Originally Posted by
ralphs
Here's some analysis driving me to prefer the WOH business card over WOH personal:
Assume spend 50k in January 2022. WOH Business nets 25 EQN (50k spend @ 5 EQN/$10k). This is equivalent to what you'd get out of the WOH Personal (50k spend @ 2EQN/$5k + 5 flat EQN).
- I value Hyatt points at 1.5cpp. Thus the point value of 50k spend is $750 to me.
- My best alternative is cashback at 2.625% back. The value of my best alternative is $1,312.50.
- My opportunity cost on $50k spend is $563. That's a marginal opportunity cost of just over 1.1% per point.
- I can also expect 20k points back in redemption rebates throughout the year. The value of this bonus is $300 worth of points.
- The AF is $199. But I will organically use the $50 x2 Hyatt credits in the course of my business travels, which credits $100 of value. Thus the AF is neutral between WOH Personal and Business for me. (ok technically $4)
- I now have an adjusted opportunity cost of $267.
Other assumptions:
- I actually use and redeem Hyatt points locally in my natural course of doing things and preferences, so this requires no behavior change to achieve about 1.5cpp in value. For example, I would actually pay $300 cash out of pocket for a 20k Hyatt redemption at Mission Pacific in Oceanside, or $450 cash out of pocket per night at Ventana Big Sur several times a year. I am fortunate enough to have the free time and access to local Hyatts to confidently redeem more than 200k Hyatt points a year.
- I value the ability to separate business accounts from personal accounts in terms of mental overhead and actual costs paid to accounting professionals both directly employed or contracted to my company.
- My best alternative comes from the BofA Business Travel Rewards card. My business has plat honors status with BofA Business Preferred Rewards.
- Most of this spend is unbonused spend to B2B vendors and suppliers. A fraction of this is rideshare, maybe 10k. Dining/Advertising goes on AMEX Business Gold, Airline AA goes on Barclays Aviator, Internet goes on Chase Ink Plus.
I can see how someone (most people!) would look at all this and go Nah, this isn't for me, but I think it's overall good for my situation.
Good writeup.
The one issue I'd object to here is comparing the first $50K in January spend on each card. My thinking is that you'll likely spend $15K on the personal card, and you'd likely even keep the personal card without any spend on it at all. So I'd compare this business card to the $50K spent on the personal card after the $15K and after the 5 EQNs you get just for holding the personal card. In that scenario, the business card gains you 5 EQNs over the personal.