Everyone loves to say the Venture X “pays” you $5 to keep it every year with its $300 C1 portal coupon and 10k bonus points even though it has a $395 annual fee.
For sake of argument, let’s say C1 raises the annual fee from $395 a year to $995 a year, but raises the coupon to $900 and keeps 10k points. Would you pay that?
Or the Altitude Reserve has a $400 AF with a $325 dining/travel credit. If the Altitude Reserve got raised to $800 with a $725 dining credit, would you still pay that?
As long as the credit(s) are justifiable and I can use it organically, the sky is the limit. I would easily use a 2k AF card that gives 2-2.5k back in credits and/or other benefits (i.e., status).
AnthonyRodriguez said:
As long as the credit(s) are justifiable and I can use it organically, the sky is the limit. I would easily use a 2k AF card that gives 2-2.5k back in credits and/or other benefits (i.e., status).
After $2k or so I’d start to consider the time value of the money. At some point it doesn’t make sense.
@Charley
The higher the fee, the tighter it has to align with my organic spend. If I was going to spend that 2k on X anyway, I’d have no problem seeing a credit if there is other value to the card.
Monty said:
Less and less. I think the Amex coupon book wore me out. I would say $100 these days is my limit.
Not even just the offers in the Amex app, but having to utilize Rakutan for increased MR multipliers. When those 10x MR offers come in, I have to browse.
I mean, if it’s “easily offset”, meaning my normal yearly spending covered it completely, then there’s a pretty high limit of what I’d pay. Heck, I’d pay a $100,000 AF no problem if I could offset it 100% with normal spending and I got good benefits too.
@MatthewRobinson
I mean, an AF of $100K would mean you need to front $100K each year in cash. At that point, I think the math wouldn’t work out against just dumping that into an investment account or an HYSA. Especially years 2 and on without any SUB.
@MatthewRobinson
I think there is a limit. For one depends on what a customer’s salary would be… Also there are certain things that I don’t want to pay cc fees on or I can’t buy with cc. Rent, investments, and personal payments to name a few. It just ends up being a huge prepayment to the bank which would just be a loan to them. Banks would probably love this.
I have the VentureX. I can justify the $300 in portal because I’m going to use it for a domestic flight—to see my husband, who is living in a different state for a job until he can transfer back. But as our plans are to see the world while we’re still working, it’s harder to justify the $900. I refuse to buy an international flight through the portal because I don’t want a third man between the airline (or hotel) and myself should something go wrong when I’m abroad. So if they raise it, I’ll sacrifice the card. There are other cards that have no AF and although it would suck, I’d just get rental car insurance through the rental company. The DIA lounge is cool, with awesome bathrooms, and free drinks, but I’m not willing to pay $1k just to keep that perk.
Organically offset my expenses without changing my lifestyle (example: I spend a decent amount on dining but not even considering gold, because Dunkin and others is not where I eat), so 3% 4% cashback from no AF cards is much suited for me.
I think same goes for people who travel a lot, at some point during the year they are able to use the points for great value and also get free lounge access.
Personally, probably around $1k. Even if I can offset it organically throughout the year, still something about dropping $1k at once for an AF just feels like it would hurt lol
Good question, you really had me thinking on this one.
I have the Venture X because it’s the only “2%” card that I can get approved for, and I can use the portal credit to get cheap hotels when I’m road tripping. But I feel like the current AF setup is close to the max for me. Maybe I would do $500 but nothing more. I prefer to book hotels direct because they have a more flexible cancellation policy, and I fly Southwest almost exclusively, which is not a supported travel partner.
I’d go up to $2000 AF realistically. But the restrictions on said coupons to offset the annual fee need to be non-existent. Make it a general pool, not this quarterly/monthly limit nonsense and certainly NOT restricted to a portal or certain retailers/establishments.
For instance, I spend a good amount on different retailers annually. Probably $1000+. So if there was a card with a $2000 af, that retail credit needs to be a pool of $1000 or so that I can chip away over the course of the year regardless of where I shop.