Is the CO OnePass Plus card worth it?
 

I'm trying to decide if getting the CO OnePass Plus credit card is worth it for me. I'm currently CO Silver and spend about $12,000 yearly on my one credit card. My one credit card is currently a Chase Freedom, which is basically no annual fee, 1% cash back on everything, with a few extra minor promotions here and there. I'd love to have a card that gives me miles instead of money, so I can save up for reward travel. But, correct me if I'm wrong, but the 1 mile per dollar spent doesn't really seem like that great of a deal considering there is also a $85 yearly fee, and the miles you earn from spending money aren't even Elite qualifying miles (I think). Is my Chase Freedom card with its 1% cash back and no annual fee simply a better deal? Or is there something about the miles and the extra perks of the CO card that make it worth getting?

Thanks!
Ryan

IMO, if you have the Freedom card stick with it, the freedom card will let you convert 12000 points to 10000 CO miles plus other ways to redeem, which is almost the same as earning $1/mile, and Freedom has 0 annual fee, however the current offer for 50000 signup bonus for the CO card cannot be simply ignored...

ooh. $50k signup bonus for CO card?
and no annual fee the first year? sounds good!
do you have the link to that promo?

can i just cancel CO card after the first year if i decide it's not worth it to me?


thanks!

I see this game being played a lot. Be really careful with opening and closing credit lines. It hurts your credit score to have short histories with your creditors. Applying for too much good credit can hurt you too.

Not saying you shouldn't do it, but be careful. Especially if you're in the market for any major purchases in the near future (home, car, etc) a few miles is not worth a point or 2 of extra interest on your loan.

Good luck!

The card also gives you $50 off tix booked on CO.com and a free bag allowance and two free Pres club passes when you renew so the $85 fee can be rather easily offset.

It is 50K miles, not $50K for the signup bonus. But I believe you know what it was.

Based on your spending patterns, I would stick with Freedom card if I were you, even after you try to take advantage of the OOP signup bonus. The Freedom quarterly rolling 5% bonus points is nice for everyday purchases.

The value of the card is a bit diminished if one is elite (the baggage fee waiver is no longer a benefit). If you're spending $12k a year on the card, that gives you 12,000 miles, which are not worth that much.

Based on the info in the OP, I'd say stick with the Freedom card.

OTOH if you were not elite, but flew CO several time a year with a checked bag, then the card would definitely be worth it.

I think the $50 off is a one-time only deal, but that's still more than half the annual fee (which is now waived for the 1st year, I think). I do miss the 5% off CO fares that the card used to offer a few years before it turned into "OnePass Plus" (IIRC that may have been a first-year only benefit).

The card is worth it to me because I'm too lazy to get a different card. That, and because I generally get several cents out of every CO OP mile and I spend enough on it to offset the $85 fee.

The PClub passes are nice, but I just gift them to others (US Air club member).

Where can you do that? I haven't found this on neither case.com nor continental.com

I fully respect your cautioning the OP, but I differ on the "too much" warning and on the severity of the effect. Short histories in and of themselves are not the problem; it's just that long histories are better. How do we get long histories? We apply for and keep cards, obviously. Having multiple credit cards better ensures most will "survive" for a long time. I have decades old cards; some have fallen to the wayside due to the issuer ending programs. Having many ensures some long histories.

Ideally, the OP should keep the current card and get the new one too. That obviates the short-history concern. Now for the supposed "hurt" of too much credit (as if!), this concern is much ado about nothing. The fallacy is twofold.

1) Too Many Applications is Bad: This comes into play if a potential lender thinks you're applying for credit because you're in trouble. And while all applications are counted, it's really the rejected applications that become most troubling, because those rejections mean other lenders are not willing to take a chance on you. Applying for and getting credit is not bad, but it feeds into the second fallacy.

2) Too Much Credit is Bad: The supposed fear lenders may have in this case is that the consumer may indulge too much (go hog wild!) in all that credit and become over extended. It's akin to the worry you experience when your brother, a recovering alcoholic, tells you he got a job at a bar. Yeah, maybe you should worry. But if it's your sister, the teetotaling goody-goody who doesn't even take cough syrup when she's sick, then maybe you shouldn't worry too much. (Yes, I know the quiet ones...) Anyway, lenders will not automatically assume you cannot handle your credit simply because you have a lot of it. There has to be something else on your report that would lead them to believe otherwise.

Finally, let me say that even if you reject all my learned and sound advice and assume all applications and every additional dollar of credit is bad, fine. These "hits" are among the least consequential in the universe of credit hits. As long as you have paid your bills on time, any minuscule hit from one credit card application is so utterly negligible as to be ridiculous.

One concurs.