Current cards:
- Amex Gold
- Amex Platinum
- Chase Sapphire Preferred
FICO Score: ~760
Income: ~$85k
Average monthly spend:
- dining: $700–900
- groceries: $400
- travel: varies (a few trips a year)
- other: ~$500
I’ve been trying to figure out if I’m actually getting positive value from my setup, and I feel like I might be overestimating things.
Main issues I’m running into:
- I count credits at full value (Uber, airline, etc.) but realistically I don’t always use them efficiently
- Points valuations feel kind of arbitrary depending on redemption
- Lounge access feels valuable but I don’t travel that often
When I try to calculate it honestly, it gets messy fast and I’m not sure what assumptions are reasonable.
How do you guys approach this?
Do you:
- Discount credits (like value Uber at 70–80%?)
- Assign a fixed cpp for points?
- Ignore “soft perks” like lounges entirely?
Would appreciate any frameworks or ways you think about this.
Am I overvaluing my cards? Trying to sanity check my math
byu/Mammoth-Sea-1151 inCreditCards
Posted by Mammoth-Sea-1151
6 Comments
Yeah I would PC to spend less on annual fees. You have experience now to know which of the so-called perks aren’t really a value to you.
Paying $800/year for the plat when you don’t travel “that often” is probably a bad idea.
If lounge access is the only additional benefit you’re getting from that you could just buy daily lounge passes for less than that.
It sounds like to me you need to drop these coupon books and get a all-around card like venture X.
I’m not sure what you mean by a few trips a year, but just the fact that you describe it that way tells me you’re probably paying too much in annual fees. You really have to travel a lot and spend a lot to get your money’s worth with that setup.
Personally, I value a lot of credits at zero. For instance, I never go to Dunkin. I could easily stop there just to use a credit, but that’s not saving me money and I don’t need all those bad calories. It’s worth as much as those coupons I get every week in my mailbox. We call it junk mail for a reason. Amex likes using them because it costs them next to nothing. If you’re not using them naturally, then their value to you should also be next to nothing.
Credits that I use organically (for my CSR – ex. travel credit, StubHub) I count at full value. Credits that I get value out of, but it may not be organically (ex. DoorDash) I look at what I used it on and calculate (ex. Pick up a $5.50 coffee with a $5 credit? I value at $3 because the coffee would’ve been $3.50 without the credit) Lounge visits I value at around $15 for the cost of a meal. Maybe a bit more if they have drinks and snacks to go that I take.
As for your set up, you are paying some high AFs. There may be better options to maximize your value, such as the “Chase trifecta” or the Capital one Venture X + Savor or even the Wells Fargo Auto + Auto Journey + Active Cash. I don’t fully have enough specifics about your situation to analyze that, but might be worth looking into them all.
This sounds like you need a simple cash back setup like the C1 Duo. That said, as to your questions, I count credits at full value, offsetting the AF, only if I’m using them organically, otherwise they’re worthless. Using my Platinum as an example, I’ve already offset the AF by $700 doing things I was already going to do (date night, streaming bundle) or needed to do (book a hotel for a work trip next month). I’ll end up offsetting another $600 in all likelihood since we have flights and hotels to book for our summer vacation, and a good number of the restaurants we like qualify for the Resy credits. So, for me, the card ends up more than paying for itself since it’s saving me money (net -$405 AF) on things I was already doing. Anything after that we happen to use while traveling (i.e. Uber) is just gravy on top.
If I have to go out of my way to use credits as a means of justifying the AF, as I would if I had Gold card, that would significantly lower the value of the credits for me and the value of the card as a whole. I don’t really bother with assigning a value to points beyond requiring that I can redeem them for 1cpp with limited hassle. My primary setup is cash back, though, so it’s not something I have to think about beyond the Platinum, and the CS version lets you redeem at 1.1cpp anyway. If I can find a worthwhile transfer, though, I’ll absolutely jump on it in order to stretch my points.
Lounge access is a nice perk but I don’t assign a value to it. It’s low on my list of considerations when I’m valuing a card’s place in my setup.