June 9, 2025 • 36 mins
[WAITLIST] 1:1 Points Travel Strategy Session - get on the waitlist here!
Travel Freely App - How we keep track of all our cards!
And make sure to follow us on Instagram! @travelpartyof5
The intimidating numbers associated with credit card annual fees often mask the real value these cards provide through their benefits and credits when used strategically.
• Breaking down how we manage $5,500 in credit card annual fees annually
• Understanding the value proposition: first-year annual fees are always offset by welcome bonuses
• Using Travel Freely app to track 5/24 status and upcoming annual fees
• Leveraging Card Pointers app to maximize monthly, quarterly, and annual credits
• Amex Business Platinum ($695 x 2) provides approximately $1,750 in usable credits
• Chase Sapphire Reserve ($550) delivers $600 in credits we actually use
• Hilton Aspire ($550) offers $600 in credits plus a valuable free night certificate
• Most hotel-branded cards provide free night certificates worth more than their annual fees
• Total analysis shows we're receiving $5,153 in usable credits against $5,505 in fees
• Not every card provides positive value, and that's okay for strategic purposes
If you're interested in personalized advice about points, miles, and finding the best credit card strategy for your travel goals, I'm now offering one-on-one consultations. Visit the link in the show notes to join the waitlist.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you're scared of annual fees but you really want
to get into points and miles,this is the episode for you,
because I am breaking downexactly how we are managing
$5,500 this year in credit cardannual fees.
So listen in.
Hi, I'm Raya and I'm Dwayne,and we are your hosts of the
(00:30):
Travel Party of Five podcast,where we share how we travel as
a family of five around theworld.
We will also share how we usepoints and miles to travel as
affordably as possible andsometimes even completely free.
So if you're wanting to travelmore with your family but you're
not sure how, we'd love for youto listen in.
So welcome to our podcast,where we hope you learn a thing
(00:52):
or two to get you closer to yournext trip.
Hey guys, welcome back toTravel Party of Five podcast.
My name is Rhea, I am your hostand I am solo today.
(01:13):
So we are prepping up to leavefor our big trip to Yosemite
National Park and Lake Tahoe,and so we are recording a few
episodes in advance so that wedon't miss a week while we're
gone, and I am very excited toshare with you this topic today.
But before we jump in, just asa random side note, I have never
(01:42):
been diagnosed with ADHD, butwas I underneath my desk five
minutes ago with a screwdrivertrying to tighten all the screws
?
Because I sat down to recordthis?
And then I thought why is thedesk so wiggly Like?
Every time I move, themicrophone shakes and before I
knew it I'm playing handymanunder the desk and I did not fix
it.
But I don't have any more timeto spend on it.
So if you can relate, thenthat's why you're here and hello
(02:05):
.
So I am going to break down allof the annual fees that we are
looking to pay this year or thatwe will pay this year.
And this whole episode startedwhen I sat down and added up all
of our annual fees.
And the reason I did that is Ijust got targeted.
(02:25):
I talked about this on aprevious episode.
I just got targeted for mysecond Amex business platinum
card in the mail and I was alittle bit surprised, actually,
when I was approved, because Ididn't think I was going to be,
and so that was a little bitunexpected.
And the offer isn't great.
It's 150,000 points for 20k inspend, which is a ton of spend.
(02:50):
I would have much rather had250.
But that's what they targetedme for, and sometimes with Amex
you just you get what you getand you don't throw a fit.
A lot of times, you know, forthose higher offers you might
not be able to get approved forthat, like you might get a pop
up that says you're not eligiblefor the welcome offer or
whatever.
So over here we're going totake what we can get.
(03:11):
But the fee on the Amex businessplatinum is really high.
It's $695 a year and this isgoing to be our second one.
So that made me think that hasa ton of money in annual fees
just for those two cards alone,and we have 24 other cards on
top of that.
And so I sat down and added upall the annual fees and came out
(03:34):
to a whopping total of $5,500.
That is so much money.
And it's not free travel Ifyou're spending money on things
you wouldn't normally spendmoney on right.
And so now do I think thatwe've gotten more than $5,500
worth of travel out of thesecards?
Yes, 100% I do, but that'sstill a lot of money to pay that
(03:58):
, quite frankly, I don't want topay.
So I immediately sat down to tryto figure out what are the
credits that I'm using to offsetthese annual fees and once I
factor in all those credits,where am I like?
Am I coming out ahead?
Am I still behind?
If I'm still behind, how mucham I behind?
That sort of thing.
Before we get into all thosedetails and as a side note, I'm
not going to list out everysingle card we have and like how
(04:20):
we offset each fee, becausethat would be very tedious and
boring and no one wants that.
But I am going to go throughprobably like four of the big
ones and it kind of explain howI'm thinking of the credits and
also like realistically, like,okay, let's say, a card offers
$1,000 in credits, but am Iactually using all of those
(04:42):
credits or not?
And so I try to be superrealistic in what I valued and
what we actually use out of thecards, and not like what the
card not everything the cardoffers, if that makes sense.
Before we dive into all thatlike, let's just quickly talk
about why we have so many cards.
Well, I think we all know theanswer, right, the answer is
credit card points and miles.
(05:02):
Like, of course, that's why wehave so many cards.
But also, what is my overallstrategy for cards that have
annual fees, specifically cardsthat have really high annual
fees.
So number one and this, thisshould be your strategy to every
single card welcome offer isgenerally worth whatever the
(05:23):
annual fee is.
Even if the annual fee is $695,which I think is the highest
one we have that's again theAmex business platinum the bonus
points that you're going toearn from the welcome offer are
going to be worth more than the$695.
So even if you don't utilizeany credits at all, the first
year annual fee is always goingto be offset by the signup bonus
(05:47):
.
Okay, so beyond that.
So I guess let me back up.
So if you are nervous aboutopening up a card with an annual
fee, first of all, totally getit.
I have been there and felt thatway as well.
Um, even like a $95 annual feeat one point was too much for me
.
And they do charge this annualfee on your first statement
(06:14):
every time, unless for somereason, it's waived for the
first year, and it is rarelywaived for the first year.
I can think of like an AmericanAirlines card that does that,
and maybe one other and that'sit.
So you should always expect topay the annual fee on your first
statement and then from thereyou're going to want to figure
out what other benefits doesthis card offer me that
realistically I can and will use?
(06:35):
There's a line here betweenthings you wouldn't normally
spend money on and ways that youcan fit these credits into
things you would already buy,and so I think that's important,
because we don't want to buythings we wouldn't normally buy,
and I have an example of thiscoming up that I'll share, right
, because then that's not really.
(06:56):
It's not really a credit to us.
So what we're trying to do isfigure out which credits does
whatever card offer that I canfit into my existing life and go
from there, and I will.
I have some specific examplesthat I'm going to talk about
here in a minute.
After the first year, you'regoing to want to evaluate the
(07:16):
card and decide if the annualfee is worth keeping open the
card for a second year or not.
Sometimes it is not open thecard for a second year or not.
Sometimes it is not andsometimes it is, and only you
can decide that, and you justhave to sit down and think about
it for a little bit.
And again we're going to I'mgoing to start going through a
few of our, our higher feedcards and which ones we will
likely keep for the next yearand which ones we are not going
(07:39):
to.
Two apps that I use to help memanage all of these annual fees
and credits is travel freely.
First of all, we've talkedabout this before.
It's a super, super common appand I just love how user
friendly it is.
This is how I track, like my524 status and all the cards
that I've opened and when myannual fees are due.
(08:02):
That's one of the things I lovethe most is it alerts me like
hey, you have an annual fee onXYZ card that's coming up on,
let's say, june 17.
Okay, so then I know toevaluate that specific card,
like okay, this is, let's say, I, I have one that's coming up.
It's a chasing businesspreferred.
The chasing business preferredcard is a $95 annual fee and I
(08:27):
would generally not keep thiscard open as long as I have a
chase Sapphire preferred card ora reserve card, because those
are the the Sapphire preferredand reserve and the ink
preferred are the three chasecards that allow you to transfer
your chase points to travelpartners or transfer partners.
So I need to make sure thatgetting rid of that card isn't
(08:51):
going to take away my ability totransfer my points and as long
as it's not going to do that,I'm going to get rid of the card
.
The way that I'm going to dothat for chase is I'm going to
send them a secure message.
I'm going to say, hey, I wantto close out my card, ending in,
you know, whatever the lastfour digits are, and it'll take
a day or two and they'll send mea message back saying that
account has been closed.
Some potential reasons to keepcards for more than a year would
(09:14):
be if you're easily utilizingall of the credits that the card
has to offer without kind of,like you know, buying things you
wouldn't normally buy, or if,like having the benefits of the
card, benefits being either likeprotect maybe protections that
the card offers or a category,like a high category spend for
(09:38):
gas or groceries or whatever.
Those can also be reasons tokeep a card open.
For example, the Amex personalgold card.
That is a keeper card for usbecause of the 4x on dining and
groceries.
Whenever we're not working on aminimum spend, we are using
that.
We've already earned, I think,an extra 20,000 Amex points just
from that 4x category spend inthose two categories in the last
(09:58):
six months.
So those are some examples ofeither when you might want to
keep a card open or close a card, and again, I use the Travel
Freely app to notify me when acard is coming up on the one
year mark, and I evaluate it ona case by case basis at that
time.
The other app that I use iscalled Card Pointers, and this
(10:20):
is a there's both a free optionand a paid option.
As a side note, going back,travel Freely is completely free
, and so if you don't alreadyuse it, I'll put a link in the
show notes so that you candownload it.
It should be the first thingthat you.
The first step that you doevery time you open a new credit
card is you should go into thetravel freely app and add it in.
Okay, anyways.
The second card is card pointers.
We've also talked about this onthe podcast before.
(10:41):
None of this is sponsored.
We use the like I pay for thecard pointers app, like the
premium version, all on my own,and so card pointers is really
good for showing you whatcredits are available to you on
each card that you have, and,again, they don't collect any
bank data, but you just go inand you put in the cards that
(11:02):
you have, very similar to thetravel freely app, and then then
it tracks for you whether thosecredits are monthly or
quarterly or annually and everytime you use it you just kind of
slide the little bar to checkoff that you used it for that
month or that quarter or thatyear.
So, for example, the ChaseSapphire Reserve card has a $5 a
(11:23):
month door dash like credit andyou can use it monthly or I
think it stacks for up to threemonths in a row, so you can get
like $15 roughly every threemonths.
Every time I use that credit Ijust go in, I slide the little
bar and then the credit goesaway until the next month and
then it will tell me like hey,don't forget to use this credit.
So I generally take one day amonth.
(11:46):
I always try to do it at thebeginning of the month, but it
always ends up happening at theend of the month, where I go
through the app and I go throughall of my cards and I make sure
that I'm utilizing any creditthat I possibly can.
And that's not all the credits,because sometimes they're just
not applicable to me, like Idon't need several hundred
dollars to Adobe.
(12:07):
I just don't.
So there are credits that I canand can't use, but using that
app really helps me to kind ofstreamline it and think about it
in a tangible, bite sized way.
Like, okay, oh, I use my youknow, $10, whatever I use this,
I use that, I use my $50 airlinecredit, whatever.
So those are the two apps thatI would recommend if you're
(12:29):
getting into points and miles orif're you've been in points and
miles for a while and you'renot utilizing credits to offset
annual fees.
So okay, let's jump into somespecifics about the cards that
we have and how we areoffsetting the annual fees in a
well, in what I think is areasonable manner, in a well, in
(12:54):
what I think is a reasonablemanner.
So the first card I'm going totalk about is the American
Express business platinum card,and again we now have two of
these, which totals roughlyalmost $1,400 in annual fees.
So I have calculated that,based on the credits that this
card offers, we are going to geta little over $1,700 in credits
(13:17):
.
And again, that's not based onevery credit that this card
offers, because a lot of them wewon't use.
So this is just the creditsthat we will use.
So let me break those down.
There's an Adobe credit on thiscard.
We will not use that.
The clear credit, which is $199.
(13:38):
We will use that.
Dwayne and I are both we'vesigned up, but we just have to
go to the airport and pay forclear and so we will utilize
those.
So that's let's call it, $400in credits for that.
This also comes with a globalentry credit.
I already have global entry andDuane can't get approved, so
(13:58):
that's not applicable to us.
It also comes with a $50 aquarter Hilton credit.
The only way we really wouldutilize this is to buy Hilton
gift cards and the website hasbeen down so I definitely
already missed Q1 for that.
I've estimated this credit asaround $200 value across both
(14:19):
cards, so $100 a card.
I'm being really cautiousbecause I'm assuming there's
going to be some quarters whereI'm going to miss buying a gift
card or I'm just going to forgetor whatever.
And then there's also a wirelesstelephone credit of $10 per
month.
We have Verizon for our phoneservice and paying just $10 a
(14:45):
month isn't really possible.
We have it set up on autopayand there's really no option to
easily pay with a credit card,even just to go in and make a
payment of $10 seems to causeall kinds of havoc, so we just
don't use it and that's that.
So again, that's roughly $200across both cards for Hilton,
(15:08):
$400 across both cards for clear.
And then I don't think wetalked about the Dell credits
yet.
So through the end of June of2025, there is a $200 kind of
biannual Dell credit that youcan get on this card.
It's changing starting July one.
(15:29):
So I've only calculated $200per card for this year, so $400
total and we did use that andI'll talk about that here in a
second.
So adding all of those up, so$400 to Dell, let's also call it
$400 to clear, $200 to Hilton.
(15:49):
So that is let's see 400, forthat's $1,000.
And then the my original AmexPlatinum had a $250 off airfare
when you spend $2,500 or moredirect with an airline or in the
Amex portal.
So I bought our flights toThailand on that card, so that's
(16:13):
another $250.
So now we're at $1,250.
And then my second Amex BizPlatinum, as part of the signup
bonus, had $500 off $2,500 ormore of airfare, again booked
directly with an airline orthrough the Amex travel portal,
and I just utilized that creditthe other day.
(16:34):
So 1250 plus 500, that's 1750in total credits, and I think
(16:58):
that's not too shabby forroughly $1,400 in annual fees.
So, for this year, for our AmexBiz Platinums for both of them,
I feel great that we fullyoffset the annual fees for that
card.
Specifically, one of my AmexBiz Platts is coming up for
renewal and I probably am goingto close that one just so we
don't pay a second annual fee onthat one.
So I am likely going to closeone of those just as a heads up,
as kind of how I'm thinkingthrough it.
Going back really quickly to theDell credit, though, the way
(17:20):
that we utilize this for thishalf of the year is I bought a
Insta 360 Go camera 360 gocamera and I wanted I wanted to
specifically talk about thisbecause this I feel like this is
a gray area.
Okay, this is not normallysomething I would have purchased
(17:41):
.
It wasn't on my list.
Like, we have actually a goodamount of camera equipment, we
have a drone and we have anotherInsta 360 camera and a Canon,
and so I wasn't planning onbuying this.
Okay, but I had the credits,and again by credits I mean,
basically I have prepaid for a$400 Dell gift card, right,
(18:03):
that's kind of how these annualfees work and you can think of
them as like prepaying forthings.
So I used I split payment onthe Dell website as a side note
also went through the AmericanAirlines shopping portal because
we're getting that status rightso went through the AA shopping
portal and then went to Dellpurchase the camera, split the
(18:26):
payment into two cards.
So I did $200 on one card and260 or whatever was the balance
on the second card, and that wayI could utilize both credits at
the same time.
So out of pocket we paidroughly $60 for this $430 camera
Again, not something we wouldhave like purchased anyways, but
(18:52):
will we use it and will we getvalue out of having it?
Yes, I'm actually going to tryto see if our Yosemite and Lake
Tahoe episodes that are going tobe coming up in a couple weeks,
I'm going to see if I can putsome video to our audio for
YouTube using that camera.
(19:13):
So we're going to play aroundwith it on this upcoming trip.
So I am counting that in thevalue of the money that we're,
you know, getting towards theannual fees, because we did buy
it and we will use it.
So, but again, I do thinkthat's kind of a gray area
because not something I wouldhave purchased otherwise, but
pretty cool to have.
So there's that.
Do with that what you will.
(19:34):
The second card is.
So I'm going to talk about fourcards and they're all going to
be pretty hefty annual fee cards.
The second one is going to bethe American Express business
gold card.
So this has a $375 annual fee.
We only have one of these has a$375 annual fee.
We only have one of these andthe credits on this one are
(19:55):
pretty straightforward.
So it offers $20 a month atoffice supply stores and it also
offers a Walmart Plusmembership, kind of paid monthly
.
I think the reason it's paidmonthly is so that they can kind
of inflate the value of thecredit because obviously if you
pay it annually you are paying alittle bit less.
But whatever, whatever floatstheir boat.
(20:17):
So that's valued at $155 forWalmart Plus and again $20 a
month at office supply stores.
So that comes out to $240.
So $155 plus $240 equals $395.
And again the fee is $375.
The way that I utilize the $20 amonth at office supply stores
is I go to staplescom and I buya Target gift card.
(20:38):
I buy a $20 gift card.
It sends it to my email, I addit to my Target app and that
triggers the $20 credit and I'mdefinitely using that money at
Target.
And then Walmart Plus issomething that we paid for
before we ever got this card.
I do sometimes grocery deliveryor whatever, whatever delivery.
(20:59):
It's just nice to have themembership so that I don't have
to pay a fee for delivery,because a lot of times there are
things that we need like rightaway and I just don't have time
to go out and buy them.
So again, those two creditsalone fully offset that annual
fee.
And every month I just go intocard pointers look at my little
list I go buy my gift card andthe Walmart Plus is just
(21:24):
automatically set to charge thatcard and so it does the credit
on its own every single month.
So we're coming out 20 bucksahead on that card.
Again, I feel great about that.
The next one is a keeper cardfor me.
I would argue that the Amex BizGold is probably also a keeper
card because I find it very easyto use those two credits and it
(21:47):
more than offsets the annualfee for me.
So I guess let me interjecthere before we go on to the next
card.
When I think about utilizingthe Walmart Plus credit or the
$20 a month at Target kind of athing, I don't think of it as
free money, right, it's like Ihave paid this money, and I
think that sometimes people getkind of confused as like free
(22:08):
money, right, it's like I havepaid this money.
And I think that sometimespeople get kind of confused
thinking about it too.
Right, it's like I didn't get a$20 gift card to Target for
free, right, like I still paidthe money.
So it's kind of just likepaying Peter to I mean, robbing
Peter to pay Paul, is that thephrase?
So I'm just kind of I'm notreally earning money, although I
(22:31):
guess I'm earning $20 on thatcard, but I'm not losing money,
and that's my ultimate goal is Idon't want to lose money, right
?
Or if I am losing it, I want tolose very little.
Okay, hopefully that made sense.
So the next card is the ChaseSapphire Reserve.
This is again a keeper card forme.
I find it super easy to utilizethe credits without really
(22:52):
disrupting my life in any way.
It's always things that wewould buy normally anyways,
maybe just buying it from adifferent place than I would
normally buy it.
And so the Chase SapphireReserve has a $550 annual fee
and part of that is a $300travel credit that I find
incredibly easy to use becauseit automatically is applied to
your statement whenever,anything, whenever you buy
(23:14):
anything that codes as travel.
So, whether you're paying moneyat a hotel or airfare or
whatever, as long as it codes astravel, that $300 fee will be
applied.
You do not have to book throughany kind of a portal, which is
my favorite.
You know, kind of on that samenote, that Capital One Venture X
also has a $300 travel credit,but you have to book through the
Capital One portal and I reallystruggle to use that credit.
(23:37):
I still have not utilized itfor this year and I only have
until, I think, september.
So if you also struggle to usethat, maybe, first of all,
you're not alone, and if youhave used it easily, please
message me on Instagram and tellme how, because every time I
look up like a car rental orsomething, it's always way more
money and anyways, okay, Idigress.
(23:59):
Chase Sapphire Reserve comeswith a $300 travel credit Super
easy to use that with as much aswe travel.
It also comes with $20 a monthDoorDash like pickup credits, so
it's actually two $10 creditsthat you get with the reserve
card each month, and the waythat you utilize these is in the
(24:22):
DoorDash app.
You have to basically find aplace near you where you can
pick up, because if you dodelivery it totally offsets any
like, like any money thatthey're giving you.
So you do pick up.
That way you don't have to paydelivery fee or tip or anything,
and for us depends on the month.
But last month I ordered abunch of snacks to take to our
(24:45):
little staycation.
A lot of times I order bodyarmor sports drinks for my kids
to take to sports and it's likehuge bottles and I can usually
get like roughly six bottleswith the $20 credit.
And again they're really bigbottles, like I don't know 32
ounces or so, and so I feel likethat's a great use of it.
(25:06):
We just pop into a 7-Elevenright near us and we pick them
up.
It takes literally two secondsand again it's stuff that we
would buy anyways.
We're just buying it from adifferent place.
So that's $240 a year utilizingthat credit, and then again the
$300 travel credit, so rightaway we're at 540.
I mean, that's only $10 belowthe annual fee anyways.
(25:29):
But Chase also gives you a $5 amonth DoorDash credit, which is
different from the two, whichis different from the two $20
credits I just mentioned, andyou can utilize this one on like
delivery and it just kind oftakes the sting out of ordering
delivery for yourself.
I this is something I use everysingle month because I work
(25:54):
from home and some days I havemeetings just back to back to
back to back to back.
There's no time for me to leavethe house or do anything, and
so I will DoorDash likeChick-fil-A or something quick
to eat for lunch, and so this isnot me spending on DoorDash
Like when I wouldn't.
This is something that I do allthe time, anyways.
So when you add that in, thatactually puts us at that's
(26:16):
another $60.
So that puts us at a full, aflat $600 in credits for that
card alone, and so again we'reactually benefiting like 50
bucks.
So again, that's a keeper card.
The last one I want to talkabout is the Hilton Aspire card.
So I think that you could arguethat this card alone, the
(26:38):
annual fee, could be covered bythe free night certificate that
you get from holding it everysingle year from Hilton.
When I do a Google search.
A Hilton free night cert istypically valued at around
$1,000.
I'm going to value it at 500for my purposes and I'm not
going to include it like in mycalculations, if that makes
(27:01):
sense.
So it's, it's a bonus, but I'mnot actually going to even count
the 500.
So the annual fee for theHilton Amex Aspire card is $550.
And again, that includes theannual free night certificate
with Hilton.
That has currently no cap.
So they're very valuable.
It also gives you free diamondstatus.
It gives you a $400 resortcredit.
(27:23):
So, and the way that you canutilize that is $200 in the
first half of the year and $200in the second half.
It also gives you a $200 flightcredit and again, that's
quarterly, so it's it's actually$50 per quarter and then $100
on property credit with a Spirecard package.
I don't, quite frankly, don'teven know what that means and
(27:44):
I'm not using it.
It also has clear gives youEmerald Club executive status
with national and it has cellphone protection if you pay your
cell phone with it.
So of these credits, the onesthat we will use this year
specifically is the $400 resortcredit.
We've actually already used 200of it and we have another
(28:05):
Hilton stay coming up and I willmake sure that we utilize the
other 200.
And then the $200 flight credit.
So that alone, right, there is$600, right, it's $400 in resort
credits plus $600, or, I'msorry, plus $200 in flight
credits, and so that aloneoffsets the annual fee, and that
(28:25):
that doesn't even factor in thefree night certificate.
So again, we're coming outslightly ahead on this card.
The way that we utilize theflight credits is United Travel
Bank.
That is how I utilize anyflight credit on any credit card
.
The way that United Travel Bankworks is you essentially go
(28:46):
into your United account, youfind the United Travel Bank and
you fund it.
And so for this card, theHilton card, every quarter I
fund it with $50 and I pay withmy Hilton card.
Quarter I fund it with $50.
And I pay with my Hilton cardand then $50 goes into my United
(29:06):
Travel Bank.
A few days after thetransaction posts on my Amex
card.
Then they go ahead in and dothe $50 credit.
So again, it's not like freemoney to United, but it is like
pre paying for United flights.
So right now we have a littleover $800 in there, I think, and
I am either planning to usethat for, like a position, a
(29:27):
positioning flight in the futureor a trip to Yellowstone in the
next year or two.
So that is how we utilize allof our airline credits on any
cards and that hopefully kind ofgives you a rough idea of how
we are either like offsetting orcoming out ahead with annual
(29:49):
fees.
Now I do want to address thatthere are cards that we hold
that we are not offsetting theannual fees for.
So, for example, the ChaseUnited business card, that fee
just went up to $150.
Based on the list of benefits,like I don't know that we would
use any of them.
What's another one?
The city advantage businesscard?
(30:10):
We actually have three of thoseright now and they were each a
$99 annual fee.
We again are likely notutilizing any of the benefits to
offset that, like free checkedbags or anything.
I don't think we've flown onAmerican in the last year where
we would utilize that.
So there are also cards where weare not coming out ahead and I
(30:32):
want to be super transparentabout that.
And there are cards, like maybethe World of Hyatt business
card, where the annual fee is$199.
And you do get two $50 credits,one in the first half of the
year, one in the second half ofthe year at any Hyatt.
So that means when I put aHyatt charge on my business card
they credit me 50 bucks, soit's $199.
(30:56):
I'm getting $100 worth ofcredits.
So I'm coming out technically$99 in the hole.
But that card is instrumentalin earning globalist status for
me and so without that card itwould be much harder to have the
globalist status and I valuethe globalist status at a lot
more than $99.
So again, you have to look atyour specific situation and
(31:20):
evaluate what's what makes sensefor you.
So I'm going to tell you therough total of annual fees we're
paying versus credits.
I think we're redeeming here injust a minute.
But I did make a few assumptionsand I wanted to cover those
quickly.
So again, I did not include theHilton free night certificates
in my estimated value for theAspire card.
I do have a couple of hotelbranded cards.
(31:44):
So for the World of Hyattpersonal card, the annual fee on
that is $95.
And the you get a annualcategory one through four free
night certificate with everycalendar year.
So I have estimated that to bearound $200.
I am counting that $200 in myestimate that I'll go over here
(32:06):
in a minute.
Same thing with the IHG onerewards premier card.
That card has a $99 annual feeand again, I've estimated that
the annual free nightcertificate that you get with
that is worth around $200.
So I have calculated the twoyou know, that dollar value into
my credit, and I think it'sworth noting that we are
(32:28):
actually going to utilize theIHG free night this weekend and
the rate, the cash rate for thehotel room that we are staying
in, is $290.
So 200 is a very low estimate,but I like to just err on the
side of being a little bit lowerversus inflating it.
And then the other assumptionthat I made is for the Capital
(32:49):
One Venture X.
That obviously comes with a$300 travel credit and even
though I haven't utilized it yet, I plan to and I'm going to try
to.
So I have counted that creditplus you get 10,000 points for
holding the card annually and Ivalue that at $100.
So again, being a little bitcautious, but better that than
to over inflate.
(33:09):
And so I am valuing the CapitalOne Venture X at $400.
So those are kind of theassumptions that I made.
And so here's the totals.
So we will spend $5,505 inannual fees this year and again,
that's assuming we don't openany new cards, which we will,
but we're just working with whatwe have for now.
So $5,505 in annual fees and wewill redeem credits worth
(33:39):
$5,153.
So that's a delta of roughly$350.
In the negative Again, rememberI didn't count either of my
Hilton free night certificatesand we have two.
So I actually feel really goodabout that.
I feel great actually aboutpaying $350 total in annual fees
(34:00):
, like when you look at it on akind of a net net view.
So I am curious to know what youpay in annual fees and if you
are offsetting them the way thatwe are or kind of how you're
justifying it.
And I'm also curious if you'vebeen scared of annual fees, if
(34:21):
this episode has changed yourmind at all.
So come find me on Instagramand let me know.
We are at travel party of five.
I am.
I answer every message that Iget, so would love if you would
come over and say hello, hopethat this episode was helpful.
If you feel like I missedanything or have any kind of
feedback, again, instagram isthe best way to find us.
(34:41):
And if you have ever gotten anyvalue out of this podcast,
please, please, please leave arating or review, wherever you
listen.
We appreciate you so much.
Oh, and one more thing.
One more thing Sorry, hold thatthought Don't.
Don't click next If you arenewer to points and miles and
you are just wanting kind ofsome consultation advice like
(35:04):
what should, what cards should Iget in?
Or or if you have points andyou're like I just don't know
how to utilize these points andI want to go to London or I want
to go to Hawaii or I want to goto wherever, and you don't have
the time to dive deep into allthe Reddit threads and Facebook
groups.
I am opening up consultations,paid consultations with me,
(35:27):
where you get a full hour withme.
You'll fill out like a formbeforehand that tells me kind of
what points you currently have,where you want to go, when you
want to go, and I will give you,I will literally walk you
through exactly how I wouldthink about it.
I'll give like.
We'll record the session so youcan have it later and take
notes.
I'll give you kind of a followup plan after the fact of like.
(35:49):
This is if I were you, this ishow I would get to London or
wherever it is you want to go.
You let me know.
So there is a waitlist for thatright now and that should.
The waitlist should end in thenext few weeks and then you can
actually sign up if you'reinterested.
So if that is something that isinteresting to you and you're
newer and you just don't havethe time or want to take the
(36:10):
time to spend to figure all ofthis out, I will put the link to
that in the show notes as well,and I would love to chat with
you further.
Okay, that is it for now.
See you on the next episode andhope you have a great day.
Bye.
If you're scared of annual fees but you really want
to get into points and miles,this is the episode for you,
because I am breaking downexactly how we are managing
$5,500 this year in credit cardannual fees.
So listen in.
Hi, I'm Raya and I'm Dwayne,and we are your hosts of the
(00:30):
Travel Party of Five podcast,where we share how we travel as
a family of five around theworld.
We will also share how we usepoints and miles to travel as
affordably as possible andsometimes even completely free.
So if you're wanting to travelmore with your family but you're
not sure how, we'd love for youto listen in.
So welcome to our podcast,where we hope you learn a thing
(00:52):
or two to get you closer to yournext trip.
Hey guys, welcome back toTravel Party of Five podcast.
My name is Rhea, I am your hostand I am solo today.
(01:13):
So we are prepping up to leavefor our big trip to Yosemite
National Park and Lake Tahoe,and so we are recording a few
episodes in advance so that wedon't miss a week while we're
gone, and I am very excited toshare with you this topic today.
But before we jump in, just asa random side note, I have never
(01:42):
been diagnosed with ADHD, butwas I underneath my desk five
minutes ago with a screwdrivertrying to tighten all the screws
?
Because I sat down to recordthis?
And then I thought why is thedesk so wiggly Like?
Every time I move, themicrophone shakes and before I
knew it I'm playing handymanunder the desk and I did not fix
it.
But I don't have any more timeto spend on it.
So if you can relate, thenthat's why you're here and hello
(02:05):
.
So I am going to break down allof the annual fees that we are
looking to pay this year or thatwe will pay this year.
And this whole episode startedwhen I sat down and added up all
of our annual fees.
And the reason I did that is Ijust got targeted.
(02:25):
I talked about this on aprevious episode.
I just got targeted for mysecond Amex business platinum
card in the mail and I was alittle bit surprised, actually,
when I was approved, because Ididn't think I was going to be,
and so that was a little bitunexpected.
And the offer isn't great.
It's 150,000 points for 20k inspend, which is a ton of spend.
(02:50):
I would have much rather had250.
But that's what they targetedme for, and sometimes with Amex
you just you get what you getand you don't throw a fit.
A lot of times, you know, forthose higher offers you might
not be able to get approved forthat, like you might get a pop
up that says you're not eligiblefor the welcome offer or
whatever.
So over here we're going totake what we can get.
(03:11):
But the fee on the Amex businessplatinum is really high.
It's $695 a year and this isgoing to be our second one.
So that made me think that hasa ton of money in annual fees
just for those two cards alone,and we have 24 other cards on
top of that.
And so I sat down and added upall the annual fees and came out
(03:34):
to a whopping total of $5,500.
That is so much money.
And it's not free travel Ifyou're spending money on things
you wouldn't normally spendmoney on right.
And so now do I think thatwe've gotten more than $5,500
worth of travel out of thesecards?
Yes, 100% I do, but that'sstill a lot of money to pay that
(03:58):
, quite frankly, I don't want topay.
So I immediately sat down to tryto figure out what are the
credits that I'm using to offsetthese annual fees and once I
factor in all those credits,where am I like?
Am I coming out ahead?
Am I still behind?
If I'm still behind, how mucham I behind?
That sort of thing.
Before we get into all thosedetails and as a side note, I'm
not going to list out everysingle card we have and like how
(04:20):
we offset each fee, becausethat would be very tedious and
boring and no one wants that.
But I am going to go throughprobably like four of the big
ones and it kind of explain howI'm thinking of the credits and
also like realistically, like,okay, let's say, a card offers
$1,000 in credits, but am Iactually using all of those
(04:42):
credits or not?
And so I try to be superrealistic in what I valued and
what we actually use out of thecards, and not like what the
card not everything the cardoffers, if that makes sense.
Before we dive into all thatlike, let's just quickly talk
about why we have so many cards.
Well, I think we all know theanswer, right, the answer is
credit card points and miles.
(05:02):
Like, of course, that's why wehave so many cards.
But also, what is my overallstrategy for cards that have
annual fees, specifically cardsthat have really high annual
fees.
So number one and this, thisshould be your strategy to every
single card welcome offer isgenerally worth whatever the
(05:23):
annual fee is.
Even if the annual fee is $695,which I think is the highest
one we have that's again theAmex business platinum the bonus
points that you're going toearn from the welcome offer are
going to be worth more than the$695.
So even if you don't utilizeany credits at all, the first
year annual fee is always goingto be offset by the signup bonus
(05:47):
.
Okay, so beyond that.
So I guess let me back up.
So if you are nervous aboutopening up a card with an annual
fee, first of all, totally getit.
I have been there and felt thatway as well.
Um, even like a $95 annual feeat one point was too much for me
.
And they do charge this annualfee on your first statement
(06:14):
every time, unless for somereason, it's waived for the
first year, and it is rarelywaived for the first year.
I can think of like an AmericanAirlines card that does that,
and maybe one other and that'sit.
So you should always expect topay the annual fee on your first
statement and then from thereyou're going to want to figure
out what other benefits doesthis card offer me that
realistically I can and will use?
(06:35):
There's a line here betweenthings you wouldn't normally
spend money on and ways that youcan fit these credits into
things you would already buy,and so I think that's important,
because we don't want to buythings we wouldn't normally buy,
and I have an example of thiscoming up that I'll share, right
, because then that's not really.
(06:56):
It's not really a credit to us.
So what we're trying to do isfigure out which credits does
whatever card offer that I canfit into my existing life and go
from there, and I will.
I have some specific examplesthat I'm going to talk about
here in a minute.
After the first year, you'regoing to want to evaluate the
(07:16):
card and decide if the annualfee is worth keeping open the
card for a second year or not.
Sometimes it is not open thecard for a second year or not.
Sometimes it is not andsometimes it is, and only you
can decide that, and you justhave to sit down and think about
it for a little bit.
And again we're going to I'mgoing to start going through a
few of our, our higher feedcards and which ones we will
likely keep for the next yearand which ones we are not going
(07:39):
to.
Two apps that I use to help memanage all of these annual fees
and credits is travel freely.
First of all, we've talkedabout this before.
It's a super, super common appand I just love how user
friendly it is.
This is how I track, like my524 status and all the cards
that I've opened and when myannual fees are due.
(08:02):
That's one of the things I lovethe most is it alerts me like
hey, you have an annual fee onXYZ card that's coming up on,
let's say, june 17.
Okay, so then I know toevaluate that specific card,
like okay, this is, let's say, I, I have one that's coming up.
It's a chasing businesspreferred.
The chasing business preferredcard is a $95 annual fee and I
(08:27):
would generally not keep thiscard open as long as I have a
chase Sapphire preferred card ora reserve card, because those
are the the Sapphire preferredand reserve and the ink
preferred are the three chasecards that allow you to transfer
your chase points to travelpartners or transfer partners.
So I need to make sure thatgetting rid of that card isn't
(08:51):
going to take away my ability totransfer my points and as long
as it's not going to do that,I'm going to get rid of the card
.
The way that I'm going to dothat for chase is I'm going to
send them a secure message.
I'm going to say, hey, I wantto close out my card, ending in,
you know, whatever the lastfour digits are, and it'll take
a day or two and they'll send mea message back saying that
account has been closed.
Some potential reasons to keepcards for more than a year would
(09:14):
be if you're easily utilizingall of the credits that the card
has to offer without kind of,like you know, buying things you
wouldn't normally buy, or if,like having the benefits of the
card, benefits being either likeprotect maybe protections that
the card offers or a category,like a high category spend for
(09:38):
gas or groceries or whatever.
Those can also be reasons tokeep a card open.
For example, the Amex personalgold card.
That is a keeper card for usbecause of the 4x on dining and
groceries.
Whenever we're not working on aminimum spend, we are using
that.
We've already earned, I think,an extra 20,000 Amex points just
from that 4x category spend inthose two categories in the last
(09:58):
six months.
So those are some examples ofeither when you might want to
keep a card open or close a card, and again, I use the Travel
Freely app to notify me when acard is coming up on the one
year mark, and I evaluate it ona case by case basis at that
time.
The other app that I use iscalled Card Pointers, and this
(10:20):
is a there's both a free optionand a paid option.
As a side note, going back,travel Freely is completely free
, and so if you don't alreadyuse it, I'll put a link in the
show notes so that you candownload it.
It should be the first thingthat you.
The first step that you doevery time you open a new credit
card is you should go into thetravel freely app and add it in.
Okay, anyways.
The second card is card pointers.
We've also talked about this onthe podcast before.
(10:41):
None of this is sponsored.
We use the like I pay for thecard pointers app, like the
premium version, all on my own,and so card pointers is really
good for showing you whatcredits are available to you on
each card that you have, and,again, they don't collect any
bank data, but you just go inand you put in the cards that
(11:02):
you have, very similar to thetravel freely app, and then then
it tracks for you whether thosecredits are monthly or
quarterly or annually and everytime you use it you just kind of
slide the little bar to checkoff that you used it for that
month or that quarter or thatyear.
So, for example, the ChaseSapphire Reserve card has a $5 a
(11:23):
month door dash like credit andyou can use it monthly or I
think it stacks for up to threemonths in a row, so you can get
like $15 roughly every threemonths.
Every time I use that credit Ijust go in, I slide the little
bar and then the credit goesaway until the next month and
then it will tell me like hey,don't forget to use this credit.
So I generally take one day amonth.
(11:46):
I always try to do it at thebeginning of the month, but it
always ends up happening at theend of the month, where I go
through the app and I go throughall of my cards and I make sure
that I'm utilizing any creditthat I possibly can.
And that's not all the credits,because sometimes they're just
not applicable to me, like Idon't need several hundred
dollars to Adobe.
(12:07):
I just don't.
So there are credits that I canand can't use, but using that
app really helps me to kind ofstreamline it and think about it
in a tangible, bite sized way.
Like, okay, oh, I use my youknow, $10, whatever I use this,
I use that, I use my $50 airlinecredit, whatever.
So those are the two apps thatI would recommend if you're
(12:29):
getting into points and miles orif're you've been in points and
miles for a while and you'renot utilizing credits to offset
annual fees.
So okay, let's jump into somespecifics about the cards that
we have and how we areoffsetting the annual fees in a
well, in what I think is areasonable manner, in a well, in
(12:54):
what I think is a reasonablemanner.
So the first card I'm going totalk about is the American
Express business platinum card,and again we now have two of
these, which totals roughlyalmost $1,400 in annual fees.
So I have calculated that,based on the credits that this
card offers, we are going to geta little over $1,700 in credits
(13:17):
.
And again, that's not based onevery credit that this card
offers, because a lot of them wewon't use.
So this is just the creditsthat we will use.
So let me break those down.
There's an Adobe credit on thiscard.
We will not use that.
The clear credit, which is $199.
(13:38):
We will use that.
Dwayne and I are both we'vesigned up, but we just have to
go to the airport and pay forclear and so we will utilize
those.
So that's let's call it, $400in credits for that.
This also comes with a globalentry credit.
I already have global entry andDuane can't get approved, so
(13:58):
that's not applicable to us.
It also comes with a $50 aquarter Hilton credit.
The only way we really wouldutilize this is to buy Hilton
gift cards and the website hasbeen down so I definitely
already missed Q1 for that.
I've estimated this credit asaround $200 value across both
(14:19):
cards, so $100 a card.
I'm being really cautiousbecause I'm assuming there's
going to be some quarters whereI'm going to miss buying a gift
card or I'm just going to forgetor whatever.
And then there's also a wirelesstelephone credit of $10 per
month.
We have Verizon for our phoneservice and paying just $10 a
(14:45):
month isn't really possible.
We have it set up on autopayand there's really no option to
easily pay with a credit card,even just to go in and make a
payment of $10 seems to causeall kinds of havoc, so we just
don't use it and that's that.
So again, that's roughly $200across both cards for Hilton,
(15:08):
$400 across both cards for clear.
And then I don't think wetalked about the Dell credits
yet.
So through the end of June of2025, there is a $200 kind of
biannual Dell credit that youcan get on this card.
It's changing starting July one.
(15:29):
So I've only calculated $200per card for this year, so $400
total and we did use that andI'll talk about that here in a
second.
So adding all of those up, so$400 to Dell, let's also call it
$400 to clear, $200 to Hilton.
(15:49):
So that is let's see 400, forthat's $1,000.
And then the my original AmexPlatinum had a $250 off airfare
when you spend $2,500 or moredirect with an airline or in the
Amex portal.
So I bought our flights toThailand on that card, so that's
(16:13):
another $250.
So now we're at $1,250.
And then my second Amex BizPlatinum, as part of the signup
bonus, had $500 off $2,500 ormore of airfare, again booked
directly with an airline orthrough the Amex travel portal,
and I just utilized that creditthe other day.
(16:34):
So 1250 plus 500, that's 1750in total credits, and I think
(16:58):
that's not too shabby forroughly $1,400 in annual fees.
So, for this year, for our AmexBiz Platinums for both of them,
I feel great that we fullyoffset the annual fees for that
card.
Specifically, one of my AmexBiz Platts is coming up for
renewal and I probably am goingto close that one just so we
don't pay a second annual fee onthat one.
So I am likely going to closeone of those just as a heads up,
as kind of how I'm thinkingthrough it.
Going back really quickly to theDell credit, though, the way
(17:20):
that we utilize this for thishalf of the year is I bought a
Insta 360 Go camera 360 gocamera and I wanted I wanted to
specifically talk about thisbecause this I feel like this is
a gray area.
Okay, this is not normallysomething I would have purchased
(17:41):
.
It wasn't on my list.
Like, we have actually a goodamount of camera equipment, we
have a drone and we have anotherInsta 360 camera and a Canon,
and so I wasn't planning onbuying this.
Okay, but I had the credits,and again by credits I mean,
basically I have prepaid for a$400 Dell gift card, right,
(18:03):
that's kind of how these annualfees work and you can think of
them as like prepaying forthings.
So I used I split payment onthe Dell website as a side note
also went through the AmericanAirlines shopping portal because
we're getting that status rightso went through the AA shopping
portal and then went to Dellpurchase the camera, split the
(18:26):
payment into two cards.
So I did $200 on one card and260 or whatever was the balance
on the second card, and that wayI could utilize both credits at
the same time.
So out of pocket we paidroughly $60 for this $430 camera
Again, not something we wouldhave like purchased anyways, but
(18:52):
will we use it and will we getvalue out of having it?
Yes, I'm actually going to tryto see if our Yosemite and Lake
Tahoe episodes that are going tobe coming up in a couple weeks,
I'm going to see if I can putsome video to our audio for
YouTube using that camera.
(19:13):
So we're going to play aroundwith it on this upcoming trip.
So I am counting that in thevalue of the money that we're,
you know, getting towards theannual fees, because we did buy
it and we will use it.
So, but again, I do thinkthat's kind of a gray area
because not something I wouldhave purchased otherwise, but
pretty cool to have.
So there's that.
Do with that what you will.
(19:34):
The second card is.
So I'm going to talk about fourcards and they're all going to
be pretty hefty annual fee cards.
The second one is going to bethe American Express business
gold card.
So this has a $375 annual fee.
We only have one of these has a$375 annual fee.
We only have one of these andthe credits on this one are
(19:55):
pretty straightforward.
So it offers $20 a month atoffice supply stores and it also
offers a Walmart Plusmembership, kind of paid monthly
.
I think the reason it's paidmonthly is so that they can kind
of inflate the value of thecredit because obviously if you
pay it annually you are paying alittle bit less.
But whatever, whatever floatstheir boat.
(20:17):
So that's valued at $155 forWalmart Plus and again $20 a
month at office supply stores.
So that comes out to $240.
So $155 plus $240 equals $395.
And again the fee is $375.
The way that I utilize the $20 amonth at office supply stores
is I go to staplescom and I buya Target gift card.
(20:38):
I buy a $20 gift card.
It sends it to my email, I addit to my Target app and that
triggers the $20 credit and I'mdefinitely using that money at
Target.
And then Walmart Plus issomething that we paid for
before we ever got this card.
I do sometimes grocery deliveryor whatever, whatever delivery.
(20:59):
It's just nice to have themembership so that I don't have
to pay a fee for delivery,because a lot of times there are
things that we need like rightaway and I just don't have time
to go out and buy them.
So again, those two creditsalone fully offset that annual
fee.
And every month I just go intocard pointers look at my little
list I go buy my gift card andthe Walmart Plus is just
(21:24):
automatically set to charge thatcard and so it does the credit
on its own every single month.
So we're coming out 20 bucksahead on that card.
Again, I feel great about that.
The next one is a keeper cardfor me.
I would argue that the Amex BizGold is probably also a keeper
card because I find it very easyto use those two credits and it
(21:47):
more than offsets the annualfee for me.
So I guess let me interjecthere before we go on to the next
card.
When I think about utilizingthe Walmart Plus credit or the
$20 a month at Target kind of athing, I don't think of it as
free money, right, it's like Ihave paid this money, and I
think that sometimes people getkind of confused as like free
(22:08):
money, right, it's like I havepaid this money.
And I think that sometimespeople get kind of confused
thinking about it too.
Right, it's like I didn't get a$20 gift card to Target for
free, right, like I still paidthe money.
So it's kind of just likepaying Peter to I mean, robbing
Peter to pay Paul, is that thephrase?
So I'm just kind of I'm notreally earning money, although I
(22:31):
guess I'm earning $20 on thatcard, but I'm not losing money,
and that's my ultimate goal is Idon't want to lose money, right
?
Or if I am losing it, I want tolose very little.
Okay, hopefully that made sense.
So the next card is the ChaseSapphire Reserve.
This is again a keeper card forme.
I find it super easy to utilizethe credits without really
(22:52):
disrupting my life in any way.
It's always things that wewould buy normally anyways,
maybe just buying it from adifferent place than I would
normally buy it.
And so the Chase SapphireReserve has a $550 annual fee
and part of that is a $300travel credit that I find
incredibly easy to use becauseit automatically is applied to
your statement whenever,anything, whenever you buy
(23:14):
anything that codes as travel.
So, whether you're paying moneyat a hotel or airfare or
whatever, as long as it codes astravel, that $300 fee will be
applied.
You do not have to book throughany kind of a portal, which is
my favorite.
You know, kind of on that samenote, that Capital One Venture X
also has a $300 travel credit,but you have to book through the
Capital One portal and I reallystruggle to use that credit.
(23:37):
I still have not utilized itfor this year and I only have
until, I think, september.
So if you also struggle to usethat, maybe, first of all,
you're not alone, and if youhave used it easily, please
message me on Instagram and tellme how, because every time I
look up like a car rental orsomething, it's always way more
money and anyways, okay, Idigress.
(23:59):
Chase Sapphire Reserve comeswith a $300 travel credit Super
easy to use that with as much aswe travel.
It also comes with $20 a monthDoorDash like pickup credits, so
it's actually two $10 creditsthat you get with the reserve
card each month, and the waythat you utilize these is in the
(24:22):
DoorDash app.
You have to basically find aplace near you where you can
pick up, because if you dodelivery it totally offsets any
like, like any money thatthey're giving you.
So you do pick up.
That way you don't have to paydelivery fee or tip or anything,
and for us depends on the month.
But last month I ordered abunch of snacks to take to our
(24:45):
little staycation.
A lot of times I order bodyarmor sports drinks for my kids
to take to sports and it's likehuge bottles and I can usually
get like roughly six bottleswith the $20 credit.
And again they're really bigbottles, like I don't know 32
ounces or so, and so I feel likethat's a great use of it.
(25:06):
We just pop into a 7-Elevenright near us and we pick them
up.
It takes literally two secondsand again it's stuff that we
would buy anyways.
We're just buying it from adifferent place.
So that's $240 a year utilizingthat credit, and then again the
$300 travel credit, so rightaway we're at 540.
I mean, that's only $10 belowthe annual fee anyways.
(25:29):
But Chase also gives you a $5 amonth DoorDash credit, which is
different from the two, whichis different from the two $20
credits I just mentioned, andyou can utilize this one on like
delivery and it just kind oftakes the sting out of ordering
delivery for yourself.
I this is something I use everysingle month because I work
(25:54):
from home and some days I havemeetings just back to back to
back to back to back.
There's no time for me to leavethe house or do anything, and
so I will DoorDash likeChick-fil-A or something quick
to eat for lunch, and so this isnot me spending on DoorDash
Like when I wouldn't.
This is something that I do allthe time, anyways.
So when you add that in, thatactually puts us at that's
(26:16):
another $60.
So that puts us at a full, aflat $600 in credits for that
card alone, and so again we'reactually benefiting like 50
bucks.
So again, that's a keeper card.
The last one I want to talkabout is the Hilton Aspire card.
So I think that you could arguethat this card alone, the
(26:38):
annual fee, could be covered bythe free night certificate that
you get from holding it everysingle year from Hilton.
When I do a Google search.
A Hilton free night cert istypically valued at around
$1,000.
I'm going to value it at 500for my purposes and I'm not
going to include it like in mycalculations, if that makes
(27:01):
sense.
So it's, it's a bonus, but I'mnot actually going to even count
the 500.
So the annual fee for theHilton Amex Aspire card is $550.
And again, that includes theannual free night certificate
with Hilton.
That has currently no cap.
So they're very valuable.
It also gives you free diamondstatus.
It gives you a $400 resortcredit.
(27:23):
So, and the way that you canutilize that is $200 in the
first half of the year and $200in the second half.
It also gives you a $200 flightcredit and again, that's
quarterly, so it's it's actually$50 per quarter and then $100
on property credit with a Spirecard package.
I don't, quite frankly, don'teven know what that means and
(27:44):
I'm not using it.
It also has clear gives youEmerald Club executive status
with national and it has cellphone protection if you pay your
cell phone with it.
So of these credits, the onesthat we will use this year
specifically is the $400 resortcredit.
We've actually already used 200of it and we have another
(28:05):
Hilton stay coming up and I willmake sure that we utilize the
other 200.
And then the $200 flight credit.
So that alone, right, there is$600, right, it's $400 in resort
credits plus $600, or, I'msorry, plus $200 in flight
credits, and so that aloneoffsets the annual fee, and that
(28:25):
that doesn't even factor in thefree night certificate.
So again, we're coming outslightly ahead on this card.
The way that we utilize theflight credits is United Travel
Bank.
That is how I utilize anyflight credit on any credit card
.
The way that United Travel Bankworks is you essentially go
(28:46):
into your United account, youfind the United Travel Bank and
you fund it.
And so for this card, theHilton card, every quarter I
fund it with $50 and I pay withmy Hilton card.
Quarter I fund it with $50.
And I pay with my Hilton cardand then $50 goes into my United
(29:06):
Travel Bank.
A few days after thetransaction posts on my Amex
card.
Then they go ahead in and dothe $50 credit.
So again, it's not like freemoney to United, but it is like
pre paying for United flights.
So right now we have a littleover $800 in there, I think, and
I am either planning to usethat for, like a position, a
(29:27):
positioning flight in the futureor a trip to Yellowstone in the
next year or two.
So that is how we utilize allof our airline credits on any
cards and that hopefully kind ofgives you a rough idea of how
we are either like offsetting orcoming out ahead with annual
(29:49):
fees.
Now I do want to address thatthere are cards that we hold
that we are not offsetting theannual fees for.
So, for example, the ChaseUnited business card, that fee
just went up to $150.
Based on the list of benefits,like I don't know that we would
use any of them.
What's another one?
The city advantage businesscard?
(30:10):
We actually have three of thoseright now and they were each a
$99 annual fee.
We again are likely notutilizing any of the benefits to
offset that, like free checkedbags or anything.
I don't think we've flown onAmerican in the last year where
we would utilize that.
So there are also cards where weare not coming out ahead and I
(30:32):
want to be super transparentabout that.
And there are cards, like maybethe World of Hyatt business
card, where the annual fee is$199.
And you do get two $50 credits,one in the first half of the
year, one in the second half ofthe year at any Hyatt.
So that means when I put aHyatt charge on my business card
they credit me 50 bucks, soit's $199.
(30:56):
I'm getting $100 worth ofcredits.
So I'm coming out technically$99 in the hole.
But that card is instrumentalin earning globalist status for
me and so without that card itwould be much harder to have the
globalist status and I valuethe globalist status at a lot
more than $99.
So again, you have to look atyour specific situation and
(31:20):
evaluate what's what makes sensefor you.
So I'm going to tell you therough total of annual fees we're
paying versus credits.
I think we're redeeming here injust a minute.
But I did make a few assumptionsand I wanted to cover those
quickly.
So again, I did not include theHilton free night certificates
in my estimated value for theAspire card.
I do have a couple of hotelbranded cards.
(31:44):
So for the World of Hyattpersonal card, the annual fee on
that is $95.
And the you get a annualcategory one through four free
night certificate with everycalendar year.
So I have estimated that to bearound $200.
I am counting that $200 in myestimate that I'll go over here
(32:06):
in a minute.
Same thing with the IHG onerewards premier card.
That card has a $99 annual feeand again, I've estimated that
the annual free nightcertificate that you get with
that is worth around $200.
So I have calculated the twoyou know, that dollar value into
my credit, and I think it'sworth noting that we are
(32:28):
actually going to utilize theIHG free night this weekend and
the rate, the cash rate for thehotel room that we are staying
in, is $290.
So 200 is a very low estimate,but I like to just err on the
side of being a little bit lowerversus inflating it.
And then the other assumptionthat I made is for the Capital
(32:49):
One Venture X.
That obviously comes with a$300 travel credit and even
though I haven't utilized it yet, I plan to and I'm going to try
to.
So I have counted that creditplus you get 10,000 points for
holding the card annually and Ivalue that at $100.
So again, being a little bitcautious, but better that than
to over inflate.
(33:09):
And so I am valuing the CapitalOne Venture X at $400.
So those are kind of theassumptions that I made.
And so here's the totals.
So we will spend $5,505 inannual fees this year and again,
that's assuming we don't openany new cards, which we will,
but we're just working with whatwe have for now.
So $5,505 in annual fees and wewill redeem credits worth
(33:39):
$5,153.
So that's a delta of roughly$350.
In the negative Again, rememberI didn't count either of my
Hilton free night certificatesand we have two.
So I actually feel really goodabout that.
I feel great actually aboutpaying $350 total in annual fees
(34:00):
, like when you look at it on akind of a net net view.
So I am curious to know what youpay in annual fees and if you
are offsetting them the way thatwe are or kind of how you're
justifying it.
And I'm also curious if you'vebeen scared of annual fees, if
(34:21):
this episode has changed yourmind at all.
So come find me on Instagramand let me know.
We are at travel party of five.
I am.
I answer every message that Iget, so would love if you would
come over and say hello, hopethat this episode was helpful.
If you feel like I missedanything or have any kind of
feedback, again, instagram isthe best way to find us.
(34:41):
And if you have ever gotten anyvalue out of this podcast,
please, please, please leave arating or review, wherever you
listen.
We appreciate you so much.
Oh, and one more thing.
One more thing Sorry, hold thatthought Don't.
Don't click next If you arenewer to points and miles and
you are just wanting kind ofsome consultation advice like
(35:04):
what should, what cards should Iget in?
Or or if you have points andyou're like I just don't know
how to utilize these points andI want to go to London or I want
to go to Hawaii or I want to goto wherever, and you don't have
the time to dive deep into allthe Reddit threads and Facebook
groups.
I am opening up consultations,paid consultations with me,
(35:27):
where you get a full hour withme.
You'll fill out like a formbeforehand that tells me kind of
what points you currently have,where you want to go, when you
want to go, and I will give you,I will literally walk you
through exactly how I wouldthink about it.
I'll give like.
We'll record the session so youcan have it later and take
notes.
I'll give you kind of a followup plan after the fact of like.
(35:49):
This is if I were you, this ishow I would get to London or
wherever it is you want to go.
You let me know.
So there is a waitlist for thatright now and that should.
The waitlist should end in thenext few weeks and then you can
actually sign up if you'reinterested.
So if that is something that isinteresting to you and you're
newer and you just don't havethe time or want to take the
(36:10):
time to spend to figure all ofthis out, I will put the link to
that in the show notes as well,and I would love to chat with
you further.
Okay, that is it for now.
See you on the next episode andhope you have a great day.
Bye.
Popular Podcasts
Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club
Welcome to Bookmarked by Reese’s Book Club — the podcast where great stories, bold women, and irresistible conversations collide! Hosted by award-winning journalist Danielle Robay, each week new episodes balance thoughtful literary insight with the fervor of buzzy book trends, pop culture and more. Bookmarked brings together celebrities, tastemakers, influencers and authors from Reese's Book Club and beyond to share stories that transcend the page. Pull up a chair. You’re not just listening — you’re part of the conversation.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com