My Credit Card Annual Fees

No one likes annual fees. No one, except for maybe us credit card wielding travel wizards. I actually enjoy seeing that bill with an annual fee on it. OK – maybe I wouldn't go that far, but paying annual fees when I come out way ahead is well worth it in my book. We know that credit card annual fees normally come with bigger welcome offers, more perks and increased earning rates. If you stick to only cards without annual fees in this game, and out in the muggle non traveler world, you are likely costing (not saving) yourself money. I'll give you a breakdown of all of the cards we paid an annual fee on last year and then summarize below as to why we got each one. I'll come back to this post each year and update it so we can see how my totals track over the years.

Related, Mark's 2022 & 2023 Annual Fees: How I Racked Up Almost $8,500 In Credit Card Annual Fees Last Year

2024 Credit Card Annual Fees Total

Here is a breakdown of our cards and their annual fees for 2024:

• World of Hyatt card – $95
• World of Hyatt Business Card – $199
• Chase Sapphire Preferred – $95
• Aeroplan Card – $95
• IHG Premier Business Card – $99
• Ritz Carlton – $450
  • Chase Annual Fees Total: $1,033
• Amex Business Gold – $295 x 3 & 375 x 3
• Amex Business Platinum – $695 x 7
  • American Express Annual Fees Total: $6,875
• Capital One Business Venture X – $395 x 2
  • Capital One Annual Fees Total: $790
• Citi Strata Premier: $95
• Citi®/AAdvantage Executive – $595
  • Citi Annual Fees Total: $690
• Total Cost – $9,388

Breaking Down My Credit Card Choices

These are a mix of short term cards I got to maximize in the first year or two along with some long term cards I have had for more than 3 years. The no lifetime language offers on American Express business cards played a huge role here accounting for more than two thirds of the annual fees. While you will also notice I paid 6 Amex Business Gold fees, what actually happened is I had 3x business golds with upgrade offers to business platinum's this year and 3x offers to open more. Each of these upgrades came with 120,000 points per card. The welcome offers and card perks make the no lifetime language offers well worth chasing during that first year.

Here is a breakdown of the cards I have held long term:

• World of Hyatt Cards
  • I keep both of my Hyatt cards for different reasons. The personal card for the yearly anniversary free night certs and the ability to earn another one after $15K in spend each year these will always be in my wallet. For me, the business card is also a long term keeper card for the ability to spend towards status.
• Chase Sapphire Preferred
  • I retain this card each year to keep my access to transfer partners (mostly just to Hyatt, to be honest) – and also for the robust travel protections.
• Citi Strata Premier
  • This is one of the most underrated cards out there. Not only does it retain my ability to transfer Thank You Points, but it earns 3x in a slew of helpful categories making it well rounded daily earning machine.
• Citi Aadvantage Executive
  • It is true that we generally advise against getting cards with status in mind. However, the Executive card fits a spot in my wallet due to how it helps me to earn ToP Tier AA Executive Platinum status, each year. It earns a boost of up to 20K Loyalty Points per year, which is 10% of the requirement to Executive Platinum right there! With how often I fly AA – this strategy works for me.
• Capital One Venture X Business
  • While I don't love the travel credit changes, this is my only access to Capital One so I have kept it.

The rest of the cards I have had for 1-3 years but don't have a long term expectation on them.

How Do I Pay For The Annual Fees?

Incurring over $9,000 in annual fees over a 12 month period is nothing to sneeze at and it is not a cost I take on lightly. So how do I cover the added cost in our budget?

I try to cover a lot of them by using the perks available. Like the American Express Business Platinum benefits of $200 airline incidental credits and $400 Dell credits. Since it is based on calendar year we got double those amounts per card for that one annual fee. That is $400 in airline incidentals and $800 in Dell for $695 in annual fees. Those perks offset most of the fee and then I also got the bonus for signing up, which I use to redeem for award travel.

Opening bank accounts for bank bonus' can also help to offset some of the annual fees. I typically will try to earn at least a few thousand dollars annually from bank bonus'.

On top of all of that I will cash out some points when needed to cover the annual fees. Even though this is at a much lower rate than I could get using those points for travel it is worth it to me because I earn at a much higher rate than I can use on travel each year.

My Credit Card Annual Fees: ToP Thoughts

Spending over $9,000 on credit card annual fees in one year seems bat crap crazy to people on the outside looking in (aka travel muggles), but it makes sense to us. Well, most of us at least. Each one of those annual fees brought me in the range of 5x to 10x in value. They help me travel at a steep discount essentially and even make extra income when needed as well too. Don't let annual fees scare you away, as long as you get more than their cost in return you are coming out a winner.