last week we took a look at the brand new capital one venture x card and after making that video i
got a lot of questions requesting versus videos between that product and things like the american
express platinum card and the chase sapphire reserve and despite my best efforts putting
all of that information into one video seemed like a little bit much at once so today let's
put the american express platinum card head to head with the capital one venture x card
talk about the advantages and disadvantages of each of these products and of course help you
decide which one might be the better financial tool for you all right let's jump right into it
what is going on everyone i hope you are all having a fantastic day
so i know a lot of you want to see the venture x card compared to the chase sapphire reserve
so definitely keep an eye out for that video in the very near future but for now let's start off
with the american express platinum card and then compare this to the brand new venture x so the
american express platinum card has been around for a very long time and other than the ridiculously
expensive amex centurion card the platinum card has been the premier american express product for
years and based on the pretty awesome benefits and the very hefty annual fee it's pretty easy to see
why so at the moment the platinum card is offering a pretty huge signup bonus of one hundred thousand
points when you spend six thousand dollars in the first six months of having this product
which is actually not that bad and one hundred thousand points is worth at a bare minimum
one thousand dollars when redeemed but they have a number of travel partners that we'll talk about
in a minute that actually allow you to get two to four thousand dollars of value out of those points
now before we go any further with all of the features i do want to rip the band-aid and
tell you that the american express platinum card has an insane 695 annual fee now truthfully you
are able to recoup most of that directly from the credits that this card is going to give you
but as i've said many times before if the credits are not things that you would be buying anyways
then you're not actually getting a net benefit out of this credits now for years all of the top level
credit cards from every company had an annual fee of 450 bucks and that seemed to be the industry
standard but since then those prices have slowly gone up and up and just within the past few months
american express jumped to the stratosphere with this ridiculous 695 annual fee that in
my opinion just puts this product out of reach for a majority of users but what do you get for
that annual fee well beyond that one hundred thousand point sign up bonus you also get
ten points per dollar at all restaurants worldwide on up to twenty five thousand dollars in purchases
for your first six months of having this card you also get five points per dollar on all flights and
hotels booked through american express travel and one point on all other purchases not that
great but here come the insane amount of credits brace yourself currently you're going to get a 200
hotel credit a 240 digital entertainment credits a 155 dollar walmart plus credit a 200
uber cash credit that can be used for either uber with the ride sharing platform or uber ubereats
a 200 airline credit a 300 equinox credit a free clear membership which has a retail value of 179
and a free tsa pre-check or global entry credit which has a 100 retail value meaning just with
those credits alone you're getting 1 574 dollars of value out of this product not including the
point multipliers or that very large signup bonus but again i would argue that most of
those things like the 300 equinox credit which by the way is just a really fancy overpriced gym
are things that most of us will probably not use with the platinum card and we certainly didn't
use them without the platinum card and therefore i again reiterate that you're not really getting a
net benefit out of those products unless they are replacing things that you would be buying anyways
however if you travel fairly frequently then you'll probably be able to use things like the
hotel credit the airline fee credit the clear membership and tsa membership and maybe even
the digital entertainment and ubereats credits meaning those alone will pay for the annual fee of
this card but just ensure that you're using those credits on things that you would otherwise have to
pay for in order to truly get a net benefit out of this card all right and the last huge benefit
with the platinum card that we all love with these premium credit cards is the global lounge
collection through american express which gives you access to not only their very nice but rather
hard to find centurion lounges but also more than 1300 airport lounges across 140 different
countries okay so we'll circle back to some of those benefits in a second but now let's quickly
brush up on what the capital one venture x card has to offer now obviously i did just recently
make a full review on this product so i'll be sure to link to that down in the description below if
you do want some more in-depth information but in a nutshell the capital one venture x is going
to give you a one hundred thousand point sign up bonus currently when you spend ten thousand
dollars in the first six months plus 10 000 points or in this case capital one calls them miles but
really it's the same thing but they're going to give you a 10 000 point anniversary bonus for
every year that you have this card you also get a 300 annual travel credit that can be used when
booking through a capital and travel as well as a 200 vacation rental credit for your first year
and a free tsa pre-check or global entry credit which again has a value of about 100
as far as point multipliers are concerned you get 10 points per dollar on all hotels and rental cars
booked through the capital one travel site five points on all flights booked through capital and
travel and two points on all other purchases and last but not least with the capital one venture
x card you get a free priority pass membership which actually is worth several hundred dollars
if you were to buy that on your own and this gives you access to the same 1300 different vip lounges
as well as access to a handful of new capital one lounges that are being expanded recently
plus you can also add up to four different authorized users for free with this card
and each of them gets their own lounge access as well so i know that we moved through all of
that really quickly but again if you want a full review on this product then definitely
check out the video that i just made that again i'll link to you down in the description below
alright so as you can probably tell these cards have a lot of similarities but one thing that
you may have noticed i neglected to mention about the venture x card that is actually
the first major difference is that the venture x card has an annual fee of just 395 dollars
which is significantly lower than the american express's annual fee of 695 for the platinum card
so right out of gate the venture x card definitely wins that battle they are both currently offering
the same 100 000 point sign up bonus although the venture x card does have a spending requirement
of ten thousand dollars while the platinum card requires just six thousand dollars of spending
in order to get that sign up bonus as far as points on spending are concerned the platinum
card does give you those 10 points per dollar on all restaurants worldwide for the first six months
but that's more or less a sign up bonus and the venture x card gives you that 200 vacation rental
credit for your first year so depending on how much money you were to spend on your platinum card
really those two things would kind of be a wash but as far as everyday spending multipliers you
have the same five points per dollar on flights but the capital one card is going to give you
10 points per dollar on hotels while the platinum card only gives you five and the ventra card also
gives you two points per dollar on everything else while the platinum card only gives you one
point per dollar the lounge access is going to be very similar for both of these products and i'm
pretty sure that the 1300 vip lounges that each of them mention are exactly the same but i will say
that capital one's own network of lounges is very small and at the moment they only have one or two
capital one lounges while the american express centurion network is already very robust and
those are really nice lounges so while they are mostly the same depending on the locations that
you were going to if there are a lot of centurion lounges in the places that you frequently travel
then american express would definitely win that battle however american express charges 175
for each additional card while the venture x card gives you up to four additional authorized users
for completely free and again each of those authorized users gets their own lounge access
now in terms of credits the american express platinum card absolutely blows the venture x
card out of the water excluding that 200 vacation rental credit you're only going to get the 300
travel credit each year and the 10 000 point anniversary bonus with the venture x card
whereas the platinum card is going to give you some insane additional benefits like the hotel
credits on entertainment walmart uber airlines and even fancy gyms and the clear membership as
well so i again say that if those are things that you feel you would be using anyways then i would
definitely go with the platinum card because those will help justify that higher annual fee as far as
the travel portals are concerned up until recently i would have definitely given that category to
american express whose travel site is actually really great but recently capital one has revamped
their entire travel site and has invested a lot of money in it and has made some key partnerships
with third-party platforms like hopper so really in my opinion these two travel sites are basically
exactly the same so this one is fairly neck and neck across the board and really if i'm looking
at everything from a big picture it all comes down to whether or not you will use those credits that
the american express platinum card offers outside of those everything is very similar for these two
cards and if anything i would really give it to the venture x card because it has that anniversary
bonus a much lower annual fee and better point multipliers on those spending categories
but again if you use things like the uber cash credit the airline credit and all of
those credits that we've mentioned throughout the video then i would absolutely go with the american
express platinum card because while it may be 300 more expensive in terms of an annual fee
those credits will more than make up for that difference plus while i have not been able to
weigh or do a drop test of the venture x card i do know from experience that the american express
platinum card is one of if not the heaviest and most robust metal credit cards that is
currently available so if that is important to you then definitely something to keep in mind
so if you are brand new to the premium credit card world then i would definitely consider getting the
venture x card because it is a fantastic product and i know that i am personally going to be adding
this to my wallet in the near future but if you're going to use the credits that american
express is offering through the platinum card and you're able to justify that ridiculous annual fee
then the platinum card is a fantastic tried and true product that is going to give you some insane
benefits and truly give you that premium travel experience so i would love to know what you think
of these two products down in the comment section below and whether you would go with the american
express platinum card or the new capital one venture x as always if you did get value out of
this content and you want to help support me the easiest way to do that is actually by checking out
some of my favorite financial tools down in the description below including one offer from the
points cashback debit card that'll currently give you 100 when you open your account and make your
first purchase so definitely check that out using the link down below be sure to hit the like button
and subscribe to the channel for more content like this in the future and of course thank you so much
for your time i really do appreciate it so much take it easy and i'll see you in the next one!