What do you consider to be a reasonable upper threshold, for a card with an annual fee?

[galahad15]

What do you consider to be a reasonable upper threshold, for a card with an annual fee?

For example, $39, $49, or $59?  Or anything higher?

[happypill]

Totally depends on the rewards that you get and how much you use it.  The Citi Prestige with $450 annual fee makes complete sense if you use the 4th night free once or twice a year.  High end perks like airport club access can be worth hundreds per year if you use them regularly.

[kdm31091]

It is hard to answer this because some people don't spend enough to really justify most of the AF cards. Others spend enough that they can justify $450. It depends on your spend level, what you spend on (typically AF cards benefit travel related spend), etc.

For me personally, I haven't found an AF card that I could justify the fee on with my spend/what I spend. Most AF cards are geared for travel benefits. Even the  Cap One Venture, yes it rewards 2% on all purchases, but only if you deduct against travel. Same with the Arrival+, etc.

[Anonymous]

Depends on whether you can justify the fee.

The $450 fee on my AmEx platinum is fine for me. I used to have one in the UK, and use SPG a lot and the Gold membership with it is great. Also the Priority Pass is pretty good.

The Global Traveler fee refund and the $200 airline incidentals refund will be well used by me. The yearly fee drops from $450 to $250 after the airline refund.

I also got a 100k bonus which equates to $1000, or if transfered to BA Avios when there is the 40% transfer bonus it makes 140k avios points. If used wisely you can get 5-7 cents per mile.

So that equates to $7000-9800 in flights. So at worst the bonus covers 4 years of fees or it could cover 28-39 years of fees.

It really depends on what the purpose is. I traveled a lot before coming to the USA, roughly 6/7 international return flights a year. And I probably will start again once my baby is a bit older. The AmEx platinum will work amazingly for me.

I even use it to pay for everything apart from my credit cards/loans/mortgage.