topic When Should I get the Charles Schwab Platinum AMEX in Credit Card Applications

When Should I get the Charles Schwab Platinum AMEX

liveinterview0502 — Sun, 06 Jul 2025 14:44:07 GMT

Good morning,

I am 19 and in college. September 2024 is when I started my credit journey by opening a Discover Student IT card with a credit limit of $500. I have been keeping my utilization under 10% and also have never missed a payment. So fast forward to June 2025 when I was like let me see what AMEX cards should would I get accepted for. I did the pre-qualification thing for AMEX and they qualified me for the AMEX BCE, BCP and Gold. My credit score was a 750 Experian , 770 Equifax and 771 TransUnion . Also to mention I have never been an authorize user on my parents card before. So I saw which one was the best fit for me and I went with the BCE and they approved after like 9-10 months of starting my credit journey. I also did open a Charles Schwab account for my retirement which I have put in 100 dollars every month on the 3rd of the month. The reason of openinign that account was after reading about the MR point with Charles Schwab. So my question is what should I do to get the Amex Platinum Charles Schwab card? Also to mention I only have two card and nothing else on my credit report no student loans because I have a full academic scholarship.

Re: When Should I get the Charles Schwab Platinum AMEX

Vinjints — Sun, 06 Jul 2025 17:28:00 GMT

19, in college, and just starting your credit journey. Have you looked at the cost of the card versus the benefits you'll actually get/use out of it?

Re: When Should I get the Charles Schwab Platinum AMEX

liveinterview0502 — Sun, 06 Jul 2025 17:35:34 GMT

So, yes I have seen that and long story short, I have this app that I got made from people in India and here and there every two or one year in the summer I go and visit them. We make stops in the Delhi Airport in which they have the lounge and as an Indian American the worst part of India is that the food is horrible. So sometimes at the airport it is better to get the food there because its an International airport. Also AMEX has a lounge in Delhi at the Airport. Also in 2024 I took 20 flight between cities in India, not so much that many in America beside my one off trip to Florida because our timeshare had an opening down in Orlando. Because I am not traveling this much that summer until next year I don't have to apply for the card given AMEX just did a hard pull on my credit on June 25, 2025.

Re: When Should I get the Charles Schwab Platinum AMEX

liveinterview0502 — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 14:30:16 GMT

Thanks, I am thinking about getting all of the credit cards in college because one of the main thing is that if I get it in the future my average age drops. If I have the card I know I will be using then that age goes up instead of dropping.

Re: When Should I get the Charles Schwab Platinum AMEX

Tiggr — Wed, 09 Jul 2025 01:16:04 GMT

Few things:

Congrats on starting your credit journey earlier than most and starting to plan it out responsibly.

A few important details you may have left out:
Has your discover credit limit remained 500? Or has it increased substantially?
You just got your BCE card, did Amex give you a good credit limit?
Why the Schwab? You'll need 250k in your account before it becomes better than the regular amex plat.

Info:
AMEX generally only hard pulls once, all future applications with them should be soft pulls from now on.
Plat and Gold are cards with No Preset Spending Limit, which means AMEX will want to see sizeable limits on your credit report before offering you that ability, or else they may give you a spending limit.
Getting the Amex Plat bonus will make you ineligible for the Gold SUB. (Forever?)
AMEX will show you cards on your homepage that they suggest, that usually is a tell that you're approved. If you wait for the vanilla plat to show up there, I'd bet you could count on the Schwab approval

If you are in it for the points, the vanilla Amex Plat usually has a higher base offer and has bonus offers. The extra points may outweigh the slight Schwab difference. And again, if youre truly in it for the points, the Gold SUB is something you have to get before Plat, if you plan on getting SUBs.
I also had the same stragegy for maximizing the amount of endgame cards and accounts early into my credit career so that I could eventually have a great age of credit, and I still believe it is a great strategy if you are responsible. I hate wasting a SUB though, I'd recommend finding creative ways to hit them, since you'll only ever get them once.

Good Luck!

Re: When Should I get the Charles Schwab Platinum AMEX

liveinterview0502 — Wed, 09 Jul 2025 18:34:46 GMT

So to answer your question. No discover hasn't raised my limit and I am not going to ask them to raise my limits. There is one reason why i am choosing not to ask them is because I rather have a 500 limit on that card and use it for online shopping so if my account where to get hacked the hacker would only have 500 dollars to spend. Also the BCE card only has a 1K limit. The reason for the schwab card is because I have a schwab account for my retirement and the reason behind that card is mainly for the points to dollar for investable assets.

I don't even care about signup bonus and if I do I would rather just put my tuition on it instead of having to pay cash. My main question is when should I go out and apply for the CS Platinum given June 25th, 2025 is when I applied and got approved for my BCE.

Re: When Should I get the Charles Schwab Platinum AMEX

KatzNDawgs — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 18:15:10 GMT

What is your current income? Will the benefits you can get from the card this year outweight the 695 (possibly also increasing this year to 895) annual fee? Considering your age of accounts, current limits and spending amounts (plus above questions), this kind of card would likely be better to go after a few years down the road once you have a more solid base.

Re: When Should I get the Charles Schwab Platinum AMEX

liveinterview0502 — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 02:02:03 GMT

My part time income is $33,000 and then my income for this year from the app store is going to be $18,000 and it climbs every year. It is crazy to see people with horrible scores getting the card and young people my age. The fees will always be offset because I am traveling back and forth from NYC to India because my development team is based out of there. I was thinking about applying like 6-7 months from June 25th, 2025 to see if they approve or not because it won't hurt my credit score regardless given I am a AMEX user at the moment and also they only do soft pulls in the application process. If accepted and accept the offer than the hard pull will happen but yet again for me that won't happen. Also one thing I wanted to mention is that when you log into AMEX to apply for the platinum it doesn't ask for my SSN and when I apply for the Schwab version it asks for my SSN. Kind of weird.

Re: When Should I get the Charles Schwab Platinum AMEX

coldfusion — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 13:09:10 GMT

@liveinterview0502 wrote:
I am a AMEX user at the moment and also they only do soft pulls in the application process.

Odds are very high that you wouldn't get another hard pull but even with the new process implemented a couple of years ago others still discover the hard way that even now they occasionally do hard pull when a current cardholder accepts an approval offer, it isn't entirely risk-free. Anyone who tells you that nowadays AMEX never hard pulls for an existing cardholder hasn't seen enough recent data points.

You wouldn't be the first person in your income range that got a Platinum card, up to you if you think you can sufficiently leverage the benefits to justify the annual fee. Keep in mind that there may be an increase in the annual fee for both the Schwab and vanilla Platinum cards later this year as part of the Platinum refresh announced last month to be put in place for later this year but which was short on details.

One thing to consider is that a $1K SL on an AMEX revolver points to your likely being on the fence for an approval but they were willing to give you a chance to prove yourself. I'd suggest you research for "AMEX 3x CLI after 91 days" threads and think about following through to get a sense of how they feel you're doing. Based on that outcome you can reflect on the if and when you should apply for the Schwab Platinum, or even if you would still find value in the card based upon the upcoming changes.

Re: When Should I get the Charles Schwab Platinum AMEX

Varsity_Lu — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 14:17:00 GMT

@liveinterview0502 wrote:
I am a AMEX user...

Ahem...you are an AmEx MEMBER. Gotta' put on airs for those Capital One users. 😂

Re: When Should I get the Charles Schwab Platinum AMEX

liveinterview0502 — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 17:52:08 GMT

That is why I am thinking about waiting to see what the new features will be with this new hike before I apply. Also it will give me enough time to build a relationship with AMEX to get my approval chances up.

Re: When Should I get the Charles Schwab Platinum AMEX

Tiggr — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 17:58:42 GMT

If you want the simplest answer of when: put something in your calendar for 183 days from your BCE approval.

This gives you time to do your 3x Amex CLI, which will show if Amex likes you, as mentioned before. The extra time is time between Amex increasing your CL (extending more credit) and you then asking for more, essentially giving a cool down period between CLI request and new app.

You could probably get it sooner than that, but I'm guessing that would be the easiest and most surefire way.

Re: When Should I get the Charles Schwab Platinum AMEX

liveinterview0502 — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 18:19:22 GMT

Yes, so in that time period from what I am hearing try to get a credit limit increase? Also should I try to get a limit increase on my discover right now. On top of that 183 days from my application tine would be Christmas day, so hopefully i get approved lol.

Edit: I just hit the trigger for my discover card credit limit increase with my income and they increased it from 500 to 1500. So my new overall credit limit is 2500. I will try to get amex to increase that limit in like 90 days.

Re: When Should I get the Charles Schwab Platinum AMEX

liveinterview0502 — Fri, 11 Jul 2025 23:10:13 GMT

To everyone in this thread that was giving me advice and leading me in the right direction not only you guys but other people as well I would like to say thank you as of July 11, 2025 I was approved for the AMEX Charles Schwab Platinum. Can't wait to use it to fund my retirement account.

----end of thread----

Re: When Should I get the Charles Schwab Platinum AMEX

kh_jenn — Sat, 12 Jul 2025 16:27:31 GMT

Congrats on your approval, @liveinterview0502! I've closed this thread to new replies. Please feel free to continue your discussion in the Credit Card Approvals board. Thank you.