Which Premium Cards are Keepers?

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Ultra-premium credit cards often have great perks like lounge access, elite status accelerators, free nights, companion tickets, etc.  The problem is that the annual fees, which can be as high as $695, can be overwhelming.  All of these pricey cards are worth getting for their initial welcome bonuses, but they can be very expensive to keep… especially if you have more than one.  How can you decide which are worth keeping?

Since last publication, the spreadsheet linked within this post has been updated to version 9 where I added all of the changes to Delta credit cards that were described in the post “Big changes to Delta Gold, Platinum, and Reserve cards.” In the previous revision, version 8, I added Venture X Business; updated Amex Business Gold; updated Hilton Aspire; added Hilton Surpass; updated Platinum and Delta cards with Sky Club and SkyMiles changes; and made miscellaneous small updates to many card benefits.

a man with his chin on his hand

The premium card worksheet

In order to help identify which cards to keep or cancel, I created a Google Doc spreadsheet with tabs for each of the most popular ultra-premium rewards cards (and a handful of popular premium cards). On each tab you can enter your estimated value for each perk and then return to the summary tab to see which cards are keepers.

–> Click here to open and copy the spreadsheet into your own Google account

The rest of this post goes into detail about how I recommend using this worksheet, but here are some quick tips for those who don’t plan to read the rest (I get it: even though there’s some really good stuff below, you’ve got other things to do):

  1. Don’t double-count overlapping perks! For example, assign value to Priority Pass only to the card that you’re most likely to keep.
  2. Value perks based on how much you’d be willing to pre-pay if it was available as a subscription. Don’t estimate based on how much you’re likely to save.
  3. If your total value of perks equals or exceeds a card’s annual fee, then its a keeper.

Background

To make up for big fees, issuers (especially Amex) have been adding “sponsored perks” where you can get rebates from spend with specific vendors (Equinox, Peloton, New York Times, DoorDash, Dell, Saks Fifth Avenue, etc.). On paper, it looks like you can get back more money than the annual fee for these cards. And you can, if you would actually pay for these products and services anyway. The reality, though, is different. Take the Business Platinum Dell credits, for example. Each year, January through end of June and again July through end of December, you can get $200 back from Dell purchases, for a total of $400 back. If you regularly buy $200 or more from Dell, both early in the year and late in the year, then the rebate really can be thought of as being worth nearly its face value. But, if you find yourself scrambling twice per year to figure out what to buy, the rebate should be worth considerably less to you. In my case, since Dell rarely has in-stock XBox gift cards anymore (which can be used for anything in the Microsoft Store), I value these Dell rebates at only half of face value. It’s nice to get free software, microphones, earbuds, chargers, cables, and other gadgets twice per year, but not face-value nice.

When it comes time to pay the annual renewal fee on each of your premium cards, it makes sense to evaluate whether or not the card’s perks and rebates are at least as valuable as the card’s annual fee. If the answer is “no”, then I recommend calling to cancel the card. If the card issuer offers a great retention bonus, great — keep the card for another year. If not, go ahead and cancel or, better yet, product change to a fee-free card if possible (note that Amex Platinum cards do not have a product change path to a free card). Before cancelling, though, please take a look at our checklist for cancelling credit cards to avoid losing points and other rewards.

How to estimate value

When you pay a credit card’s annual fee, you are essentially pre-paying for a year of perks that this card offers. The best way to determine what these perks are worth to you is to decide for each one, how much you’d be willing to pay if it was available independently as an annual subscription. Consider the Amex Business Platinum card’s wireless cell phone credits, for example. The Business Platinum card offers up to $10 back per month when you use your card to pay your cell phone bill. On the surface, that sounds like an easy $120 back per year for most of us. But you shouldn’t value it at the full $120. Imagine if your phone company sold a benefit like this separately: What would you pay annually to AT&T (for example) to save $10 per month off your bill? You wouldn’t pay $120, would you? It wouldn’t make any sense to pay $120 up front for a total of $120 in savings spread out through the year. Instead, you might pay $100 (for example) for a $120 in savings.

Other examples:

  • Chase Sapphire Reserve $300 Travel Credits: This is a really easy credit to earn since all travel purchases count. But how much would you pay in advance to get $300 back? Keep in mind, too, that the Sapphire Reserve doesn’t give you points for that $300 in spend. That’s almost $15 in rewards lost to that spend. I’d argue that you shouldn’t value this perk at more than $285 and it would be reasonable to value it less.
  • Amex Platinum $200 Prepaid Hotel Credit: Consumer Platinum cards offer $200 back per calendar year towards prepaid Fine Hotels & Resorts or The Hotel Collection bookings. That’s great, but how much would you pre-pay for this rebate? Keep in mind that unless you habitually book through Fine Hotels & Resorts or The Hotel Collection, you might end up not using this perk at all. Personally, I wouldn’t value this at more than $100 per year.
  • Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant 85K free night certificate: You might save $500, $700, $900 or more off a hotel night when you use this certificate, but there’s no way you should pay that much in advance. The only reason to pay in advance for a free night certificate (especially one that expires after a year) is if you expect to get way more value than you paid. So, for example, you might be willing to pre-pay $300 for the chance of saving $500 or more.

Overlapping perks

One and done perks

There are many valuable perks that have no incremental value if you have the same perk from multiple cards. For example, getting Hilton Gold status from one credit card is great, but getting it from a second card has no incremental value. Here are some more examples where you might value a perk from one card, but having on multiple cards doesn’t make it any more valuable:

  • Free checked bags
  • Elite status with a specific hotel, airline, or car rental service
  • Lounge access to a specific type of lounge

Diminishing return perks

Some perks have diminishing value with each extra card that offers the perk. For example, each of the Amex Platinum consumer cards (the regular consumer Platinum card, and the one’s from Schwab and Morgan Stanley) offer $240 per year in Digital Entertainment Credits: Up to $20 per month rebate for select digital entertainment services (Disney+, The Disney Bundle, ESPN+, Hulu, Peacock, SiriusXM, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal). In my case, I subscribed to the New York Times e-edition anyway, and so value this perk on my generic Platinum card pretty highly. I pay about $17 per month, or $204 per year and so I value these savings at about $180 (i.e. I would be willing to prepay $180 for those savings). But I also have the Schwab Platinum card which I have used to subscribe to Peacock Premium for $11.99 per month. I wouldn’t pay for Peacock Premium without the rebate, though, so here I value the perk at only about $25.

How to value overlapping perks

The trick to doing this right is to first figure out which of your cards are the most likely “keepers” and assign perk values to those cards first. Then go to your next most likely to keep cards, and only assign incremental value (if any) to perks that overlap with your keeper cards. And repeat with the next most likely to keep cards, and so on.

If you have a bunch of premium cards, this is not easy! For example, many premium cards offer Priority Pass memberships. If you have more than one, then it’s a good idea to figure out which card is the most likely “keeper”, but keep in mind that the value of Priority Pass varies by card. Priority Pass from Amex or from the Venture X card doesn’t include free meals at Priority Pass restaurants. And, with other cards, details vary about how many guests you can bring in and what it would cost (if anything) to add authorized users with their own Priority Pass membership. One of the best options overall is with the Chase Ritz card which offers Priority Pass with unlimited guests, and free authorized users, each of which can get their own Priority Pass with unlimited guests. But the Ritz card isn’t easy to get (you have to start with a Chase Marriott consumer card and upgrade) and its perks aren’t ideal for everyone. Still, if you have the card and highly value its key benefits like the $300 incidental travel rebate and 85K free night certificate, it makes sense for this to be your first-in-line keeper card. Estimate the value of Priority Pass on that card, but not on any others. If the Ritz card isn’t for you, a good alternative is Capital One’s Venture X card which also offers Priority Pass to your free authorized users (but this version of Priority Pass doesn’t include restaurants or experiences). Having a single “keeper” card with Priority Pass solves another problem: you’ll never have to wonder which of your many Priority Pass cards is the right one to use at any given time. Get the one that comes with your keeper card and never request another.

A real-ish example

I used to show my own spreadsheet here, but my situation has become too complicated to explain in a single post. Many of the cards I have are keepers just because writing and talking about credit cards is my career. I wouldn’t have as many cards otherwise. So, instead, I created a spreadsheet for a friend. She currently has the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, the Chase Freedom Unlimited card, Amex Gold Card, and a Delta SkyMiles Platinum card. She also currently has Delta Platinum Medallion Elite status and values that highly. She is also thinking about upgrading her Delta Platinum card to a Reserve card in order to get Sky Club access and to get a better way of earning Medallion Qualifying Dollars towards elite status through credit card spend. She has a job where she is reimbursed for travel that she pays for herself and so she believes that it would be very easy for her to use the new Delta Stays hotel credits available through Delta cards.

For this exercise, I filled out the spreadsheet on my friend’s behalf as if I were her and imagined her valuations for each card perk…

Chase Sapphire Reserve

Card Offer and Details
65K Points ⓘ Affiliate
65K after $4K spend in 3 months
$550 Annual Fee
Recent better offer: Expired 12/1/22: 80K after $4K spend
FM Mini Review: Excellent all-around card for frequent traveler. Best when paired with no-fee Chase Freedom Flex, no-fee Freedom Unlimited & no-fee Chase Ink Cash Click here for our complete card review
Earning rate: 10X hotels & car rentals booked through Chase ✦ 10X Chase Dining ✦ 5X flights booked through Chase ✦ 3X Travel and Dining ✦ 10X Lyft (through March 2025)
Base: 1X (1.5%)
Travel: 10X (15%)
Dine: 3X (4.5%)
Other: 10X (15%)
Card Info: Visa Infinite issued by Chase. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees.
Noteworthy perks: $300 Annual Travel Credit ✦ Points worth 1.5 cents each towards travel when booked through the Chase Travel(SM) Portal✦ Transfer points to airline & hotel partners ✦ Primary auto rental collision damage waiver ✦ Priority Pass Select lounge access ✦ Up to $100 Global Entry fee credit ✦ $5 monthly DoorDash in-app credit through December 2024 ✦ Free DashPass through 2025 ✦ Earn 10X on Lyft spend✦ Free Lyft Pink All Access Memberhsip through December 2024 ✦ $15 monthly Instacart credit ✦ 12 months free Instacart+

My friend’s (made-up) valuations for the Sapphire Reserve benefits total just a bit over the card’s annual fee. She should keep this card.

Amex Gold Card

Card Offer and Details
75K Points + 20% back at restaurants ⓘ Non-Affiliate
75K points after $6K in purchases in the first 6 months + 20% back at restaurants for the first 12 months up to $250 back. Terms apply. (Rates & Fees)
$250 Annual Fee
Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy.
Recent better offer: 90K after $6K in the first 6 months + 20% back at restaurants for the first 12 months up to $250 back [Expired 6/8/22]
FM Mini Review: This card offers an awesome return on US supermarket and worldwide dining spend, putting it at or near the top-of-class in both categories. Dining credits and Uber / Uber Eats credits go a long way towards reducing the sting of this card's annual fee.
Earning rate: 3X points for flights booked with airlines or on amextravel.com ✦ 4x points at US Supermarkets (up to $25K in purchases, then 1x) ✦ 4x at restaurants worldwide ✦ 1X points on other purchases. Terms apply. (Rates & Fees)
Base: 1X (1.55%)
Travel: 3X (4.65%)
Dine: 4X (6.2%)
Grocery: 4X (6.2%)
Card Info: Amex Pay Over Time Card issued by Amex. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees.
Noteworthy perks: Up to $10 in statement credits monthly with participating dining partners (Goldbelly, Wine.com, Milk Bar, Shake Shack, Seamless/Grubhub, Cheesecake Factory) ✦ $10 monthly Uber or Uber Eats credit (use it or lose it each month) ✦ $100 hotel credit on qualifying charges on stays of 2 nights or longer, plus a room upgrade upon arrival, if available with The Hotel Collection at americanexpress.com/hc ✦ Enrollment required for select benefits.

It turns out that my friend doesn’t value the Gold card perks as high as the annual fee and so she should call to cancel when the annual fee next hits. If she gets a great retention offer, great, she can keep the card another year. If not, she should make sure she has another card that earns Membership Rewards so that she won’t lose her points.

Delta SkyMiles Platinum Card

Card Offer and Details
50K miles ⓘ Affiliate
50K miles after $3K spend in 6 months. Terms apply. (Rates & Fees)
$350 Annual Fee
FM Mini Review: Good choice for frequent Delta flyers who can make use of annual companion certificate
Earning rate: 3X Delta ✦ 3X purchases made directly with hotels ✦ 2X restaurants ✦ 2X US Supermarkets
Base: 1X (1.3%)
Travel: 3X (3.9%)
Dine: 2X (2.6%)
Grocery: 2X (2.6%)
Brand: 3X (3.9%)
Card Info: Amex Credit Card issued by Amex. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees.
Big spend bonus: Earn 1 Medallion Qualifying Dollar (MQD) per $20 spent
Noteworthy perks: 15% off when using miles to book an award flight (Delta metal only) ✦ Annual $2,500 MQD Headstart ✦ Domestic, Caribbean, or Central American economy companion certificate (subject to taxes & fees) each year upon card renewal ✦ Earn up to $150 as a statement credit each year after booking prepaid hotels or vacation rentals with your Card through Delta Stays on delta.com/stays ✦ Up to $10 per month in statement credits for purchases with select rideshare service providers [enrollment required] ✦ Up to $10 per month in statement credits on eligible purchases with U.S. Resy restaurants ✦ Priority boarding ✦ First checked bag free on Delta flights ✦ Complimentary Upgrade list: get added to the complimentary upgrade list after Delta elite members and Reserve cardmembers (ticket must be purchases on or after 2/1/24 to receive this benefit) ✦ Cell phone protection ✦ Terms and Limitations Apply. (Rates & Fees)

Mostly due to the fact that my friend highly values Delta elite status and that this card offers a $2,500 MQD Headstart, it’s a clear winner. That said, she may do even better with the Delta Reserve card and so I filled that out on her behalf too…

Delta Reserve Card

Card Offer and Details
60K Miles ⓘ Affiliate
60K miles after $5K spend in first 6 months. Terms apply. (Rates & Fees)
$650 Annual Fee
FM Mini Review: Excellent choice for frequent Delta flyers who can make use of SkyClub access and companion certificate. Also a good choice for big spenders seeking Delta elite status.
Earning rate: 3X Delta
Base: 1X (1.3%)
Brand: 3X (3.9%)
Card Info: Amex Credit Card issued by Amex. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees.
Big spend bonus: Earn 1 Medallion Qualifying Dollar (MQD) per $10 spent
Noteworthy perks: 15% off when using miles to book an award flight (Delta metal only) ✦ Annual $2,500 MQD Headstart ✦ Domestic, Caribbean, or Central American economy or first class companion certificate (subject to taxes & fees) after card renewal ✦ SkyClub access (starting 2/1/25, 15 visits per year (after 15 visits have been used, additional visits can be purchased for $50 each) or earn unlimited visits after spending $75K/calendar year on the card ✦ 4 Delta SkyClub one-time guest passes ✦ Centurion Lounge access when flying Delta ✦ Earn up to $200 as a statement credit each year after booking prepaid hotels or vacation rentals with your Card through Delta Stays on delta.com/stays ✦ Up to $20 per month in statement credits on eligible purchases with U.S. Resy restaurants ✦ Up to $10 per month in statement credits for purchases with select rideshare service providers [enrollment required] ✦ Complimentary upgrades ✦ One statement credit every 4 years for the $100 Global Entry application fee or one statement credit every 4.5 years for the $85 TSA Precheck application fee ✦ Priority boarding ✦ First checked bag free on Delta flights. ✦ Hertz President's Circle Status ✦ Terms and limitations apply. (Rates & Fees)

The Delta Reserve card has even more upside in this example than the Delta Platinum card. My friend would get Sky Club access and the ability to earn a reasonable number of MQDs through spend. She should apply for a Reserve card (that’s better than upgrading because she’d be able to earn a welcome bonus) and then either keep or cancel her Delta Platinum card. An advantage to keeping it is that the MQD Headstarts are additive so she could get even more of a boost towards elite status. If she thinks that she can make good use of two companion tickets each year then this would be a good strategy.

An even better strategy for my friend would be to look into getting Delta business cards. They have the same annual fees and perks as their consumer counterparts but come with even more hotel credits. To keep things simple for this exercise, though, I made the assumption that she is not comfortable applying for business cards.

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