starwood status to match status to Marriott Program.
- Complimentary Boingo Wifi at Airports & Hotels
- Extended warranty/insurance for purchases and travel
The Bottom Line:Spending regularly and fronting a $550.00 annual fee, I am earning $1,850.00 over the next 12 months using this card, with a net gain of $1,350.00. In addition, I feel like I am living in the lap of luxury while doing so.
Is it worth it? Absolutely.
For the credit card police who say that they won't use X Y or Z benefit and so the card isn't "worth" it, I would like to kindly point out that even without the airline reimbursement TRIPLE DIP or Uber credits, you are still earning $300.00 just for signing up for the Schwab account ($100 bonus) and sending your 60K bonus MR to your Brokerage account ($750 after conversion) for a net $300. Plus the 5K+ MR you will earn after spending $5K to meet the minimum spend (another $62.50).
Will I use the Uber credit each month? Maybe. Maybe not.
My plan is to hold onto the Delta gift certificates and use them when I travel for work. My job will reimburse travel expenses, so I will effectively be cashing them out $1:$1.
I hope this was helpful! Feel free to ask any questions.
12/21/2017 Edit: Added BMO Harris Funding "hack" with extra $200 bonus that I included in the title and total too, because money!