Compare the Features and Benefits of The Platinum Card® from American Express and
Citi Custom Cash℠ Card

💳 This card earns American Express Membership Rewards points. American Express often runs transfer bonuses where you can get even more points when you transfer to airline or hotel partners at designated times. Transfer bonuses are awesome. Get 20%, 30%, 40% or more bonus miles when you transfer points at the right times. But they are easy to miss!

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In many ways, the American Express Platinum card is the crème de la crème of premium travel rewards credit cards. A 2025 refresh of this card added a slew of additional benefits and statement credits as the annual fee rose to $895 (Rates and Fees). On balance, the additional perks well exceeded the annual fee increase.

We see at least $1,700 in “very easy to use” statement credits on top of the benefits like Centurion airport lounge access, Priority Pass Lounge access, Delta lounge access when flying Delta up to 10 times a year), hotel status in three programs, car rental status in multiple programs, access to Fine Hotels and Resorts perks, access to Resy perks (including Resy Nights – exclusive access for Platinum cardholders on top of the statement credits of up to $100 per quarter).

The “very easy to use” statement credits we used to come up with that $1,700 is as follows:

• For the target Platinum cardholder, the $600 a year in FHR / Hotel Collection is easy to use. That’s just one reservation twice a year to get your $300 X 2 back.
• For those that live in major cities, you probably already eat at a Resy restaurant once every 3 months. That is another $400 in statement credits.
• We don’t think we know anyone that doesn’t use $25 a month in streaming services given the exhaustive list of providers (Disney+, a Disney+ bundle, ESPN+, Hulu, The New York Times, Paramount+, Peacock, The Wall Street Journal, YouTube Premium, and YouTube TV). That’s $300 more back in statement credits
• If you agree you are likely to use most or all the above, you probably already ride Uber or order Uber Eats at least once or twice a month? That’s $200 more in statement credits.
• Most travelers should be using the $200 incidental airline credit easily and that’s the last $200 in credits we consider “very easy to use.”

In this scenario, you have paid an annual fee of $895, received $1,700 in value from just some of the available credits, and we haven’t even assigned any value to the airport lounge access, hotel status (Hilton Gold, Marriott Gold, and Leader’s Club Sterling), car rental program status, Resy perks, or the statement credits that many will use even if we didn’t include them in our “base case” such as the monthly Uber One membership credit, lululemon, Equinox, Oura Ring, and the Walmart+ credit.

That’s more than $1,000 in additional potential statement credit value.

Please keep in mind that enrollment is required for most benefits above, and Terms Apply; refer to the “Unique Card Benefits” section, the “Statement Credits” section, the “Grants Hotel Status” section, and the “Grants Car Rental Status” sections above for all details.

Beyond the access to Fine Hotels and Resorts and the Hotel Collection, and beyond the airport lounge access and hotel / car rental statuses, the card still earns 5X on airfare purchased directly with the airlines or through the Amex Travel portal (on up to $500,000 of airfare purchases per calendar year) as well as 5X on prepaid hotels through Amex Travel.

Since the card earns 1X on all other purchases, we recommend pairing this card with the American Express® Gold Card, which earns 4X American Express Membership Rewards points per dollar spent at restaurants worldwide (up to $50,000 a year; 1X thereafter) and 4X Membership Rewards points per dollar spent on U.S. Supermarkets* (up to $25,000 a year; 1X thereafter).

When paired, you’ve got a tremendously powerful card combo for both spend and lifestyle / travel perks.

A few notes you need to know:

Amex now has language restricting you from getting the bonus on this Card if you have or have had this card OR have had this Card, the Platinum Card^® from American Express Exclusively for Charles Schwab, the Platinum Card^® from American Express Exclusively for Morgan Stanley or previous versions of these Cards.

Additional Platinum cards are $195 each.

If you want an Authorized User card with none of the benefits, that is still available as the “Companion Platinum Card.” They will simply be able to make charges that post to your account.

Bottom Line:

Rates and Fees for The Platinum Card® from American Express

You will earn 5% cash back (as ThankYou® Points) on eligible purchases in your top spending category each billing cycle, up to the first $500 spent, with 1% cash back thereafter on all of your other eligible purchases made with your Citi Custom Cash card. You do not have to select anything at any time. It’s automatic. And these are not rotating bonus categories – it’s the same choice each month.
The eligible bonus spend categories are:

• Restaurants
• Gas Stations
• Grocery Stores
• Select Travel
• Select Transit
• Select Streaming Services
• Drugstores
• Home Improvement Stores
• Fitness Clubs
• Live Entertainment

You’ll earn an unlimited 1% cash back on all other purchases.

The 5X applies to your top category each month. So it’s kind of like a rotating bonus category except you choose – and you don’t even have to technically choose or register, the 5% is automatically applied to your highest spend category each billing cycle.

As a comparison, the Chase Freedom Flex offers a 5X rotating quarterly bonus category, but with a limit of $1,500 per quarter and on whatever categories they choose. This works out to the same $1,500 per quarter, but divided evenly each month such that you can utilize different categories each month.

This is the first and only card that I can think of that offers 5% at home improvement stores and at drugstores.

While a heavy spender may not be super impressed with the $500 a month cap, I think many spenders would be very happy to earn 5% on restaurants, grocery stores, gas, etc. on a card with no annual fee.

And heck, you could buy $500 worth of show or concert tickets one month and get 5% on that!

The Citi Custom Cash card is a perfect companion card to a Citi Strata℠ Premier and a Citi® Double Cash card, creating a Citi Trifecta. If you have all three cards, you would use the Citi Strata℠ Premier for 3X Citi ThankYou points® on air travel & hotels, gas stations, restaurants and supermarkets, the Citi® Double Cash for everything else at 2X, except for one category out of the Custom Cash’s options for 5X up to $500 a month.

Personally, I think that most people would want to make this their go-to card for gas stations, as that is an easy one to spend roughly $500 a month on. But, of course, what category you pick will depend on your own spending patterns.

You might be thinking about getting multiple Citi Custom Cash cards – a Custom Cash card for each category, but you cannot. Acknowledging that someone might want to hold many of these to get everything at 5X, they have capped this card at one per person.

Bonus Eligibility Rules for the Citi Custom Cash card

The bonus offer is not available if you received one for opening a new Citi Custom Cash℠ Card account in the past 48 months.

Bonus Category Definitions

It’s important to know what counts and what doesn’t, especially for bonus categories that start with the word “Select.”

The following definitions apply to the Citi Custom Cash card categories:

Restaurants

Includes purchases at cafes, bars, lounges and fast food restaurants. Excludes purchases at bakeries, caterers, restaurants located inside another business (such as hotels, stores, stadiums, grocery stores, or warehouse clubs) and third party dining delivery services.

Gas Stations

Excludes gasoline purchases at warehouse clubs, discount stores, convenience stores or other merchants that do not use the gas station merchant category code.

Grocery Stores

Includes purchases at supermarkets, meat/seafood stores, dairy stores, bakeries, and miscellaneous food/convenience stores. Excludes purchases at general merchandise/discount superstores; wholesale/warehouse clubs; candy, nut and confectionery stores. Purchases made at online supermarkets or with grocery delivery services also do not qualify if the merchant does not classify itself as a supermarket by using the supermarket merchant category code.

Select Travel

Includes airline, hotel, cruise line and travel agency purchases. Excludes timeshares, boat leases and rentals, campgrounds and trailer parks, and real estate agencies.

Select Transit

Includes car rentals, ferries, commuter railways, subways, taxis/limousines/car services, passenger railways, bridge and road tolls, parking lots/garages, bus lines, and motor home and recreational vehicle rentals. Excludes bike/scooter rentals, auto clubs and insurance companies.

Select Streaming Services

Includes the following cable, satellite, and streaming providers: Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Music, Apple Music, CBS All Access, Disney+, AT&T TV NOW, ESPN+, fuboTV, HBO Max, NBA League Pass, Netflix, Pandora, Showtime, Sling TV, Spotify, Starz, SiriusXM, Vudu, YouTube Red, YouTube TV, and Tidal.

Drugstores

Includes purchases made at pharmacies in grocery stores, general merchandise/discount superstores, and wholesale/warehouse clubs if those merchants submit purchases made in their pharmacy with the drug store and pharmacy merchant category code.

Home Improvement Stores

Includes purchases at home supply warehouse stores, lumber and building materials stores, paint and wallpaper stores, hardware stores, nurseries – lawn and garden supply stores and paints, varnishes and supplies stores. Excludes florists and florists’ supply stores; nursery stock; wholesale construction stores; and glass stores.

Fitness Clubs

Includes membership fee and other purchases at athletic, sports and recreation facilities requiring membership such as health, tennis, and swimming clubs. Excludes fees associated with virtual services for home exercise equipment, personal monitoring devices, or fitness streaming classes.

Live Entertainment

Includes ticket purchases for live entertainment, including: concerts, live sporting events, live theatrical productions, amusement parks, and orchestras. Excludes: charitable organizations that provide live entertainment (benefits), sporting camps, sports complexes where you participate in the sport, public and private golf courses, country clubs (including membership fees), bowling alleys, movie theaters, tourist attractions, museums and art galleries.