which card(s) will you keep at the end?
May 5, 2011 | 9:31 am
#16
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Land of the parrots and parrotheads
Programs: Several dozen
Posts: 4,820
May 5, 2011 | 10:06 am
#17
Join Date: Mar 2011
Programs: FB Gold (ST E+), Alaska MVP Gold
Posts: 246
Can you elaborate more? I'd like to know exactly what my limit is, going forward. I read from someone who actually figures out in advance which CRA's the card application will pull, and sticks to two pulls per CRA, every quarter, or three months. He also says he times it whereby he applies just after an old inquiry falls off. Im not sure of the total inquiry maximum that should be on the CR, when I go to apply. I heard 7 hard inquiries is the max that you should have on the CR, if you plan to apply for a card.
May 5, 2011 | 12:03 pm
#18
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Northwest NJ
Programs: Starwood Platinum,Marriott Platinum, United Silver
Posts: 2,313
It is interesting to me that no one has asked the OP what his goals are.
Cards may offer perks and, I agree, sometimes are just too good to pass up, but he is asking which ones to keep. That, to me, depends on what he wants his points/miles for. My first observation was that I don't recall seeing any hotel cards.
So OP, what do you hope to gain from your credit cards? Free hotel nights? What type of hotel? What locations?
As for me, I'll keep the AMEX Centurion since I can still justify it and I know I could never qualify again! I'll keep the BA Visa since while I hate the fees, I love their availability compared to almost everyone else - and as long as they keep having the free companion passes, I'll make sure to hit the spend levels as it is also too good for me to pass up. I'll keep the C1 unless there is one more devaluation.
I have probably convinced 20+ people to get the Starwood AMEX over the years, but I'm less impressed by SPG and the lack of consistency. I like the hotels that offer free breakfasts to their upper elites. Have the AMEX Surpass - just not sure when to use it.
Good question OP!
Cards may offer perks and, I agree, sometimes are just too good to pass up, but he is asking which ones to keep. That, to me, depends on what he wants his points/miles for. My first observation was that I don't recall seeing any hotel cards.
So OP, what do you hope to gain from your credit cards? Free hotel nights? What type of hotel? What locations?
As for me, I'll keep the AMEX Centurion since I can still justify it and I know I could never qualify again! I'll keep the BA Visa since while I hate the fees, I love their availability compared to almost everyone else - and as long as they keep having the free companion passes, I'll make sure to hit the spend levels as it is also too good for me to pass up. I'll keep the C1 unless there is one more devaluation.
I have probably convinced 20+ people to get the Starwood AMEX over the years, but I'm less impressed by SPG and the lack of consistency. I like the hotels that offer free breakfasts to their upper elites. Have the AMEX Surpass - just not sure when to use it.
Good question OP!
May 5, 2011 | 1:24 pm
#19
In Memoriam, FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Durham, NC (RDU/GSO/CLT)
Programs: AA EXP/MM, DL GM, UA Platinum, HH DIA, Hyatt Explorist, IHG Platinum, Marriott Titanium, Hertz PC
Posts: 33,856
I like my Chase UA Visa and Citi AA Mastercard and I don't plan to replace either of them.
May 5, 2011 | 3:22 pm
#20
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Ohio
Posts: 40
I have a Penfed amex card, 5 reward points for every dollar on airline charges (not travel packages), otherwise, 1 point. I use it mainly for charging air tickets and whatever promotion they have.
No foreign transaction fee, it gets better, previously, $49 annual fee, now it has no annual fee.
It doesn't give any information on redemption value. From my experience, 5 points equate to about 7.5 cents airline redemption, which is much better than Flexperks by Usbank. I'm still trying to use up my Flexperk points before getting rid of the card. (Flexperk charges annual fee and standard 20k points for round trip ticket under $400 regardless of the price of your ticket, so, for a $100 ticket, you still pay 20k points, whereas, with Penfed I paid 7k points to redeem a $100 ticket)
It also has periodic promotion - current promotion - 5 points every dollar for hotels and dinning.
Caution: Recently, Penfed had some of their customers information stolen from their database including mine. I guess it can happen to any banks these days. However, some banks do have better internet security than others. This cc is an Amex card but it goes through PenFed and you also need to enroll as a member. They also have a 5% gas rebate card. However, I was reluctant to apply for the second cc (5% gas rebate cc) after my information was compromised.
No foreign transaction fee, it gets better, previously, $49 annual fee, now it has no annual fee.
It doesn't give any information on redemption value. From my experience, 5 points equate to about 7.5 cents airline redemption, which is much better than Flexperks by Usbank. I'm still trying to use up my Flexperk points before getting rid of the card. (Flexperk charges annual fee and standard 20k points for round trip ticket under $400 regardless of the price of your ticket, so, for a $100 ticket, you still pay 20k points, whereas, with Penfed I paid 7k points to redeem a $100 ticket)
It also has periodic promotion - current promotion - 5 points every dollar for hotels and dinning.
Caution: Recently, Penfed had some of their customers information stolen from their database including mine. I guess it can happen to any banks these days. However, some banks do have better internet security than others. This cc is an Amex card but it goes through PenFed and you also need to enroll as a member. They also have a 5% gas rebate card. However, I was reluctant to apply for the second cc (5% gas rebate cc) after my information was compromised.
May 5, 2011 | 4:08 pm
#22
Join Date: May 2009
Location: HNL
Programs: HA, DL, UA, PC Gold, A/club Plat, HH Gold, Hyatt Pl
Posts: 1,461
Some of these cards I don't have yet, but here are some recommendations.
No annual fee, no paid membership requirements
Fidelity American Express: 2 WorldPoints/$ = 2% cash back or 2 Aeroplan mile/$. Also has other redemption options you might want to check, such as buying airplane tickets directly.
http://personal.fidelity.com/product...r?showcard=all
Fidelty Visa: 1.5 WorldPoints/$ on first $15k/year, thereafter 2 WP/$.
http://personal.fidelity.com/product...ard.shtml.cvsr
Capital One Venture One (not to be confused with Venture Rewards): 1.25 "miles"/$. This card may offer some or all of the specials for earnings and redemptions available for Venture Rewards, such as an extra 4 miles/$ on priceline. However, I have not verified this. See the Capital One discussion below.
American Express Hilton Honors? http://www201.americanexpress.com/ge...Hilton-HHonors
Edit 5/5/2011: While almost all no annual fee cards are potentially worth keeping, a subset that will keep your life interesting is the "rotating bonus" cards. http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/2011/...-credit-cards/ shows a recent discount calendar for Discover More, Citi Dividend, Chase Freedom, and American Express Blue.
No annual fee, but requires paid membership
CostCo AmEx: 3% on dining, 3% capped at $90/year on gas (including Costco gas, which like all Costco purchases has a 2% "executive member" rebate), 2% on travel (Fidelity AmEx is a better deal), 1% on all other purchases. Rebate is paid annually. Costco membership costs $50-100/year. The business version is the same but raises the gas discount to 4% capped at $240/year, but you represent that the purcahses are for business, and business cards aren't subject to certain consumer protections.
http://www201.americanexpress.com/sb...Nav-_-Amex_gas
Chase AARP Visa. Associate membership is open to everyone for something like $10-15 annually, and I thought I read a report of someone being offered free membership during the phone application process. The 3% discount on travel may make this a keeper, although most of the excitement on the internet is, justifiably, about the sign-up offers: 0% for 12 months on balance transfers (transfer fee: 3%, $5 minimum) and balances from purchases and, what makes this potentially the best sign-up offer for any credit card today, a 5% rebate on the first six months of spend, with no cap. So you can potentially net thousands of dollars in those fix six months by using your credit card to pay taxes, rent (williampaid.com) and some other non-credit-card bills (chargesmart.com) in addition to your usual spending. Note that Chase frowns on high volume purchases from the mint. Anyhow, as a card to keep, the basic argument is simply that the 3% travel discount may be worth the AARP annual membership dues.
Annual fee cards possibly worth keeping, even without negotiating a retention bonus
Capital One Venture Rewards and Capital One Venture For Business Visa. 2 "miles" per $ if you redeem for travel, which works out to 2%. The restrictions on redemptions mean you will probably have enough of a "miles" balance when it comes time to renew that you won't be able to negotiate a retention bonus. However, what might make these cards worth keeping are some of additional earning and redemption options that Cap1 seem to change frequently and without warning, such as $900 stay certificates for Hyatt and Ritz Carleton for 64,500 miles (up from 51,500 miles a few days ago) via the personal card (but you can transfer miles from the business card), and earning additional miles on many major vendors, currently including 4 miles/$ on priceline (6 miles/$ total). Some of these discounts require "activation", so be sure visit the "perk central" part of the web site to activate them. The first year's annual fee is waived, and there is a 10k mile sign up bonus for both cards, and, I believe a bonus for adding an authorized user to the business card. Beware that this program had "massive devaluation" in the past (see http://boardingarea.com/blogs/viewfr...t-capital-one/ ), and you do not have an automatic right to downgrade the personal card to the fee-free "Venture One Rewards" card, although perhaps you could negotiate it if you threaten to cancel the personal card.
Note on Cap1 vs. Fidelity: Assuming a 2% redemption rate on the cap1 cards, the $59/year annual fee may make this not as good a deal as the AmEx/Visa pair if your Visa-only purchases are less than $983/month, and the maximum savings versus Fidelity combination are $15/year (if you have at least $1250/month of Visa-only purchases, as the Fidelity Visa earns 2% after $15k/year). This calculation omits, on the one hand, some additional discounts and redepmtion specials on cap1, but also omits, on the other, the argument that Aeroplan miles from Fidelity and other redemption options may be worth more than $.01/WorldPoint, although that will be harder argument after Aeroplan's scheduled devaluation this July.
Cap1 personal rewards cards: http://www.capitalone.com/creditcard...e-all/rewards/
Cap1 Venture for Business: http://www.capitalone.com/smallbusin...-for-business/
US Airways Barclays Premier World MasterCard and World Platinum MasterCard. This is a special offer that includes a 10k US Air Dividend Miles on each annual renewal, thereby offsetting the annual fee of $89 or $49. The cards also have annual companion voucher offers which are valuable if you actually fly USAir operated flights. The offer URL is a single application that will give you one of the two cards, depending on which one Barclays thinks you qualify for. Contrary to the complaining on the FlyerTalk thread about this, the lesser $49/year is, in my opinion very much worth keeping, and, for some people a better deal than the $89/year card for those who don't fly USAir. My understanding is that without the special offer, the cards do not include the annual bonuses that would make them worth keeping in my estimation.
http://www.mostmiles.com/Chairmans
If you value PriorityPass airport lounge access (there are different levels of this), the $150/year Ameriprise World Elite MasterCard might be worth keeping. http://banking-credit.ameriprise.com...mastercard.asp
I'll mention one last obscure possible "keeper" card for some people, just for variety. Asiana Bank of America American Express costs a $99 annual fee, offers a $100 annual rebate on Asiana purchases and earns 3 miles/$ on Asiana purchases, and, most importantly, 2 miles/$ on all other purchases (similar to Fidelity AmEx). I only learned about this card from Gary Leff's View from the Wing blog a few days ago. Like ANA, Asiana offers distance based redemptions to Star Alliance and possibly other partner carriers, which may be advantageous for inter-continetnal flights between near coasts that don't span so much distance. https://www.bankofamerica.com/credit...000|2047565|JU
Even though this posting is too long already, I want to clarify that this is not a complete list of cards worth keeping. For example, I hope others will comment on hotel cards that typically pay for their annual fee in automatic annual bonuses. Also, the a credit card of whatever airline you fly regularly will often have some perks that make it worth its annual fee even if you rarely use it to buy anything.
No annual fee, no paid membership requirements
Fidelity American Express: 2 WorldPoints/$ = 2% cash back or 2 Aeroplan mile/$. Also has other redemption options you might want to check, such as buying airplane tickets directly.
http://personal.fidelity.com/product...r?showcard=all
Fidelty Visa: 1.5 WorldPoints/$ on first $15k/year, thereafter 2 WP/$.
http://personal.fidelity.com/product...ard.shtml.cvsr
Capital One Venture One (not to be confused with Venture Rewards): 1.25 "miles"/$. This card may offer some or all of the specials for earnings and redemptions available for Venture Rewards, such as an extra 4 miles/$ on priceline. However, I have not verified this. See the Capital One discussion below.
American Express Hilton Honors? http://www201.americanexpress.com/ge...Hilton-HHonors
Edit 5/5/2011: While almost all no annual fee cards are potentially worth keeping, a subset that will keep your life interesting is the "rotating bonus" cards. http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/2011/...-credit-cards/ shows a recent discount calendar for Discover More, Citi Dividend, Chase Freedom, and American Express Blue.
No annual fee, but requires paid membership
CostCo AmEx: 3% on dining, 3% capped at $90/year on gas (including Costco gas, which like all Costco purchases has a 2% "executive member" rebate), 2% on travel (Fidelity AmEx is a better deal), 1% on all other purchases. Rebate is paid annually. Costco membership costs $50-100/year. The business version is the same but raises the gas discount to 4% capped at $240/year, but you represent that the purcahses are for business, and business cards aren't subject to certain consumer protections.
http://www201.americanexpress.com/sb...Nav-_-Amex_gas
Chase AARP Visa. Associate membership is open to everyone for something like $10-15 annually, and I thought I read a report of someone being offered free membership during the phone application process. The 3% discount on travel may make this a keeper, although most of the excitement on the internet is, justifiably, about the sign-up offers: 0% for 12 months on balance transfers (transfer fee: 3%, $5 minimum) and balances from purchases and, what makes this potentially the best sign-up offer for any credit card today, a 5% rebate on the first six months of spend, with no cap. So you can potentially net thousands of dollars in those fix six months by using your credit card to pay taxes, rent (williampaid.com) and some other non-credit-card bills (chargesmart.com) in addition to your usual spending. Note that Chase frowns on high volume purchases from the mint. Anyhow, as a card to keep, the basic argument is simply that the 3% travel discount may be worth the AARP annual membership dues.
Annual fee cards possibly worth keeping, even without negotiating a retention bonus
Capital One Venture Rewards and Capital One Venture For Business Visa. 2 "miles" per $ if you redeem for travel, which works out to 2%. The restrictions on redemptions mean you will probably have enough of a "miles" balance when it comes time to renew that you won't be able to negotiate a retention bonus. However, what might make these cards worth keeping are some of additional earning and redemption options that Cap1 seem to change frequently and without warning, such as $900 stay certificates for Hyatt and Ritz Carleton for 64,500 miles (up from 51,500 miles a few days ago) via the personal card (but you can transfer miles from the business card), and earning additional miles on many major vendors, currently including 4 miles/$ on priceline (6 miles/$ total). Some of these discounts require "activation", so be sure visit the "perk central" part of the web site to activate them. The first year's annual fee is waived, and there is a 10k mile sign up bonus for both cards, and, I believe a bonus for adding an authorized user to the business card. Beware that this program had "massive devaluation" in the past (see http://boardingarea.com/blogs/viewfr...t-capital-one/ ), and you do not have an automatic right to downgrade the personal card to the fee-free "Venture One Rewards" card, although perhaps you could negotiate it if you threaten to cancel the personal card.
Note on Cap1 vs. Fidelity: Assuming a 2% redemption rate on the cap1 cards, the $59/year annual fee may make this not as good a deal as the AmEx/Visa pair if your Visa-only purchases are less than $983/month, and the maximum savings versus Fidelity combination are $15/year (if you have at least $1250/month of Visa-only purchases, as the Fidelity Visa earns 2% after $15k/year). This calculation omits, on the one hand, some additional discounts and redepmtion specials on cap1, but also omits, on the other, the argument that Aeroplan miles from Fidelity and other redemption options may be worth more than $.01/WorldPoint, although that will be harder argument after Aeroplan's scheduled devaluation this July.
Cap1 personal rewards cards: http://www.capitalone.com/creditcard...e-all/rewards/
Cap1 Venture for Business: http://www.capitalone.com/smallbusin...-for-business/
US Airways Barclays Premier World MasterCard and World Platinum MasterCard. This is a special offer that includes a 10k US Air Dividend Miles on each annual renewal, thereby offsetting the annual fee of $89 or $49. The cards also have annual companion voucher offers which are valuable if you actually fly USAir operated flights. The offer URL is a single application that will give you one of the two cards, depending on which one Barclays thinks you qualify for. Contrary to the complaining on the FlyerTalk thread about this, the lesser $49/year is, in my opinion very much worth keeping, and, for some people a better deal than the $89/year card for those who don't fly USAir. My understanding is that without the special offer, the cards do not include the annual bonuses that would make them worth keeping in my estimation.
http://www.mostmiles.com/Chairmans
If you value PriorityPass airport lounge access (there are different levels of this), the $150/year Ameriprise World Elite MasterCard might be worth keeping. http://banking-credit.ameriprise.com...mastercard.asp
I'll mention one last obscure possible "keeper" card for some people, just for variety. Asiana Bank of America American Express costs a $99 annual fee, offers a $100 annual rebate on Asiana purchases and earns 3 miles/$ on Asiana purchases, and, most importantly, 2 miles/$ on all other purchases (similar to Fidelity AmEx). I only learned about this card from Gary Leff's View from the Wing blog a few days ago. Like ANA, Asiana offers distance based redemptions to Star Alliance and possibly other partner carriers, which may be advantageous for inter-continetnal flights between near coasts that don't span so much distance. https://www.bankofamerica.com/credit...000|2047565|JU
Even though this posting is too long already, I want to clarify that this is not a complete list of cards worth keeping. For example, I hope others will comment on hotel cards that typically pay for their annual fee in automatic annual bonuses. Also, the a credit card of whatever airline you fly regularly will often have some perks that make it worth its annual fee even if you rarely use it to buy anything.
May 5, 2011 | 4:18 pm
#23
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Texas
Programs: AA Gold, Starwood Gold
Posts: 125
Also, what hubs are close by to you?
I do not know what airline hubs are close by, but you might consider hanging on to CC that goes along with closest airline hub, especially if it has free checked bags when you charge on it.
But you may be more interested in hotel stays, than airlines, so that might not be the best suggestion for you. Everyone has different goals with their miles.
But you may be more interested in hotel stays, than airlines, so that might not be the best suggestion for you. Everyone has different goals with their miles.
May 5, 2011 | 11:06 pm
#24
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: California, SMF
Programs: UA, AA, AS, DL, BA, HA, WN, SPG-PL, Hyatt-Dia, HH-Dia, Marr-Pl, US Mint/VR(retired)
Posts: 951
SPG definitely.
I also like the BA Visa and kept it since the 1st 100K promo.
Even though BA charges a hefty fuel surcharge on award tickets, I still like the "redeem 1 get 1 free" voucher that you get for annual spending of $30K on the card. It is a good deal if you redeem it for first class tickets to Europe (with a stopover at the Heathrow Concorde room).
They also have regular promos and they had a 20% back promo when I redeemed with my last voucher, so I basically got 2 First class tickets for 120K BA miles plus $1,600 in tax, fees and fuel surcharge. The tickets retail for $13,485 EACH.
I also like the BA Visa and kept it since the 1st 100K promo.
Even though BA charges a hefty fuel surcharge on award tickets, I still like the "redeem 1 get 1 free" voucher that you get for annual spending of $30K on the card. It is a good deal if you redeem it for first class tickets to Europe (with a stopover at the Heathrow Concorde room).
They also have regular promos and they had a 20% back promo when I redeemed with my last voucher, so I basically got 2 First class tickets for 120K BA miles plus $1,600 in tax, fees and fuel surcharge. The tickets retail for $13,485 EACH.
May 6, 2011 | 3:26 am
#25
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: WA State
Posts: 65
I live in the Seattle area and have had the Alaska Airlines Visa for 5 years now and think it's worth the annual fee because they give you a $99 companion certificate to use. I can use this certificate to fly to Hawaii or Mexico which more than makes up for the fee. I used it for Mexico last year which saved me about $400 off the fare.
I think this is a great thread as I have this question too. I will probably always fly Alaska as long as I live here, but their award rates are going higher and higher. It costs me 40,000 miles just for a round trip for most flying days it seems to Minneapolis where I have a lot of family. So I am considering what credit card to use for my daily card. We have the Costco Amex which is nice because we always shop at Costco and you can only use AMEX there and the gas rebate is nice. We also have the Hawaiian Airlines Visa since we used to live in Hawaii but will be getting rid of that this year. We just got approved for the BA card and I like how it's 1.25 miles/$ and no Int'l fees, but not sure I want a $99 annual fee card as I'm not a big Int'l traveler.
Wondering if I should wait for a good SPG promo and get that for my daily purchases since it can offer hotel and 1.25 miles/$ with the 20,000 points transfer? I'm leaning that way... SPG for daily purchases, Alaska Visa where I can't use AMEX, and Costco AMEX for gas/Costco purchases.
I think this is a great thread as I have this question too. I will probably always fly Alaska as long as I live here, but their award rates are going higher and higher. It costs me 40,000 miles just for a round trip for most flying days it seems to Minneapolis where I have a lot of family. So I am considering what credit card to use for my daily card. We have the Costco Amex which is nice because we always shop at Costco and you can only use AMEX there and the gas rebate is nice. We also have the Hawaiian Airlines Visa since we used to live in Hawaii but will be getting rid of that this year. We just got approved for the BA card and I like how it's 1.25 miles/$ and no Int'l fees, but not sure I want a $99 annual fee card as I'm not a big Int'l traveler.
Wondering if I should wait for a good SPG promo and get that for my daily purchases since it can offer hotel and 1.25 miles/$ with the 20,000 points transfer? I'm leaning that way... SPG for daily purchases, Alaska Visa where I can't use AMEX, and Costco AMEX for gas/Costco purchases.
May 6, 2011 | 4:28 am
#26
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: BZN
Programs: AA:LT Platinum DL:LT Gold UA:1P MAR:LT Titanium
Posts: 8,292
Downright awesome overview and suggestions. I know most of this already, but for someone not already obsessed with the topic, this is a wealth of nicely summarized information. Thanks, nerd!
Some of these cards I don't have yet, but here are some recommendations.
No annual fee, no paid membership requirements
Fidelity American Express: 2 WorldPoints/$ = 2% cash back or 2 Aeroplan mile/$. Also has other redemption options you might want to check, such as buying airplane tickets directly.
http://personal.fidelity.com/product...r?showcard=all
Fidelty Visa: 1.5 WorldPoints/$ on first $15k/year, thereafter 2 WP/$.
http://personal.fidelity.com/product...ard.shtml.cvsr
Capital One Venture One (not to be confused with Venture Rewards): 1.25 "miles"/$. This card may offer some or all of the specials for earnings and redemptions available for Venture Rewards, such as an extra 4 miles/$ on priceline. However, I have not verified this. See the Capital One discussion below.
American Express Hilton Honors? http://www201.americanexpress.com/ge...Hilton-HHonors
Edit 5/5/2011: While almost all no annual fee cards are potentially worth keeping, a subset that will keep your life interesting is the "rotating bonus" cards. http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/2011/...-credit-cards/ shows a recent discount calendar for Discover More, Citi Dividend, Chase Freedom, and American Express Blue.
No annual fee, but requires paid membership
CostCo AmEx: 3% on dining, 3% capped at $90/year on gas (including Costco gas, which like all Costco purchases has a 2% "executive member" rebate), 2% on travel (Fidelity AmEx is a better deal), 1% on all other purchases. Rebate is paid annually. Costco membership costs $50-100/year. The business version is the same but raises the gas discount to 4% capped at $240/year, but you represent that the purcahses are for business, and business cards aren't subject to certain consumer protections.
http://www201.americanexpress.com/sb...Nav-_-Amex_gas
Chase AARP Visa. Associate membership is open to everyone for something like $10-15 annually, and I thought I read a report of someone being offered free membership during the phone application process. The 3% discount on travel may make this a keeper, although most of the excitement on the internet is, justifiably, about the sign-up offers: 0% for 12 months on balance transfers (transfer fee: 3%, $5 minimum) and balances from purchases and, what makes this potentially the best sign-up offer for any credit card today, a 5% rebate on the first six months of spend, with no cap. So you can potentially net thousands of dollars in those fix six months by using your credit card to pay taxes, rent (williampaid.com) and some other non-credit-card bills (chargesmart.com) in addition to your usual spending. Note that Chase frowns on high volume purchases from the mint. Anyhow, as a card to keep, the basic argument is simply that the 3% travel discount may be worth the AARP annual membership dues.
Annual fee cards possibly worth keeping, even without negotiating a retention bonus
Capital One Venture Rewards and Capital One Venture For Business Visa. 2 "miles" per $ if you redeem for travel, which works out to 2%. The restrictions on redemptions mean you will probably have enough of a "miles" balance when it comes time to renew that you won't be able to negotiate a retention bonus. However, what might make these cards worth keeping are some of additional earning and redemption options that Cap1 seem to change frequently and without warning, such as $900 stay certificates for Hyatt and Ritz Carleton for 64,500 miles (up from 51,500 miles a few days ago) via the personal card (but you can transfer miles from the business card), and earning additional miles on many major vendors, currently including 4 miles/$ on priceline (6 miles/$ total). Some of these discounts require "activation", so be sure visit the "perk central" part of the web site to activate them. The first year's annual fee is waived, and there is a 10k mile sign up bonus for both cards, and, I believe a bonus for adding an authorized user to the business card. Beware that this program had "massive devaluation" in the past (see http://boardingarea.com/blogs/viewfr...t-capital-one/ ), and you do not have an automatic right to downgrade the personal card to the fee-free "Venture One Rewards" card, although perhaps you could negotiate it if you threaten to cancel the personal card.
Note on Cap1 vs. Fidelity: Assuming a 2% redemption rate on the cap1 cards, the $59/year annual fee may make this not as good a deal as the AmEx/Visa pair if your Visa-only purchases are less than $983/month, and the maximum savings versus Fidelity combination are $15/year (if you have at least $1250/month of Visa-only purchases, as the Fidelity Visa earns 2% after $15k/year). This calculation omits, on the one hand, some additional discounts and redepmtion specials on cap1, but also omits, on the other, the argument that Aeroplan miles from Fidelity and other redemption options may be worth more than $.01/WorldPoint, although that will be harder argument after Aeroplan's scheduled devaluation this July.
Cap1 personal rewards cards: http://www.capitalone.com/creditcard...e-all/rewards/
Cap1 Venture for Business: http://www.capitalone.com/smallbusin...-for-business/
US Airways Barclays Premier World MasterCard and World Platinum MasterCard. This is a special offer that includes a 10k US Air Dividend Miles on each annual renewal, thereby offsetting the annual fee of $89 or $49. The cards also have annual companion voucher offers which are valuable if you actually fly USAir operated flights. The offer URL is a single application that will give you one of the two cards, depending on which one Barclays thinks you qualify for. Contrary to the complaining on the FlyerTalk thread about this, the lesser $49/year is, in my opinion very much worth keeping, and, for some people a better deal than the $89/year card for those who don't fly USAir. My understanding is that without the special offer, the cards do not include the annual bonuses that would make them worth keeping in my estimation.
http://www.mostmiles.com/Chairmans
If you value PriorityPass airport lounge access (there are different levels of this), the $150/year Ameriprise World Elite MasterCard might be worth keeping. http://banking-credit.ameriprise.com...mastercard.asp
I'll mention one last obscure possible "keeper" card for some people, just for variety. Asiana Bank of America American Express costs a $99 annual fee, offers a $100 annual rebate on Asiana purchases and earns 3 miles/$ on Asiana purchases, and, most importantly, 2 miles/$ on all other purchases (similar to Fidelity AmEx). I only learned about this card from Gary Leff's View from the Wing blog a few days ago. Like ANA, Asiana offers distance based redemptions to Star Alliance and possibly other partner carriers, which may be advantageous for inter-continetnal flights between near coasts that don't span so much distance. https://www.bankofamerica.com/credit...000|2047565|JU
Even though this posting is too long already, I want to clarify that this is not a complete list of cards worth keeping. For example, I hope others will comment on hotel cards that typically pay for their annual fee in automatic annual bonuses. Also, the a credit card of whatever airline you fly regularly will often have some perks that make it worth its annual fee even if you rarely use it to buy anything.
No annual fee, no paid membership requirements
Fidelity American Express: 2 WorldPoints/$ = 2% cash back or 2 Aeroplan mile/$. Also has other redemption options you might want to check, such as buying airplane tickets directly.
http://personal.fidelity.com/product...r?showcard=all
Fidelty Visa: 1.5 WorldPoints/$ on first $15k/year, thereafter 2 WP/$.
http://personal.fidelity.com/product...ard.shtml.cvsr
Capital One Venture One (not to be confused with Venture Rewards): 1.25 "miles"/$. This card may offer some or all of the specials for earnings and redemptions available for Venture Rewards, such as an extra 4 miles/$ on priceline. However, I have not verified this. See the Capital One discussion below.
American Express Hilton Honors? http://www201.americanexpress.com/ge...Hilton-HHonors
Edit 5/5/2011: While almost all no annual fee cards are potentially worth keeping, a subset that will keep your life interesting is the "rotating bonus" cards. http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/2011/...-credit-cards/ shows a recent discount calendar for Discover More, Citi Dividend, Chase Freedom, and American Express Blue.
No annual fee, but requires paid membership
CostCo AmEx: 3% on dining, 3% capped at $90/year on gas (including Costco gas, which like all Costco purchases has a 2% "executive member" rebate), 2% on travel (Fidelity AmEx is a better deal), 1% on all other purchases. Rebate is paid annually. Costco membership costs $50-100/year. The business version is the same but raises the gas discount to 4% capped at $240/year, but you represent that the purcahses are for business, and business cards aren't subject to certain consumer protections.
http://www201.americanexpress.com/sb...Nav-_-Amex_gas
Chase AARP Visa. Associate membership is open to everyone for something like $10-15 annually, and I thought I read a report of someone being offered free membership during the phone application process. The 3% discount on travel may make this a keeper, although most of the excitement on the internet is, justifiably, about the sign-up offers: 0% for 12 months on balance transfers (transfer fee: 3%, $5 minimum) and balances from purchases and, what makes this potentially the best sign-up offer for any credit card today, a 5% rebate on the first six months of spend, with no cap. So you can potentially net thousands of dollars in those fix six months by using your credit card to pay taxes, rent (williampaid.com) and some other non-credit-card bills (chargesmart.com) in addition to your usual spending. Note that Chase frowns on high volume purchases from the mint. Anyhow, as a card to keep, the basic argument is simply that the 3% travel discount may be worth the AARP annual membership dues.
Annual fee cards possibly worth keeping, even without negotiating a retention bonus
Capital One Venture Rewards and Capital One Venture For Business Visa. 2 "miles" per $ if you redeem for travel, which works out to 2%. The restrictions on redemptions mean you will probably have enough of a "miles" balance when it comes time to renew that you won't be able to negotiate a retention bonus. However, what might make these cards worth keeping are some of additional earning and redemption options that Cap1 seem to change frequently and without warning, such as $900 stay certificates for Hyatt and Ritz Carleton for 64,500 miles (up from 51,500 miles a few days ago) via the personal card (but you can transfer miles from the business card), and earning additional miles on many major vendors, currently including 4 miles/$ on priceline (6 miles/$ total). Some of these discounts require "activation", so be sure visit the "perk central" part of the web site to activate them. The first year's annual fee is waived, and there is a 10k mile sign up bonus for both cards, and, I believe a bonus for adding an authorized user to the business card. Beware that this program had "massive devaluation" in the past (see http://boardingarea.com/blogs/viewfr...t-capital-one/ ), and you do not have an automatic right to downgrade the personal card to the fee-free "Venture One Rewards" card, although perhaps you could negotiate it if you threaten to cancel the personal card.
Note on Cap1 vs. Fidelity: Assuming a 2% redemption rate on the cap1 cards, the $59/year annual fee may make this not as good a deal as the AmEx/Visa pair if your Visa-only purchases are less than $983/month, and the maximum savings versus Fidelity combination are $15/year (if you have at least $1250/month of Visa-only purchases, as the Fidelity Visa earns 2% after $15k/year). This calculation omits, on the one hand, some additional discounts and redepmtion specials on cap1, but also omits, on the other, the argument that Aeroplan miles from Fidelity and other redemption options may be worth more than $.01/WorldPoint, although that will be harder argument after Aeroplan's scheduled devaluation this July.
Cap1 personal rewards cards: http://www.capitalone.com/creditcard...e-all/rewards/
Cap1 Venture for Business: http://www.capitalone.com/smallbusin...-for-business/
US Airways Barclays Premier World MasterCard and World Platinum MasterCard. This is a special offer that includes a 10k US Air Dividend Miles on each annual renewal, thereby offsetting the annual fee of $89 or $49. The cards also have annual companion voucher offers which are valuable if you actually fly USAir operated flights. The offer URL is a single application that will give you one of the two cards, depending on which one Barclays thinks you qualify for. Contrary to the complaining on the FlyerTalk thread about this, the lesser $49/year is, in my opinion very much worth keeping, and, for some people a better deal than the $89/year card for those who don't fly USAir. My understanding is that without the special offer, the cards do not include the annual bonuses that would make them worth keeping in my estimation.
http://www.mostmiles.com/Chairmans
If you value PriorityPass airport lounge access (there are different levels of this), the $150/year Ameriprise World Elite MasterCard might be worth keeping. http://banking-credit.ameriprise.com...mastercard.asp
I'll mention one last obscure possible "keeper" card for some people, just for variety. Asiana Bank of America American Express costs a $99 annual fee, offers a $100 annual rebate on Asiana purchases and earns 3 miles/$ on Asiana purchases, and, most importantly, 2 miles/$ on all other purchases (similar to Fidelity AmEx). I only learned about this card from Gary Leff's View from the Wing blog a few days ago. Like ANA, Asiana offers distance based redemptions to Star Alliance and possibly other partner carriers, which may be advantageous for inter-continetnal flights between near coasts that don't span so much distance. https://www.bankofamerica.com/credit...000|2047565|JU
Even though this posting is too long already, I want to clarify that this is not a complete list of cards worth keeping. For example, I hope others will comment on hotel cards that typically pay for their annual fee in automatic annual bonuses. Also, the a credit card of whatever airline you fly regularly will often have some perks that make it worth its annual fee even if you rarely use it to buy anything.
May 6, 2011 | 4:40 am
#27
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: PDX
Programs: AA, AS, WN, Marriott, Hilton
Posts: 180
I'll add a hotel card I think is worth keeping. Marriott Rewards Premier credit card. For the $65 annual fee you get a free night certificate every year and 15 elite credit nights. That means you'll have at least Silver status. The certs do have a limited expiration date, but even if you only use the certs every other year, I think it is worth the $65.
https://www.chase.com/online/Card-Se...its.htm?ctab=1
https://www.chase.com/online/Card-Se...its.htm?ctab=1
Last edited by GamecockFan; May 6, 2011 at 4:42 am Reason: Add link