There’s a worrying datapoint regarding the American Express Platinum and the Ameriprise variation. On April 1st saranwrapnation applied for the Ameriprise Platinum while holding the vanilla Platinum, they were denied for the card and upon calling in were told that a memo has been sent out stating the Ameriprise Platinum & Vanilla Platinum were considered the same product and it’s not possible to hold both cards at the same time. They were then granted an exception but have just received a denial letter saying the exception has been revoked (this letter can be viewed here).
This leaves us with more questions than answers, for example:
- If you’ve had the Ameriprise card before, can you get the sign up bonus on the vanilla card?
- Does this extend to other variations of the Platinum?
Before the American Express Mercedes-Benz was axed they added language that stated: This offer is not valid for existing Platinum Card Members from American Express. I think it’s clear that American Express plans to treat all variations of the Platinum product as the same product for sign up bonuses purposes, it’s more just a matter of time when those rules will be introduced and enforced. As always please share your own experiences and data points in the comments below.
Update: Another datapoint of somebody being denied but then approved after it was sent to underwriting.
DP: was about to apply for the Ameriprise, only other Plat I’ve had is the Schwab closed in March 2019. I got the message: “based on your history with credit card balance transfers, American Express welcome offers, introductory APR offers, or the number of Cards you have opened and closed, you are not eligible to receive the welcome offer.”
I have 5 Amex cards right now, but none are charge and I don’t think this puts me in any of the Amex approval rules. I would try vanilla but can’t get a good offer to show up.
DP: approved today 3/1/19 for the Ameriprise Platinum. I have a vanilla Platinum from Apr 2014, Schwab Platinum from Feb 2018, and MB Platinum converted to vanilla from Apr 2018. I was not automatically approved at application, but was approved within a few hours.
DP: I got the Vanilla Platinum on Dec-2018. Applied for Ameriprise Platinum yesterday and application got cancelled. I called recon line for explanation told by CSR that both are the same product so cannot be approved.
Datapoint: Previously held the Ameriprise Platinum card. Applied for the Vanilla Platinum earlier this week with a 75k sign up bonus and did NOT receive any warning during my application that I was ineligible for the sing up bonus. Just did an online chat session to confirm the details of my welcome offer. Was told that I was ineligible because I previously held a Platinum card. Not good!!! Going to still try to hit the $5k spending and see what happens. Will report back in a couple months once I hit it.
This is disconcerting. I currently how’ve vanilla plat and just opened Schwab yesterday. Chatted to confirm offer and told me system needs 24 h to update, checked back again after 24 h… now they said 24-48 h. I understand this could be legit and it could still show up but I am a little worried, more so now that I have seen your recent DP.
Any update? How did it go?
Hi there,
Did you get your bonus? I am in exact same situation as you.
Eventually?
DP for any of those who might be curious about how this is panning out recently – Just applied for the Ameriprise, instantly accepted. I currently have 2x vanilla plats, 1x MB plat, and the Schwab plat.
So you are able to hold two vanilla plats at the same time? I think before they would not even process your application. But I assume if there is a long gap between you acquiring two same cards they might allow that. Can you give a little bit more details about your situation? Thanks in advance!
I can unfortunately confirm this. I had the vanilla card and I just applied for the Schwab and the Ameriprise Platinum card andthe Ameriprise was cancelled. When I called in, I was informed that I already had a Platinum card, so the application was cancelled.I mentioned that it wasn’t the normal Platinum and that it was the Amerirprise Platinum, but they didn’t really understand, because the system classified it as a regular platinum.
So I have a few platinum cards right now. When looking at my account the Ameriprise and the “Vanilla” card both simply state platinum card. The Schwab, Mercedes and business all indicate the special type of card.
I can confirm that I just got my Schwab Platinum about 2-3 weeks ago, and the signup bonus points posted a few days ago upon completion of the spend requirement. I previously held both the regular Amex Platinum and the Mercedes version, but don’t have either card currently.
any word on whether holding plat bus would disqualify me from bonus on vanilla plat ?
My wife applied for the vanilla Amex Platinum on March 5th. She was a current Ameriprise Platinum cardholder and the 2nd year annual fee had just posted. She was instantly approved for the vanilla Platinum, met the $5k in spend a couple weeks later, and the 75k Membership Rewards instantly posted. From there she cancelled the Ameriprise version and now only holds the vanilla Platinum. When applying for the vanilla Platinum, I did ensure that there was no language that stated: “This offer is not valid for existing Platinum Card Members from American Express.”
Not sure if this is dated information and she just beat the cutoff, but thought it was a somewhat relevant data point.
AYP
Noticed something that could be related. When calling in to get some Ameriprise bonus points, reps do not seem to recognize that it’s a different product if I call it by that name, they just see it as a “Platinum” card. So this could be the source of the problem.