How To Climb the American Express Credit Card Ladder (2026)

American Express. It is one of the most iconic credit cards in the world. I carry the American Express card and wherever I go folks treat me like a fat cat. Amex has a whole portfolio of co-branded cards with different airlines and hotels and then they have their classic lineup of green which gives you rewards on travel, gold which is about lifestyle benefits on dining and everyday shopping, to platinum that gives you premium travel benefits like airport lounges, special benefits at luxury hotels and lots of points when you book flights. And then finally we have the Centurion or black card which is invitation only and is the mark of celebrities and multi-millionaire CEOs. So there's kind of a progression there from basic Amex cards to their most prestigious and it is understandable lots of people want to climb all the way to the top. So in this video I'm going to cover just that and point out some of the mistakes that you can make along the way. This is how to climb the American Express credit card ladder. Hey credit warriors welcome to the show. My name is Ben Hedges aka The Credit Shofu and on this channel I cover US credit cards, personal finance and luxury travel. If you like the sound of that do subscribe but let's get into it. This video is brought to you by Max Rewards but more on that later. So how to climb the credit card ladder is a classic concept on credit card YouTube okay. I've done it over many years and a few people have done a version specifically for American Express. Now I haven't watched any of the Amex versions specifically so that I can give you my own understanding and my own take on the topic. Level one no annual fee Amex cards. So first let's just address the fact that Amex doesn't do credit builder cards. You're going to have to build your credit with another bank if you're totally new to the game. Often people do this with Capital One or Discover. Those two banks have cards that are exactly for this purpose. And yeah Capital One's lowest level card is called the Platinum which is kind of confusing because that's one of Amex's highest level cards. But once you have got your credit up to the upper 600s I'm talking about 670 or above and about 680 or 690 gives you even better approval odds. You can apply for a basic no annual fee Amex card. Examples that could be a good fit include the Blue Cash Every Day. That's a no annual fee credit card that earns cash back on everyday spending like groceries online retail and gas. Or you could go for the entry level Amex Hilton credit card. This was actually my first Amex card and this one lets you earn Hilton points on again everyday categories like dining or groceries. Amex tends to be very generous with credit limits. If you're in the upper 600s I would say that you can expect at least $5,000 on these cards. I actually waited a little longer and applied for the Hilton card when I was at a 700 credit score and I was given a $10,000 credit limit on my first ever Amex card and it was my highest limit on any card at that time. You'll see a lot of comments about this on Reddit. I've been an Amex holder since 2018. When I initially got the card they gave me roughly a $10,000 limit. Now it's 2023 and I just got an email saying they bumped it to $23,000. Then this guy responds saying I swear as long as you are responsible with Amex they are absolutely the most generous credit card company. Now if you didn't receive the credit card you wanted when you applied you can normally increase your credit line up to three times your original limit if you request it after 60 days of opening the account. There's a little bit more to it than that but I have a video that talks specifically on how to do this. It looks like this and I'll put it on the end screen of this video for you to check out. So that's level one. Your first Amex card. Something basic but the cool thing is even Amex's basic cards are still going to provide you with a lot of rewards like cashback, points and welcome bonuses. But let's move on to level two. Amex rewards cards with annual fees. So in this tier I would put the Amex green card which is the first in their lineup of what they used to call charge cards with the roman centurion on them. These cards allow very high charges with no set limit and are still in theory supposed to be paid every month but they now give you a small portion of that that can be paid over time with interest like $10,000 or $20,000 whereas you may be able to charge $50,000 to $100,000 on the card in a month and pay it off that month. Now the Amex green gives you three points per dollar on travel and also transit which is like day-to-day travel It does have a $150 annual fee but then they also give you a $209 credit for clear which is fast track airport security. This is a great card for people who aren't too serious about luxury or international travel but they do a lot of travel locally and it's pretty rewarding if you live in a big city and use public transport. Now Amex in the last year or so has brought in new terms and conditions that specify the order that you have to apply for cards in if you want to get the bonus on each one. You may not be able to receive a welcome offer if you have had this card, the platinum card, a few other versions of the platinum, the American Express gold card or previous versions of these cards. So if you want bonuses on green and then gold and then platinum you need to apply for the green first. If you skip to gold and then you decide you want the green later well you can get the card but you most likely will not get a welcome bonus. Right now the public offer on green is only 40,000 points so it might not be a big deal to you but there can be higher targeted and limited time offers coming out in the future and this gets even more important as you move up the ladder and at each stage you're getting bigger and bigger bonuses. At this level I also put the mid-level co-branded cards like the Hilton Honours Surpass. If you got the Hilton Honours credit card, the one we talked about a minute ago, after one year they will normally target you with a bonus to upgrade to the surpass which offers richer benefits like Hilton gold status that gives you free breakfast, really useful and then higher point earning on many categories. I got a 75,000 points upgrade bonus when I upgraded. Now this has advantages and disadvantages since 75,000 is less than the current public offer of 130,000 if you just open the card as a new account but if you do the upgrade you're not opening a new credit line and there's no hard pull on your credit report but if you want the maximum amount of points it's better to do a separate application and then there's also a whole game you can play with Hilton cards where you downgrade them and then later upgrade them again to get the upgrade bonus. Frequent Miler has a whole article about it, I'll paste it somewhere down below. Lastly if you're looking for an airline card the Delta Gold Amex is in this tier that offers Delta SkyMiles on your purchases. All right let's move on to level three, upper mid-level rewards cards. But first if you have a lot of credit card accounts that you're earning rewards from for cashback and free travel then you have to check out the ultimate credit card management app Max Rewards. They've been a sponsor of this channel for a long time and I've seen their app get better and better. With a secure link to all your banks it shows you all of your transactions across all of your cards within one app. No need to log into different banks websites. You'll see your balances, utilization, due dates and points and rewards balances for each card. There are even things like card value trackers where you can see the value that you earn from your rewards versus the annual fee. Another great feature of the pro version of Max Rewards which they call Max Rewards Gold is that the app activates credit card offers for you so you never miss a deal. And there have been times when I used an offer when I was out shopping without even realizing and save some money. That has happened a few times now. So check out Max Rewards. Click my link below for a free 7-day free trial of Max Rewards Gold and a 3-month discount on the annual plan if you choose to continue after the trial. If you download it directly from the app store use code BEN for the same deal. All right so the most obvious example of a card in this tier is the Amex Gold card. It earns 4 points per dollar on US supermarkets and dining worldwide. It has a $325 annual fee but it has loads of credits that can give you more value than what you're paying in annual fees like the $120 Uber credit, the $84 Dunkin Donuts credit, the $100 Resi credit etc. This is kind of a new tier of card that Amex created in the past few years. Mid-tier cards all just used to have a $95 annual fee but Amex gradually raised that and added credits to offset it. And now all the other companies are copying the model. So I call these upper mid-tier since yes they do have annual fees almost as high as premium cards but those fees are easy to offset with the credits. Another example would be the Delta SkyMiles Platinum card with a $350 annual fee but it does offer a load of credits to offset that. Now both those cards have restrictions on the order of application so on the Delta Platinum if you've already had the card above then you probably won't get the bonus on the Delta Platinum. For the Amex Gold it is the same if you have had the Amex Platinum the card above you may not get the welcome bonus on gold. So order of applications is really important when climbing the Amex credit card ladder to maximize bonuses. Do it in ascending order. Also for the bonuses on these cards don't just take the first bonus you see online. Try different browsers or incognito windows to see if you get offered a higher bonus. You can also ask a friend for a referral link. For example right now I'm only seeing 60,000 points on the gold public offer but through my referral link it's up to 100,000 points. And actually I'll put my Amex referral link down below somewhere probably in the description section where you can find the highest bonuses on all Amex cards. If you do use my link I of course thank you very much since it helps me out too. All right let's now move on to the highest tier that regular people can achieve. Level 4 Premium Travel Cards So really the main example here is the Amex Platinum. It has an $895 annual fee but there are thousands of dollars worth of credits like $600 for fine hotels and resorts, $400 for RevZ restaurants, $200 for Uber etc. And the card will get you into airport lounges like the Centurion lounge, the Priority Pass lounges etc. I've checked my spending power on this card and I can charge up to $125,000 in a single transaction and it will go through. Obviously I do have to pay that off that month. I think the card that I have will also allow me to spend something like $20,000 paid off over time with interest if I wanted to do that. Now I think getting this card is more of a decision of whether you actually need it since $895 is a big amount of money to shell out in one go. So you do need to really benefit from the card. Personally, although I don't travel as much these days, so I don't use the lounges as often. Although actually I did use the Plaza Premium lounge at London Heathrow coming back to the US after Christmas. But most of the year I'm not traveling. However, I do benefit from how the credits have expanded into lifestyle things these recent years, not just travel. There's the $300 Lululemon credit for example, which I've been getting great value out of buying clothes. And the $100 Rezzy credit which I've been using for dining out with my family. I have the Charles Schwab version of this card, which allows me to redeem up to 1 million points per year at 1.1 cents per point. So if you aren't such a regular traveler, but you want this card for the lifestyle benefits, you could also consider that version if you think that you won't often use the points for travel. Then in this tier, we also have a couple of other co-branded cards, notably the Hilton Honours Aspire Amex card, which is packed with Hilton benefits like diamond status, a $400 Resort credit, Hilton free night every year. The annual fee is very reasonable at just $550. Depending on your habits, that could be a better premium card for you. Or there's also the Delta Reserve. This one has an annual fee of $650, but it's great for Delta loyalists. It features multiple credits and it can get you into the Amex Centurion lounge and the Delta lounges. But all of these cards can be applied for by anyone. So let's now look just for fun at the final boss, the final level on the Amex credit card ladder. Level five, invite only black cards. Now, the Amex Centurion is an invite only black card that actually started as an urban legend that there was this ultra exclusive card above platinum. Amex reacted to the rumor and made it a reality. Next morning, I call the president of American Express. I go, is there a black card? He says, it's just a rumor. It doesn't exist. He said, but you know what? It's not a bad idea. And so they developed it and they gave me the first one. And that was Jerry Seinfeld, who supposedly got the first one. They never did any marketing for it. They just invited a load of celebrities and word spread. And now everyone's talking about it. Now, the current iteration of the black card has an initiation fee of $10,000. Yes, you heard that right. Then an annual fee of $5,000. So if you get it, you have to pay $15,000 in the first year and then $5,000 per year after that. The benefits include things like Delta Airlines Platinum Medallion status, Hilton Diamond and two other high hotel statuses, access to the private suite airport terminal LAX and a load of other lifestyle and travel benefits that people with jet setting lifestyles would benefit from. Not to mention that just by flashing the card at a bouncer at a club or a host or hostess at a restaurant, you can often get in even if the establishment is full. Because they know you're probably going to spend a lot of money because you got the black card. But this card is invite only. So how do you get it? Well, the consensus is that you need to spend around $250,000 a year on your other Amex cards to possibly get an invite. But even then, depending on where you are, the requirement might be higher, like the richer the country or region, the more you'll have to spend. So the requirement for getting a black card in New York, for example, might be $500,000 or more in spend. And even if you are a big spender, they seem to look into your background as well and see if you're the kind of guy they want to give a card to. So, you know, it's not guaranteed and none of the requirements are public. For most people, this is just a cool dream to think about since the card only really makes sense for someone who is jet setting around in first class and flying private jets all the time. For mere mortals, the platinum will normally suffice. All right, guys, that is the video for today on how to climb the Amex credit card ladder. Thank you so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed it. Don't forget to check out Max Rewards in the description down below. You can get a free trial and then a three-month discount after the trial ends. Please subscribe to the channel if you're new. I'll see you next time. Bye-bye.