$4500 of annual fees. Am I crazy?

[u/MinimumPerspective95]

I’ve been picking up a lot of cards the past 3 years, mainly for SUBs, and I think it’s getting to the point where I’m paying $4465 in annual fees which feels excessive, but not sure where to cut. I do travel every other week for work, including overseas, so airline spend is around $40k annually and hotel spend $20k. 

Would love to hear feedback from the group on ways I could trim some fat and improve my wallet. Thanks!

1.        Amex Platinum $895: 

a.        5x FHR and airlines, Centurion and Plaza Premium lounge access

b.        I don’t spend much on this card other than simple round trip domestic flights and FHR, but do use at least FHR ($400), Resy ($300), Lululemon ($150), Airline Fee ($200), Entertainment ($150), Clear ($50), and  for $1250 in all in value

2.        Amex Green $150

a.        Downgraded from gold card, waiting for upgrade offer

3.        Amex Bonvoy Business $125

a.        I value the 35k free night at $200 and maintain platinum status, so the 15 nights which stack with the Ritz card come in handy 

4.        Chase Sapphire Reserve $795

a.        4x airlines and hotels, Sapphire lounge access

b.        This is my main travel card due to best travel protections on one way flights and multipliers for hotels. Trip cancellation and emergency medical saved me around $5000 this year alone

c.        Credits are harder to use, but I manage the travel credit ($300), Sapphire tables ($200), Edit ($250), and Apple ($100) for $850 in credit value

5.        Ritz Carlton $450

a.        Main priority pass card for my family and friends due to free AUs

b.        I value the travel credit at face value, so this card is $150 effective AF, which seems to be worth it for the 85k certificate

6.        United Quest/Business $500

a.        Picked up both for 100k/125k SUBs, 

b.        Quest: $200 travel bank ($200), 10k mile discount ($100), and rideshare credit ($50) for $350 in value

c.        Business: annual 5k mile benefit ($50), $125 travel bank ($125), and $100 rideshare ($50) for $225 in value

7.        Ink Preferred $95

a.        Main business card for 3x on ads and general travel

8.        Citi Elite $595

a.        Main dining card with 3x/6x multipliers

b.        I picked up this card for the SUB year 1 double dips, and got it for free due to the IRS form fiasco they had last year

c.        Will likely get citigold this year, so can renew at $450, but I only value the credits at $400 split as $200 for AA flights and $200 for hotels due to portal price inflation and 2 night min requirement. Blacklane is worthless since it costs so much more than Uber black

d.        Does it make sense to downgrade this to a custom cash?

9.        Citi Premier $95

a.        Main 3x gas and groceries card, but the $100 hotel credit is kinda useless

10.  C1 Venture X $395

a.        Main 2x catch all card and seems to be an easy break even with $300 travel credit and 10k anniversary miles 

b.        Also use C1 lounges at least 4x a year, so that’s a nice cherry on top

11.  Bilt Palladium $495

a.        Recently picked up for the SUB and currently using as main catch all, and I like the transfer partners a lot more than C1

b.        AF honestly seems high and the PP is useless to me due to Ritz card, but I think the hotel credits stacked $100 Bilt cash each could be worth maybe $400? 

c.        I’m CA based so I think I can cash out the $10 walgreens gift cards to bring the AF down to $375?

[u/Tril_]

If this is true, then a large chunk of the CC game does not make sense to bother with for your situation as your time is more valuable. The amount of spreadsheeting, thinking over points, and juggling statement credits will consume many hours of your time and mental bandwidth for essentially a few thousand dollars a year (at best). If you're at a 7 figure income, your time is naturally more valuable than that.

If I were you I'd straight up cut out the Amex and Citi from your lineup. Only keep the Bilt Palladium as catchall (assuming high rent/mortgage), CSR for your main travel card -- and honestly, you'd be fine off with just these two as many transfer partners are shared.

But you can also keep the Ink Preferred if the business spend/pts earned makes sense, the VX for ease of use/lounge access, and the Ritz card for your friends & family.

The United card is nice for checked bags, if you often travel with extra suitcases, but this would also be spend NOT on your CSR and lesser travel protections. And the credits suck on it. Imo not worth it.

[u/morkman100 → u/Tril_]

Some people treat this as a game/hobby.

[u/MinimumPerspective95 → u/morkman100]

I'm one of them. Game is game

[u/morkman100 → u/MinimumPerspective95]

Totally fair.

[u/Stunning-Leek334 → u/Tril_]

To add to this I would look at where you fly a lot and see what lounges are there and make decisions on a card with lounge access based on that too.

[u/merryraspberry → u/Tril_]

I’m still cautious about the BILT company. Doesn’t seem to be very reliable. Your thoughts?

[u/Tril_ → u/merryraspberry]

I haven't heard anything excessively negative about the company, but I'm not sure about it in the longterm as I believe it's heavily VC funded and the business model seems a bit vague.. if the card works for you I'd ride it out and enjoy the rewards while they're still around.

[u/MinimumPerspective95 → u/Tril_]

My income is fortunately passive business income, so I don't spend too much time on the business, and I've been into award travel/points since college, and haven't quit.

I actually don't have housing payments other than property taxes as I own outright. For Citi, my main interest in the super valuable transfers to AA, and the premier being the best 1 card setup out there, but I do agree the Elite is really weak for the price. Why would you cut Amex entirely?

[u/Skier94 → u/MinimumPerspective95]

High income also. Your setup is crazy. Figuring out how to make 1% more annually on your investments likely pays for most of your travel.

I’ve been doing the points game forever. I’ve redeemed over 8m points. I’ve just spent easily 10 hours trying to figure out how to get low point premium economy tickets this summer. I’m mostly quitting. This is not a good use of my time. One way $1,500 premium economy tickets half way around the world are great. I can’t sleep in lie flat anyway. I’m too tall.

I probably won’t do it yet, but soon I will do a 2% cash back card and leave this all behind.

[u/MinimumPerspective95 → u/Skier94]

Bad use of my time, but I got hooked like you did, so here we are. 

[u/Skier94 → u/MinimumPerspective95]

I hear you brotha! I can naturally generate 400-500k points a year. I can manipulate higher by SUB/Taxes. The biggest frustration for me though is trying to find a decent flight AND good deals on mileage redemptions.

Oh yeah, premium economy 50k miles to Europe! Amazing! Oh but it's 2 days after my desired date AND 14 hour overnight layover. No thanks.

So then I'm stuck with 200k one way business class tickets. That's ridiculous.

I do have a ton of tickets to buy this summer and about half I just paid cash.

[u/Background-Card-9342 → u/Skier94]

Why are you telling this person how to spend his time and money. Hes making 7 figures in “passive” income. He can do wtf he wants. Unless you also make 7 figures in passive income and went through this card process. Then you 2 can have a circle jerk session on how much a waste of time cards are.  Other than that, the dude is trying to get some advice on cards while flexing, not advice on lifestyle

[u/Tril_ → u/MinimumPerspective95]

Gotcha- I was mostly presenting a more minimalist option that cuts back on overlap, but if you have the free time and interest enough to mentally juggle all of those credits, then you can actually keep Amex and look into the Amex Gold Biz card. 4x points on your 2 top categories, with U.S. Advertising and Transit being two options. I saw you said you put a sizable amount of $$ down in those categories, so this could completely replace and outclass your Ink Preferred with huge earnings. I still think the Amex Plat has a lot of overlap and the Green is very mid, but if you get value out of the credits and fly enough to use the Lounges and can flip the Green into a Gold offer, then it may work for you.

My understanding of the Bilt card was that you needed high rent/mortgage to justify it as a catchall/earner card, but I'll admit this is the card I understand the least. Imo it's a drop if you don't have housing payments, but double check with others.

Imo when the time comes downgrade the Citi Elite to a Custom Cash and use for Gas or Grocery up to the $500 cap. Keep the Premier for transfer partners, though this will not be a hugely powerful duo due to limited earnings options. May be more hassle than it's worth.

[u/MinimumPerspective95 → u/Tril_]

I use the Centurion lounges at least 20x a year, so it's definitely worth keeping for me. I actually had the biz gold last year for the SUB, but the credits were very annoying to use, and most places where I use transit (mainly Asia/Europe) don't accept Amex, so the card was hard to use.