CSR vs Amex platinum

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone!

The title is self-explanatory. Which one would you choose?

[Shadowfactor]

Welcome to the forums.

This question is very hard to generalize an answer for. Each card has its strengths and weaknesses. It will of course come down to personal spend and redemption patterns.

As someone that has both cards. I honestly don’t see a ton of value in chase UR for my spend patterns and where I would ideally like to use my points to travel to. I solely have the card to build up enough points to redeem a F/J ticket to Asia and then will cancel.

Amex platinum is a much more profitable card for me and I earn a ton of MR points while Amex transfer partners are all very useful for my persona redemption preferences.

TLDR : it depends on your personal spend and redemption patterns on which is the best card

[Anonymous]

For me? CSR. Only reason is my house hold has alot of chase business and personal cards. So CSR can magnify the reward.

Purely from card itself, CSR probably has a better reward category, although platinum has a better lounge collection. Personally, if I don't have that much relationship with chase already, I would use wells propel, broad category, no AF.

[simplynoir]

Whenever this comes up now I just direct people to this post which pretty much summarizes the pros/cons of both and making the case to have both of them if you're so inclined.

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/AMEX-PLATINUM-Pre-approval-w-100K-pts-vs-Chase-CSR/m-p...

[RicHowe]

Hmmm. I wonder how I'll answer this one.

[ridgebackpilot]

I have both cards and find that I use and value the CSR more. That's because I find better use for UR points than MR points. YMMV!

[UpperNwGuy]

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@Shadowfactor wrote:
Amex platinum is a much more profitable card for me and I earn a ton of MR points while Amex transfer partners are all very useful for my persona redemption preferences.

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And I am the exact opposite.  Chase and its transfer partner United make the CSR the much more valuable card.  I live in a United hub city that does not have Centurion Lounges, and I rarely use Uber.

[jamesdwi]

CSR is what I chose, its the best value for everyday, 3% back at resturants and $300 travel credit, and when I do travel Primary Rental Car coverage. AMEX doesn't offer this except without a seperate fee per rental. So the  AF is really closer to $150 a year. 

AMEX platinum has its place if you travel alot preferably when someone else pays for the travel. Lounge access and hotel upgrades can make it worth while. But me personally I don't use uber enough to get much value out of its credit, the $200 airline fee credit would probably get used. Which makes the card AF $350 perhaps $300 I should find a way to use at least $50 in uber rides a year.  

In the end if you travel enough, having both can make sense. 

[longtimelurker]

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@RicHowe wrote:
Hmmm. I wonder how I'll answer this one.

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I expect you would say like others, evaluate which is a better fit depending on home airport, preferred airlines/hotels and goals.

The only difference would be that if this turns out to prefer CSR, you should suggest that they:

a) move, change preferred airlines/hotels and/or goals, or if this isn't possible for some (pathetic) reason:

b) Take the plat anyway and deal with it!

[RicHowe]

I don't have CSR but I do have a CSP. That works for my situation. One benefit Chase has over AMEX is Primary CDW for car rentals. So CSP is staying in my wallet.

For my situation:
AMEX Platinum for travel
CSP for Car Rentals and Chase Tickets
AMEX Gold for Grocery/Dining

So if your profile and budget can torerate the AFs, there might be case to have both.