So far, I have spoken about how you can maximise your miles earn rate from credit card expenditure, both specialised and general. But I also added that credit cards have a lot more to offer. I know, most people are more inclined to waive credit card annual fees to avoid such payments at all cost. After all, who wants to fork out money for nothing right? But what if there’s actually some value to your annual card fees, such as the ‘free’ bonus miles that come along with it?
Of course nothing is free in this world. You’re actually paying for the miles that you get through credit card sign up and renewal bonuses. Therefore, unlike my previous posts on miles obtained through credit card expenditure, this mode of miles acquisition involves the “buying” of miles. Yes you heard me right, you can purchase your miles, and credit card sign up and renewal bonuses is just one of the many avenues available to do so.
I have included in the table below the entire list of credit cards I hold that have applicable sign up and/or renewal bonuses.
I have indicated the total number of miles I could potentially obtain in a good year from just credit card annual fees alone, and that’s a whopping 405000! That works out to an average of 1.7 cents per mile, which is pretty decent!
Yes, granted that unlike credit card spending where you actually get to enjoy a meal, service or product and the miles just seem to come along with the purchase, annual fees get you nothing but the miles. However, if your main aim is to accumulate the most miles from all your available resources, you will have to decide for yourself if it is worthwhile to boost your mile earn rate through annual fees and applicable sign up bonuses. That being said, if your repository of miles is healthy enough and you do not need the extra bit, by all means waive the annual fee. But if you need just that extra boost to get you an award ticket to somewhere exotic, it doesn’t hurt that much to pay a bit to “buy” some miles through your annual fees.
One might then ask if there are any other ways to purchase miles, and the answer is a resounding YES! Up next: how to purchase frequent flyer miles.