Jan05

Credit card inventory time–Travel cards I am keeping and cancelling for 2012

on January 5th, 2012 at 11:29 pm

I am still evaluating a few travel credit cards that I will add in 2011.  I will absolutely add the Chase Sapphire and Chase Ink.  I am still planning my 2012 strategy, which I will outline on here when I am finished in a few days.  It is time to take a look at the 10 travel credit cards that I have active right now.

What's in your wallet?

Starting with the AMEX Cards….

  • I have the Blue from American Express.  This card only pays out 1 Membership Reward point per dollar spent.  I’ve had the card for 11 years and it has no annual fee, which is the only reason I still keep this guy.
  • I recently added the American Express Business Gold card back in late November for the big 75,000 point bonus that was offered for less than a 24 hour period.  You can usually get this card with a 50,000 point bonus.  The downside is to get these bonuses, you must charge $10,000 in 5 months.  The timing was perfect as I had some major expenses coming up, plus the Christmas season was on the horizon.  The beautiful part of this card is double points at gas stations.  I purchased many dining and retail gift cards from a gas station for family and friends over Christmas to earn 2x points.  This card is free the first year but has a $175 annual fee after that.  I will churn this card in late October of this year.  After I max out my $10,000 spent and get the 10,000 base points plus the 75,000 bonus points, I will only use this card for gas.
  • The Starwoods Preferred Guest Card has always been one of the most popular cards by travelers due to the vast amount of airlines and hotels that you can transfer points to plus the hefty bonuses at the time of transfer.  The annual fee is only $65, making it only one of two cards that I paid a fee for this year.   This is the main card that I use for purchases when I am not focused on spending on one particular card for a bonus or to hit a specific amount of points on another card.
  • I have carried an American Express Gold Card for nearly 17 years.  This card has actually netted me over 300,000 miles over the past 10 years without any bonuses.  I will cancel this card due to the $125 fee this year in April.  With the business card and other AMEX cards that I carry there is no need to continue to carry this one.   This was the first card I ever used to earn miles so I have had sentimental attachment for years.
Now to the airlines cards….
  • I signed up for the Continental Airlines OnePass Plus card last March for the 40,000 mile bonus.  The card is free the first year, $85 after that.  It pays a straight 1:1 ratio for $1/miles.  It has nice perks such as $2 off drinks on flights, free first checked bag and priority boarding.  I tried to cancel this card yesterday knowing that the fee was due soon.  They offered me a $100.00 credit to keep it, which covers my $85 and gives me an extra $15.  As an alternative they offered me 10,000 points with the fee to keep the card.  Since I didn’t want to pay the fee, I passed on the miles.  I have two months before the fee is due so I plan to call in and try to cancel again in late February to cash in on the 10,000 mile retention offer.  If they don’t give it to me I will still keep the card for the perks until the fee is due the following year since I essentially pay no annual fee.
  • I tried cancelling the American Airlines AAdvantage card by Citi last February when I was due for annual fee.  They offered me 750 miles and to waive the fee for a year if I kept it.  So I did, but rarely used it.  In fact the only times I ever used it is if I was somewhere that didn’t take AMEX if I didn’t have any other Visa/Mastercards with me.  My fee is due in March, so I called them earlier this week.  They offered me 3,000 miles if I charge $500.  I will run up $500 in the next few weeks and after the miles post I will call and cancel again.  I fully intend for them to waive my fee or offer me something else to keep the card.  I’ll keep you updated.
Taking a look at the hotel cards….
  • I signed up for the Marriott Rewards card last year for the 40,000 point bonus (now 50k), plus one free night and $100 statement credit.  Plus with this card you get Gold status which helps you earn nights faster.  I also knew I was going to be staying at Marriott a lot in 2011 and Marriott runs solid quarterly bonuses.  It was free the first year but is $30 in the second year.  I am still considering whether or not to keep it for $30.  I intend to stay at Marriott quite a bit this year and want to keep the Gold status.
  • The Citi card that is smudged up on the upper left side is my Hilton HHonors card.  It gives you automatic Silver status and had a 40,000 point bonus.  I prefer Marriott to Hilton, so I don’t use it much.  With no fee I am in not in a hurry to get rid of the card.  Since I plan to cancel a few cards in the next few months I will hang on to it essentially to avoid closing too many accounts all at one time.  It is likely that I will only use it while staying at Hilton in 2012, which may or may not happen.
  • The Choice Privileges Card is a card I sign up for every other year or so as you can churn and sign up 6 months later and still get the bonus.  It has no annual fee.  Once or twice per year they offer 4-5 free nights for signing up (which usually end up being 2-4 depending on how expensive of properties I stay at).  The last time this was offered was in the fall, but they are also known to make targeted offers to Choice members.  Just like the Hilton card, I will keep it for a while as I plan on cancelling some other cards soon.
And finally….
  • Capital One Venture card had the big up to 100,000 miles match last year, which I took advantage of.  While you earn 2 miles per dollar with this card, they are not true miles.  Each mile is essentially 1 penny in free travel.  10,000 miles is $100 of free travel.  It’s not a horrible set up, but I prefer being able to get at least 1.4 cents per mile in free travel.  I have not used my bonus yet, but I will be using it to pay for a resort in Mexico in May that I will book in the next several weeks.  The card will be cancelled before I check in due to the $59 fee.
As I said earlier, I am still planning my 2012 strategy.  I will post on the decisions I made in a few days.
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