pushback

I've churned all kinds of airlines and hotel cards over the years but I've never done Amex Membership Rewards. Just never became familiar with their program. Well, I got an invitation in the mail to get a Plat card ($700 fee) that'll kick me 150,000 points. I figured I'd ask here before I chuck it. I have no need to travel points of any kind since I've churned the hell out of those cards and have tons of points. The only option I'd be interested in is converting these to cash. Can it be done and if so, what's the best way? Thanks.

hotturnip

I'm not aware of any options except using it to pay for charges. So if you had a big tax or insurance bill you could put on the platinum, you could then pay off the bill using your points.

Centurion

You could get into a deeper costlier relationship with amex and pickup a charles schwab platinum. Amex charges more now and puts out less.

imnotalawyer

As Centurion notes, the co-branded Charles Schwab Platinum (public SUB is 100k MR) allows you to redeem MR into a Charles Schwab brokerage account at a rate of 1.1 cpp

From there you can invest it or transfer it out, although I have heard (complete hearsay/urban legend) that CS does not look kindly on accounts whose only actions are to funnel MR through them to another third-party bank.

pushback, I am not a churner but I believe a popular churning path is to (1) get an attractive SUB offer on the "vanilla" platinum and use it for one year, (2) open a CS Platinum for another SUB, (3) close the "vanilla" platinum, (3) use the CS Platinum for another year, and (4) cash out/close out completely after the year on the CS Platinum. The likely 250k MR you earn in SUBs equates to $2,750 against $1,390 in annual fees. That's a net of $1,360 + whatever benefits (Uber/Flight/Saks/etc...) you are able to make use of.

zorbachs

Schwab Platinum is the only way unless you want to redeem for less than 1cpp, which is not recommended.

Kacee

Use them to pay for a prepaid FHR booking then cancel. You'll get a statement credit at 1 cpp.

LAX

I thought MS version is 1:1?

LAX

SpaethCo

It is - but you need to need to tie up money with Morgan Stanley to qualify to get that card (ie, $5k to meet the minimum requirements of the robo advisor account to establish a qualifying relationship). If you only have Access Investing, you also have to time your cash-out to pull the dollars before the robo advisor invests the newly deposited funds.

For anyone looking simply to cash out MR, opening a completely free Schwab account and redeeming at a 10% higher cash price is clearly the better option.

Dr Jabadski

If you have a business, or can fake it a way acceptable to AmEx, and your timeframe is a year or 2 or more, you could probably add several AmEx MR business cards (and SUBs), including multiple accounts of the exact same card, to the path:
(1) get an attractive SUB offer on the "vanilla" platinum and use it for one year,
(1.5 or 3.5 or 4.5) open a Business Plat or 2 or 3 and/or Business Gold or 2 or 3
(2) open a CS Platinum for another SUB,
(3) close the "vanilla" platinum,
(1.5 or 3.5 or 4.5) open a Business Plat or 2 or 3 and/or Business Gold or 2 or 3
(4) use the CS Platinum for another year, and
(1.5 or 3.5 or 4.5) open a Business Plat or 2 or 3 and/or Business Gold or 2 or 3
(5) cash out/close out (with 3-4X or more the 250k estimate above) completely after the year on the CS Platinum.

Might also be able to add a personal Gold to this path.

zorbachs

Sure, but that requires you to have money at MS and pay their advisory fee.

mhdena

I think the ability to get multiple sign up bonuses for the different Personal Platinum cards is over.

sdix

Use all your points to book a refundable ticket on Amex travel.

You'll see the $ charge then the transfer of points to pay it.

Then goto the airline site and cancel your ticket. $ refund will be credited to your Amex account.

Use the credit for future purchases or don't chage anything and get the amount refunded to you as a check.