How many cards are too many?

Good morning from Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of Brunei and the city whose name is really fun to say. 🇧🇳

Here’s what I’ve got for you today:

• 🤔 How many cards are too many?

• ✈️ Spirit Airlines’ new fares, explained

• 🎥 To burn points on premium seats… or not?

🤔 How many cards are too many?

The other day, I got a question from one of our esteemed readers.

Actually, we constantly get this question…

Given how often we talk about cards and how many insane offers we’ve been seeing lately, I thought now would be a good time to address this.

Here’s the TLDR:

Of course, it’s a bit more nuanced than that…

So, let me cover a couple of points that led people to ask this question in the first place.

Having a bunch of cards doesn’t inherently hurt your credit score

If you carry huge balances and don’t make your payments on time, then yes - your score will be damaged…

But to be frank, you should not be in this world if you can’t complete your payments in full every month.

Here is a breakdown of what affects your credit score:

When you have multiple cards and manage them responsibly, 90% of what makes up your score will be positively impacted each month.

The only negative aspect of opening a new account is the “New Credit” category, which only affects 10% of your score and usually results in a minor decrease, which recovers after a couple of months.

Simply paying your bill on time and keeping a low balance accounts for 65% of your score alone - so having multiple cards is not as scary as it sounds!

It’s okay to pay a bunch of annual fees as long as the value you get outweighs the cost

The easiest cards to justify holding are the following two categories:

• Cards with no annual fee

• Hotel cards that offer annual Free Nights

• Premium cards with easy-to-use credits

On Monday, I told you about this card, which currently has a ridiculous welcome offer.

Since it has no annual fee and a high earning rate on non-categorized spending, this is a card you can justify holding onto forever without thinking about it.

But as I said earlier, hotel cards are also almost always easy to justify holding onto long-term since many (but not all) of them come with annual free night awards.

For example, I have five cards with annual fees under $100 that offer an annual free night award.

These are no-brainers because I regularly get at least $300 in value (often far more) from each free night.

Boom. No stress.

Now, on that third point… there are some premium cards, like the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, that have a higher annual fee but easy-to-use credits.

This card has a $395 annual fee but offers a $300 annual travel credit, 10,000 anniversary bonus points (which you can cash out on travel purchases for $100), and up to 10x points on some purchases.

In this case, you’re getting a card with solid earning rates, good insurance, and lounge access with an annual fee that pays for itself as long as you spend a few hundred bucks a year on travel.

So here’s the bottom line:

There are plenty of cards you can stack your wallet with that don’t require much thought about holding onto year after year.

And as long as you’re responsible with managing those cards, your credit score will go up. It’s as simple as that!

✈️ Spirit Airlines’ new fares, explained

In case you missed the news last month, Spirit Airlines announced they would be doing away with their previous business model of charging dirt-cheap fares and allowing passengers to pay for extra add-ons.

As of a couple of weeks ago, they’ve completely switched over to their new model, which includes various fare classes, each of which includes various combinations of what were previously “add-ons.”

Here’s the big change…

In the past, you could book a cheap basic economy fare and pay to sit in the Big Front Seat (which, believe it or not, is comparable to other airlines’ first-class seats).

Now, however, you’ll need to buy Spirit’s new “Go Big” fare, which includes the Big Front Seat as part of the fare.

Here is a graphic showing the new fare types and what is included with each:

Overall, it’s disappointing to see the previous model disappear…

Buying a $20 flight and paying an extra $40 or $50 to sit in the Big Front Seat was a screamin’ deal.

But I am actually still a fan of these new fares, and I’ll tell you why…

Look at what’s included with Spirit’s new business-class fare:

• Big Front Seat

• Carry-on bag

• Checked bag

• In-flight Wi-Fi

• Priority Boarding

• Priority Check-in

• Priority Security

• Snacks and drinks onboard

At this point, that’s a pretty full-service experience. 

And, so far, it looks like many of these top-tier fares are actually super reasonably priced.

For example, I picked a random route on a random date (Boston to Atlanta on November 12th) and found the following pricing:

$126 for three hours in a Big Front Seat and all of the other perks is actually a fantastic deal.

For reference, flying one of the legacy airlines like Delta on the same date in business or first will cost you nearly three times the price, with basically the same perks.

Other routes seem to have similarly reasonable pricing as well.

I found a flight from Las Vegas to St. Louis for $165 with Spirit’s new “Go Big” fare.

So here’s the bottom line:

Spirit completely revamped its business model, but the resulting bundles are actually pretty solid, even for some of Spirit’s longer flights.

If you can save a couple hundred bucks and still have a premium flying experience, that’s a huge win in my book.

Overall, I think this is positive news for domestic travelers!

It’s a tale as old as time…

Should you burn a bunch of your miles and points for a premium seat? Or save them to book more flights… but in economy.

In this week’s video, Brendan explores Virgin Atlantic’s economy and Upper Class seats to tell you if the upgrade is worth the extra points (and fees!).

He’ll also detail how you can save some points in the process by using Virgin’s Companion Seat option, and how he ultimately booked both flights this way.

Now there are pros and cons for each choice… to go premium or not to go premium…

But when it comes down to it all, it’s usually just a personal choice.

What’s your vote? 😏

That’s all for today, folks! I hope you enjoyed this dry educational content about credit scores, cards, and Spirit Airlines.

Personally, I’d have a hard time resisting being loyal to Spirit if I lived in the U.S…. Comfy seats, premium perks, and low prices? It really doesn’t get better than that. 😎

Anyway, take care and see you bright and early tomorrow. ❤️

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