- Best Platinum credit cards compared
- How to get a platinum credit card: 4 tips
- Methodology
- Sources
- About the author
- User questions & answers
Best Platinum Credit Cards Compared
Credit Card | Best For | Annual Fee | Min. Credit Required |
The Platinum Card® from American Express | Winner | $695 | Good |
Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card | Airline Miles | $350 | Good |
U.S. Bank Visa® Platinum Card | 0% APR | $0 | Good |
Capital One Platinum Credit Card (see Rates & Fees) | Newcomers | $0 | Limited History |
Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® | Mastercard | $0 intro 1st yr, $99 after | Good |
Comerica Bank Visa® Platinum Card | Balance Transfers | $0 | Excellent |
The Business Platinum Card® from American Express | Business | $695 | Good |
How to Get a Platinum Credit Card: 4 Tips
- Estimate your monthly spending: How much you charge to your credit card, plus what exactly you buy, will affect how effective a given card can be. For example, many rewards credit cards offer bonus-earning rates in certain spending categories.
- Determine what you can afford to pay: If you plan on paying your bill in full every month, get a credit card with rewards. If not, look for a 0% credit card. Whether or not it’s worth paying an annual fee for a credit card depends on what you get in return.
- Check your latest credit score: All credit cards have certain minimum credit requirements. And you don’t want to waste time applying for a credit card that you can’t get approved for. You can check your latest credit score for free on WalletHub.
- Apply online: Some credit cards offer exclusive rewards bonuses to people who apply online. Plus, the response time will be a lot quicker. You may even be approved instantly.
Methodology for Selecting the Best Platinum Credit Cards
To identify the best platinum credit cards on the market, WalletHub’s editors regularly compare more than 1,500 credit card offers. After eliminating cards whose name does not include "Platinum", we compare the remaining offers based on WalletHub Rating components such as their rewards, initial bonus, interest rates, fees, assorted benefits, and approval requirements. In particular, we focus on the cards’ estimated two-year cost. This enables us to select cards with platinum-level perks in the most popular usage categories.
How Two-Year Cost Is Calculated
Two-year cost is used to approximate the monetary value of cards for better comparison and is calculated by combining annual and monthly membership fees over two years, adding any one-time fees or other fees (like balance transfer fees), adding any interest costs, and subtracting rewards. Negative amounts indicate savings. When fees or other terms are presented as a range, we use the midpoint for scoring purposes.
Rewards bonuses and credits have been taken into account for two-year cost calculations. However, bonuses applicable to only a very small portion of cardholders are not considered. For example, credits and bonuses awarded for spending or redeeming rewards through a company portal with non-co-branded cards have not been taken into account. Similarly, bonuses and credits related to spending with specific merchants using a non-co-branded card have not been taken into account (for example, if Card A offers credits with DoorDash, this feature would not be factored into calculations because it is hard to assess how many cardholders would use the benefit or exactly how much value they'd get from it).
Cardholder Spending Profiles
Given that different users have different goals and are likely to use their credit cards differently, we identified spending profiles that are representative of different users’ financial priorities and behaviors. For each cardholder type, we have assumed a specific amount of monthly spending by purchase type (e.g., groceries, gas, etc.), as well as an average balance, balance transfer amount, amount spent on large purchases and average monthly payment. Spending assumptions are based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for consumers and PEX data for businesses.
Final Analysis
To make it onto WalletHub’s best platinum credit cards list, a card must have truly stand-out terms. Just having the term "platinum" in the name does not seal the deal. WalletHub’s editors also use a similar process to identify the most exclusive and premium credit cards, which you can find listed on separate pages.
Sources
WalletHub actively maintains a database of 1,500+ credit card offers, from which we select the best Hilton credit cards for different applicants as well as derive market-wide takeaways and trends. The underlying data is compiled from credit card company websites or provided directly by the credit card issuers. We also leverage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to develop cardholder profiles, used to estimate cards’ potential savings.