My Pretty Good, Almost Great, Charles Schwab Amex Platinum Retention Offer

My Charles Schwab Amex Platinum Retention Offer

I was paying bills yesterday and when I got to my Charles Schwab Amex Platinum I noticed the $550 annual fee billed this month.  Seeing as I had already used it to do what I needed to do, burn my points stash to the ground, I had planned on canceling it after a year.  The changes they made to the Platinum don’t make me any more likely to keep it either, no matter what Benjy says. It was slightly tempting to keep it since the card remains $550 for one more year even with the new perks coupons. The devaluation of the Schwab Platinum from 1.25 cents per point cash outs to 1.10 cents was really the nail in the coffin for me though. Being the good miles and points person I am I decided to see what my Charles Schwab Amex Platinum retention offer would be, if anything.  Let’s take a look at the details.

Related: Current Retention Offer: Amex, Chase & Citi Retention Offer Data Points

Amex Chat Is So Much Easier

In the past you always had to call in for retention offers which was annoying and more time consuming than I like.  You would have to talk to rep one and then do the spiel to get the retention specialist on the line.  Then you would need to do the same song and dance with them to get to the point of your retention offers.  With chat you still have to do that a little bit but at least you can work on other stuff while chatting back and forth.

I simply typed representative after opening up the chat function.  Then when one got on I told them I wanted to check my Charles Schwab Platinum for retention offers.  The rep swapped themselves out for a retention person right away and we were on the way.

The retention specialist of course tried to talk about the new perks.  I said the coupon book “perks” didn’t interest me a ton.  I also said that the reduction in the cash out option was the biggest negative for me.  They said they understood and offered to go over the perks one more time so I could see the value in them.  I repeated that I wasn’t interested and I just wanted to see if I had a retention offer on the account or not.  Finally the agent waived the flag and shared the offer with me.

My Charles Schwab Amex Platinum Retention Offer

I had really hoped to get the 50,000 point with no required spend offer.  Currently, I am working on a lot of different spending offers and didn’t want to throw another into the mix.  The points came in almost on point to my dream offer (see what I did there) but there was spending required too, boo!  The offer is as follows:

• Earn 55,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $4,000 within the next 3 months.

That is close to the old 60,000 point welcome offer on the card, not too shabby. Even though this offer was pretty awesome I asked if there was anything else available.  I was still searching for that no spend offer!  The rep said there was another offer but that it wouldn’t make sense compared to this one:

• Earn 20,000 Membership Rewards with no required spend

There it was, my no spend offer.  If it had been 30,000 points I may have been slightly tempted to take the easy win and move on.  But I gladly accepted the 55,000 point retention offer and agreed to another year of my Charles Schwab Amex Platinum.

Breaking Down The Value Of My Charles Schwab Amex Platinum Retention Offer

At the current 1.25 cents cash out valuation, which is still good for a few more days, I could cash in 44,000 Membership Rewards points from my stash to pay the annual fee in full.  That would leave me a net positive of 11,000 points, worth $135+.

That doesn’t include the perks of the card. Here is the value I think I can get from the old, and new perks, over the next year:

• Airline Incidental – it has a value of around $170 to me. I used mine this year to offset my first class ticket to Alaska.
• CLEAR Credit – I have found clear pretty useful but you can usually get it discounted so I put this value at around $100.
• Streaming Credits – This is good for about $5 a month since that is about what I value having Peacock as. So $60 in total value there.
• Uber Credits – Since there are so many fees with UberEats and the prices of Uber rides are sky high I put this at a 50% valuation or $100 a year.
• Saks Fifth Avenue – This is worth about 50% of the $100 in credits for me since it is stuff I normally wouldn’t buy. $50 in value here.
• Fine Hotels + Resorts Credit – I value this at 50% of the $200 credit too since it has me booking hotels I probably wouldn’t normally.  We are using my wife’s credit to stay at the Four Seasons in Las Vegas next month.

When you add that all up it is a value of $580, more than offsetting the $550 annual fee.  Next year, when the annual fee balloons to $695 I would be coming out behind.  I don’t value lounge access much since I am not trying to hang out at the airport, especially these days.

That means the 55,000 Membership Rewards points are technically “scot free”.  I’ll take that any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

RELATED: The One Card EVERYONE Should Get, Including Me

Final Thoughts

Although my Charles Schwab Amex Platinum Retention offer wasn’t the grand slam 50K no spend offer I had hoped for, it was still a home run.  Any time I can rack up 55,000 Membership Rewards without adding a new application that is a win in my book.

Have you contacted Amex for a retention offer on your Schwab Platinum, or regular Amex Platinum, recently? Share your data points in the comments below.  And remember to check out our hundreds of retention offers data points for all the major issuers before making your phone calls / chat.

Disclosure: Miles to Memories has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Miles to Memories and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.

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