Bonvoy credit card (old SPG)

[Quilter]

We both have Marriott Bonvoy cards. I'm keeping those because the annual fee more than pays for a free night each year. We're both Lifetime Titanium so the annual 15 nights isn't an issue.

Now, to the old SPG card (Business card) that has become a Bonvoy Business card. What is the benefit to keeping it? This year it maintained the annual fee of $95. Next March I'll be charged $125. Gets a hotel night up to 35K points annually. This is how it earns Bonvoy points.

4x restaurant
4x gas
4x shipping
4x cell phone

I'd appreciate some help and insights.

 

[VacationForever]

35K points per night hotels typically cost more than $125. If you can use the hotel certificate then it is a no brainer to keep it.

If you have no use for the extra hotel night then it boils down to whether you can get $125 value out of it.

Let's break it down:
- 4X restaurant. I use my Chase Sapphire Reserve for dining, yields 3 points = 4.5 cents. Bonvoy points 4X = .9*4 = 3.6 cents. CSR wins.
- 4X gas. Costco card gives 4 cents cash back. Bonvoy points 4X = 3.6 cents. Costco Visa wins.
- 4X shipping. I rarely use shipping but when I do, I use my Bonvoy personal Amex, yields 2X.
- 4X cell phone. This just goes to my Bonvoy personal Amex, yields 2X. We pay $190 per month on Cell phone, totaling $2,280 per year. 2x extra points on $2280 = 4560 points. 4560 points = $41.04 extra.

If I don't need the extra night, I will kill the card.

 

[rickandcindy23]

I am keeping the old SPG for the hotel night.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

IMO...I have both the Amex Bonvoy Business Card and the Personal Card. I much prefer the business card to the personal card for the 4x benefits you stated. Plus it seems to get better AMEX offers which more than offsets the Annual fee.

I am on the fence about the personal card. Haven't received any good AMEX offers on that recently. I don't spend on it because we have the other card with bonused spend (and not trying to actively accumulate Bonvoy points anymore due to recent devaluations/resort fees and I have a ton to still use up.) If the 35k hotels are not available when I need them or start to charge outrageous parking and resort fees this card will be quickly cancelled.

 

[Bill4728]

We just changed from the old Marriott Chase VISA to the Bonvoy boundless Visa

The fee was $85 now $95 BUT went from 1 25K free night to 35K free night and 6x pts at marriott ( from 5x) and 2 x everything else (from 1x) Since most of the time we stay at cat 5 hotel (35K) it was a no brainier also got two extra free nights (35k ea) as a welcome gift. For someone w/o a current chase visa, the welcome bonus is 100K pts you can use in any way you want

 

[Quilter]

35K points per night hotels typically cost more than $125. If you can use the hotel certificate then it is a no brainer to keep it.

If you have no use for the extra hotel night then it boils down to whether you can get $125 value out of it.

Let's break it down:
- 4X restaurant. I use my Chase Sapphire Reserve for dining, yields 3 points = 4.5 cents. Bonvoy points 4X = .9*4 = 3.6 cents. CSR wins.
- 4X gas. Costco card gives 4 cents cash back. Bonvoy points 4X = 3.6 cents. Costco Visa wins.
- 4X shipping. I rarely use shipping but when I do, I use my Bonvoy personal Amex, yields 2X.
- 4X cell phone. This just goes to my Bonvoy personal Amex, yields 2X. We pay $190 per month on Cell phone, totaling $2,280 per year. 2x extra points on $2280 = 4560 points. 4560 points = $41.04 extra.

If I don't need the extra night, I will kill the card.

Guess I'll keep the card for the 1 night at $125. We drive to Florida in February or March and again from FL to HHI. I use those 1 night certificates. Also get one with Hyatt. At $125 it will probably be a break even deal. The areas we stop at aren't the highest demand.

I canceled my Costco membership. Maybe I shouldn't have but the closest store was a drive I didn't like to take. Never used gas station because of the same. I use Kroger for fuel points. Nearby and convenient.

The 4X gas is interesting but I get 5X with Chase Freedom when it falls in the quarterly categories. I could also get 2X UR on a Chase Ink as a default. 2X UR may trump 4X Bonvoy since I'm flush with Bonvoy points. Pretty flush with UR points too at the moment. No big trips to Europe or Hawaii on the horizon. I've thought of going to a cash back card since I seem to have plenty miles/points in miles and hotel accounts. I have a Discover miles card which I'm planning to close after I use up credit for an airline purchase (I keep forgetting it's there). I think the Discover it would be a better fit.

Sure wish I had paid more attention to shipping on cards. We recently sent a box to our DD that cost $60 in shipping. Less than a week later I'm doing a credit card assessment and find that several cards have shipping bonuses. How's that for management?

The cell and landline are covered. We have a Chase Ink Cash with no annual fee (at least that's what the agent told me today). I gives 5X for our AT&T bill. Nothing beats that.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Bonus points for gas? What's gas? Now that we have an EV and use little gas in our long-trip ICE vehicles, the value of this bonus has plummeted. Adding solar to our home and an EV with free charging at home and work (aka $2400 savings per year on gas for commute auto in addition to free electricity at home) has dramatically changed our perspective on what's a valuable cc perk.

https://thedriven.io/2019/03/11/will-the-death-of-the-ice-vehicle-come-earlier-than-expected/

 

[Steve Fatula]

Bonus points for gas? What's gas? Now that we have an EV and use little gas in our long-trip ICE vehicles, the value of this bonus has plummeted. Adding solar to our home and an EV with free charging at home and work (aka $2400 savings per year on gas for commute auto in addition to free electricity at home) has dramatically changed our perspective on what's a valuable cc perk.

https://thedriven.io/2019/03/11/will-the-death-of-the-ice-vehicle-come-earlier-than-expected/

Same situation as us. We might use a couple of tanks a year now. We did the same thing, solar powers the house (we make more than the house uses each year), charges the EV, all my cordless power tools, trimmers, hot water, etc. Payback well under 10 years, and, double our money at 15. They are so much cheaper now, at least in our area.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

@Steve Fatula Agree. I was a skeptic at first but this has been great. We added an extra panel for around $700 because we anticipated buying an EV. This was a good move because adding it later would cost a lot more.

Our payback on the solar was 6 years when we installed 3 years ago. But that didn't factor in the annual gas savings for an EV ($2400/year) or the fact that we reduce the cost of heating our home by about $100 a month ($1200/year) with gas by using electric space heater in my home office (using excess solar electricity) and not having to heat the entire home until the evening when we use it.

Despite this we still send a lot of energy back to our utility.