The 24 Credit Cards In My Wallet Right Now

Paying massive and ever-rising fees , is as Ludicrous as paying for sunshine in Hawaii , as paying for breathing air in the outside , or as paying for impressive views in Yosemite .

To expand upon your closing statements, another reason the annual fee in a lot of cases can't be taken at face value is because you're essentially pre-paying for purchases you'll make throughout the year with the coupon book approach a lot of cards have taken. So yes you're paying ~$8k in annual fees, but a large percentage of that is money you're going to spend anyway so might as well get extra perks attached to it. (I know you (Ben) know this, but hopefully sharing some additional rationale for other commenters)

1. AAdvantage Executive: What's the rationale for paying $695/year for Admirals Club access versus just utilizing nice airport restaurants?
2. Sock-drawered cards: For cards with no annual fee, no meaningful passive benefits, and little to no spending, why keep them open? Assuming to preserve account age and credit history, or is there another reason?
3. Overlapping bonus categories: How do you decide which card to use when multiple cards offer similar points multipliers? Especially given that you say your Bilt Palladium gets the most spending.
4. Citi Strata Elite: Why not use it for dining on weekends, given the 6x multiplier?
5. Amex Platinum: Do you have multiple Platinum cards? I recall you mentioning using four FHR credits, which made me wonder how you're getting that many.

@Ben. Not considering the sign on bonus and I understand there is some “soft value” to having elite access to hotels, airlines and perhaps better access to awards and customer service, have you ever placed a money value on your return of investment on the $8000 cards fees, which you pay upfront?

I understand that these card fees are all deductible tax expenses for you but it really does seem a bit excesssive.

I understand that these card fees are all deductible tax expenses for you but it really does seem a bit excesssive.

I understand that these card fees are all deductible tax expenses for you but it really does seem a bit excesssive.

I understand that these card fees are all deductible tax expenses for you but it really does seem a bit excesssive.

It's just not the cost of the annual fees. It's also the cost of the time you spent, jumping through the hoops to earn all the benefits for the annual fees that you paid upfront.

In this day and age, most professionals would value their time on an average $300 per hour. Now, if you spent 40 hours annually in trying to earn those hard to earn back, that cost has to be added to the annual fees cost to find the real cost.

Currently working on trimming my portfolio to get annual fees down to that next year...

Hi, Ben. I thought you also had the Citi Prestige card. Did you cancel it?

hmmm.. with just 10 cc which are paid off when used and a score of 820 why won't Capital give me a card ???

Thanks for this post and the admirably frank admission of how much you spend on credit card fees. A couple of questions/notes on Citi cards:

1. For Citi in particular, despite a credit score of over 800 I've sometimes been turned down because I have too much available credit. Another reason has been too many credit cards. When I closed a few cards last year (bringing me to about a dozen in all), I had my first successful Citi application in years. Has anyone else had a similarly restrictive experience with Citi? See any way around it, besides doing what I did?
2. One card you may underestimate the value of is the Citi AAdvantage Executive Card (which is the one I obtained last year). In addition to Admirals Club lounges, it also provides access to all Alaska lounges and certain international lounges around the world. Plus, unlike an increasing number of lounge access cards these days, it lets you bring a flying companion into at least the AA and Alaska lounges these days. (Not sure what the international lounge policies are.)

Our family of two is at about $15,000. I prune as I go, but $4,000 out the gate for Delta every year is a no-brainer. There are lots of other no-brainers, but we refuse to hold AMEX Biz Plat cards for more than one year at a time. The fee significantly exceeds the value for that card. The personal one is marginal, but generally a keeper for one or both of us. We may dump a CSR and a Bilt card when they are up next, as one of each seems to be sufficient. IHG, Hyatt, Alaska Summit, and AA Executive cards pay for themselves, so we keep those. The rest are just come and go as we churn, churn, churn!

There are spreadsheets that calculate the net value for every card out there. Extracted value minus annual fee. And, some say that if you extract more value out of a card than its annual fee, it's a keeper. What this ignores is the individual's objectives. Sure, I can net $200 (or $1000) out of a whole range of cards. But, what the (stink) am I really after? And, do I want to the spend time to capture a (stinkin') $200 or whatever? Think about it terms of an hourly wage. To me, the logic is substantially flawed. The vast percentage of value I receive from my cards comes from two or three cards and certain portals. After that, the law of diminishing returns takes over. And, simplicity rules.

Ben is an outlier and this literally is his business; still, that’s an impressive line-up. Talkin’ the talk, walkin’ the walk.

I normally skip the card articles because I'm not US-based, which meant I found this article particularly interesting. Thanks for writing, Ben.

Bonkers, quite literally insane.

I just got rid of my chase unlimited card. Been using the Citi Strata Elite much more often. Keeping the Chase Sapphire Preferred though. Even though I am not using it as much, just keeping it for the rideshare bonus and $100 credit is worth it to me.