Annual Fee Credit Cards

**disneysteve** · 02-08-2018, 06:16 PM

Similar to you, our primary card is a Marriott Visa. It is $85/year. We get one night per year just for having the card. That is worth more than the $85 fee so we come out ahead there.

We travel a lot. We don't always stay at a Marriott property but we do as often as it makes sense to. Right now, we have enough reward points for about 15-20 free nights which will help defray our travel costs this year.

**Gailete** · 02-08-2018, 07:19 PM

Nope, never use them. When I traveled for work, I got loyalty cards for the different places we stayed and got free nights fairly fast. Been a long time since we traveled and needed a hotel room.

The last thing that I would want to do is pay to charge things, especially if the rewards are mostly air miles or hotel rooms. I do try to take advantage of the bonus rewards in each quarter, but hard to track those and remember which to use when. I need to put post it notes on them again. That helped when I did it before. Hoping to save up reward points this year to use at Christmas time or against the bill when money is tight (defined by when paying a cc, as not having enough money to pay the bill), then I throw in the reward points.

I do remember our very first cc when my oldest was a baby (he just turned 37). If we used it we would automatically have a charge of I think it was $35. We had it with us when we went on a vacation. We had been paying cash, but someone went overboard in spending (the only time I saw him throwing money around like water). On our way home we had what I estimated what we needed for the toll roads, and about $2 for whatever (the baby was still on the bottle at that point and baby food). I knew, even a $5 charge for a meal would run us $40 actually. I was so glad to get home and be able to eat again and deal with the baby's nutrition normally!

**disneysteve** · 02-09-2018, 05:16 AM

Originally posted by Gailete View Post

When I traveled for work, I got loyalty cards for the different places we stayed and got free nights fairly fast.

Slightly off topic but those free nights stack up way faster when you use their credit card.

For Marriott, you get 10 points/dollar spent if you belong to Marriott Rewards. But I get 17 points/dollar spent when I charge to my Marriott Visa. Trust me. That makes a huge difference in how many reward points I build up.

The last thing that I would want to do is pay to charge things

That's just it, though. We don't pay to charge things. We pay an $85 annual fee. In return, we get a certificate for one night at a category 1-5 hotel. I just browsed the options and found a nice place at Baltimore Inner Harbor where my wife and I could do a little weekend getaway in a cat. 5 hotel. The regular rate for that room is $153 on a Saturday night in April (plus tax). We would get that room for our $85 annual credit card fee, so roughly half price. We'd actually be saving as much as we're spending.

**Gailete** · 02-09-2018, 06:39 AM

When I traveled for work, which seems like 100 years ago, Mm hotel stays were covered by the state. I was still dealing with getting rid of Mr. Bigbucks and didn't want another cc to my name once I was done with him. So I used my Discover card and got the rewards and free rooms depending on where I stayed - it was based on cost, so just because I liked Comfort Inn better than Holiday Inn, if HI was $10 a night cheaper, I had to go there. You couldn't pay me enough to go to one of there hotels though, and I know it was just freaky circumstances, but still, 40 years ago on our honeymoon we stayed at one. In the morning I noted a trail of ants on my PILLOW! Now I didn't keep candy stuffed in my ear in case a visiting ant came to visit, but I had an itchy ear for months afterwards as I think I got bitten. Fast forward to one of my last overnights before getting sick. I went into the bathroom to do the morning routine stuff and the floor was covered with ants. The lady I was with had them as well. The only compensation they wanted to give us was a free breakfast on our next stay! Not even for the current one! Like I would go there again.

**MonkeyMama** · 02-09-2018, 07:42 AM

Yes, we have the AmEx Blue Cash Preferred card. The annual fee is something like $90 but we get $360 cash back per year on grocery spending. With the fee it works out to 5% cash back on grocery spending, which is one of our biggest household expenses. So until I find a better deal than that, will just pay the fee.

I would not pay an annual fee unless I was coming out ahead. (This is the only card I've ever had with a fee).

**mo0n** · 02-09-2018, 07:59 AM

I have three of them:

IHG Rewards CC, Marriott Rewards CC and Hyatt Rewards. As others have said above, the annual fee is way lower than the cost of a hotel room, which is why I have them. I have a "50 States in 50 Years" with my BFF, which means that once a year we run off to one of the 50 states and see what weird and cultural stuff they have. (We've done 11 so far) It's pretty much a road trip and we rarely stay two nights in once place, which is why I'm running three hotel reward cards. The reward nights and points saved us about $1200 when we did New York two years ago. For that, I am thankful.

I did pick up the Chase Sapphire Reserve l at the end of 2016 and had to pay the annual fee right at the get go ($450), but I hit the monetary amount for the bonus (100k reward points), which I used for two flights, a rental car, and a three night stay in Downtown Nashville during the men's SEC bball Tourney. The card also covered $300 in travel costs, so in essence I paid $150. Which...is a good chunk of change, so I've since cancelled the card before the second annual fee was due.

I also had the Cap One Venture card for a time, though I forget what the annual fee was. Got my bonus points and used em...then dropped the card to a Cap One Rewards for 1.5% cash back and no annual fee.

I figure when we start booking stuff for Alaska, if I can take the minor ding, I might sign up for another card if any have decent bonuses. If something like the Chase Sapphire Reserve is still around, I'm definitely going to look into that again.

**disneysteve** · 02-09-2018, 08:21 AM

It's nice to hear from other people who are adept at playing the credit card game to their advantage. With all the noise out there about how evil credit cards are, for those of us who are careful and responsible with them, they really are a great tool.

**rennigade** · 02-09-2018, 09:28 AM

Originally posted by mo0n View Post

I have three of them:

I did pick up the Chase Sapphire Reserve l at the end of 2016 and had to pay the annual fee right at the get go ($450), but I hit the monetary amount for the bonus (100k reward points), which I used for two flights, a rental car, and a three night stay in Downtown Nashville during the men's SEC bball Tourney. The card also covered $300 in travel costs, so in essence I paid $150. Which...is a good chunk of change, so I've since cancelled the card before the second annual fee was due.

I missed that card. Thanks Chase for your 5/24 rule. (5 cards in 24 months)

**mo0n** · 02-09-2018, 12:05 PM

Originally posted by rennigade View Post

I missed that card. Thanks Chase for your 5/24 rule. (5 cards in 24 months)

After making my post, I got curious to see what the CSR was at now. Only 50k points, but still the $300 travel credit, and 3x the points for travel and dining. Plus the access to airport lounges.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred also has a bonus for 50k at the same initial $4000 spent. It has 2x the points for travel and dining...and only an annual fee of $95, that doesn't incur until the first year has passed.

Taking away that 100k reward point bonus kills the CSR for me.

**bernod** · 02-20-2018, 11:06 PM

My IHG card offers free night yearly also plus free status.

**msomnipotent** · 02-23-2018, 07:19 AM

I'm seriously considering opening an AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard very soon, but I can't quite bring myself to spend $495 a year on a credit card, and it is a MC and not V so no Costco use for me. The bulk of our credit card usage is travel and Costco. I looked at the Chase cards, but the airport lounges are all in the international parts of the airports that I looked up. I'm not sure I could access them if I wasn't flying international, and even if I could, that would be a tremendous amount of walking for us to access it. AA has lounges in several concourses at the airports I checked, and their prices were competitive with the other airlines (even Southwest) every time I booked. Most of our travel right now is car rental and hotels, but we plan on more airfare from now on. We get on an AA plane in a month. I have back issues and the airport chairs killed me last time. The lounge chairs looked so cushy.

Annual Fee Credit Cards