Getting an American Express Platinum Edge and another Amex card

[casanovawa]

Thinking of getting this card - The American Express® Platinum Edge Credit Card - but was probably going to get an American Express card which offers decent amount of bonus points and then see if i can apply for this card and hold at the same time... Can you then get the Platinum Edge Credit Card as a supplementary card or whatever or what is the best way to go about this?

 

[lang_13]

Hi. Would probably apply for an Explorer first. This earns a sizeable bonus for new cardholders - currently 60,000 Gateway points (via referral). If you are not in urgent need, may be worth waiting a while to see if sign-on bonus increases - it can occasionally be as high as 100-110,000 points. Note that a gateway point that comes with the explorer converts to Velocity/SQ points at rate of 0.75:1, earning an effective 1.5 frequent flyer point per dollar spent.

I applied for the platinum edge after getting this card, and after a few attempts managed to link the explorer to the ascent program - which means that the card effectively earns 2 ascent points per dollar, converting to Velocity/SQ at rate of 1:1. I believe people are still having luck with this method - trawl through this thread if you have time Wiki - The Explorer Credit Card (New AMEX Card!) You will probably not have any luck getting a sign-on bonus points on the Edge, as they appear to have enforced this rule (no points for existing cardholders) of late. Let me know if you need more info

 

[Irishbazz]

As Lang_13 has stated make sure you apply for the higher earning bonus card first to maximise your points.
Even if you then close that card and apply for the plat edge at a later date, the annual fee will be offset with the travel credit. You would need to spend approximately $10-15k at 3 ppd to make up the difference, if you were to apply for the edge first.

 

[casanovawa]

Yeah I would definitely get the card with the higher amount of bonus points first... i would have gone for the Explorer card earlier when it had the 100k points bonus but I had to wait till December to be 18 months from having shut a direct Amex card down... So now do i go for the 50k-60k points or maybe the 100k or so with their Velocity card.. But then yeah was kinda asking about getting the Edge Charge card as a supplementary card rather than having to pay another $200 annual fee...

 

[andye]

Yeah I would definitely get the card with the higher amount of bonus points first... i would have gone for the Explorer card earlier when it had the 100k points bonus but I had to wait till December to be 18 months from having shut a direct Amex card down... So now do i go for the 50k-60k points or maybe the 100k or so with their Velocity card.. But then yeah was kinda asking about getting the Edge Charge card as a supplementary card rather than having to pay another $200 annual fee...

I dont know of a way to do this, although you can get the Reserve as a free additional card to the Plat Charge. At least the Edge fee is offset by the travel credit

 

[Irishbazz]

When you say supplementary edge card, I assume you know someone who already holds the card? Which would be a good way of gathering points while you wait for the Explorer bonus to bounce back to 100-110k. If not then depending on your circumstances may be an idea to jump at the 60k now, but sods law states a week later it will jump to 110k.

 

[theblank]

I originally got the Velocity Platinum and then after 11 months 29 days and 18 hours I rang up and got it converted to Platinum Edge. That was about 10 months ago.

and they have me 15000 points loyalty bonus for my trouble.

 

[Cynicor]

No, a supplementary card has to be the same card as the one you have already. It's just an extension of the original card account, nothing special. You must have 2 card accounts and pay 2 lots of fees to get 2 lots of benefits.

 

[casanovawa]

I dont know of a way to do this, although you can get the Reserve as a free additional card to the Plat Charge. At least the Edge fee is offset by the travel credit

Ok yeah this must have been the arrangement i had heard about in the past...