SW airline Visa

I've spent my 50,000 free airline miles from SW airlines. I don't use the card enough to get any big miles. Should I cancel the card before the annual fee($99) is due in January?


When can I reapply and get another 50,000 miles?

 

As with most of these deals, usually not a great incentive to keep them and and pay the fee. Sometimes when you call in, they will waive it. Hard to say about SW, but we have 4 of them coming up shortly and will probably cancel, unless I take a big cash advance with a low percent.

By the way, if you get a 2nd card and get your TOTAL over 110,000 you get a companion pass good for a year. One person can fly free with you. Search on companion to get more information.

 

same card is 24 months to get bonus again. If you time them correctly and use with spouse getting they can be very good for miles.

 

Cancel the card, a no brainer. Once you have the miles in the account, it is pretty much worthless unless you plan on using it.

Reapply after a couple years, until then, apply for the Ink card for 40k more miles or Sapphire card for 40k as well.

 

Not to be a snot, but I can NEVER see why people pay an annual fee for a credit card!

I would just phone them and say that my regular bank is offering similar terms with no fee (which is probably true without even checking it out) and see if they will waive the fee to keep you.

 

There are three levels of SW cards, well four if you count the business card. Each time you cancel you can apply for the next level up. I think the annual fee caps out at $99. We have gone through all three cards individually, so 300,000 miles. Now we must wait 2 years before applying again.

I tried applying for the business card just using my SS# and a phony business name, but they turned me down.

 

Awards are why people pay the fees. When you sign up for the southwest card and spend 2k in the first 3 months you get 50,000 miles, but have to pay the $99 fee. Trust me 50,000 miles is worth $99

 

Here's the language from Chase's SW card application:
"This product is not available to either (i) current cardmembers of this credit card, or (ii) previous cardmembers of this credit card who received a new cardmember bonus for this credit card within the last 24 months."

Note that you're eligible for a sign-up bonus again 24 months after you last received the bonus.

I agree and disagree with this statement. My wife and I hold and pay the $49 annual fee for the Chase IHG card, which gets us a free night annually at anywhere from a local Holiday Inn Express (when we need it) to the Intercontinental San Francisco (last year). There are several credit cards worth paying the annual fee on for the benefits.

However, you're right that the OP is better off spending his card elsewhere. Rapid Rewards points are worth only, at maximum, 1.4 points under the new redemption scheme (unless you have a Companion Pass), and you can get plenty of other credit cards that earn you more than 1.4% back on regular (non-Southwest) purchases.

 

Go ahead and call your local bank. Ask them to deposit the 25,000 bonus miles for Southwest into your account. NOT!

I would agree that in general, paying an annual fee is stupid. There are times that some perk makes it worthwhile. I have paid a $450 annual fee and came out ahead. (reimbursed expenses, lounge access, bonus miles, etc)

- - - Updated - - -

WORSE THAN ANY ANNUAL FEE ARE THOSE THAT CARRY A BALANCE AND PAY INTEREST!

 

I have 2 SW cards that cost me $198 dollars. Got companion pass good through 2016.
and my air savings will be between $3200-$4000. Wish I could do this type of deal every year. Dropping one this year and keeping business one. Will start process all over next year with wife. get her 2 cards and work on getting companion again. All I did was pay my regular bills with my cards and kept 0 balance.

 

I do the same with my account. I use it for everything. I have not paid a dime in interest. I have easily taken 10 - 12 TR flights for myself or my family. For maybe the cost of 1 with annual fees included.

 

I haven't looked into this too deeply, but I thought if you continually cancel your credit cards it will have a negative effect on your credit score/rating. Is this true?

 

you will get a little ding of 10-20 points for a couple months, but it will go back up. Only thing dropping and getting new ones it can affect is inquiries and age. I was at 800+ and with newer ones I am down to about 790. As long as over 740 I wouldn't worry about it.

 

Yes and no.

You always want to have some credit status. Always have a few cards.
Have one card with $2k limit and balance of $1,900 is way worse than have a handful of cards with $1,900 spread among $15,000 in credit line. They look at how much of your credit is being utilized.

 

I pay an $80 annual fee for my Hawaiian airlines credit card (may have gone up to $89 this year). Charging a flight with the credit card I get my first bag free, the 2nd bag for only $25 (usually 1st bag costs $25, 2nd bag $35) so I usually make up for the fee with one r/t flight from Hawaii. In addition you get a 5% discount on HA flights when you charge it. You also get a half off companion discount if you travel between Hawaii and North America. You also get discounted award travel when you redeem your miles. On your anniversary date you get an additional 5,000 miles added to your Hawaiian miles account.

I usually travel at least twice a year so I save using the charge card so it's worth the annual fee.

I used to get a united air charge card (first year annual fee waived) every 2 years but lately most airlines require you to charge a certain amount (usually $1000 to $2000 or more) the first 3 or so months for you to get their bonus miles (usually between 35k to 50k miles). In Hawaii 1 mainland trip (air, hotel, rental car) usually will give me the $1000 expenditure but since I travel enough I just keep my charge card with the annual fee.

 

I couldn't agree more with your answer to DMR. Every year the $99 fee gets you 6,000 points which equals $99 in flight cash.

 

Heavens.

Get the cards that work for YOU. There is no one-size-fits-all reality.

 

True. But way too many just do not get how they work. Even the basics. I know personally, and read here, about so many that will not have a credit card. And their reason? Interest is too high. Hopefully, some will learn something here.

For example, most of our flights are free. We currently have a few intl trips booked, some in 1st Class, others in Business, all from credit cards. One flight would cost almost $20,000 to purchase. It cost us $150 in credit card fees and $100 in taxes. Duh!

 

I wasn't really referring to that phenom, but you are correct, here and in society in general there is a great deal of CC illiteracy, so to say. I'm merely speaking to those who categorically say do this/don't do that in terms of points or fees or whatever; different strokes. Our Alaska Air-affiliated card would, for instance, be of little value for someone in Texas. It's golden to us.

Anyway, interest rates? They don't have them because their credit sucks and they don't know where to start again. The interest on our cards could be 50% and it would mean ... nothing. If you don't look at your CC like a cash-advance instrument, rates are immaterial. Charge. Pay it off each cycle. Some can't do that, I realize, either because money is tight or they have no self-control. If either of those are the case then CC rewards really shouldn't be a concern since they shouldn't be financing such debt.

 

EXACTLY. WE have had our SW card since April and have paid zero interest, it has just taken the place of the ATM card, we have taken 4 trips to LV and paid for only 2 of them and are less than 1000pts from companion pass, that is worth way more than 98 bucks.