Credit cards - what’s best?

[OldConch]

So I’ve been a Bank of America customer forever… I have just enough in a ML brokerage to get their Platinum Honors benefits for me and all three adult kids (as I’m on their accounts since they were set up in high school).

I have the BofA “Cash Rewards” card for everyday purchases and “Travel Rewards” cards for um… travel.

Recently one of the daughters shared the story of their status obsessed millennial roommate and her Chase Preferred metal card and how amazing it is. I looked it up and $550 annual fee, $300 annual travel credit etc.

Am I missing something here or are these elite cards a scam? Is a card made of metal really better in some way?

Scam? Absolutely not. DW and I have a bunch of premium cards and I make sure that we get ongoing value above and beyond the annual fee. The sign up bonuses on these cards are the icing on the cake.

In the past week DW and I've booked r/t flights on Iberia ORD to MAD in business class for 103k Chase points. Also booked flights SEA DOH JNB and CPT DOH SEA in Qatar QSuites for 300k Chase points. Chase is currently offering a 30% bonus to British Airways avios which were used to book the tickets. This IMO is a tremendous value to us and wouldn't be possible without the points from these cards. It's also a very fun way to cross the Atlantic.

The Venture X is a simple example of how a premium credit card can be worth the fee. The annual fee is $395. Each year you get a $300 credit for travel booked through their portal. On renewal you get 10,000 points worth at least $100. That's a $5 profit each year. Ongoing benefits include lounge access, Hertz President's Circle status, $100 TSA pre every 4 years, 2x points on purchases, primary rental car insurance, trip delay protection, lost luggage reimbursement, free additional users, and no foreign transaction fees.

DW and I each got a Venture X when the sign up bonus was 100,000 points plus a $200 AirBnB credit. We've already used the AirBnb credits and the travel credits so in year #1 we paid $790 in annual fees and have received $1000 in credits PLUS we have 200,000 points available worth at least $2000. I also referred DW for her card and got an additional 25,000 points worth $250.

The $395 annual fee Venture X isn't a scam. IMO it's a no brainer. I'll admit that the Chase and Amex premium cards are more complicated to extract value but it's worth it to us.

 

[OldConch]

IMHO, airport lounges are not nearly as valuable as they used to be. These days, they are absolutely jam-packed with people, typically to the point of not being able to find a pair of empty chairs together. It seems like everyone has lounge access now, making it much more like a mass-market commodity than a comfortable, luxurious privilege. Maybe this is just because my home airport is ATL, which is the busiest in the country, but I have a feeling it goes beyond that. At any rate, I personally would not pay very much out of my own pocket for lounge access right now.

I'd agree that lounges are getting busier. They are, however, a very nice credit card benefit and we use them a lot. I think we've been denied entry just a few times in the last year and we were able to access a different lounge on one of those occasions. And don't forget about the Priority Pass restaurants. We fly through SEA frequently and try to visit Bambuza for lunch or dinner. A bahn mi and a beer for DW and I four times a year is a very nice little perk.

 

[Happyras]

We primarily use Costco Visa and Fido Visa. We will pick up an Alaska Visa and take the bonus miles when we get low. One caveat on the Costco benefit is that the merchant has to play fair to get the 3% on restaurants or travel. We have tried to track this, but it is not clear what you get by each purchase. I found one big one, we paid for an event dinner with a caterer who was smart enough to use a different coded charge type. They avoid the excess fee by doing so with certain merchant services processors. This was a big one and made me realize this was a common practice to avoid higher transaction fees for restaurants accepting Visa. I later found some Hotels process under a different category code to do the same avoidance.

When you call the Visa card company, they will explain they have no control of this, however they do not state any terms of this nature on their benefit description. If they are going to give you cash back for travel, then they should honor it not pass it off as out of their control.

Just because Joe's Plumbing owns the restaurant, you should still get the promised credit for dining......

 

[JBTX]

It’s actually 3% on entertainment and dining.

I think ours is grandfathered in as 4% but I probably should check it if changed. At 3% probably have better options.

 

[braumeister]

Another big plus of credit card "membership" is the travel experience. Based on where I live, for any long trip anywhere it's just about always going to be on Delta. Recently I was doing some research on a possible trip and using Delta's website I got all the pricing. Then I went and used the American Express travel site and found exactly the same trip, same flights and everything, for over $2K less. So it really pays to explore all your options.

 

[nwsteve]

FWIW, I have a Chase Sapphire Preferrd card, and I am not sure I will keep it. I like it for the primary car rental insurance and the 100,000 points I got. I am using up those points as I travel this year. But, overall, I don't think it will be worth the fee in the long run (about $100 a year).

More and more I see that cash is king. Give my my Costco Visa 3% on travel and 4% on gasoline, my Fidelity 2% on everything else and an occasional 5% bonus from my Discover and Flex cards. Then I don't have to worry about portals, moving points about, etc. I especially don't like being tied into their portal. It all gets rather confusing trying to balance this benefit against that benefit when they are all so different.

Cash is easy to measure.

I will keep one fee card for certain. It is a hotel card that gives me a free room night every year. The card is $50 per year, gives me some upgrade status, and the rooms are normally over $100 a night. They no longer offer the card. I am grandfathered.

Another card is an airline card that includes free luggage check. It's abut $100 a year and recently saved me $120 in luggage checking fees. But, if my plans work out, I may not have to check luggage very often, so who cares about free luggage check?

I am not sure if Chase still allows, but one of the best use for our Sapphire Reserve is pay the annual fee with them. I kinda cc point a form of "funny Money" so enjoy using their points to pay their bill.
Seriously, Chase Sapphire still has some of the best travel coverages of any card and no foreign exchange fees. Costco dropped that bene last (?) year.

 

[Chuckanut]

Seriously, Chase Sapphire still has some of the best travel coverages of any card and no foreign exchange fees. Costco dropped that bene last (?) year.

Citi Bank dropped the travel insurance coverage. I don't know if Costco went along with it and/or had a choice. I was very disappointed when that happened.

There are still no fees for international use.

It seems to me to get significant value from the Chase card (Preferred or Sapphire) one really needs to use it almost exclusively.

 

[SecondAttempt]

IMHO, airport lounges are not nearly as valuable as they used to be. These days, they are absolutely jam-packed with people, typically to the point of not being able to find a pair of empty chairs together. It seems like everyone has lounge access now, making it much more like a mass-market commodity than a comfortable, luxurious privilege. Maybe this is just because my home airport is ATL, which is the busiest in the country, but I have a feeling it goes beyond that. At any rate, I personally would not pay very much out of my own pocket for lounge access right now.

I agree. My company used to pay for a (United) lounge membership for me in the early 2000s and I got hooked. Lounges were much less crowded back then but also had fewer amenities. They seem to have made them nicer and with better food.

One of the rumored changes AMEX might make that would make me rethink that card is charging for guest access.

I have found over the years that beyond creature comforts, the airline lounges can provide a short cut to customer service. When a flight is canceled or delayed I head straight to the lounge for resolution and they have always been helpful, even putting me in first class a couple of times because the was an aavailable seat.

 

[SecondAttempt]

Another big plus of credit card "membership" is the travel experience. Based on where I live, for any long trip anywhere it's just about always going to be on Delta. Recently I was doing some research on a possible trip and using Delta's website I got all the pricing. Then I went and used the American Express travel site and found exactly the same trip, same flights and everything, for over $2K less. So it really pays to explore all your options.

Holding a United credit card is also a factor in free first class upgrades, at least on United. I get upgraded about half the time even though I am only silver level, which is basically nothing. But for Hawaii to mainland I get the feeling that most of the passengers are high status business travelers on reward tickets with their families so not eligible for upgrades.