Having Multiple Premium Cards
 

Last month I got the AMEX Platinum card, my first real premium card. I have a good amount of spending in the next few months, that I could maybe justify getting a second premium card. My mind is on the Capital Venture X card because of the very high sign up points bonus. I obviously know these premium cards come with very high annual fees, but I know well enough that the amount of credits can make these cards pay for themselves, or cover a good chunk of the annual fees.

Anyone have more than 1 premium card in their possession? Do you think having more than 1 premium card is too redundant, or have you found it useful?

Personally, I refuse to pay annual fees. But I guess it works out for some.

I understand where you're coming from, but VentureX is really essentially a free card when you factor in the $300 travel credit and 10K annual point bonus, not to mention free AUs that include additional Priority Pass cards.

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Understood. But I am not a travel guy and I am not a 'points' guy. Personally, I like cash back. 3%, 5%......

What is the effective % CB on the VentureX at the end of the year after paying the $395 AF? Particularly after the intro bonus (2nd year)?

This card is primarily for people who will use some of the benefits, as the travel credits in the first year will more than offset the fees. Assuming you weren't going to use any of the benefits though, I calculate you'd get 8% cashback at the end of the year, assuming you spent $10k to get the bonus points.

eg:

$10,000 spending = 20,000 points + 100,000 bonus points
120,000 points = $1200 cashback
Profit: $1,200 - $395 yearly fee = $805.

$805 profit / $10,000 spending = 8% cashback

That would be absolutely worst case though, as almost everyone should be able to make use of the $300 travel portal credit.

I think you mean: $1,200 - $395 = $805

Check this arithmetic. I am pretty sure that 805/10000 = .0805 = 8%

You're absolutely correct on both points, just edited my post. I shouldn't attempt math when I first wake up in the morning!

I don't find it redundant, I use the AMEX Plat, Chase Sapphire Reserve and Citi AA branded World Elite Mastercard a lot. I also have the JP Morgan Reserve but don't find myself using it much. Oh and the AMEX Bonvoy branded card, I use that on all the Bonvoy stays.

It really depends on your travel patterns and what lounges you'll get the most use out of.

Those who have Amex Centurion lounges in their airports will find more value in the Amex Plat.

Chase Sapphire Reserve is good for those who want primary rental car insurance (vs secondary offered on many other cards) and access to Priority Pass restaurants.

Citi AA Exec is great for those who fly AA and want access to the lounges. The ability to add authorized users who can access the lounges is a good perk.

Also, the card being redundant is a moot point if you're signing up for the bonus and closing the card at future date.

I started with the Chase Sapphire Reserve and both myself and partner had one, then I opened the Amex Plat - cancelled my CSR since still get those benefits through partner and now Centurion Lounge through Plat. Recently opened the Hilton Aspire Amex because we acquired a timeshare and the points on maintenance fees + card benefits made it worthwhile, so I personally have 2 premium cards and we have 3 in the household. I think you should realistically consider the benefits using your own "value" calculation - for example the Plat comes with $100 Saks credit but i never use it, so I don't include that in my benefit calculation. Compare how much you value it to the fee, but also consider what benefits would be available on lower fee/free cards.

I have both CSR and Amex Plat right now. Got the plat last year, after the refresh. I’ve had CSR since the beginning.

both give me value in different ways. Hard to completely even out the AF for CSR, but bring it down low enough where it makes sense. I was actually considering dropping it late last year, but got a retention so will re-evaluate then.

between the credits and offers, I’ve basically gone more than even with Amex annual fee, and that doesn’t include things that doesnt attach a specific value, like lounge access. I’m in SFO and don’t value the Centurion access itself so much - I travel with family, and the crowding (ie…waiting to get in) is truly an issue, and next year, once guest access is dropped, will make it a non-starter since family includes young kids, and I can’t add an AU for them to get them in. Also not going to spend anywhere near 75K. However, one value for me is with Plaza Premium access, since I travel to YYZ, and to a lesser extent, YVR, which means access in those places. Used to get that via PP on CSR, but when they dropped out of that last year, and with the additional offsets Amex offers now, decided to get the plat. Will evaluate at renewal time this year. lounge is not about the Centurion per say, for me, it’s a nice bonus now when we can use it, but the additional lounge access I can’t get with CSR.

YMMV, everyone’s situation is different, and so whether or not a premium travel card, or multiple, and which ones, makes sense is going to be a different answer. For me, I can bring down the AF costs enough by using the perks, so It makes sense for me, at least for now. If I lived in DFw, or traveled there often. VentureX might make more sense. Would never pay >$1K for these cards if I couldn’t mostly moot out these fees with benefits. Lounge access is nice, for sure, but just not worth those huge amounts if I can’t net them out with useable benefits.

Whatever cards you have just must pencil out in the end. For example, CSR gives 1.5X redemption while the CSP just gives 1.25X so with essentially a $300/yr fee ($600 - $300 travel credit) you need to run enough through it it make up the extra $200 (CSP is $100/year, right?). So, you'd need to run roughly 80K through it (or other Chase cards and xfer points to CSR). There's nothing inherently wrong with having multiple cards as long as they make sense.

I don't really put a huge amount of value in things like lounges, buyer's protection, TSA PreCheck, etc. but if it works for your travel patterns that is another thing to look at.

It all depends on your travel habits and spending patterns.

These days, I haven't found any of the cards with an AF of $450 or higher to be worth it in addition to the Plat. I've got a few cards in the ~$100-$200 AF category that are great because of the categories in which they earn. Once Amex requires a minimum spend for Centurion Lounge access, that may change.

The previous (BOGO) incarnation of the Amex International Airline Program used to save thousands per year, even when comparing the cost of a qualifying refundable fare against two non-refundable fares. A few tickets with that program probably paid the AF of my Platinum card for a decade. The current program and severe decline of the PTS aren't comparable. If any premium card offers something like that in the future, I'll be getting it.

Based on what I've seen, you need to use "Capital One Travel" to take advantage of almost every feature the card offers. I don't think you could pay me enough to use a sub-par travel agency.

My husband has CSR. So far we like it. We travel frequently and really like Hyatt. Really like the ability to transfer UR points to Hyatt. Like Priority Pass; use it about 12/year. Mainly at the restaurants. 80% of our spend are travel and restaurants which gets 3 points per dollar. Each UR is worth 1.65 cent and much higher value as Hyatt points. I estimate our return is 4 to 7% depending on how we spend our points.

recently, I got the Capital One Venture X. Used it to pay for a hotel. Got my one time hotel rebate. Used it to buy a RT on United through Capital One Travel. Got my $300. A couple of weeks later, Capital One rebated $21 because the price for the fights dropped. I was reluctant to book air tickets with a OTA because the hassle involved when changes or IRROP happen. Because of family situation, I had to change the return. To my surprise, I was able to change a RT to an open jaw on United.com and pay the fare difference. I am extremely happy with Capital One Travel/UA combo.

I held the CSR & Citi Prestige simultaneously for a while. I dropped the Prestige after an appalling (to me, at least) customer service failure by Citi, but when I had the both of them, I got pretty good value out of them. I got a boatload of TYP from the 5X dining on the Premier, and I also got a fair amount of points from the CSR's 3X travel. I've also made full use of the travel credit every year since I've had the card. After dropping the Prestige, my only premium card is the CSR, but I'd consider adding another one if I thought I could get enough points/value out of it. It all depends on how much you value the points and benefits over the cost of the annual fees.

I see. But this is first year only, yes?

Yes, only the first year. But that's done without even including any value for the $300 travel portal credit in that first year.

If you have JPM Reserve, what value does Sapphire Reserve add?

Only if you purchase travel though Chase's portal or use the Pay Yourself Back feature with changing categories. If you transfer points to hotel or airline programs, Sapphire Preferred or INK Preferred is just as good as Reserve.

Take us through the arithmetic of this valuation.

Not really. It's 8% on the first $10,000 spend. If you do that in a single transaction the "year" is over.

My primary premium card is the US Bank Altitude Reserve. $400 AF ($75 net AF after the very flexible travel/dinning credit.)


At $75 Net AF, it gives 4.5% cash back on anything Travel and ApplePay - which is practically all my in person spend since COVID has greatly enhanced adoption of contactless payments. It even gets better rewards at Costco than the Costco credit card. Completely worth it.

The AR's weakness is the Priority Pass being limited to 4 times/year. I can justify adding a 2nd Premium card with unlimited lounge visit especially if I rotate the sign-up bonus of other premium cards. Year 1 USB AR + Chase CSR ; Year 2 USB AR + CAP 1 VentureX ; Year 3 USB AR + Citi AA Exec etc etc; and this can be further stretched out if I only apply for the 2nd Premium card after I exhausted the 4 PP visits of the USB AR.

This is pretty much my exact strategy. I rotate between premium cards, going back to the CSR every 4 years, as that's how often they allow you to earn a bonus on it.

The USB AR priority pass is also useful if your other premium card is an Amex Platinum, as you can use the AR priority pass just for restaurant access.

Yeah, I've found the PYB categories to be pretty wide ranging and never have trouble redeeming. I used to use it for travel but that definitely took more work.

Between P2 and myself, we have a CSR and an AMEX Plat... and if you want to count the Hilton Aspire at $450 AF, that too.

To be honest, based in SEA and thus having a centurion lounge, I like the Platinum better from a benefits perspective. We make use of the Uber credit for eats, the FHR credits, the Saks credits, the airline incidental credits, and heck, I even put my folks' NYT subscription on the card to capture the digital entertainment credit for them. The CSR's value story with the changes to DoorDash credits and the fact that the Lyft benefits are set to expire soon just make it a weaker card for me. It's a pity because I like the 3x on travel, but 2x via the CSP is good enough, and the PP is virtually worthless given we get it on the two AMEX cards. I plan to downgrade to CSP to keep transfer partners open.

That said, we really like Hyatt transfers and so aside from SUBs, I tend prefer earning URs to MRs, otherwise we'd be running an AMEX Gold/BBP setup. I have scored incredible value through the Chase/Hyatt partnership.

The Aspire is just a no-brainer that allows us to easily recoup the annual fee. The FNC, plus the airline reimbursement, plus the resort credit and diamond status are worth more than $450. If the Chase WoH card was this good, I'd have signed up for that one too.

Once my CSR's AF hits in June and we drop to the CSP, I think I'll be running:

CSP for travel-related expenses, except airfare
AMEX Plat for airfare
CFU for everything else

I use the this as my go to card -> USB Altitude Reserve. The 4.5% apple pay when redeemed on travel makes this my go to card ($75 AF real cost)

Everything else Barly Priceline 2% cash back but 3.33% when redeeming travel with priceline

penfed for Gas

Citi Shop Your Way for random bonuses

Then 2 more premium cards that I just added.

Got Amex Platinum Morgan Stanley (just have to pay taxes on the AF which MS covers) - Use the uber, saks, $200 travel for Southwest funds, audible credits, cell phone but other than that no other use.

Go the Capital One Venture X for really -$5 AF since $300 Annual Travel Credit plus yearly 10,000 miles ($100)

Actually considering adding to our CSR/Plat combo with the Venture X. I renewed the CSR only because they gave me a retention - next year, will probably drop that (or this new Venture).

thing is, the bonus is worth it, and may have a pretty hefty AirBnB stay coming up, so will help with that. Don’t love the travel portals, and wouldn’t use it without incentive, but would use the $300 credit on either flight/hotel. Wouldn’t use it regularly, even for the 10x miles. Just not sure…certainly Am well covered with PP access already, clearly, and don’t generally fly to/through DFW, so Cap1 lounge access isn’t going to help (though maybe when their own lounges expand).

10k annual bonus (after first anniversary) would help too, though haven’t really analyzed details of Cap1 redemptions vs UR or MR, so not sure where that makes most sense for me (except for the advantage UR has right now as the only one that will transfer to UA, which has pretty much always been and always will be my primary airline (now that I’m in SFO, and typically a few trips to Canada each year, so that partnership with AC helps)).

Decisions, decisions….

Yeah, this has been the most worthless "perk" I've ever had on a card. There are just no places to use it from what I've found. And even if I could I just hear horror stories of people actually pulling it off. I do like the other things with CSR though. The 10X is a perfect example of a company bragging about something that is of VERY minimal value.

also why I am unhappy about the CSRs recent ‘refresh’. Actually virtually nothing about that that impressed me - in fact, if anything, made me more likely to downgrade to CSP, as that refresh actually sounded more valuable to me.

Yeah, the CSR doesn't have much going for it over the CSP unless you redeem A LOT of points and can benefit from the 1.5X v. 1.25X for things like PYB or using the travel portal. I'm likely going to be selling my biz that I have 10K+/mo spend so I'll undoubtedly downgrade to CSP.