Amex Platinum vs Revolut Ultra: If You Had To Pick One, Which Would You Choose?

In this episode of Banking Without Borders, Jonny and Jan go head-to-head on two of the most talked-about premium cards in the UK — Amex Platinum and Revolut Ultra. One's a credit card, the other's a debit subscription, and yet they keep ending up in the same conversation.

So we're doing the thing everyone actually wants. Not "it depends" — but if you had to pick one and walk away with it, which is it?

We cover:

• Overseas spending and FX fees
• Lounges, hotels and car hire
• Travel insurance — including the catches in both policies
• Credits, subscriptions and how to actually break even on the fee
• Points and welcome bonuses

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Jan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jan-watermann/

Jonny: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jonny-pease

Got a question or topic you want us to cover? Drop us a message at jonny@technicallymoney.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Okay, welcome back to another episode of Banking Without Borders. Today we're talking Amex Platinum versus Revolut Ultra. And on paper, these two shouldn't even be in the same conversation. One's a credit card, the other's a debit card, and yet every best premium card video or discussion online ends up in the same place. Amex Platinum or Revolut Ultra. So Jan and I are gonna go ahead and ask the question: if we had to pick one, which would we pick? Or would we pick both? And we've been through the benefits, the lounges, the insurance small print, as well as the credit and subscription bundles. So by the end of this episode, you'll know the good, the bad about each card, and who we think each one actually suits. So Jan. Let's just begin with why does everyone keep comparing two cards that on paper aren't even the same product?

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Yeah, Johnny, that's a great question. Those are two fundamentally different products. One is a credit card, one is a debit card, as you just mentioned, but they have one overlap, and that's the travel aspect. MX Platinum is built around travel infrastructure. You get access to lounges, you get hotel status, you get uh luxury hotel benefits, car hire statuses, and huge welcome bonus as well. And Revolute Ultra also gives you access to airport launches. You get a points program that rewards you when you spend internationally, you get better FX rates. You know, you see both of them try to appeal to travelers. Um and that's I think why they're being compared so often. One thing I would like to highlight though is that you know, one card's strength is the other one's weakness. Um that's how it seems at least when I looked at these benefits.

SPEAKER_01 1:32

Interesting. So you could arguably have them together.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

Well, if you want to spend how much is it? Um yeah or a thousand euros, then yeah, you could you could complement these cards with each other. Um that's a fact, but uh who who has that much money to spend for credit cards?

SPEAKER_01 1:53

Yeah, Jan has just touched on the price. I mean, paid annually, the Revolue Ultra card is slightly cheaper than Amex Platinum at £540 here in the UK or around 650 euros, whereas Amex Platinum is coming in at 650 pounds or 720 euros. So in sterling, that's a 110 pound price difference. It's a lot of money. It is, but if you pay for Ultra monthly, it flips. So in the UK, you pay £55 per month. So across 12 months, that would be 660 pounds a year. So it's actually more expensive than Amex Platinum, which is, I think, quite an interesting point to make. But don't jump the gun and think that okay, well, that's a good reason to commit to Revolut Ultra annually because you're gonna save a bit of money. Because there are some important caveats in terms of refund eligibility. Revolut will not refund you if you take out an annual subscription. So that is the price you pay for the discount. Once you've had Ultra for 14 days, you're stuck with it for a whole year. Whereas Amex, although it's a bit ambiguous, they do say that depending on account usage, you might be eligible for a refund. So it is a little bit open-ended, but I imagine maybe someone in the comments can speak to this. If you've ever been issued a refund and you hold Amex Platinum, I appreciate that's a bit niche. But there is, I think, a good chance that you would actually be able to get your money back on an Amex Platinum annual subscription. But let's get into the real stuff now. Let's talk about the overseas spending, the stuff what matters because Revolut Ultra and Amex Platinum are marketed as two big travel players, aren't they?

SPEAKER_00 3:22

Which is fascinating because Amex Platinum charges a 2.99% exchange rate fee every time you spend money abroad. So that's that's absolutely ridiculous if you think about it. On a 3,000-pound trip abroad, you're paying what's that, 90 pounds in fees? Absolutely unbelievable, in my opinion. That's that's not right. Just don't use that card in in foreign when you're spending foreign currencies, it's not worth it. Ultra, on the other hand, that's a card that's yeah, it's it's actually somewhat a good travel card. Like you don't have any exchange rate margin besides the Revolute rate, which we've touched on in the past. It's slightly worse than the mid-market rate, but it's not terrible. Um, and besides that, there's no weekend surcharge as you would get it with with Revolute Standard, for example. So it's it's a decent travel card. You also get 2,000 pounds of fee-free ATM withdrawals, which works globally. That's really nice. And MX, can you can you even withdraw money with that card? I think you can, but then you're paying a cash advance fee, and it's quite quite pricey, so you probably shouldn't even consider it. It's just funny, right? Because both are travel cards, but they're so different when you actually uh use them while traveling abroad in a foreign country. It's just yeah, it's just hard to understand, in my opinion. Earn rates, Johnny. I think they're somewhat similar with both cards. You get one point for each pound or euro that you spend. Um, with one exception, MX Platinum, they give you two points or two two times that if you spend using MX Travels Portal, which can be can be a good way to pay for trips. And Revolute Ultra on the other hand, they have these boosters, right? We've we've discussed that in the past. Uh, we can get, you know, if you you shop with participating shops, I think you can get even 20 points for every pound that you spend if there's a promotion going on. So yeah, both are somewhat rewarding. I would say probably Revolut Ultra is a little bit better in terms of pure earn rates. Um, that's my opinion. And yeah, the fact that it doesn't charge an FX fee while you're abroad just makes it a way better travel card. So I'd be I'd be really curious. Like, what's where's Amex Platinum actually better, in your opinion, Johnny?

SPEAKER_01 5:24

A couple of points. I mean, that could be on the lounge pass access. Both providers give you access, unlimited access to lounges on an individual basis. You're gonna get that with Revolut, you're gonna get that with Amex Platinum. But where Platinum are better is that they allow free access to an additional guest, and you can get a supplementary card with Amex Platinum. And they could also have an additional guest. So for the price of a subscription, you're potentially getting a family of four into a lounge. Revolut Ultra is very much designed for an individual traveler. Amex also gives you access to the Centurion Lounge, uh, Eurostar Lounges, and for now the Lufthansa Group Lounges, which will be shortly disappearing from the UK market. That's also through Priority Pass Yan, which some may argue is better than LoungeKey, who are supplying Revolutes Lounge Access. I believe LoungeKey has over a thousand lounges. This might be worth double checking. I think Priority Pass gives you access to 1,400. Uh 1900, wow, okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

It's almost dubit.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

I know, I know. It's a big, big thing as well. When you go to certain airports, maybe there are multiple lounges available as a result of Priority Pass versus Lounge Key because we know availability is becoming harder and harder. You want greater breadth of lounge access to hopefully circumvent the issue of popularity or uh I don't know, just being too busy, I guess. It is an issue. So I might have more faith with priority pass because I would think that, well, there's going to be greater choice and potentially quieter lounges available to me. E-SIM data? It's not even worth mentioning, really, is it? But it's there, it's available. I think it is. Revolu Ultra are going to provide you with three gigabytes of monthly global e-sim data. Obviously, you're not going to get that with Amex Platinum. I I suppose that sits amongst sort of the travel experience umbrella. But Jan, do you think someone who's got Revolu Ultra, someone who's got Amex Platinum really cares too much about eSIM global data? Surely those are the types of people that have uh a mobile carrier that's providing them with a really robust contract, giving them global roaming, capped to like 20 to 40 gigabytes of data as opposed to three gigabytes. Is that even going to suffice?

SPEAKER_00 7:40

Not necessarily, Johnny. I'm someone who's interested in getting both of these cards. I looked into them in the past and I don't have such a contract. So I'd be definitely taking advantage of that three gigabyte a month data plan that you you get with Revolute Ultra in the UK. By the way, worth mentioning if you're within the EU, you get five gigabytes a month. Um that's that's a little nicer. Um five gigabytes actually more usable than three gigabytes, should be enough for most travelers, I'd say. One thing that you haven't touched on, Johnny, was the fact that MX Platinum allows you to pre-book launch days eight times a year, I believe. And Revolute Ultra is literally just a walk-in availability. You've you've traveled to plenty of UK airports, I assume. How big of a deal is that?

SPEAKER_01 8:19

It's a huge deal. It's a big problem. You typically walk up to a lounge these days and someone can jump in the comments if they've experienced this differently, and you have a queue immediately, regardless of time of day. You need to pre-book because there's always two cues, pre-booked and non-pre-booked. That's a huge problem, Jan. I'm I'm glad you raised it. Another thing that I didn't mention also is that and and maybe Revolut deserved this to be mentioned. I'm not sure if they do necessarily, but if you do want to take a guess with Revolut Ultra, you I you get a discount on a lounge pass. I think it's around £20 or 20 euros. I didn't mention that previously, but ultimately Amex has the edge here. I think we would all agree. 100% like Jan mentioned, you get the eight pre-bookings, you can take a family as many as four people, potentially you've got greater lounge access. You know, if you're paying monthly for ultra, if you're paying monthly for platinum, the price is pretty much the same. Does Amex have the edge when it comes to car hire experience and hotels, Jan?

SPEAKER_00 9:13

I'm pretty sure they do. 100% you can't even compare, Johnny. Can't even compare it because Revolute Ultra has nothing to offer that would be even closely similar. With Amex Platinum, you get a handful of statuses across different, you know, different hotels, but also car hire um companies. Um, as an example, Hilton Gold, Married Bonvoy Gold, Redison, you get the premium status, and with Melia, um, which is a Spanish hotel chain, I believe, you got also gold status, and that's really nice because these statuses they give you certain benefits. As an example, with Hilton Gold, you get free breakfast for two every night you stay there. Um, and that's yeah, if you go ahead and purchase that independently, that would be 50 pounds, I believe, or fifty dollars more or less. Huge benefit here. Agreed. It's just included with your room rate. You can so you can just go ahead and book rooms without breakfast, which are cheaper. Car hire, Herz Gold Plus, Avis President's Club. Pretty nice. And then it's worth mentioning that um if you're within the EU certain EU markets, I believe you get benefits of six, so that can vary. Um depending on where you're based, might be worth checking the MX Platinum benefits on your country. But yeah, you'll certainly get benefits that are in this category, which are definitely worth it. What I really like, Johnny, is the fine hotels and resort credit, where you essentially get a hundred pound dollars, I believe. $100 worth of credit whenever you book a hotel through MX's travel program, and certain other benefits, I believe, are an upgrade if it's available, and a guaranteed 4 pm checkout. And that can be really, really nice. Only downside, probably it's it's only available for fine hotels, and those are hotels that are typically 400 pounds a night and up. Not sure how many people this actually applies for, but if it applies to you, great benefit. Great benefit.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

Yeah, you just got to be careful that when you go to the hotel and you redeem your credit, that you're not doing it with like a third-party company that can sometimes exist inside the lobbies of hotels or within the grounds. It will only apply to a hotel specifically and not perhaps like a third-party masseuse company that they might have like subleasing the space. Just trying to defend Revolue a little bit with this category, but they do offer tour and car credit. Well, they offer the credit for the car rental, don't they? And so in the UK, at least you get $50, that's there, that's available. But yeah, there really is very little here. Basically nothing. Seems a bit of the same, doesn't it, with insurance?

SPEAKER_00 11:29

Oh, I think it's closer. It's closer, Johnny.

SPEAKER_01 11:32

I would say Amex is better or more friendly towards families because not only you are covered, but also any partners, dependents, children under the age of 25, even grandchildren. However, the headline number, the medical cover amount that you get is far greater with Revolu Ultra. They're covering you up to 10 million pounds. Wow. Amex Platinum is only 2 million. So that is a big, big difference. If you have to cancel your trip with Amex Platinum, you're covered up to 7,500 pounds per person, whereas that same cover exists with Revolu and it's up to £5,000. And importantly, I'm not talking about Revolut's cancel for any reason insurance. That's a separate policy, which I'll talk about in a moment. Chubb, who are Revolut's policy provider in the UK, inside that travel insurance policy is a £5,000 per person cancellation policy. But what's important with Amex Platinum is you don't have to use the card to be covered by this policy. It's entirely automatic. Whereas with Revolut, if you want to be covered by the insurance, you have to have paid for at least 70% of the value of your trip, so your accommodation or your transportation with your ultra card. I don't see that, Yan being a huge issue for most. I think people that are trying to maximize the amount of points that they can earn on Revolu Ultra, they're probably paying for everything with the card, but it's of course, it's a decent thing, it's worth mentioning. And again, this is all available inside the policy documents. Please do look at those. Don't just go off my word. Make sure you look at these policy documents properly if you're considering taking these accounts out. I do like Revolut's cancel for any reason cover, though. That's quite interesting. That's quite rare. Typically, you'd have to die, right? Or have some serious medical event that caused you to cancel your trip to get paid for it. Whereas with Revolute, you could literally just not want to get out of bed in the morning to go on your holiday, and they'll pay you up to 70% of the trip, up to uh two and a half thousand pounds, I believe, in cover. And you've got uh you can use that up twice a year, so you go up to five thousand pounds per year. That is a nice touch. Again, it's gonna come down to the person this who who it's gonna come down to the type of person like a solo traveler might prefer Revolut, um, a younger family might prefer Amex Platinum because of the broad depth of the policy. But yeah, as I said, look at these two policies and you'll have to just decide for yourself.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

So a category where MX Platinum is undoubtedly not better than Revolut Ultra is the credits and subscriptions category. Amex pays you um a dining credit, which is worth 200 pounds, and you're getting two 100 pound vouchers uh for every half of the year, or you can redeem them as you want, with I believe over 2,000 restaurants globally. We had a look at the list. Unfortunately, not a lot of countries are covered. For example, Portugal, where Johnny is planning a trip to um later on this year, is not even in the list, which is fascinating to me. And then you also get to read the the Times and the Sunday Times, that's worth 300-300 pounds more or less. Um, we've made the math on that, and that's pretty much it when it comes to credits and subscriptions. Revolute Ultra on the other hand. Oh, you're getting so much, Johnny. Uh, you're getting so many lifestyle subscriptions. As an example, Financial Times, you get, I believe, three WeWork passes every single year, uh every single month, sorry for that. You get NordVPN, ClassPass, Headspace, Tinder Gold, Perplexity Pro, and many more things. It's it's fascinating, it's so useful, actually, that a lot of people that are using Revolute Ultra they make it worth based on these subscriptions alone. So it's essentially a subscription bundle. I would not even consider that a yeah, a bank account. Primarily, I would say it's a subscription bundle with a bank account attached to it. That's where the main value lies. So it's it's pretty clear Revolute Ultra has an edge here. One thing to mention though, Amex Platinum has a great sign-up bonus in many cases. That varies. They're also A-B testing, different bonuses. Um, so depending on when you look at the website, it might change. Um, but I believe you can get up to 75,000 points. Um, sometimes even more. I believe we've we've we've had a look a few months ago, a few weeks ago, and it was up to 90,000 points that you could get when signing up uh with Amex Platinum for the first time in I think that's two years. That could be worth it, absolutely. Um, but besides that, if you only look at these subscriptions, these other benefits, credits, etc., Revolut Ultra, definitely a huge advantage for them.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

I mean it's it's a lot harder to break even with Amex Platinum versus Revolut Ultra. I mean, look, if if you can use both halves of the dining credit, you can use the Sunday Times, you know, you use a handful of lounge visits, the fine hotels and resorts collection, you've got to use that $100 credit. I mean, realistically, you know, you're having to use a lot of it, most of it, in fact, like 80-90% of what's on offer, I would say, to get the value back. And of course, if you get the welcome bonus in the first year, yeah, that's going to increase the value that you can potentially, you know, or the value that you can earn. But after that first year, when you're down to having to try and recuperate £650 in cost or or whatever it is in the EU, what was it, 750? 720, I believe. Yeah, so recuperating that 720 euro or 650 pounds is going to be trickier. Whereas with Revolue Ultra, we worked out that you only need to use 13% of the subscriptions to break even on £540. You know, you could use the FT and the co-working passes, you know, use a couple of the other subscriptions like Perplexity Pro, NordVPN, and possibly lean into the 0% FX because you're traveling and a couple of lounge passes as a result as well, and bang, that's it, you're done. And you've got so many other subscriptions that you could use, right? I mean, if you skip the subs entirely, Jan, and you just go all in on lounge passes, you you know, you're not going to recuperate it, but then you couple that with maybe going all in on the FX and going all in on like international money transfers, which I know a lot of people in the comments have talked about previously. Like 0% IMT send money internationally, and the only cost is that Revolute margin that they put on the exchange rate. Yeah. Like if you're sending money with Wise, they have the interbank rate, but they also apply a variable fee. And we know that in some cases that variable fee will exceed Revolut's margin fee that they put on the exchange rate. Revolut Ultra is probably one of the best ways of sending money internationally that's available. I mean, Remittly might be up there, you know, if it's the first transfer, Remittly will probably be better because they give a preferential exchange rate and a fee-free exchange rate. But ultimately, Revolut Ultra can be a great way to send money internationally. So you could be doing that, you could be using lounge passes, you could be spending money in a foreign currency, and bang, you're already close to getting $540 back in value. That's the appeal to Ultra for me. Um if I was choosing one of these two, Yan, I'm looking at Revolut Ultra 100%. I mean, I have a family. Yeah, I mean, I have a family, and yet getting access to the lounges is good, it's enticing. You know, my wife can have a supplementary card, my daughter can come in. But then I'm not a big, I'm not a big fan of the lounges anyway, if I'm being frank. I like the airline specific lounges. I always find they're a lot nicer. The somewhat public lounges that that are available, particularly in the UK, looking at Heathrow, Gatwick, like the number one lounge, whatever it's called. I mean, it's just my experience of those. Yeah, it's never good. A sparse buffet, overcrowded, dirty, litter everywhere, not well kept. I'm not that fussed about lounge passes, to be honest, mate. And I look at this Revolu Ultra and I think for me personally, you know, even though I don't travel solo, I think, you know, I think you know, someone who's traveling solo, Revolu Ultra is definitely going to appeal to them over Amex Platinum, but I'm not even traveling solo, and I'm looking at Ultra thinking that would be that would be my choice. Who's Amex Platinum for, Johnny?

SPEAKER_00 19:05

Yeah, I think for me personally, it's not like there's one thing that's better than the other. Um, I think this is a little bit more nuanced, and Amex Platinum appeals to different people than Revolute Ultra appeals to. Um, as an example, Amex Platinum, it's probably yeah, the clear choice if you're traveling and you're staying in hotels many nights of the year, let's say you're a business traveler or so, and you're really taking advantage of all these different hotel statuses. Wow, huge benefit. Um, as well as if you you hire cars very often, also clear benefit. Um priority pass, also clear benefit. So it's if you're actually a traveler um that's you know outside of your home country many times of the year, and then you also maybe subscribe to Starlink or some other really good credit card, right? Uh so the FX rates don't really matter. Then MX Platinum is probably the better choice. Um, but besides that, most people, and I agree with you, Johnny, on that, Revolute Ultra is probably the best choice for. Hmm. Yeah. I'd be curious what everyone else has to say about this. Which one would you pick? Please write into the comments. Really love these discussions, and um, it's also worth mentioning. We've we've opened up a Discord channel uh where we're having yeah, all kinds of discussions, actually, different topics that we're we're discussing. There are a lot of uh a lot of finance topics as well. Uh so feel free to join that. We're gonna show something on the screen and also put a link in the description below and the show notes if you're listening to this. So feel free to just click it and and join our Discord server. Yeah, we're looking forward to to get that filled up.

SPEAKER_01 20:28

How are people redeeming the points that they're earning as well? Does Amex appeal to you more because they have a wider ecosystem of partners that you can redeem with? Whereas Revolu Ultra being only two or three, four years old, they're still building that system. There's an argument for that as well that I think is worth mentioning, Jan. Very well said, Johnny. Amex is the beast of points. And um, I think people out there in the comments will have things to say about how they like to redeem. You know, I'm solely looking to collect Avios. I could have Revolu Ultra because it converts one to one, right? Just like an Amex membership reward point does. So that would be fine. Get in the comments, get in the Discord, we'd love to hear from you. Let us know which one are you going with Amex Platinum or Revolu Ultra.