What Credit Cards Are Stuck in My Drawer?

I’ve already written about the cards that are currently going places with me in my wallet.

Now I’ll share the cards that I have, but are currently stuck in a drawer.

There’s a third place that I have some cards — such as small business cards related to my employer, Bluebird and my American Express Student Edition card, and my Suntrust Delta Debit card — but that’s potentially the subject of a different post still.

Here’s what’s in that drawer:

Let me describe how I think about each of these.

American Express Premier Rewards Gold

I’ve been using this card for its triple miles on airfare. I book enough tickets for myself but mostly for others that I spend $30,000 on the card and earn the annual 15,000 point bonus that comes with it. I consider that bonus worth the $175 annual fee for the card after the first year.

I’m not sure I’m going to do that again. I only consider 3 Membership Rewards points to be marginally better than the 2.14 Chase points that the Sapphire Preferred Card brings, for instance (and with no foreign transaction fees, to boot).

American Express Membership Rewards points are one of the three best points currencies in my view, so I’ve wanted to ensure I have a good stash of those. But the introduction of the Amex Everyday cards may leave Premier Rewards Gold as only the second best Membership Rewards-earning tool.

American Express Business Gold Rewards

I’ve had this card more than once in the past, there are sometimes really strong offers for signing up (I’ve gotten 50,000 and 75,000 points, respectively). And there are attractive category bonuses. But I tend not to maximize those — for instance, I don’t spend heavily on advertising. So it probably doesn’t make sense to keep in my personal staple of cards.

United Mileage Plus Select Card

This is the oldest card I have. I’ve had this account for more than 15 years. I’ve never upgraded it to the United Explorer card. And I’ve never downgraded it to the no fee card (to preserve the credit history). I do at least get 2500 bonus miles each year that helps the card’s annual fee go down easier.

Mostly I think I’m too emotionally attached to it to give it up, even though this legacy product that’s no longer offered to new customers doesn’t make sense any longer.

Virgin Atlantic MasterCard

Bank of America has long been generous with signup bonuses, and over time I have had this card more than one time.

In general Virgin Atlantic miles aren’t considered among the best currencies out there but they have some surprisingly good uses.

Many people used to transfer these points to Hilton HHonors, but first Hilton devalued and then the transfer ratio was reduced.

I suppose I just like collecting large mileage balances. I’ll do that with generous signup offers but I’m not sure I want to do it with ongoing spend. Hence why it’s in the drawer.

US Airways Premier World MasterCard

I’m earning 10,000 miles each year just for keeping the card so I’m happy to pay the $89 annual fee (buying miles at 9/10ths of a cent apiece).

I also keep it because it will become an American AAdvantage card, and one of the benefits – at least as of now – is earning elite qualifying miles based on spend.

This card gives 10,000 qualifying miles after $25,000 spend. That’s a lower requirement than the Citi Executive card has (which requires $40,000 in spend).

Even though American doesn’t know when they will combine elite qualifying miles from AAdvantage and Dividend Miles accounts I’ve actually put $25,000 of spend on this card already this year. Having reached that personal goal, I stuck it in a drawer for the rest of the year.

I want to hold onto this card because soon you won’t be able to apply for it, but existing cardholders will be able to keep it.

British Airways Visa Signature

The card offer currently is 50,000 points after $2000 in purchases within 3 months,

If you spend $30,000 on the card in a calendar year you earn a companion certificate so you can redeem miles and a second passenger travels on the award for no additional miles (but does pay the taxes and fuel surcharges). Here’s my full discussion of this offer.

British Airways offers family accounts so you can pool your miles. One person could get the card, spend $30,000 on it this year and earn 87,500 points (signup bonus plus 1.25 points per dollar for spending). A second person gets the card, and spends only enough for the 50,000 point bonus. Together they then have 140,000 points that can effectively be used twice for 280,000 points worth of travel as long as they fly together and exclusively on British Airways.

The reason this card is in my drawer now is that I’m not going to go for the companion award ticket (“travel together ticket”) this year. And in general I do better earning British Airways points via an American Express Membership Rewards-earning card (with category bonuses), Chase Sapphire Preferred Card (again, category bonuses), and my Ink Plus card (for the same reason).

Korean Air Skypass Visa

I signed up when I received a bonus offer of 40,000 points.

I earned the bonus. 20,000 posted right away and even though I qualified for the full bonus I had to wait 3-4 months to receive the second 40,000 mile installment.

Korean miles are fantastic for award travel to Hawaii on Alaska AIrlines and Hawaiian. There are some excellent Skyteam award values. And the program probably offers the best first class award availability options in the world.

But on an ongoing basis, you’re going to do much better transferring points into Korean earned via the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card and Ink Bold or Ink Plus cards than you will earning them via spend on the Korean Air Visa. As a result this card stays in the drawer until closer to its one year anniversary.

Citi AAdvantage World MasterCard

There’s a great 50,000 mile signup bonus available on this card. There are a bunch of flight benefits as well, but I get all of them anyway as an AAdvantage Executive Platinum.

The reason I keep this card in the drawer is that each year when I redeem 100,000 AAdvantage miles I get a 10,000 mile rebate — and that’s worth more than the card’s $85 annual fee.

Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Card

I wrote about how the Starwood Business Amex has a current place in my wallet. The advantage that card has over the personal card is the OPEN Savings Program. I use the business card to pay for my domestic Hyatt stays and get a 5% rebate.

I want to have both cards, though, since I’m going for Starwood Platinum this year and each gives me 2 stays and 5 nights towards that.

This is the card I’ve had second-longest, and it remains a great card for the breadth of airline mileage transfer options (and with built-in transfer bonus). But I don’t need to carry more than one.

(Some these cards cards offer credit to me if you’re approved using my links. I either do not have my own links for some other cards, or the best available offer is not my link so I haven’t posted mine here. The opinions, analyses, and evaluations here are mine. The content is not provided or commissioned by American Express, by Chase, by Citibank, US Bank, Bank of America, Barclays or any other company. They have not reviewed, approved or endorsed what I have to say.)


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The post What Credit Cards Are Stuck in My Drawer? appeared first on View from the Wing.


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