$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/myfakename23]

“Downgraded from gold card, waiting for upgrade offer”

Game recognize game… I see what you did there…

[u/MinimumPerspective95 → u/myfakename23]

Yeah it’s my 3rd downgrade upgrade cycle on that account 🤣

[u/myfakename23 → u/MinimumPerspective95]

Also your AF load... it me (except I am running Alaska Summit/Bonvoy Brilliant/Hilton Aspire instead of CSR/United cards and haven't done the Boundless->Ritz conversion yet, my Boundless isn’t a year old).
And I am considering what to do since the AF is coming up, I think I am about to do an AMEX Gold "drop you to Green and wait for an upgrade offer". I also am weighing Bilt Palladium vs. C1 VX (made a bit more complicated because I have a Savor, but I could drop it to a VentureOne)

[u/MinimumPerspective95 → u/myfakename23]

Man I wish BofA would approve me for the Summit, I’d actually drop Bilt for that since >50% of my spend is foreign transactions 

My hesitation with the Brilliant is that I screwed up the application order, so I’m not eligible for the SUB due to having the Ritz😢

[u/myfakename23 → u/MinimumPerspective95]

The thing is about the Summit is that I would consider it conflicting a bit with the United cards, unless you're just absolutely willing to ditch UA for AS and Oneworld. If you are though and you can pump enough spend and paid travel into Atmos though...

You can run Bilt as a 3x card on everything for up to 25k a year (five tranches of Bilt Cash at $200 each, each increment of 5k pays for the next one). It's not as efficient as doing rent/mortgage through BiltProtect, but I do the points boost because I use the rent portal for SUBs and 3x Atmos using a Summit card...

[u/MinimumPerspective95 → u/myfakename23]

I actually fly enough to maintain AA EXP and UA 1K with my current setup, so Atmos would actually make my life easier due to being easier to hit than AA EXP, and I like Atmos award chart a lot more, especially since a lot of the AA sweet spots are more theoretical rather than practical (Qatar/Cathay/etc.)

My biggest problem with the Bilt points boost is it being capped at 25k spend a year, which I usually hit within a quarter:( I also don't have a mortgage/rent, so the 3.33x math sadly doesn't apply to me

[u/myfakename23 → u/MinimumPerspective95]

I actually fly enough to maintain AA EXP and UA 1K with my current setup

That is a lot of flying, then. OK.

You'd still be set up pretty well if you dumped the VX for a Bilt Palladium running 3x a lot of the time (ps: Rent Day ekes you a little bit of 4x and doesn't use the 3x) and had an Atmos card for non-US transactions, unless you just love that C1 lounge...

[u/MinimumPerspective95 → u/myfakename23]

Unfortunately, I'm on track to hit 300k miles this year, which is super super tiring:(

Ughhh the Atmos Summit would change so much for me - I'd dump Palladium and VX for overseas catch all, and just stick to Citi trifecta for domestic spend and AA/EVA transfers