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Open the United℠ Business Card if your company flies mostly United. Its free first checked bag for you and a companion saves up to $200 a round trip, $50 more than the $150 annual fee, and the card adds two United Club passes a year. If you fly United only occasionally, the personal United Explorer Card is enough.
Get the United Club℠ Card only if you’d pay for a United Club membership anyway. Its $695 annual fee is $55 less than United’s $750 membership, which admits no guest, and the card adds free checked bags for you and a companion. If you fly United a few times a year, pick the United Explorer Card instead.
Get the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business American Express Card if you fly Delta for work and can plan one trip a year with a companion. Each year after you renew, its companion certificate puts that person on an economy round trip for only the taxes and fees. That certificate is what justifies the $350 annual fee.
Open the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card only if you fly Delta for work often enough to use most of its 15 yearly Sky Club visits. Lounge access is the main thing that separates this $650 card from Delta’s cheaper business cards, so skip it if you’d rarely use a club.
The Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card is worth its $650 annual fee only if you fly Delta often enough to use its 15 yearly Sky Club lounge visits and its companion certificate. It seats a second traveler for only taxes and fees, even in first class. If you’d skip the lounges, get the $350 Delta Platinum card.
Get the United℠ Explorer Card if you fly United a few times a year and check a bag. At United’s $50 airport bag fee, free first bags for you and a companion save $200 on one round trip, $50 more than the $150 annual fee. And there’s no annual fee the first year.
Get the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card only if you’ll use its companion certificate on a trip you’d take anyway. Your companion’s Delta Main round trip then costs just taxes and fees, so one trip can cover the $350 fee. If not, the Delta Gold card has the same free bags for $150 a year instead of $350.
Get the Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card if you fly Delta a few times a year and check a bag, since the free checked bag alone makes its $150 annual fee worth paying. If you rarely fly Delta or never check a bag, skip it unless you’d use its hotel and rideshare credits anyway.
Open the Delta SkyMiles® Blue American Express Card if you want Delta miles without an annual fee, since it earns 2 miles per dollar on purchases from Delta and at restaurants. If you check a bag on two or more Delta round trips a year, choose the Delta SkyMiles Gold for its free checked bag instead.
If you have $5,000 or more in credit card debt and a FICO score of at least 620, check your rate with Happy Money, which can send the loan straight to your cards. Its origination fee runs as high as 12%, so compare its annual percentage rate with other lenders’ offers for the same amount and term before you sign.
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