Despite what the casual credit card community might say, the best keeper premium card (for simplicity’s sake let’s only include cards with $450-$500 annual fee) isn’t Chase Sapphire Reserve. That is a fact. My own list of “best premium cards” has not included CSR for quite some time. Yes, CSR may be convenient for many but it isn’t and never was a one card to rule them all. . The only correct answer to “what is the best keeper premium card?” question is – “YMMV” (your mileage may vary).
The best way to figure out what will be the best premium card(s) for you on the long run is to do a mixture of trying a bunch of them and reading about a bunch of them from unbiased sources. The latter half is important because a lot of blogs make tons of money pushing CSR and Platinum as the best premium card that ever existed in the universe. The good (or bad?) news is that this blog will pretty much never qualify for any kind of credit card affiliate links. The other good (or bad?) news is that only 1 out of 4 cards mentioned below has referral bonus of any kind. In other words, this post, like most of my credit card related post, does not exist with a sole purpose of selling you plastic.
Citi Prestige
My love letter to Citi and Thank You program is no secret. While I don’t make money for renewing Prestige card anymore, I am still locked into $350 annual fee simply because I had applied for it in branch some 2+ year ago. I also still get 15% annual relationship bonus from Prestige even though I have never had Citi Gold. One time I took retention offer of 10k Thank You points for spending $3k within 3 months and another time I took retention offer of $50 statement credit for spending $1500 or more in each statement for 7 months.
You might think $350 is a lot but it is super easy to trigger $250 annual credit, thus making Prestige a credit card with effective annual fee of $100. Tell me another card that does all Prestige does for mere $100. It blows Citi Premier, Chase Sapphire Preferred, and everything else in its price range. If you’re paying $450 annual fee than this doesn’t apply to you but that isn’t me…for now.
US Bank Altitude Reserve
I recently obtained my personal Altitude Reserve after 5 denials spread since its inception over a year ago….and I love this card. Unlike the other two cards in this list, Altitude Reserve is always in my “wallet” and gets the most usage out of the three cards in the list.
At the risk of repeating myself, I won’t go over why I like this card all over again instead I will simply link to an old blog post explaining why I think Altitude Reserve is really good.
I will say that the relatively new addition (yes 6+ month old news is still new in Travel in Points timezone) of “real time rewards” is amazing. It can practially makes Altitude Reserve a 4.5% cashback card at lots of physical locations. Can’t. Beat. That.
American Express Hilton Aspire
This card is a no brainier for most credit card gamers. I am still amazed by how much benefits it gives for the price of $450 annual fee. I still think that the Hilton Aspire, won’t last next 1-2 year in it’s current state.
Again I don’t want to repeat everything I have detailed out in a different post so I will just link to yet another post explaining why I think Hilton Aspire is amazing!
Honorable Mention: American Express Ameriprise Platinum
American Express Platinum charge card gives too much benefit so it should be no surprise to see it on the list. Unfortunately, the cost associated with giving too much benefit is a hefty $550 annual fee. However, the co-branded Ameriprise Platinum card waives first year annual fee.
Yes, Ameriprise flavored platinum charged card has no signup bonus but first year annual fee waiver on a card like Platinum is a big deal in itself. This is quite possibly the only card with no signup bonus that I would recommend churning in the old fashioned way.
If you get Platinum card around December, you can easily triple dip the $200 airline credit, quadruple dip the Saks credit, and enjoy all the other benefits as well. I would say $200 x 3 (airline) + $50 x 4 (Saks) is a solid signup bonus on its own.
Warning: avoid getting Ameriprise platinum card before chewing through 100k signup on vinalla platinum card. It is simply a good precaution.
Closing Thoughs
After getting tons and tons of cards with $350+ annual fee I can safely say that most of them are….downright useless to me on the long run. Most of them can’t (or won’t) be a daily driver card and include redundant benefits such as GE and PP that I put $0 value on.
11 comments
I think the 4.5% AR mobile wallet pay is substantially underappreciated. With a Samsung, basically ANY place with a point of sale terminal jumps to 4.5%. Hell, that’s my dentist, my mechanic, my doctor, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Home Depot, Whole Foods, lots of fast casual places etc. Tons of “noncategory” spend locations I’d drop thousands on suddenly fall under a category.
Your calculation on the Ameriprise platinum is incorrect ($200 x 3 (airline) + $50 x 4 (Saks)).
Assuming a December signup, it should be: $200 x 3 (airline) + $240 (uber) + $150 (saks) = $990… although realistically, the Saks credit is not worth face value, I’d say 80% of face is probably more realistic, so the grand total would be about $960, assuming that someone signs up in December.
In above scenario, Saks benefit should be usable 4 times. If you followed my blog, you would know I get much much higher value from Uber benefit than their advertised value. I left Uber (and some other features) out as “other benefits as well” because I didn’t want to get into them. For obvious reasons, airline credit and Saks are the most straight forward monetary benefits.
Any thoughts on upgrading to the Prestige?
It potentially can resets 1/24 clock.
Thanks, travelinpoints. I don’t have Samsung phone but just an iPhone. Do you know the acceptance of Apple pay nowadays? Also, I spend most in online shopping instead of B&M. I don’t remember many online stores accept mobile payment. Will that make Altitude Reserve less attractive?
Also, I think you underappreciate CSR as it does not fight alone. Besides 1.5X travel redemption, it has a bunch of pals: Freedom unlimited (1.5X), Ink cash (5X at office store=5X Amazon, ebay, etc GC), Freedom (quarterly 5X). Plus, I do value some extra features: most importantly, transfer to valuable partners like UA and Hyatt (potentially 2X); primary rental coverage; National Car Executive status. Overall, I don’t feel US Bank Altitude Reserve’s 4.5% (3X mobilepayment x 1.5X travel redemption) can beat CSR.
Generally, you can’t shop online with mobile payment. Acceptance of apple and google mobile payment depends on the type of store you shop at. A lot of bigger stores tend to take apple and google mobile payment as well.
I wouldn’t say I under appreciate CSR. I simply understand that it isn’t the card for me. I also understand that it is literally gold for casual credit carders and there is nothing wrong with that. You should understand that I have been in this game for a while and I see things differently than most casuals do.
I don’t redeem UR at 1.5x because transfer partner route is generally better. Because I have accumulated enough 1.25-1.8 cpp redeemable points from other banks, I can now afford to strictly use UR to transfer to partners. I can easily transfer UR points through CIP. The other benefits of CSR become redundant when you’ve had 60+ cards like I have.
I see. Thanks for sharing a different perspective.
Sorry for change the topic, just one more question: for causal credit carders like me, which card you would recommend to put big purchase on (I mean a few thousands)? I occasionally get such things (e.g. medical bill, airline ticket purchase, etc). I currently only put them on (1) Amex HH ascend (for free weekend night), (2) BOA Premium rewards+Platinum honor status (for those that don’t accept Amex), and (3) Radisson (formerly Club Carlson) card (1 FN/$10K spending, up to 3 FN per year). Do you feel this is the best choice or you think there is better way? Want to set down this for long term. Thanks.
Since you seem to love earning free nights through spend (I do too!), I would casually suggest looking into Amex Hilton Biz (probably wait for 125k offer), new Hyatt card (probably highest signup offer it will have for a long period), and Radisson Biz (same benefit as personal card but lower annual fee).
Maybe also look into gas/grocery BoA card…it should go nicely with your Platinum Honor status.
Thanks, Travelinpoints. Other than Hyatt, I see I pretty much am in line with your recommendation. Will stick to this way. I may not get Hyatt card in near future. Not only because it has less hotel numbers in US, but also because I currently have quite a few hotel with FN: AA Ascend, SPG Biz, Marriott Biz, IHG, Radisson Biz. To double the capacity, my wife has almost the same cards to make us at least two FNs at every hotel chain mentioned above. I want to reduce them into up to two cards (for each person). After all, I don’t have that many trips to take. Travelinpoints, any suggestion which card you will keep if you were me? I realize that eevn 10K or 15K spending is a hassle for me. So I favor SPG or Marriott biz cards now. SPG could have been an easy winner if the Amex offer limit didn’t occur. Right now, I don’t know.
[…] still seemingly locked into $350 annual fee. In fact with added 5x on dining, it still remains as one of my best keeper premium card. Also, it is no secret that I actually like the Citi Thank You lineup and Citi cards in […]