720 euros for a credit card. I'm doing the math in public.

On the 13th of August I applied for a credit card that costs 720 euros a year. That is more than I have paid for some long haul flights. I still think it is a good decision, which is exactly why I am doing the maths here in the open. A number you do not write down can be told any way you like later.

This is part one of three. Part two comes at the halfway mark, part three after twelve months, once I know whether the numbers added up.

What it says on paper

It is the American Express Platinum, applied for through a running points promotion.

Item	Number
Annual fee	720 euros
Welcome bonus	up to 85,000 points
First tier	40,000 points after 6,000 euros of spending within six months
Second tier	another 45,000 points after 10,000 euros of spending in total
Credits per the provider	200 euros travel, 200 euros Sixt Ride, 150 euros dining, 100 euros shopping
Lounge	two Priority Pass memberships

650 euros of credit against a 720 euro fee. Counted that way the card costs 70 euros a year and the 85,000 points come along for free. That is how it is advertised, and it can genuinely turn out that way. It hangs on one question that does not appear in the brochure.

The conditions are the actual deal

Not fine print, but the heart of the matter.

• 10,000 euros in six months is around 1,700 euros of spending a month, every month.
• Cash withdrawals and the annual fee itself do not count towards it.
• Refunds are deducted again. Whatever I send back is gone as spending too.
• If I cancel within the first year, the bonus is clawed back.

The six months start when the card arrives, not when I applied. For me that is doable, because servers, software, advertising and groceries come up every month anyway. For someone without those running costs it would be a very different calculation.

What I actually count on

A credit is only worth what I redeem. My rule for that is simple. Any credit that would require me to change my behaviour starts at zero.

Item	On paper	What I count
Travel credit	200 euros	200 euros
Sixt Ride	200 euros	0 euros
Dining credit	150 euros	150 euros
Shopping credit	100 euros	100 euros
Total	650 euros	450 euros

So the card costs me 270 euros in the first year instead of the advertised 70. Sixt Ride is the only line at zero, because I do not yet know whether I will use it. If I do, the maths gets better. The second column is today's estimate, not a result. In twelve months the real number goes here.

270 euros for 85,000 points. That is the real question behind this experiment.

The trap is not the fee

It is the spending target. 10,000 euros in six months creates a quiet pressure, and that pressure costs money faster than any annual fee. Someone who buys 500 euros of things to earn 500 points has not made a deal, they have spent 500 euros.

So my only rule for the next six months is that the card carries only spending that would have happened without it. If that does not get me to the target, then it does not. That would be the result.

A point is only worth something once it has been redeemed. Everything before that is a number in an app.

What the points will actually go towards

One thing is settled before the first point is even booked. The points go into travel. No merchandise, no statement credit. Those are the worst rates a programme offers, and that is precisely why they are built in so conveniently.

Flights come first in my head, because that is where the most value per point sits. Hotels are the second half of it though, and in some cases the better half. The card opens a few doors there anyway, status tiers at several hotel chains and a separate booking route with on site credit and breakfast. How much of that actually lands in everyday life is one of the things I can answer in twelve months and not today.

How to work out the value of a redemption, and when a hotel beats a flight, is written up in the guides. How everyday spending turns into a trip

A second, far less spectacular pile runs alongside it. A Miles and More card and the Payback Amex have since been added, both approved as well. Payback points convert one to one into Miles & More, and that costs me nothing extra because the card is at the till anyway. Two currencies, one goal, and the expensive card is only half of it.

What happens next

Part two arrives at the halfway mark with the real spending figure and the question of what I underestimated. Part three is the reckoning after twelve months, including the decision whether I renew or cancel.

If the numbers add up, it will be written here. If they do not, it will be written here just the same.