Good Afternoon.
Like the title says, I am working on trimming the annual fee fat from my credit card setup and looking for the community's advice.
Between my wife and I we have the following credit cards with Annual Fees:
- Amex Platinum $895
- Amex Gold $325
- Amex Hilton Aspire $550
- Amex Surpass $150
- Barclays JetBlue Plus $99
- Capital One Venture X $395
- Chase Business Preferred $95
- Chase Ritz Carlton $450
- Citi Strata Premier $95
In addition to these Annual Fee cards, we do also have the compliment cards to each (Citi Custom Cash, Double Cash, Ink Cards etc)
We have already decided that the Amex Platinum is going to go when it's annual fee posts, as we force ourselves to use its coupon book style credits each month and can no longer add money to the United Travel Bank and Saks is removed.
The next card we are going to downgrade is either going to be the Chase Ritz Carlton (which fee just hit 3/1 so it may be a prorated amount credited) or the Amex Hilton Aspire (which fee hits in July 2026). The Amex Hilton Surpass will also be on the chopping block when its annual fee hits in October.
My wife and I are expecting our first child next month, so our travel will be limited this upcoming year. Usually we take one domestic and one international trip each year and sometimes an additional trip to South America where my wife is from. We frequent JFK airport T4 via Delta/Latam and love the Capital One lounge located there. For domestic travel we often use JetBlue via T5 but this has no lounge access so that may change to Delta in the future as well.
Our biggest spend each month is usually groceries so we want to keep our Amex Gold and access to MR points and the Venture X is our catch all and lounge card for JFK eventhough my wife now needs to pay $45 for access.
Thoughts on which card you would eliminate next? It does not necessarily have to be the two cards I mentioned. In fact, it could be one, both or even any of the other cards based off whatever your logic may be!
Appreciate any advice!
Posted by matty_mcg_
8 Comments
You should state your spend and what you get out of the cards. Without context I would get rid of all of those cards.
Have you done the math to see what value you get out of the cards and what the opportunity cost is of using a better, no AF card?
>Usually we take one domestic and one international trip each year
You don’t travel nearly enough to justify that many premium travel cards…
Here you go.
* ~~Amex Platinum $895~~
* Amex Gold $325
* ~~Amex Hilton Aspire $550~~
* ~~Amex Surpass $150~~
* Barclays JetBlue Plus $99
* ~~Capital One Venture X $395~~
* ~~Chase Business Preferred $95~~
* ~~Chase Ritz Carlton $450~~
* ~~Citi Strata Premier $95~~
Congrats that you all are expecting. Just my two cents:
1. Agree on the Platinum if you cannot get the credits to work in your favor, or desperately need it for lounge access, which it sound like you don’t. Same with the Aspire.
2. Not sure I agree on the Gold, perhaps kill it and just use the Premier, along with the Custom and Double Cash’s you already have. Unless you really want to earn MR points, why run this ecosystem at all.
3. Agree on keeping the Venture X. Why not pay an extra AU with all the fee savings for the lounge access.
4. On the fence about the Ritz Carlton. I don’t have this card, but my understanding is the travel credit is relatively easy to use, and the time factor on having to PC into this card.
I would switch to cashback and maybe keep the VX since its essentially free. As the other comments said you have the credit card layout of someone who drops 30k a year on travel which you clearly do not with 1-2 trips a year.
Maybe VX plus savor? VX is the only low intensity travel card that makes sense, at least with an AF. You can keep an airline card too but i think its not worth it.
You can open a BBP or amex checking to keep MR
To me I would keep the gold, VX, and surpass and get rid of the rest
If you’re traveling only twice a year, lounge access isn’t a big deal.
I’d say keep either the Ritz or the Hilton card if you make use of the hotels during those two trips. The Ritz is probably a bit easier to get the fee back on and offers Chase + priority pass lounge access.
I like the Amex gold if you can use the credits. I wouldn’t keep it *just* to keep your MR alive, but if it fits your spend I think MR is a good program to keep around. But you can consider if Citi TYP is better. For example, I had the Gold for years because with the credits it was cheaper than a Premier.
Eliminate VentureX and get Bilt 2.0, which will give you better lounge access than VentureX, and better return at 3x+, as well as better transfer partners. In fact, once you do this, you’ll likely reconsider your Amex Gold as well.
You’re spending $3k on annual fees to travel twice a year.
Why not simply cancel all of that, get a 2% card, and book business class with cash? Get the experience you want without all of these hoops and coupons?