The Platinum Card from American Express for Goldman Sachs Review

A few days ago we looked at credit cards American Express offer in conjunction with Morgan Stanley after it was announced that they would be partnering with Charles Schwab to release two new “premium” credit cards sometime in 2016. Another partnership that a lot of people aren’t aware of is the Goldman Sachs/American Express partnership, so let’s take a look at the Platinum Card from American Express for Goldman Sachs.

Platinum Card® from American Express for Goldman Sachs

 

 The Basics

  • Annual fee of $450 (not waived first year)
  • Authorized user cards are $175 each
  • Sign up bonus of 10,000 Membership Rewards points after your first purchase
  • Spend $100,000 or more in a card member year and receive a bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points
  • Must have a relationship with Goldman Sachs to apply for this card (you’ll need to receive an invitation to apply)
  • Card was launched in 2008 and the sign up bonus was originally 100,000 Membership Rewards points after first purchase
  • All standard American Express platinum benefits

Sign Up Bonus/Spending Bonus

The sign up bonus of 10,000 points on this card is incredibly weak and so is the 40,000 spending bonus. Let’s have a look at one of the other credit cards American Express offer: AmEx Everyday Preferred. This card has a sign up bonus of 15,000 points after $1,000 in purchases (which is higher than the Goldman Sachs card) and also earns 1.5x points on all purchases (meaning you’d earn a total of 150,000 Membership Rewards points for $100,000 in spend compared with 140,000 with the Goldman Sachs card) as long as you have more than 30 transactions monthly.

The annual fee is also only $95 compared to $450, sure the benefits on the platinum card are better but it’s pretty surprising that the sign up bonus on this card is so low.

Eligibility

As mentioned before you need to have a relationship with Goldman Sachs to be able to apply for this offer, it looks like originally it was targeted to those working with Goldman but if you have an account with them you should be able to receive an invitation just by asking for one – although I’m not sure why you’d actually be interested in this card.

Final Thoughts

This is a really sub par product and I’m not sure why anybody would bother with it, if they brought back the 100,000 point offer after first purchase I’d definitely be calling friends at Goldman to try and get an invitation, but as it currently stands this offering is pretty dismal.

Do you have this card? Know somebody who does? Let us know your experiences in the comments below.

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10 Comments
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CaliSteve
CaliSteve (@guest_258400)
May 12, 2016 19:45

I think the annual fee gets waived for clients

Chicago85
Chicago85 (@guest_187147)
October 18, 2015 12:29

And I forgot to mention that the minimum spend is now only $3,000 in 3 months for the 100,000 points.

Chicago85
Chicago85 (@guest_187146)
October 18, 2015 12:27

GS wealth now has the 100,000 MR points for the platinum Amex so I got it on Thursday. You have to be a GS wealth client or GS employee/alum to get the offer. I agree that this card doesn’t make sense unless you can get your 100,000 points. But I’m very excited to have the points and benefits of platinum now!

lazarus89
lazarus89 (@guest_173384)
September 17, 2015 03:15

There’s an offer going around internally at GS: 125K MR for $3000 in spend. Another 40K if you can hit 100K in spend in the first year.

I’d say you call your friends at GS 🙂

David
David (@guest_92396)
March 23, 2015 17:21

Does the sign up bonus offer of 100,000 MR points bonus after meeting minimum spending of $10,000 still available let for other Amex issued Platinum cards? I think I saw your post on that but I couldn’t find it. You said that we can call to have the 100,000 bonus offer honored.

Joseph Stern
Joseph Stern (@guest_92387)
March 23, 2015 16:13

You really don’t see why someone would get it?

It says Goldman Sachs on it.

And that’s it.

The status crazed employees and customers want it for that reason only. Want to pick up a waitress? Pay with your Plat GS card.

In their minds, that’s game over.

David
David (@guest_92419)
March 23, 2015 18:42

Interesting. I might pick up this to try to pick up a cute waitress 🙂 But how do most waitresses know about Goldman Sachs? I think it’s famous for people in financial or banking world only.