Latest news with #AmexPlatinum
Business Insider
16-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
I spend $940 on credit-card fees a year. These 4 travel perks make the cost worth it — and help me score free flights.
I travel at least once a month, so I'm always looking for savvy ways to fly in style and upgrade my trips without breaking the bank. Although it sounds surprising, one way I do this is by spending almost a thousand dollars on credit card fees each year. As a frequent traveler, I like how the cards' perks help elevate my trips and believe they're a good value. I pay $940 annually for three travel rewards cards: American Express Platinum, United Explorer, and Chase Sapphire Preferred. Here are four of my favorite benefits that easily justify the cost of every premium credit card in my wallet. Unlimited airport lounge access is my favorite perk There's nothing I value more than airport-lounge access on long travel days. I've visited dozens of lounges last year alone, whether flying through Dallas, Rome, or Seoul. My American Express Platinum card gets me access to over 1,400 airport lounges around the world. At a bare minimum, most of these lounges provide complimentary food and drinks, showers, and comfortable seating. Some offer more unique features, including massage chairs and outdoor terraces. The VIP Lounge in Punta Cana even has a pool. Although the card's $695 annual fee isn't cheap, I find lounge access is basically priceless as a frequent traveler. It's far better than waiting in a crowded, noisy terminal, and I never have to buy expensive food in the airport. Convenient access to a shower is also invaluable after a long flight. I also love the Amex Platinum's $200 hotel credit Another American Express Platinum card perk I use each year is my $200 hotel credit, which can be used on bookings through the American Express Travel Fine Hotels + Resorts program. I love any excuse for a discounted getaway, so this is one of my favorite features of the card. When booking through the Amex travel portal, cardholders may receive early check-in, late checkout, complimentary breakfast for two, and a $100 experience credit, among other perks. One year, a friend and I booked a luxury stay in Sydney using my card. We saved $200 on the room and used our $100 experience credit for drinks at the hotel's bar, which had stunning views of the nearby harbor. My United Airlines card includes free checked bags The most recent addition to my wallet is the United Explorer card. At $150 a year, the card's benefits quickly surpass the annual fee. To start, cardholders receive two complimentary visits to the United Club each year along with priority boarding on United flights. The most notable benefit, however, is a free checked bag on every United flight. When using the card to book a flight, cardholders receive a free checked bag for both themselves and a companion. The savings almost pay for themselves. If I and a guest checked a bag each way on a round-trip United flight, we'd pay $160 — more than this credit card's annual fee! I fly United several times a year, so adding the card to my wallet was a no-brainer. I've booked flights using only points with my Chase Sapphire Preferred card My most utilized travel card is the Chase Sapphire Preferred. For me, the $95 annual fee is well worth the point-earning opportunities. Cardholders earn 5 points per dollar on travel booked through Chase, 3 points per dollar on dining, select streaming, and online grocery purchases, and 2 points per dollar on all other travel purchases. By using this card for everyday transactions, I quickly rack up thousands of Chase Ultimate Rewards points on a regular basis. In the past year, I've used points to cover the entire cost of flights to countries like Japan and Italy. I've also redeemed points for a handful of domestic flights within the US. It's hard to beat traveling for free, and my Chase Sapphire Preferred makes that a whole lot easier. Rates, fees, and offers in this post are accurate at the time of publishing on May 16, 2025.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Stock Market Turmoil: Buy These 3 Dividend Stocks for Less Than $1,000 Right Now
The markets had a seemingly great run for the last two years. That got upended for various reasons in 2025, including the chaotic tariff strategy implemented by the Trump administration against virtually every country around the world, especially China. The S&P 500 index sank this year, while the volatility index shot up to highs not seen since early in the pandemic and (before that) the Great Recession in 2008-09. Chaos is becoming the theme of 2025, and many short-term investors are spooked. But chaos can also present buying opportunities for investors focused on the long term. If you've got $1,000 available the invest, here are three dividend growth stocks that scream buying opportunity right now. Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue » Wall Street gets concerned about loan performance from lenders during economic recessions. When wallets get tight, more people are unable to pay back loans, which can put a dent in the earnings of these financial companies. American Express (NYSE: AXP) is better shielded from these types of economic calamity. American Express' credit card business caters to wealthier customers, global travelers, and those with high credit scores. Its net write-off rate in Q1 of 2025 was at an industry low of 2.1%. This figure is likely to rise during a recession, but not nearly as much as other credit card issuers or banks. American Express' business includes more than just lending. Over half of its revenue comes from credit card swipe fees, with 14% coming from the annual fees customers pay on credit cards such as the Amex Platinum card. Even if the loan book sours, these diverse revenue streams can support American Express during a recession. Today, you can buy American Express stock at around $252, and it sports a dividend yield of 1.16%. It's an admittedly low dividend yield, but the company is a serial grower of its dividend per share, with management authorizing a 17% increase in the dividend earlier this year, making American Express a great dividend growth stock to buy and hold perpetually in your portfolio. The second dividend payer with strong dividend growth potential is Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL). The owner of Google Search and YouTube just started to pay a dividend last year and already has a yield of 0.52%. At a share price around $152, the stock is cheap given its long-term growth potential in artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing. Google Search revenue grew 12.5% year over year last quarter to $54 billion. Contrary to the narrative that AI is disrupting Alphabet's business, Google Search is doing just fine at the moment, even with heightened competition from the likes of OpenAI and other AI start-ups. Its cloud division grew revenue by 30% year over year, propelled by huge investments in AI computing power from companies around the world. On a consolidated basis, operating income grew 33% year over year to $112 billion in 2024. Today, Alphabet's annual dividend per share is $0.80, a figure significantly below its free cash flow per share of $5.74. Even if Alphabet doesn't grow its earnings over the next five years -- which I think it will -- the company has plenty of capacity to keep growing its dividend payout to shareholders. This makes the stock an easy buy at today's levels. My last dividend stock is at the lowest price on a per-share basis and trades at the highest dividend yield of the three: Ally Financial (NYSE: ALLY). At a price of $31.60 and a dividend yield of 3.8%, this security can provide investors strong and growing dividend income if they hold for the long haul. Ally operates a digital online-only bank and makes loans mainly in the consumer automotive sector. The company got hit with a double-whammy of earnings headwinds when the Federal Reserve started aggressively raising interest rates to combat inflation. It had to start paying higher interest rates to depositors, which increased its funding costs. However, its automotive loans sitting on the balance sheet had fixed interest rates, which compresses the interest spread earned on loans versus what is paid to depositors, known as the net interest margin (NIM). Today, with the Federal Reserve starting to unwind its interest rate hikes and the cycling through of new loans on the Ally balance sheet, its NIM has begun to expand again. It was 3.31% last quarter compared to 3.16% in the same quarter a year ago. Investors are worried about how tariffs will impact the automotive sector, but Ally should have the flexibility to weather any storm. It can transition to more used car loans or simply make fewer loans if supply dries up. Plus, if used car prices rise, that helps with the residual value when it takes on delinquent loans and sells the vehicle it made a loan for. Ally Financial is a strong financials business with the strength to now grow its dividend per share again (it has been stuck at $0.30 a quarter for the last 10 quarters). As this grows, your dividend income from owning Ally stock will grow, which makes it a great dividend growth stock to buy right now. Before you buy stock in Alphabet, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Alphabet wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $561,046!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $606,106!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 811% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 153% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of April 21, 2025 American Express is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Ally is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Brett Schafer has positions in Alphabet. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Stock Market Turmoil: Buy These 3 Dividend Stocks for Less Than $1,000 Right Now was originally published by The Motley Fool
