Annual fees are getting more expensive, and it can feel like quite an investment to keep every rewards card. Luckily, Greg’s developed a worksheet which you can access and use to help determine when a card is worth its annual fee, based on how you actually value the different perks.
How to decide which premium cards are keepers
(00:33) –Find our worksheet for valuing premium cards here.
(01:17) – Using the link in that post, you’ll make a copy of our worksheet in your own Google account
(01:27) – Our worksheet is designed to tell you if your spreadsheet version is out of date and needs to be recopied
(01:54) – By clicking “summary”, you should see a list of all the available cards within the worksheet
(03:23) – Click the card you want to view from the summary tab to investigate a specific card, then you can click the prompt to return to the summary tab for a view of all the included cards again
(04:33) – You can begin to enter perk values, but instead of asking yourself how much each perk or certificate is worth, ask yourself how much you would pay in advance for a subscription to that perk. Do this for each perk or benefit individually. The amount you assign should be less than the amount you’ll save and no more than other ways to get the same perk. Greg’s included his own estimated value, but you should edit this to your own value.
(08:50) – You can enter notes and your own values into the green column of the spreadsheet, entering the amount you would be willing to pay for the perk
(11:30) – You’ll be able to see the total value for the perks you’ve assigned an amount to. You can compare this to the annual fee to assess whether or not the value is enough to justify that amount (by at least matching it)
(15:43) – The notes you enter will show up in the summary tab as well as your assigned value
Subscribe and Follow
Visit https://frequentmiler.com/subscribe/ to get updated on in-depth points and miles content like this, and don’t forget to like and follow us on social media.
Music Credit – “Ocean Deep” by Annie Yoder
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
If anyone was wondering what cards had the highest value/annual fee ratio for Greg’s made up numbers, they are the Citi Strata Premier, Delta Reserve Amex (personal & business), Delta Platinum Amex (personal & business), United Business, AA Executive Card, Hilton Surpass and Bonvoy Boundless
I can save everyone some hassle and math. None of the premium cards are worth it if the annual fee is over $95 because of the time, hassle, and headache involved in tracking and redeeming the coupon books.
For the Amex Platinum, the Uber credit just happens. The digital entertainment credit just happens. The Clear credit just happens. That’s $700 without doing anything. Then, going out to dinner once a calendar quarter adds $400 for a total of $1100. Exactly what is so (stinkin’) hard? Then, add a one-night hotel booking semi-annually, which gives you $300 off plus breakfast for two plus $100 property credit — call it 2 * $450 = $900. I ask again, exactly what is so (stinkin’) hard?
Plus lounge access.
Are you holding out for a pony?
PS
For the Bilt Palladium, the points boost coupon affords up to 25k extra points per year. Those points alone, with no transfer bonus, are worth $600 to me. Once a month, I clip the Lyft credit — big deal — $120. With virtually zero effort, the annual fee is more than covered. Anyone who says the Bilt card is too complex is making it complex of their own accord.
By the way, for some, the credit for extra Priority Pass guests is golden.
Would also be nice to add into worksheet UBS card to bank cards and IHG cards to hotel cards. Thanks