What is The Total Annual Fee for all your Cards?

[Anonymous]

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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Indeed. Although when you book through propel travel portal, its 1.5cpp (with visa signature), or 1.6 cpp if you book on an airline with whom you are a loyalty program member. Thats a pretty decent value for people who mostly fly domestic.

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I didn't know about the 1.6cpp.  So any airline where you supply a frequent flier number?

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I have Propel and I don't book through their site. Prices are bloated. Better off going through Priceline with cash redemption.

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But with the Visa Sig I assume it would be worth using the portal (or are prices bloated at 50%)?

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I'm thinking that the Chase portal through Priceline is not bloated and is worth 4.5% linking with another Chase card. As for WF other than the Amex, not sure if it's the same WF portal or not.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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Indeed. Although when you book through propel travel portal, its 1.5cpp (with visa signature), or 1.6 cpp if you book on an airline with whom you are a loyalty program member. Thats a pretty decent value for people who mostly fly domestic.

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I didn't know about the 1.6cpp.  So any airline where you supply a frequent flier number?

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I have Propel and I don't book through their site. Prices are bloated. Better off going through Priceline with cash redemption.

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Not really, I booked 2 trips so far, their prices was the same as places like priceline, travelocity, kayak, and was the same as airline websites. I think their whole search engine is backed by one of those travel site.

If you were talking about PL's express deal, yes it can be great at times. But understand that has lot of limitations and don't always work out in customer's favor.

I had 4 trips booked with UR as well, even though there were post years back claiming UR travel price is inflated, my booking didn't support that.

Now, for some international trips I am planning, I did see some difference between UR, WF, and airline prices, I haven't done detailed checkup to figure out everything yet.

Its always a good habit to check and compare before booking, however you are planning to pay.

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I will look again the next trip I'm going to book (in about 2 weeks), and compare WF and Priceline, etc. Maybe there won't be any difference. But the last time I compared, there was.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

$95 for my Amex Everyday Preferred though I will be downgrading it.

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@sladesurfer wrote:

Just wondering how much annual fee each members pay? Mine Is $735 (4 credit cards) When do you say enough?

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Honestly I would say when enough becomes enough is when the annual fee or annual fees exceed 1% of your take home pay in a year.  So if you clear 60K a year after taxes than yeah if you want the platinum go for it but I wouldn't get the platinum and CSR both because that would exceed 1% of your take home pay.  Everyone can talk about how much "postitive value" they get out of their annual fee credit cards but unless you are able to due a complete tax write off of your annual fees or your job reimburses you for the annual fee/s at the end of the year you are still spending money on the annual fees which you are not truly getting back i.e. Amex is not going to mail you a check for $550 at the end of the year because your such an awesome platinum card holder.  

So as far whatever my $.02 are worth I wouldn't ever go above spending more than 1% of my take home pay on annual fees regardless of whatever percieved "positive value" I might be getting from them.  

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The proper way to analyze is to take the total rewards minus the AF and compare the BCE with the same charges over a year and see if the preferred minus the AF is higher than the BCE. If it is, you keep the card and pay the AF. if not, downgrade. 

This assumes that any other benefits of the preferred card mean nothing to you, including any prestige in carrying the preferred card over the standard card. 

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Okay this has almost nothing to do with the gist of what I was getting at in my post but I'll use the same logic I did earlier.  If you have $95 annual fee card like the BCP for example and compare it to the BCE and you are getting more benefit out of it then the non annual fee card then cool keep it.  However, in my post I was talking about credit card annual fees should not exceed 1% of your yearly take home pay after taxes.  So using your BCP vs BCE example if you are clearing less than $9,500 a year than no you shouldn't be getting the BCP card. 

In reality people can throw up spread sheets and everything else but if your taking home 45k a year after taxes you shouldn't be spending 2k a year in annual fees on credit cards.  As a rule of thumb unless you are able to write of the annual fee/s on taxes or your job reimburses you for the annual fees on your credit cards you shouldn't be spending more then 1% of your after tax yearly pay on annual fees.  If you want more credit cards that also have annual fees that will push your total annual fee amount to over 1% of your yearly net pay than the solution is simple.  Figure out a way to make more money so the annual fees won't exceed 1% of your take home pay each year.   

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But if your spend can handle another credit card with an AF at your income which will make you more money than a similar card with no AF, I'd say go for it as you'll have more money in your pocket paying the AF. 

Of course,  at any income level, you'll run out of spend capability and at that point taking on another card with an AF but without enough spend makes no sense.

[JNA1]

$0 at the moment, but most likely going going to get AMEX BCP soon at $95.

[Loquat]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

$95 for my Amex Everyday Preferred though I will be downgrading it.

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@sladesurfer wrote:

Just wondering how much annual fee each members pay? Mine Is $735 (4 credit cards) When do you say enough?

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Honestly I would say when enough becomes enough is when the annual fee or annual fees exceed 1% of your take home pay in a year.  So if you clear 60K a year after taxes than yeah if you want the platinum go for it but I wouldn't get the platinum and CSR both because that would exceed 1% of your take home pay.  Everyone can talk about how much "postitive value" they get out of their annual fee credit cards but unless you are able to due a complete tax write off of your annual fees or your job reimburses you for the annual fee/s at the end of the year you are still spending money on the annual fees which you are not truly getting back i.e. Amex is not going to mail you a check for $550 at the end of the year because your such an awesome platinum card holder.  

So as far whatever my $.02 are worth I wouldn't ever go above spending more than 1% of my take home pay on annual fees regardless of whatever percieved "positive value" I might be getting from them.  

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The proper way to analyze is to take the total rewards minus the AF and compare the BCE with the same charges over a year and see if the preferred minus the AF is higher than the BCE. If it is, you keep the card and pay the AF. if not, downgrade. 

This assumes that any other benefits of the preferred card mean nothing to you, including any prestige in carrying the preferred card over the standard card. 

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Okay this has almost nothing to do with the gist of what I was getting at in my post but I'll use the same logic I did earlier.  If you have $95 annual fee card like the BCP for example and compare it to the BCE and you are getting more benefit out of it then the non annual fee card then cool keep it.  However, in my post I was talking about credit card annual fees should not exceed 1% of your yearly take home pay after taxes.  So using your BCP vs BCE example if you are clearing less than $9,500 a year than no you shouldn't be getting the BCP card. 

In reality people can throw up spread sheets and everything else but if your taking home 45k a year after taxes you shouldn't be spending 2k a year in annual fees on credit cards.  As a rule of thumb unless you are able to write of the annual fee/s on taxes or your job reimburses you for the annual fees on your credit cards you shouldn't be spending more then 1% of your after tax yearly pay on annual fees.  If you want more credit cards that also have annual fees that will push your total annual fee amount to over 1% of your yearly net pay than the solution is simple.  Figure out a way to make more money so the annual fees won't exceed 1% of your take home pay each year.   

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@Anonymous  People should be doing whatever they want to.  As long as they're not stealing to justify then kudos to them and carry on I say.    Sure this logic may work for you but certainly not for everyone.  As far as what one pays in annual fees vs how much they take home isn't a care of mine.  

[Aim_High]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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Might make a lot of sense if you travel a lot. I don't travel a lot usually,  3 flights a year, so travel cards with AFs won't pay for themselves. 

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I was kind of in the same boat about travel.  In general, the premium travel cards tend to most benefit frequent fliers.  However, travel does not always equal flights.  I would suggest you look again at CSR.  For some of us, getting good earnings from a travel card is not about maximizing the total earnings by transferring to airline partners on international business-class seats.  It's more about getting good value for travel at a higher rate than we would a straight cash-back card, sometimes with some premium benefits to boot.   One reason I picked the CSR over other high-fee travel cards is the flexibility it gives me for a much more broad range of travel, value never less than 1 ccp URs, and awesome travel protections that rival if not beat all the other premium cards.   I also dine out a lot which fits well with the rewards.  For me, the easy-to-use travel offsets, the 50% bump in redemption for travel, and the trifecta/quadfecta which earns me anywhere from 2.25% to 7.5% in value on everything I buy all combine for a powerful travel program that is much more accessible to the masses who are not frequent fliers.

[Aim_High]

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@Anonymous wrote:

$0 however I am newer to credit cards so I expect this to increase

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Welcome to My Fico Forums! 

Before you commit to AF cards, make sure you research them and that they make sense for your situation.  Some people are better off without any.  Others can benefits from a limited number while frequent business travelers may be able to justify a lot!  Don't just get them because you see others applying on the forum, as their situations may be quite different.  See what value you'll get back directly in credits and then make a list of the benefits and see if they are worth the remaining fee.  Sometimes, it's an easy call and you will see you will be well ahead of where you'd be without the card.  Other times, it's closer. 

[Aim_High]

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@acciofirebolt wrote:

My parents are against paying annual fees but they're happy to be added as AU on my cards so they can take advanatge of perks 🤷🏻‍♀️

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  Too Funny!!

Maybe they will come around to the idea. 

[Aim_High]

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:  "As a rule of thumb unless you are able to write of the annual fee/s on taxes or your job reimburses you for the annual fees on your credit cards you shouldn't be spending more then 1% of your after tax yearly pay on annual fees."

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"This seems a very arbitrary threshold to me.    ... the details are very card dependent and spend/situation dependent.

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+1 

Saying 1% of income as a rule-of-thumb is a completely arbitrary number.

You're ignoring many variables among budgets, lifestyles, and circumstances.

And what does the tax write-off or employer reimbursement have to do with it?  

Nothing, but especially if you're already recouping 100% or even more of those fees in direct value.

Sometimes, the AFs are "paid-for" by not having to pay directly later for things we would be buying anyway, such as hotel rooms or offsets for airline fees.  As long as we aren't spending additional money just because of the card, all we're doing is "prepaying" some expenses with the fee.

Other times, the AFs are adding to our quality-of-life or peace-of-mind.  Now we're getting into discretionary income, which is widely variable.  If my debt is low and my discretionary income is high, maybe I want to spend my money on card AFs for perks that may not be easily valued in a spreadsheet calculation.  But it's my money, and if I can afford to spend it that way, I shouldn't use someone else's arbitrary 1% rule. 

Using a percentage of income as a guide to how much in credit card AFs one should be paying is a poor marker.  It just depends and it is a personal decision.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I consider getting travel at a lower cost from a specific card in the equation. If I can get a week's stay at $300 less using points, that in my mind would go into the money saved bucket as would the cash back from a cash card. 

I looked at the revamped Amex gold card for dining at 4%, and with the $10/month vouchers (I eat out at the cheesecake factory a lot) I still could not justify the AF for it, even with the other benefits (I have the Savor at 4% without the AF). There are some better things with other cards,  but not enough to make me switch. 

I continually look at AF cards and evaluate them, and maybe one day I'll pull the trigger on a CSR or another card.