Last updated on February 28th, 2024 at 08:28 pm
As you all know, I’ve been on a mission to reduce the amount of annual fees I’m paying. The latest development in this mission is me saying buh-by Marriott Bonvoy Premier Visa! This was a no-brainer, given my current travel style and the card’s utility to me.
For a long time, the Marriott Bonvoy Premier Visa was my most used credit card. Sure, its earning power isn’t that great, but the card did award one Elite Qualifying Night (EQN) for every $3,000 spent, which was useful for me while I was chasing Bonvoy Lifetime Platinum status. And now that I’ve achieved it, along with Marriott’s own gutting of its program, the card no longer sees any use.
Marriott Bonvoy Premier Visa
The Marriott Bonvoy Premier Visa is Marriott’s original “standard” co-brand credit card. It’s no longer available to new applicants, but you can product change to it from another Chase Marriott card that’s at least one year old. In its final form, the card’s details include:
- $85 annual fee
- 5x points on Marriott spend
- 2x points on dining, car rentals, and airlines
- 1x points on everything else
- 15 EQNs annually
- 1 EQN for every $3,000 spent
- Annual 25,000 points certificate
Sure, the certificate more than makes up for the $85 annual fee, but it isn’t all that useable. In fact, most of the time, I can only use it at one hotel on Oahu and often struggle to use it even when traveling out of state. So, to me, that did nothing to help justify keeping the card.
Buh-Bye Marriott Bonvoy Premier Visa
As I mentioned above, the card’s key benefit isn’t useful to me, while I also haven’t used the card at all in some time. After all, I’m no longer trying to use it to earn status or earn EQNs toward Lifetime status, and its earning power is quite weak. So when the annual fee posted to my account the other day, I knew it was time to say buh-bye to my Marriott Bonvoy Premier Visa.
That said, I didn’t cancel my card outright. Rather, I called Chase and asked for a product change. Specifically, I dropped the card down to the no-annual-fee Marriott Bonvoy Bold Visa. Interestingly, that card has fairly similar features as my old Premier card:
- 15 EQNs per year
- 3x points on Marriott spend
- 2x points on all other spend
Sure, the card doesn’t come with any annual certificates, nor does it earn any EQNs, but that’s ok.
Final Thoughts
Honestly, I’ve been thinking about getting rid of this card for some time now. Why I haven’t is probably because of its sentimental value to me. But when I saw that $85 hit my account? Nope. I’m not paying that much money for something that provides no value for me. Sure, I probably won’t use the Bonvoy Bold, either, but I wanted to preserve my available credit lines, and it has no annual fee. So no harm, no foul.