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Can I Earn Bonuses for Different Amex Platinum Cards?

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TPG reader Vishal sent me a message on Facebook to ask about Amex cards:

The Platinum Card from American Express is a great example. Apart from the standard personal card and the business version, there are several co-branded Platinum cards such as the Mercedes-Benz Credit Card and a number of others from financial institutions like Charles Schwab and Morgan Stanley. While they’re all technically Amex Platinum cards, they’re really individual products, and you should be able to earn a sign-up bonus for each one so long as you haven’t done so previously.

That’s good news if you want to get a card for the lucrative Platinum benefits and you’ve already been a cardholder in the past. Ordinarily you could apply a second time, but you’d be ineligible for any bonus offer. By applying for another version of the card, however, you can still get that extra incentive to sign up (which can give you a huge return based on some of the increased bonuses we’ve seen lately).

The regular Platinum Card and the Mercedes-Benz Platinum Card have mostly similar benefits: They both offer an annual $200 airline fee credit, lounge access, a Global Entry/TSA PreCheck application credit and more. The main differences are that the Mercedes-Benz version has a slightly higher annual fee ($475 instead of $450), and it comes with a few extra perks that are only noteworthy if you plan to buy or lease a Mercedes-Benz vehicle.

All versions of the Amex Platinum card share the same core benefits, like access to Centurion Lounges.

Since the benefits most relevant to award travelers are identical, having more than one of these cards at a time would be redundant. I think the Platinum Card is worth the annual fee, but it doesn’t make sense to pay two annual fees for such similar cards. If you’re deciding between them, I’d go with the original Platinum Card to save $25 each year unless you can use the Mercedes-Benz discounts.

For more on maximizing the Platinum Card and its benefits, check out these posts:

If you have any other questions, please tweet me @thepointsguy, message me on Facebook or send me an email at info@thepointsguy.com.