Credit Card Fees: Justifying the Best Keepers for Travel

Indeed, there are different strategies around travel hacking, but it always resolves on two aspects or, more especially, a combination of them:

• Signing up for a new credit card to earn a generous welcome bonus
• Maximizing your organic accumulation by choosing the right credit card for each category

The first part is relatively straightforward because it lies in the proper timing to get the best offers, avoiding credit card fees and closing the card at the right moment.

However, that is not a sustainable thing on its own since some issuers will limit the number of bonuses you can receive or inflict a hefty wait period between applications.

Therefore, you must have a selection of credit cards to help you bring a constant flow of rewards points yearly as a base strategy in your wallet.

What about the credit card fees, then? Aren’t we supposed to avoid them as they hinder any benefits we might reap from them? Not entirely.

In this article, we’ll demonstrate the value you can get from the best long-term keepers for travel and why paying their credit card fees can be a very good investment.

Credit Card Fees – Travel Favourites

If you are a member of our Facebook community, you will notice that the same credit cards will come up often as suggestions as keepers from travel hackers. The favourites are all accompanied by credit card fees, and they are:

With the long-term travel strategy in mind, I’ll compare these cards across different categories in order to justify their credit card fees and why they are considered keepers.

Credit Card Fees – The Current Welcome Bonus

Here are the current welcome offers for the favourite travel keeper cards as well as Milesopedia’s estimation of their value for the first year.

As you can see, the offers are quite generous and often broadly cover the cost of the credit card fees if they are not waived.

Credit Card Fees – The Minimal Income Requirement

Half of the best credit card keepers for travel are American Express cards, and they require no minimal income.

As for the others, make sure you go over the whole list of eligible income amounts that can be taken into consideration before overlooking a card because you don’t meet the conditions solely with your salary.

Credit Card Fees – Point-Earning Potential

As long-term keepers, we must look at point-earning potential when trying to justify paying credit card fees.

The American Express Cobalt^® Card comes out on top in this category because you can earn the most points organically on the most basic daily expenses such as groceries, restaurants and various merchants through the gift card strategy.

In this article, I’ve compared the value of the rewards you can get with the American Express Cobalt^® Card versus other products without credit card fees and demonstrated it’s still more advantageous despite the fees.

Of course, while the American Express Cobalt^® Card is widely accepted, it’s still being denied in some places. That is why you should have backup options such as the National Bank World Elite Mastercard (or any other Visa or Mastercard that can earn the types of points you are looking for).

As you can see, there’s no one credit card that is THE best one; you need to build a wallet to maximize all spending categories fit for your specific profile and needs.

It is also fairly easy to apply for an American Express business card.

Credit Card Fees – Travel Redemption Options

The following redemption options are the main ones you can use to travel. They don’t account for other uses such as purchasing goods or gift cards, since we want to highlight their most cost-effective use.

Paying the credit card fees also lets you use in-house points programs such as American Express Membership Rewards points, NBC À la carte Rewards or RBC Avion Rewards, which are excellent when it comes to flexible points you can use for any type of travel purchase or transferable points.

Credit Card Fees – Travel and Other Credits

These great products also come with recurrent travel or other credits, which can offset partially or entirely the credit card fees you are paying.

American Express is the most generous with its various promotional offers, which can benefit everyone, such as credits on specific groceries (Adonis, Voilà IGA, etc.) or the Marriott Bonvoy annual free night’s awards.

As a matter of fact, I’ve recently been to Portland, Maine with my family and used two of them to cover our accommodation expenses.

Indeed, I paid $120 and $150 in credit card fees respectively to keep my Marriott Bonvoy^® American Express^®* Card and my Marriott Bonvoy^® Business American Express^®* Card.

The redemption of the certificates allowed us to avoid paying over $400 CAD per night for our little getaway. I had a total of 3 award nights to use because I also benefited from a targeted promotion from last spring.

Another example is the Nexus credit many cards offer, which is great to cover the cost of our family’s membership to fast-track across borders!

When you tally up everything you get and consider the credit card fees you are paying, you will often come out on top if all is justified.

Credit Card Fees – Additional Travel Perks

Other great travel perks justify the credit card fees you are paying such as Lounge Access or Travel Insurance.

I’ve often compared the cost of purchasing private travel insurance with credit card fees and the latter is almost always cheaper. That is just another perk that adds up on everything else I’ve already mentioned in this article.

Similarly, if you can’t contain your stuff in a carry-on luggage, having a credit card such as the TD^® Aeroplan^® Visa Infinite* Card is great to cover the cost of checked bags for every trip on Air Canada and for everyone travelling on the same reservation as yourself!

Finally, VIP Lounge access is another popular travel perk people like having and paying credit card fees can be very much worth it depending on the number of entries you need and what you are able to consume as compared to airport restaurants and bars!

Bottom Line

First, there isn’t ONE great long-term keeper card; you will require a few to cover every category, such as earning potential to travel perks. While all the favourites come with credit card fees, they are considered picks for a reason, and they can all be justified.

In the end, if you select the appropriate cards for your lifestyle and needs in your wallet, you will reap more in value than what you are paying as credit card fees. Indeed, all my travel keeper cards come with a fee, but I can’t say it’s genuinely costing me anything.

What are your favourites in terms of travel keeper cards? Are you maximizing everything they offer to offset the credit card fees? Join us to discuss it in our Facebook Community!