Annual Fees on cards!!

[nishant1]

My pass/ fail criteria for whether to continue a card with Annual fee after sign up promotional year is over is very simple.

The incremental rewards  from Annual fee credit card should atleast be equal to 133% annual fee. If  I get $80 incremental rewards from a credit card for $75 AF, I would not continue it for a mere $5 per year benefit.

For example, Amex BCP gives additional 3% compared to BCE on groceries. I spend $500 on groceries so  I get additional $15 per month over BCE out of which I pay $6.25 for AF. Still a net additional reward of over $100 per year. I will continue with BCP then.

[bs6054]

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@nishant1 wrote:

My pass/ fail criteria for whether to continue a card with Annual fee after sign up promotional year is over is very simple.

The incremental rewards  from Annual fee credit card should atleast be equal to 133% annual fee. If  I get $80 incremental rewards from a credit card for $75 AF, I would not continue it for a mere $5 per year benefit.

For example, Amex BCP gives additional 3% compared to BCE on groceries. I spend $500 on groceries so  I get additional $15 per month over BCE out of which I pay $6.25 for AF. Still a net additional reward of over $100 per year. I will continue with BCP then.

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Interesting!  How did you arrive at that?

I can see such a rule about APPLYING for new cards, where there is a time factor, plus any concerns about HPs impacting future credit.  A renewal though usually takes no effort, less than cancelling the card, and certainly has the same or less impact on score.   So I guess my rule would be two parts:

1) Are benefits > AF?

2) Is this the best use of the money that makes up the AF

1.33 seems a high factor to me!

[BearOSO]

I do not think to hard on AF; too stingy, this is how I justify AF.

I spend money on a lot of stupid things on a weekly or monthly basis therefore AF is justified. 

[bs6054]

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@BearOSO wrote:

I do not think to hard on AF; too stingy, this is how I justify AF.

I spend money on a lot of stupid things on a weekly or monthly basis therefore AF is justified. 

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Great!

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Thanks

[Open123]

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@bs6054 wrote:

 For an additional fee of just $50, we can expedite this!

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For me, this is a deal breaker.

Amex overnight cards to me free or charge!

[bs6054]

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@Open123 wrote:

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@bs6054 wrote:

 For an additional fee of just $50, we can expedite this!

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For me, this is a deal breaker.

Amex overnight cards to me free or charge!

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Well, I wish we could, but the expenses involved in rushing "not sending a card" are much greater than simply overnighting a card