Fees! You know how I hate them. And now, the Marriott Rewards® Premier Credit Card is raising their annual fee from $65 to $85. That's over 30%! It's pretty hard to stomach that kind of a price increase in any economy, let alone one that's in as bad a shape as ours. It's the kind of news that makes me want to run over to AMEX and get the Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card that many extol as the best travel rewards card or maybe even PenFed's AMEX travel rewards card. It's got NO annual fee.
As a reminder though, let's re-visit all the lovely benefits of the Marriott Rewards® Premier Credit Card:
- NEW! 50,000 bonus points after your first purchase
- NEW! No annual fee the first year
- NEW! No foreign transaction fees
- A free night stay upon account approval (category 1-4 hotels)
- A free night stay EVERY YEAR upon account anniversary (category 1-5 hotels)
- 15 nights credit toward Elite status
- 5 points per $1 spent at Marriott
- 2 points per $1 spent on airline, dining and rental car purchases
- 1 point per $1 spent elsewhere
- 1 Elite Night for every $3,000 spent on your card
Sigh. There's a lot of good stuff in there. And, the vast majority of time I'm using this card on business so all the accrued points are actually free to me since I'm being reimbursed for the dollars. I've got a few months to decide before my next annual fee would be due, but I am certainly not happy about this change.