The good news is that my annual fees were not high in 2021 because credit card companies gave great retention offers. The bad news is that I still haven’t been able to travel like before.
Here’s what I spent:
- Amex Marriott Personal: $95. One free night for a 35k points/night room. $10/month on food.
- Amex Marriott Business: -$25 and one free night for a 35k points/night room. $15/month on cell phone bill.
- Amex Platinum: $595. 150k sign-up bonus.
- Amex Gold: $295. 90k sign-up bonus + 40k bonus for spending the 10k on ads.
- Barclays JetBlue Business: $99. 100k after 12k spent.
- Chase IHG: $49. One free night.
- Chase Hyatt: $75. One free night for a category 4.
- Chase Ink: $99. No retention.
- Chase Marriott: $95. One free night.
- Chase Sapphire: $95. 100k URs
- Chase United: $99. 150k sign-u bonus after 20k spend
- Radisson Personal: $0
- Radisson Business: $0
- 80k points combined
While they slightly more than doubled from my 2020 total of $744, the $1,571 I spent in annual fees was well worth it in comparison to what I received.
I recommend reformatting or rewriting to make this more clear.
Excel 2022
If you play your credit cards right, your total annual fees should easily be lower than the benefits, and that doesn’t even take into account the sign-up bonuses. With hotel prices skyrocketing, let’s hope this remains the case.
That’s obviously the case.