Giving the Business to Chase Southwest Business
Recently it was the first anniversary of my Chase Southwest business credit card. I feel like I got pretty good value from it the past 12 months though I was doubtful if I wanted to keep it another year. Time to check the score.
Points Galore
I signed up for this credit card May 2019. The signup offer was 60,000 bonus points after $3,000 spend in the first 3 months. I hit that target quite ably as I travel a lot on Southwest Airlines- or at least I did before Coronavirus became a pandemic in the US earlier this year. Over the course of 12 months I charged a total of almost $20,000 to this card and earned almost 88,000 points. I value Southwest points at $0.02 each, for a gross value of $1,760. That's huge!
There are some subtractions, though, to take away from that gross. For one, the card has an annual fee of $99. Two, I always baseline rewards cards against what I could earn with my no-AF, 2% cash back credit card. That opportunity cost is $176. So my net gain with this card is $1,485. That's still huge!
Fee Waiver Keeps It Flying
As huge as first year earnings are with these cards, subsequent years are more modest because they don't have those big sign-up bonuses. This Southwest card does, at least, have a small anniversary bonus built it. It's 6,000 points. At my valuation that's $120 worth of points, which is not terribly much more than the $99 AF. With my air travel at a standstill- I haven't flown for nearly four months at this point- there didn't see to be much value to holding this card.
When you're playing the credit card game it's rare that you want to outright cancel a credit card, as I've noted before. That's because banks often have retention bonuses available. The trick is you have to say you wish to cancel, and sometimes even specifically ask if bonuses are available, before they're offered. In my case I got a $100 statement credit in exchange for paying the $99 AF and keeping the account open. I net $1 on that transaction and I still keep the 6,000 points anniversary bonus. I'll keep this card for another year... and hopefully I'll be able to fly with it against soon!
Points Galore
I signed up for this credit card May 2019. The signup offer was 60,000 bonus points after $3,000 spend in the first 3 months. I hit that target quite ably as I travel a lot on Southwest Airlines- or at least I did before Coronavirus became a pandemic in the US earlier this year. Over the course of 12 months I charged a total of almost $20,000 to this card and earned almost 88,000 points. I value Southwest points at $0.02 each, for a gross value of $1,760. That's huge!
There are some subtractions, though, to take away from that gross. For one, the card has an annual fee of $99. Two, I always baseline rewards cards against what I could earn with my no-AF, 2% cash back credit card. That opportunity cost is $176. So my net gain with this card is $1,485. That's still huge!
Fee Waiver Keeps It Flying
As huge as first year earnings are with these cards, subsequent years are more modest because they don't have those big sign-up bonuses. This Southwest card does, at least, have a small anniversary bonus built it. It's 6,000 points. At my valuation that's $120 worth of points, which is not terribly much more than the $99 AF. With my air travel at a standstill- I haven't flown for nearly four months at this point- there didn't see to be much value to holding this card.
When you're playing the credit card game it's rare that you want to outright cancel a credit card, as I've noted before. That's because banks often have retention bonuses available. The trick is you have to say you wish to cancel, and sometimes even specifically ask if bonuses are available, before they're offered. In my case I got a $100 statement credit in exchange for paying the $99 AF and keeping the account open. I net $1 on that transaction and I still keep the 6,000 points anniversary bonus. I'll keep this card for another year... and hopefully I'll be able to fly with it against soon!