4 Controversial Opinions About Credit Cards
We always like to say that the world of credit cards can be very subjective because everyone has different spending habits and different goals.
Not all people have the same opinions - and that’s OK!
But today, we wanted to go over a few of our credit card opinions that might be a bit unpopular (or even controversial):
1️⃣ Airport Lounge Access is Overrated
We love a good airport lounge. They’re comfortable, they have free food and drinks, and they can be a great place to kill some time before your flight.
But we also don’t think they’re an absolute necessity to have access to either.
Airport lounges, especially lounges from credit card issuers, tend to get overcrowded very easily during peak travel times.
They also can come with long wait times to even get in - and currently, Amex and Capital One lounges don’t even allow free guest access anymore.
That can be frustrating when you’re traveling with other people.
Food and service quality also varies a lot depending on the airport that you’re at.
So we think that airport lounge access is nice to have as a bonus benefit on your credit cards…
But don’t get a card just because it’s going to get you into these lounges because they’re not always as glamorous as you might think.
2️⃣ CPP Value Isn’t The Only Thing That Matters
Cent Per Point (CPP) value is something that you should always calculate when redeeming your credit card points - especially for travel:
Anything below 1 CPP is like devaluing your points.
Anything at 1 CPP is the baseline value.
Anything between 1 to 2 CPP is good value.
And anything above 2 CPP is great value.
If you’re getting super high values like 3, 4, or even 5+ CPP, then those numbers can feel like a huge win…
BUT what you need to remember is that you’re typically only going to get those super high CPP values by redeeming for luxury hotels and business / first class flights.
So yes, it can be great to redeem 100 thousand points to get a $5,000 lay flat seat on a flight over to Europe (5 CPP) - but would you have really paid $5,000 in cash for that flight if you didn’t have credit card points?
Compare that to redeeming 50,000 points for 3 nights at a hotel that would have cost $1,000 (2 CPP).
Yes, you got a lower CPP value…
But you also used half as many points - AND you could have potentially received more value from those points over a 3 day hotel stay versus a flight that was over in 7 hours anyway.
The takeaway here is that you should not look at CPP value alone when redeeming your credit card points.
Look at the bigger picture and consider the utility of what that redemption will do for your travels!
3️⃣ Bilt 2.0 is Not As Complicated As You Think
We know, Bilt 2.0 really caused a lot of headache when it first launched back in January.
There was a ton of math that we all had to do to try to understand if Bilt was still valuable enough to continue using…
And that math felt way too complicated (because it was).
But after using the Bilt Palladium Card for over 6 months now (Daniel here), the good news is that Bilt handles 100% of this math behind the scenes for you.
I haven’t had to ever think twice about how each $1 spent on my Palladium Card earns 4% Bilt Cash - and how $30 of that Bilt Cash converts into 1,000 points unlocked on my rent/mortgage.
I just chose the “Flexible Bilt Cash” option over the “Housing-Only Rewards” option when I got started with my Bilt Card - and then I chose to redeem my Bilt Cash to Unlock Points on Housing when I set up my mortgage payment through Bilt.
Now, I don’t even have to think about it - and I know that every $1 I spend on my Palladium Card earns 3.33X Bilt Points (for up to 75% of my housing amount).
If I have any Bilt Cash leftover, then that’s great - I can also choose to redeem $200 of Bilt Cash to earn an extra 1X point per dollar for my next $5,000 of spending.
Or I can use any extra Bilt Cash to get dollar-for-dollar value on a number of different monthly credits for things like Lyft, Walgreens, fitness classes, etc.
Personally, I don’t want to turn my Bilt Palladium Card into another coupon book, so I choose to just redeem my Bilt Cash for as many Bilt Points as possible - but the flexibility is actually pretty nice to have.
By the way, I’ll have my full 6 month review video for the Bilt Palladium uploaded to my YouTube channel later today - so go turn on notifications to see that video when it goes live!
(If you comment and mention “Wiser Wallet” then I’ll reply back to your comment!)
4️⃣ Not Everyone Should Be Earning Points For Travel
People like to talk about being on Team Cash Back vs Team Travel when it comes to credit cards.
Team Cash Back tends to be simpler and has lower annual fees - while Team Travel has more upside value but requires a bit of an advanced understanding of how to transfer points the right way.
But what we’ve found is that too many people go towards Team Travel because they get excited about the flashy sign up bonuses for 100,000 points or more - only to then have no idea what to do with those points.
Or even worse, once they have hundreds of thousands of points saved up, they just redeem those for travel booked in a portal anyway - sometimes at values below 1 CPP.
A lot of people also hoard their points and save them for too long as they lose value each and every year.
So in our opinion, if you’re going to hoard points or you don’t feel confident in redeeming them - just make your life easier and earn cash back!
There are actually a lot of valuable cash back credit cards out there that earn anywhere from 3% to 5% back on everything.
Cash back sign up bonuses aren’t usually too much - but if you’re looking for an easy credit card strategy that you don’t have to think about, then go with cash back!
