Paid off a bunch of debt over the last five years, decent credit, got an offer in the mail.
An old joke goes a sure way to meet women is wear your American Express Platinum Card on a gold chain around your neck 🙂
I already got enough credit cards, but seriously, WTF? $685/year, what am I missing here?
There are a lot of cash back benefits to some of these cards that reduce the $685 to near nothing if you travel a lot and have certain purchasing patterns. I don't like the American Express Platinum Card for our travel and spending patterns. We use the Chase Sapphire Reserve which has been $450 before they credit back the first $300 (net $150 annual fee) of travel spending which is easy to do. They recently raised it to $550 before the credit. All our other purchases go on this card and it builds points at a dramatic rate which we redeem for airline tickets.
We have had the card for the last several years and it has saved us way more than the $150 (or $250 now). We are generally able to purchase somewhere between $8,000 and $10,000 annually in plane tickets with the points so there is that savings there. No more cost of travel insurance which automatically comes with the card. Free lounge access if we want to use it. Purchase protection that I have used a couple of times. All in all I can count on getting several thousand per year back on this card for the $250 fee.
There is a big difference in buying plane tickets with points vs using miles. The airlines shaft you with blackout dates for the miles redemptions, but points appear as outright purchases so no blackout dates. These cards aren't good for people that don't travel a lot in most cases, but they are fantastic if you do travel a lot. I think the Chase suite of cards and their point transfer/redemptions are at the top of the heap for now.
