There are credit cards out there at all kinds of price points — there are some fantastic no annual fee cards, there are some rewarding mid-range cards (with annual fees of under $100), and then there are premium cards (with annual fees of $300+).
Continue reading: Are High Annual Fee Credit Cards Worth It?
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Only if you would get enough "freebies" from a lounge that more than cover the annual cost of the card. That assumes you're ok with Wawa level food, cheap booze (if you drink), and crowded lounges sometimes with lines to get in. Airline lounges may or may not be useful in the event of flight disruptions.
Paying $500 to $1K a year for a vanity card does not make economic sense.
"Paying $500 to $1K a year for a vanity card does not make economic sense." for YOU.
For many of us who spend a non-trivial amount of time moving around the earth, these cards make absolute sense.
Regarding the Aspire card, the four $50 quarterly airline credits are annoying. Just let us use the $200 as we see fit.
Steve, Aspire’s credit is one of the more flexible and broad airline reimbursements out there, especially after Amex recently nerf’d Platinum’s ‘incidental fee’ credits. For Aspire, just buy $50 of United Travel Bank per quarter. It’ll add up quickly. Doesn’t expire for 5 years. This is the way.
"For many of us who spend a non-trivial amount of time moving around the earth, these cards make absolute sense."
But you are not in the majority. A average person does not live their life onboard their local hub airline. So it does not make economic sense to hold it for a great majority of people.
And the value proposition is diluted considerably for the average traveler. A decade ago when CSR was introduced it was a no brainer for even a family of one time travelers. You paid $450 in fees. But got $300 in travel credit. You could take as many guests as you wanted to a PP lounge. You got the $28 benefit at airport restaurants. Just one round trip to grandma's at Thanksgiving for a family of four, gave you your annual fees worth of value without trying.
But now that's not the case. There are quarterly credits and monthly credits and one card even has a monthly cab app credit after you have had 3 rides with that cab app company. Its getting ridiculous. Plus every single day you hear of issuers chipping away at benefits, making them more difficult to use.
Bottomline its a hobby that becomes less rewarding by the day and its got to a point where spending that much amount is ust not worth it.
That is exactly what I said: Only if you would get enough "freebies" from a lounge that more than cover the annual cost of the card.
Someone flying 3-5 times a year would not get enough freebies to cover the cost of the card.
Using Ben's reasonable approach, i.e. spend $20 and find a quiet area in the terminal, it would take many visits to a lounge to recoup the annual fee for some of these cards. I view airport lounges in many locations as less comfortable than a quiet gate, but I do not travel as much as some and some airports do not have much quiet gate area (Keflavik for example).
I would be happy if there was a Wawa in Malta.
But, to be honest here, I am happy that in Europe, the banks don't throw around these credit card deals. In fact, my LH Senator card or FC travel get me into lounges around the world. So, I guess you might say free agency works for me.
What is most interesting is that European banks are now rolling out is a system that bypasses both the Mastercard and Visa systems for processing European Visa and Mastercard, thereby lowering the merchant discount, and ultimately to the consumer. But, not me with my American cards. The fatcat regulations cause virtually all banks in Europe to not issue cc to Americans.
In short, the three things that bug me about travel are: this incessent obsession with tie in between banks and airlines, necessitating excellent excel skills, higher merchant fees that I and the merchant must pay to fund Delta, etal. Doors! I truly don't get it. Without standing on my toes, I can see you. And it makes me feel encapsulated.
And finally, what's with lounge obsession. I bought a ticket to fly, not to soak up all the booze and food in a lounge. And frankly, in Europe and Asia, I have not stood in lines to do so.
Since the late 60's, I "get by" with my greenie and my Navy Federal Visa( for which I earn 10 points($) for every travel dollar: tickets, hotels.
Has anyone compared nightly rates for The Edit properties on other travel portals? I have found that most Edit properties in Europe have inflated nightly rates on the Chase Portal which greatly devalue the $250 CSR credits when the same room at the same properties can be booked for significantly less.
The Edit is across-the-board inflated. I recall reporting of Chase even unveiling a targeted price-match tool, but only for certain users. If they were serious about not price-gauging, they’d release that match-tool to all CSR users.
The CSR is the main ultra premium card I don't hold anymore, and it's mainly because of the inflated cost of The Edit. It became too much effort to find value vs booking hotels using other CC credits.
To me, it’s the dichotomy of keeper-cards (ones that pay for themselves thanks to credits or benefits, often a quantitative but also subjective, circumstantial determination) verses churn-and-burn for sign-up-bonuses.
Most of the high-end issuer cards, like Amex Platinum, Chase Sapphire Reserve (if you can stomach the high fees and actually use nearly all the major credits) still keepers to me. I haven’t had the best luck with CapitalOne, but I’m confident Venture X is on that last, too. Maybe Citi Strata Elite, too, but it’s new and just not as popular (c’mon, Citi Nights!) Is Bilt Palladium? Well, we’re all figuring out how to burn the excess Bilt Cash before expiration, so, we’ll see.
Unless and until certain issuers go ‘once-per-lifetime’ many co-branded cards are churners (think American, United, etc.) Regrettably, the Amex ones are not as churn-able, so Hilton, Delta, etc., might be ‘keepers’, if you use the credits on higher-end versions like Aspire or (Delta) Reserve.
Then there’s the new-ish mid-tier of card products that aren’t no-fee or merely $99 per year, they’re in that $200-400 category, like an Amex Gold or an BofA Alaska Atmos Summit, but, like, again, other than a SUB, the math has to work for you as to whether the credits and benefits offset those fees. I tend to think merely breaking-even isn’t enough. You should account for the extra effort and spend usually required to ‘play the game.’
I’m honestly getting credit card fatigue. I have cut my CC portfolio in the past 18 months and will continue to do so.
These premium travel cards with crazy annual fees only make sense if you travel a lot. And even then, I’m not sure it makes sense for most frequent travelers to carry multiple expensive cards unless work is reimbursing you or the math genuinely works for your business.
For most people, one good card is probably enough. Ideally, one that gets you into a decent lounge without a long line and with food you actually want to eat.
Otherwise, take the thousands of dollars you’re paying in annual fees and just spend some of that money at airport restaurants when you travel. I’m not convinced you lose that much. You might actually have a better experience.
And you avoid all the nonsense of tracking credits, remembering deadlines, using benefits just because you paid for them, and constantly trying to “get your money’s worth” from a fee you paid upfront. At some point, simplifying may actually leave you better off.
In reality, society would be better off if we all gave up the coupon book perks and the credit card fees charged to businesses were lowered from 2.5% to 1%. The collective lower prices would far outweigh the occasional free flight.
@mildmidwesterner You really believe that prices would go down if the interchange fees were lowered?
@samar Given how competitive consumer prices are, yes, but it probably wouldn't be completely obvious. In reality, I think we would see price increases be put off for longer. For example, that washing machine you're shopping for would stay at $899 a few months longer before increasing to $929. You might also see "convenience fees" for online purchases, such as UberEats, decrease in the short term. The savings would be small and incremental, but they would add up over time.
@MildMidwesterner, bud, you are dreaming. Tune into any retail earnings call and you'll hear CEOs literally bragging to Wall Street about expanding margins through 'pricing power.' (Ah, corporate euphemisms.) If interchange fees dropped to 1%, that 1.5% difference wouldn't show up on a washing machine price tag months later; nope, straight to EBITDA. Businesses pocket windfalls, they don't share them. @samar is right to doubt your 'thesis'.
Mildmidwesterner is totally right, and speaks like a small business owner. I am one as well.
to the others… well you clearly don’t see or are not aware of the financials of small and medium businesses. In my small businesses, credit card interchange fees are easiest the single greatest expense other than my cost of goods and salaries. They are more than my rent!!! and we’re located in a major downtown area.
So enjoy the free flights, but don’t minimize the impact our points actions have on small businesses that have not added on the extra 3% credit card charge everyone despises. Or at minimum, understand why the 3% gets passed on to the one that “benefits”.
I just counted this morning, I have 9(!) cards with AFs over $350. Looking through my list, I believe I'm easily getting value back on 7 of them, with 1 (AMEX Gold) being borderline and 1 more (the AA Exec) that I'm still figuring out with the new coupon book. For most cards, I'm not even considering lounge access in my calculations, so it's basically the coupon books that I am able to make use of.
Ben- why isn’t the B of A premium rewards elite card on your list? It certainly fits with your criteria.
I do find a few of these cards beneficial… but jesus Im so over the coupon clipping. I’ve gotten to the point where many of the benefits are simply not worth the time and mental energy it takes to obtain them anymore. Frequently I don’t get every benefit I would be entitled to, and I am at peace with my decision to not aim for every benefit a card offers. So these days, a card must have Major Airline Lounge Access with status earning credits (F* priority pass and its trash brethren), or a hugely advantageous benefit requiring minimal effort. Other than that, not interested.
@Ben, quick clarification on the Hilton Aspire free night credit. It's only available for "standard" room redemptions up to 250k, which is hard to find at that level. It's still a great card as a keeper since I can easily use the free night, stay at Hilton with frequency, and the airline credit is super easy to use. I don't use it for my math, but the Clear membership is also a nice touch. EWR and ORD now have the gate style in use, and it's very convenient at ORD T1 especially.
I recently dropped the CSR. I've had it since the beginning, and it was an easy to justify card with the benefits it provided. And given when my annual fee was renewing, I was still grandfathered in to the lower fee for the past year. But this year, can't justify the steep fee when I have other cards providing some overlapping benefits. The Edit credit sounds great in theory, but the often mentioned rate inflation, and limited hotels it could be used at, it was too hard to use. I barely go in to NYC anymore, so the dining credit is worthless.
Chase SR resturant credit is easy to use IF you can find a restaurant in your area you wan to go to. Not every restaurant is covered.
None of these cards are worth holding after the SUB, except if they offer a perk that you would buy anyway. For me, that means all the Delta cards plus the sub-$100 hotel cards that come with an annual free night. I shouldn't need a calculator to figure out if a card is "worth it." If you do, then the answer is NO.
The Capital One Venture X is really the only premium credit card that requires (almost) no effort to entirely recoup the annual fee.
If only the CSR changed it’s Sapphire Reserve Exclusive Tables credit to a broad OpenTable credit like Amex/Resy — it would make the card an absolute no brainer.
Celebrating a wedding anniversary at the Waldorf-Astoria New York was a fantastic experience. Knowing our room was free with my Aspire card-we even got a $50 F&B credit which went a long way towards paying for our drinks in Peacock Alley- made it even more magical. Considering the room rate was about $1500, i don't have to wonder whether the $550 annual fee is worth it.