@MrDisco99 wrote:
So the BCP doesn't really fit what I was saying. That's a cash back card. I can spend that reward on whatever I want, and if I spend enough on groceries to make up for the annual fee, then the card is objectively worth it. I would totally get a BCP if I knew for sure that I would spend more than $300ish per month on groceries. That's just math.
SkyMiles card benefits are a little harder to quantify. Sure lounge access costs over $450. But if I wouldn't have paid for it anyway, then giving it to me for free isn't really the same as giving me $450 or however much it costs. Same with the companion pass. If I don't plan to take anyone with me, or if I was planning to use miles to pay for all my flights, then the companion pass is worthless. I've flown a lot in my lifetime, but the last time I actually bought a plane ticket with my own money was 4 years ago. I've never paid a baggage fee or for onboard snacks. Getting $100 in airline incidentals from my PRG card is not worth $100 to me. I'd rather keep the money than spend it on something I normally wouldn't have bought. In my case, I used it on gift cards that I'll use on some future flight I haven't planned yet, just so I wouldn't leave the money on the table. That's an inconvenience to me, and is the primary reason why I will cancel the card after the first year is up.
And that's just on the almost-but-not-quite-premium cards. It's worse with Plat. I have no use for $200 travel incidentals per year, so that's not compensating value for the whopping $550 fee. I also don't use Uber so that credit is useless to me, as well. Status at hotels doesn't mean anything to me. I've never set foot in an airport lounge, so I don't value that perk very much. For some people ithe perks are great and the card is totally worth it. For me, it's not. As for the CSR, at least its $300 credit is broad enough that I could potentially get real value from it. But if I have to adjust my spending habits to get a perk, there's an opportunity cost for that money that I otherwise would have spent on something else or saved instead.
So yeah... premium cards have incentives to get you to spend your money a certain way. I'd rather tell my card where to put my money than have the card tell me. If we agree anyway then that's great. But if we don't, then I'm not applying.
You said you have to spend lots of money on a card to outweigh the annual fee.
Spending $9,000 a year (for example) on the BCP is required to outweigh the annual fee since it does not provide any benefits outside of rewards.I'm not going to sit here and calculate every possible scenario to figure out what spending in what categories will get you $96 more than what you'd have with the BCE.
Paying $450 a year on a card (for the annual fee) and then not spending a penny on actual purchases isn't a lot of money to outweigh the AF. You would never have to spend $9,000 (for example) on one of the cards I listed above to outweigh the annual fee like you would have to on the BCP. In fact, you can spend $0 a year with the Delta Reserve and still come out ahead.
I'm not talking about one's personal opinion on whether or not they'd actually pay for something like lounge access... I'm saying many high AF cards don't require heavy spending in order to outweigh the annual fee. An annual fee isn't a purchase, it's a fee. We're debating more about the facts of what the cards offer. One type of card requires heavy spend to outweigh the annual fee, other cards don't... I mearly pointed out that needing heavy spend to outweigh the annual fee in many cases isn't true.
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