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I Paid $4,807 in Credit Card Annual Fees in 2023 – Was it Worth it?

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Good evening everyone, I hope your holiday season is going well.  With the end of the year right around the corner, I decided to publish my 2023 version of credit card annual fees I paid this year.  For comparison, here are my previous credit card annual fee posts:

For this year’s post, I decided to break up the list of credit cards into 5 sections:

  • New credit cards with sign up bonuses
  • Credit cards with retention offers
  • Credit cards that have been upgraded / downgraded / product changed
  • Annual fees saved on closed credit cards
  • All other credit cards

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How Much Money Did I Make from Bank Account Bonuses in 2023?

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Good morning everyone, I hope your week is going well.  Doctor of Credit has a Best Bank Account Bonuses page that he keeps up to date with the best offers each month.  In that master post, he links to individual bank account bonuses with helpful information regarding the bonus details, how to avoid monthly fees, when to close the account, how often you can open a new account, and much more.  For the last 9 years, I have been opening new checking accounts, savings accounts, brokerage accounts, and cash management accounts for the new member bonuses.  At the end of each year, I share my results on the blog.

Over the last 9 years, I have made over $24,000 in bank account bonuses.  You will receive 1099-INT / 1099-MISC tax forms every year, so you have to pay taxes on the bank account bonuses, but sometimes you can fund the opening deposit with a credit card and earn miles, points, or cash back.  If you are lucky, you can meet a minimum spending requirement by funding a new checking account or reach a high spending target to earn more rewards.  Here are my results from the last 9 years with links to corresponding yearly summaries:

Drum roll please… Here are the 13 new accounts I opened in 2023 that paid out $3,685 in bonuses:

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6 Buy Miles / Points Promos Ending Soon: British Airways (40%), Choice Hotels (30%), Marriott (30%), Air France / KLM (100%), Radisson (50%) & United Airlines (100%)

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Good afternoon everyone, happy Thursday!  I was working on my Buy Miles & Points Page and found 6 offers that end in the next week.  Always check the math to make sure that buying miles & points makes sense for you.  Do not buy miles & points speculatively unless you have a use in mind.  With that said, here are 6 offers that end soon.

Up first, British Airways is offering up to a 40% bonus, depending on the number of British Airways Avios you purchase.  This offer expires tomorrow – December 15.

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Unsolicited Advice: How I Would Price Vacasa Vacation Rental Point Redemptions If I Ran Wyndham Rewards

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Good morning everyone, I hope your week is going well.  I’ve been a huge fan of Vacasa Vacation Rentals using Wyndham Rewards Points and have booked 6 Vacasa properties in California and Hawaii over the last few years.  Back in October, Frequent Miler discovered that Vacasa now has a lower cap on reservations booked with WR Points.  You can now only redeem WR Points if the price per bedroom per night is $350 or less, down from the previous $500 per bedroom per night.  That is a major blow to the value you could get booking Vacasa Vacation Rentals.

Here is the current chart that shows the price in dollars and WR Points needed, based on the number of bedrooms and the average nightly price (including taxes and fees).  If you have a Barclays Wyndham Rewards Earner Plus or Earner Business credit card, you get a 10% discount on the number of WR Points needed.  Based on those numbers, the maximum cents per point (CPP) is 2.33 CPP for all members and 2.59 CPP for Earner Plus and Earner Business CC members.

# Bedrooms
Avg Nightly Price Cap
# WR Points
10% Discount
CPP Standard
CPP Earner CC
1 $350 15,000 13,500 2.33 2.59
2 $700 30,000 27,000 2.33 2.59
3 $1,050 45,000 40,500 2.33 2.59
4 $1,400 60,000 54,000 2.33 2.59

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Tracking Down a Missing $50 Bank of America Business Credit Card Retention Offer

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Good morning everyone, I hope your weekend is going well.  On October 31, I called Bank of America about my Bank of America Business Advantage Unlimited Cash Rewards (UCR) Credit Card and told the rep I wanted to close the credit card because I wasn’t using it anymore.  The rep offered me a $50 retention offer with no spend if I kept the credit card open and I said yes.  Fast forward to December 7, I still had not seen the $50 retention offer, which I assumed would show up as a $50 statement credit.  As part of my daily routine, I check my Bank of America app and did not see any credits show up on my UCR.  When I called Bank of America to inquire about the status of my $50 retention offer, the rep put me on hold for a few minutes to read the notes and see what happened.  When the rep returned, I was told that the $50 retention offer was put into my Cash Rewards.  I never thought to check there.  In this post, I will show you where to go to find the retention offer in the Cash Rewards and the various redemption options.

To get started, sign into your Bank of America account (either online or via the app), select your business credit card account, and then select the corporate account.

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