Amex Plat: Should I downgrade or close or...?

[toadsworth]

I'm about to be coming up on my 1 year mark on my Ameriprise Financial Amex Platinum. With the Ameriprise Plat, they waive the first AF so I decided to see if the card is a good fit for me and it turns out, it isn't. I'll be struggling to get $550 worth of value from the card when I reach the 1 year mark. Is there a product change option with no AF or a very low AF? Would that be something Amex would allow on the Ameriprise Plat? My AOA is 19 months, my AAoA is 9.6 months, and I opened the Plat. in March 2017 (had a fast, start from scratch 'rebuild'). Should I just close it? If I slow down on apps over the years, will it hurt my score much when it falls off in 10?  Will closing it do anything immediate to my score or affect my utilization?

Seeking any advice.

[jawbrkr]

I am pretty sure you can only downgrade to another charge card. So the lowest card you can downgrade to is the green card which is $95 a year. But in terms of rewards you wont get much out of that. You could drop down to the PRG which is still $195 a year but the rewards are much better than the green.

[Anonymous]

Not sure if you can PC the Ameriprise Plat? I could be wrong on this. I personally have the Ameriprise gold with the $160 AF they might let you downgrade to this card.

[Anonymous]

Since the Amex Platinum and Ameriprise Amex Platinum are separate products, and Ameriprise has its own gold card but no green card, I think the Ameriprise Gold is probably your only downgrade option. Although the fee is only $160 compared to the $195 of the regular gold card, it doesn't appear to offer the $100 travel credit of the PRG, and the rewards categories are not very enticing, 2x on restaurants and 2x on flights. I'd say, since you don't get value out if the Platinum, your best option is probably to close the card.

Before you do though, if you have MR points you want to save, consider opening the Amex Everyday card to float the points. There's also a 25k sign up bonus floating around for that card, so not a terrible option, especially with no annual fee.

[K-in-Boston]

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@Anonymouswrote:
Since the Amex Platinum and Ameriprise Amex Platinum are separate products, and Ameriprise has its own gold card but no green card, I think the Ameriprise Gold is probably your only downgrade option. Although the fee is only $160 compared to the $195 of the regular gold card, it doesn't appear to offer the $100 travel credit of the PRG, and the rewards categories are not very enticing, 2x on restaurants and 2x on flights. I'd say, since you don't get value out if the Platinum, your best option is probably to close the card.

Before you do though, if you have MR points you want to save, consider opening the Amex Everyday card to float the points. There's also a 25k sign up bonus floating around for that card, so not a terrible option, especially with no annual fee.

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The regular Gold charge card from American Express has an annual fee of $160, the same as the Ameriprise version, and does not include an airline incidentals credit (I did a product change from Gold to PRG just over 2 years ago).  That is also the version your authorized users would receive if you added one of the "up to 99" no-fee Gold cards to a Platinum account.  The $195 version is the Premier Rewards Gold card, a similar but vastly superior card for a marginally higher annual fee.  The regular Gold card may be a legacy product that is no longer offered for new applicants.

[UpperNwGuy]

Amex discontinued the regular Gold card in June 2017.  The PRG is now their only non co-branded Gold card.

[Anonymous]

Not that it makes the card all THAT much more valuable but the Ameriprise Gold does do a bonus of 2,500 MR points per $10k in spend. So you can get *up* to 1.25 points per dollar. 

[Anonymous]

@UpperNWGuy yeah but to clarify I was talking about the Ameriprise Gold. By K-in-Boston's comment, it sounds like the Ameriprise gold is basically the same as the old Amex Gold card.

[wasCB14]

Even if they allow a PC, the rewards from a PRG might be superfluous with all your other cards.

I think Amex charge cards are really a matter of getting a Platinum and using most/all of what it offers...or just not bothering with one.

[Anonymous]

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@wasCB14 wrote:

I think Amex charge cards are really a matter of getting a Platinum and using most/all of what it offers...or just not bothering with one.

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Which is why I just got off the phone from closing my Platinum card.  I just don't use it like I thought I would and simply can't justify the AF to keep it.  Right now, gonna keep my PRG.

BTW, don't forget what it's made of when you try and shred the thing...