My 2 Best Credit Cards
Are these cards worth it?
- Here’s what I do and why.
- You might want to, too.
I hate annual fees. I hate recurring fees of any kind. Controlling cost is one of the few things that has always felt under my control. The lower the better. So I rarely pay annual fees whenever I can help it. But I’ve gotten paid back many times over with these two exceptions.
I’m not a businessman, I’m a business, man.
- Kanye West
Everyone should own a business. It is so much more tax efficient to slowly steadily increase the value of a business that you own than it is to earn a taxable income. My business uses the American Express (AXP) Platinum Card. It pays the $695 annual fee. But if you don’t already have this card: get it, at least for a year. They just boosted the signup bonus from 120,000 to 150,000 points which are conservatively worth $1,500, more than double the value of the first year’s annual fee.
To qualify, spend $15k in qualifying purchases on the card within your first three months of card membership (which gets you another 15k points). The more you travel, the more this card is a no brainer. But make sure you actually use all of their travel benefits including $200 in airline fee credit per year off of incidentals such as baggage fees and in-flight refreshments. The card also covers the $189 cost of Clear Plus (YOU) membership. Lines are for socialists. Sign up here, pay $695, get $1,650 worth of points back in the next quarter as well as travel benefits worth over $2,000. This nets you at least $1,344 in value. Sign up takes 5 minutes so literally anyone whose time is worth under $15k/hour should sign up.
Is it worth keeping after the first year? That is a good question. Year one is free money due to the sign up bonus. After that it is a closer call. I’ve kept it to get access to their airport lounges. I love airports generally and good airport lounges in particular. I like Air Swiss, Virgin Atlantic, and could live full-time at the Al Safwa lounge in Doha. If I were single, I’d seriously consider just buying refundable tickets, eating/working/sleeping there then cashing in the ticket for the next day. Not all of the American Express global lounge collection is that nice (okay — none of them are that nice) but they are all better than waiting at your gate. Your call; one idea is to use your card for the first year and see how much you use the lounges.
Let’s get personal
My personal card is much the same story — get it here for the first year to suck out the sign up bonus unless you don’t like free money. Then do what you like after that (again it is a closer call but on balance I kept it). The Chase Sapphire Reserve $550 annual fee more than pays for itself. You get back 60,000 bonus points worth at least $900 towards travel when redeemed through their rewards program after you spend $4k in three months. But I’ve been able to put them to work at higher values than that, upgrading to my favorite first class cabins — Qatar and Swiss for pennies on the dollar of their full price.
The card reimburses $300 of travel expenses per year and their travel service is excellent. I always go through them for booking international flights. They also rebate $100 off of Global Entry every four years. Between Clear, Global Entry, and getting upgraded to first class so you can get off of the plane first, you can avoid almost all lines (Qatar and Swiss’ best service isn’t even on the plane, it is having a dedicated representative walk you past the security lines to the front of the queue). I don’t care about comfort; I love smooth logistics.
Caveat
The ideal annual fee is $0; if you want that, then I like the Alliant Visa (V) card, despite the fact that their cash back is worse than it used to be.
Conclusion
Judge everyone and everything on a net basis. Based on the net, the AmEx Platinum and the Sapphire Reserve are both cinches for the first year and remain okay after that. Make sure you take full advantage of all of the travel benefits that they offer between the two of them including Clear and Global Entry.
TL; DR
Own a business and get this business card and this personal card for at least a year.
