High-end credit cards are nothing new. American Express has been catering to a discerning crowd since the 1960s, while airlines began partnering with Visa and Mastercard in the 1980s to launch airline credit cards for loyal travelers.

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Cards with triple-digit annual fees are becoming more common, with even several “midmarket” cards upping fees to around $150. But that’s pocket change compared to premium card annual fees of $500 or more.

High annual fees get a mixed reaction from consumers. A NerdWallet survey, conducted online by The Harris Poll, found that 57% of Americans say no annual fee would be important to them if they were applying for a new credit card.

At the same time, the J.D. Power 2025 U.S. Credit Card Satisfaction Study found that cardholders paying an annual fee of $500 or higher are less satisfied with the reasonableness of that cost, but they’re more satisfied with the overall card experience than those paying an annual fee under $500.

“So much of the card perception and satisfaction is based on the return or the value that the consumer feels like they’re getting from the product,” says John Cabell, managing director, payments intelligence at J.D. Power.

Compared with cards with lower fees, premium cards offer many additional benefits that can help justify the cost. Depending on your needs and spending habits, high-fee cards may or may not be a better deal for you.

When to consider a high-fee card

You travel often

Premium credit cards typically offer travel-related perks, such as annual travel credits worth hundreds of dollars and free visits to airport lounges. You may also get a few travel-adjacent benefits, like the ability to book a reservation at a popular restaurant for a special dinner on vacation, or access to ticket presales for concerts and sporting events.

If you’re not a frequent traveler, other cards can be more rewarding for those close-to-home purchases — groceries, food delivery, gas or public transit for your daily commute, or streaming service subscriptions. If these expenses make up the bulk of your spending, a cash-back card could be a better fit.

The card’s other perks match your habits

Increasingly, premium cards are offering coupon book-style credits. You pay the annual fee, and then chip away at it by making certain purchases that earn statement credits.

These credits can be offered as one annual discount, or they may be divided into smaller semi-annual or monthly credits.

Often, they apply only for a purchase at a specific merchant, such as a discount on the membership fee for a certain fitness club. Or you may get a credit for something broader, such as a collection of participating restaurants in several cities.

If you were already spending money on an eligible purchase, your card is giving you a valuable discount. But if you buy something expensive just to get a little money back, you’re still spending a lot of money.

You get good value out of your points

You probably didn’t sign up for an expensive card just to save $10 a month on ridesharing. Let’s acknowledge the most compelling reason: the enormous welcome bonus that will knock hundreds of dollars off the cost of a future vacation.

In some cases, redeeming for travel is how you get the most value out of your points. Some cards allow you to transfer your points to one of their airline or hotel partners, which can be a highly valuable way to cash in your rewards.

But if you redeem in other ways — like for cash back, gift cards or merchandise — point values can vary and may be lower.

When to stick to a lower-fee card

You have credit card debt

As appealing as premium credit cards can be, if you have credit card debt, hold off on applying for one. The amount you’re paying in interest is going to wipe out the value of your rewards pretty quickly.

“Where that math works is best for people who are transacting and who are not paying interest on that credit card, because that’s a real drain,” Cabell says.

Let’s see how this math can play out. According to NerdWallet’s 2024 Household Credit Card Debt study, the average U.S. household with revolving credit card debt owed $10,815 as of June 2025. If you carried a debt of this amount and paid an interest rate of 22% (just under the average credit card interest rate of 22.25%, according to Federal Reserve data as of May 2025), you’d spend more than $2,300 in a year on interest payments.

It’s unlikely you’ll be able to recoup that cost with a card’s sign-up bonus and a few statement credits. (And, again, to earn those statement credits, you have to spend money just to get a portion of it back.)

A balance transfer credit card, or a lower-interest personal loan, could help you save on interest as you pay down credit card debt.

You’re not the card’s target audience

If you’re not loyal to a specific airline, that airline’s card likely isn’t for you. If you’re not a luxury traveler, you won’t use a credit toward stays at five-star hotels. If you live in a small or midsize city, credits for merchants located in a major city a two-hour drive away are going to be difficult to benefit from.

Many of these perks are aspirational in nature. Who doesn’t imagine a stay in an overwater bungalow in French Polynesia, while they book two nights at a midrange hotel next to a strip mall for a friend’s wedding?

It’s OK to dream, but don’t let fantasy get in the way of whether a card fits your reality.

You want simple benefits

Perhaps what you’re looking for in a card is straightforward: a solid welcome bonus, rewards categories that align with your spending, and points you can redeem easily. No struggling to remember which card to use for what purchase, and no lengthy lists of statement credits you’ll forget to use.

If you want a card that’s a tool and not a homework assignment, some premium cards are just not for you. There are options where using just one or two annual credits will wipe out the fee, which could be doable. But if a card’s features overwhelm you, you’re not going to get value out of them.

Sara Rathner writes for NerdWallet. Email: srathner@nerdwallet.com.

The article Annual Fees Over $500? Here’s When They Make Sense originally appeared on NerdWallet.

By STAN CHOE, Associated Press Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is holding a bit steadier on Wednesday following the prior day’s swoon for Nvidia, Palantir and other darlings swept up in the mania around artificial-intelligence technology.

The S&P 500 edged down by 0.1%, coming off its third straight loss after setting an all-time high last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 83 points, or 0.2%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was down 0.4%.

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Mixed profit reports from big U.S. retailers helped keep the market in check. Lowe’s rose 2.8% after the home-improvement retailer delivered a profit for the latest quarter that topped analysts’ expectations. It also said it agreed to buy Foundation Building Materials, a distributor of drywall, ceiling systems and other interior building products, for about $8.8 billion.

TJX, the company behind the TJ Maxx and Marshalls stores, climbed 6.2% after beating analysts’ forecasts for profit and revenue. It also raised its forecast for profit over its full fiscal year, while CEO Ernie Herrman said TJX is seeing “strong demand at each of our U.S. and international businesses” and that its current quarter is off to a strong start.

Target, meanwhile, tumbled 10.1% even though it edged past analysts’ expectations for profit in the spring. The struggling retailer said that CEO Brian Cornell plans to step down Feb. 1 and that an insider, 20-year veteran Michael Fiddelke, will replace him. He helped reenergize the company, but it has struggled to turn around weak sales in a more competitive post-COVID retail landscape.

Estee Lauder dropped 2.3% after offering a forecast for profit this upcoming fiscal year that fell short of Wall Street’s estimates. The beauty company said it expects tariffs to shave roughly $100 million off its upcoming earnings.

La-Z-Boy sank 14.4% after the furniture maker’s profit and revenue for the spring came up shy of analysts’ expectations. CEO Melinda Whittington said it’s contending with “soft industry demand” and that it’s looking at potential alternatives “to address financial pressure from non-core’ parts” of its business.

Tech stocks were feeling pressure again, but not to the same degree as a day before. Nvidia slipped 0.9%, following its 3.5% drop on Tuesday. Palantir Technologies fell 2.1% to add to its 9.4% loss from the day before.

They’ve been facing increasing criticism that their stock prices had shot too high, too fast amid the furor around AI and had become too expensive.

The week’s biggest news for Wall Street is likely arriving on Friday, when Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will give a highly anticipated speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The setting has been home to big policy announcements from the Fed in the past, and the hope on Wall Street is that Powell will hint that an interest rate cut is coming soon.

The Fed has kept its main interest rate steady this year, primarily because of the fear of the possibility that President Donald Trump’s tariffs could push inflation higher. But a surprisingly weak report on job growth across the country may be superseding that.

Treasury yields have come down sharply on expectations for coming cuts to interest rates, and the yield on the 10-year Treasury remained at 4.30%, where it was late Tuesday.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across Europe and Asia.

London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.7% despite a report that said inflation in the U.K. rose more than expected through July, in part due to soaring airfares and food prices.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 dropped 1.5% after Japan reported that its exports fell slightly more than expected in July, pressured by higher tariffs on goods shipped to the U.S. Imports also fell from a year ago.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.2%. Shares that trade there of Chinese toy company Pop Mart International Group soared 12.5% after its CEO said its annual revenue could top $4 billion this year and announced the release of a mini version of its popular Labubu dolls.

AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, Associated Press Technology Writer

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — President Donald Trump wants the U.S. government to own a piece of Intel, less than two weeks after demanding the Silicon Valley pioneer dump the CEO that was hired to turn around the slumping chipmaker. If the goal is realized, the investment would deepen the Trump administration’s involvement in the computer industry as the president ramps up the pressure for more U.S. companies to manufacture products domestically instead of relying on overseas suppliers.

What’s happening?

FILE – The Intel logo is displayed on the exterior of Intel headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif., Jan. 12, 2011. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

The Trump administration is in talks to secure a 10% stake in Intel in exchange for converting government grants that were pledged to Intel under President Joe Biden. If the deal is completed, the U.S. government would become one of Intel’s largest shareholders and blur the traditional lines separating the public sector and private sector in a country that remains the world’s largest economy.

Why would Trump do this?

In his second term, Trump has been leveraging his power to reprogram the operations of major computer chip companies. The administration is requiring Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices, two companies whose chips are helping to power the craze around artificial intelligence, to pay a 15% commission on their sales of chips in China in exchange for export licenses.

Trump’s interest in Intel is also being driven by his desire to boost chip production in the U.S., which has been a focal point of the trade war that he has been waging throughout the world. By lessening the country’s dependence on chips manufactured overseas, the president believes the U.S. will be better positioned to maintain its technological lead on China in the race to create artificial intelligence.

Didn’t Trump want Intel’s CEO to quit?

FILE – Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan delivers a speech during the Computex 2025 exhibition in Taipei, Taiwan, Monday, May 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying, File)

That’s what the president said August 7 in an unequivocal post calling for Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan to resign less than five months after the Santa Clara, California, company hired him. The demand was triggered by reports raising national security concerns about Tan’s past investments in Chinese tech companies while he was a venture capitalist. But Trump backed off after Tan professed his allegiance to the U.S. in a public letter to Intel employees and went to the White House to meet with the president, who applauded the Intel CEO for having an “amazing story.”

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Why would Intel do a deal?

The company isn’t commenting about the possibility of the U.S. government becoming a major shareholder, but Intel may have little choice because it is currently dealing from a position of weakness. After enjoying decades of growth while its processors powered the personal computer boom, the company fell into a slump after missing the shift to the mobile computing era unleashed by the iPhone’s 2007 debut.

Intel has fallen even farther behind in recent years during an artificial intelligence craze that has been a boon for Nvidia and AMD. The company lost nearly $19 billion last year and another $3.7 billion in the first six months of this year, prompting Tan to undertake a cost-cutting spree. By the end of this year, Tan expects Intel to have about 75,000 workers, a 25% reduction from the end of last year.

Would this deal be unusual?

Although rare, it’s not unprecedented for the U.S. government to become a significant shareholder in a prominent company. One of the most notable instances occurred during the Great Recession in 2008 when the government injected nearly $50 billion into General Motors in return for a roughly 60% stake in the automaker at a time it was on the verge of bankruptcy. The government ended up with a roughly $10 billion loss after it sold its stock in GM.

Would the government run Intel?

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNBC during a Tuesday interview that the government has no intention of meddling in Intel’s business, and will have its hands tied by holding non-voting shares in the company. But some analysts wonder if the Trump administration’s financial ties to Intel might prod more companies looking to curry favor with the president to increase their orders for the company’s chips.

What government grants does Intel receive?

Intel was among the biggest beneficiaries of the Biden administration’s CHIPS and Science Act, but it hasn’t been able to revive its fortunes while falling behind on construction projects spawned by the program.

The company has received about $2.2 billion of the $7.8 billion pledged under the incentives program — money that Lutnick derided as a “giveaway” that would better serve U.S. taxpayers if it’s turned into Intel stock. “We think America should get the benefit of the bargain,” Lutnick told CNBC. “It’s obvious that it’s the right move to make.”

By JIM VERTUNO and NICHOLAS RICCARDI, Associated Press

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The first domino in a growing national redistricting battle is likely to fall Wednesday as the Republican-controlled Texas legislature is expected to pass a new congressional map creating five new winnable seats for the GOP.

The vote follows prodding by President Donald Trump, eager to stave off a midterm defeat that would deprive his party of control of the House of Representatives, and weeks of delays after dozens of Texas Democratic state lawmakers fled the state in protest. Some Democrats returned Monday, only to be assigned round-the-clock police escorts to ensure their attendance at Wednesday’s session. Those who refused to be monitored were confined to the House floor, where they protested on a livestream Tuesday night.

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Furious national Democrats have vowed payback for the Texas map, with California’s legislature poised to approve new maps adding more Democratic-friendly seats later this week. The map would still need to be approved by that state’s voters in November.

Normally, states redraw maps once a decade with new census figures. But Trump is lobbying other conservative-controlled states like Indiana and Missouri to also try to squeeze new GOP-friendly seats out of their maps as his party prepares for a difficult midterm election next year.

In Texas, Democrats spent the day before the vote continuing to draw attention to the extraordinary lengths the Republicans who run the legislature were going to ensure it takes place. Democratic state Rep. Nicole Collier started it when she refused to sign what Democrats called the “permission slip” needed to leave the House chamber, a half-page form allowing Department of Public Safety troopers to follow them. She spent Monday night and Tuesday on the House floor, where she set up a livestream while her Democratic colleagues outside had plainclothes officers following them to their offices and homes.

Dallas-area Rep. Linda Garcia said she drove three hours home from Austin with an officer following her. When she went grocery shopping, he went down every aisle with her, pretending to shop, she said. As she spoke to The Associated Press by phone, two unmarked cars with officers inside were parked outside her home.

“It’s a weird feeling,” she said. “The only way to explain the entire process is: It’s like I’m in a movie.”

The trooper assignments, ordered by Republican House Speaker Dustin Burrows, was another escalation of a redistricting battle that has widened across the country. Trump is pushing GOP state officials to tilt the map for the 2026 midterms more in his favor to preserve the GOP’s slim House majority, and Democrats nationally have rallied around efforts to retaliate.

Other Democrats join the protest

House Minority Leader Gene Wu, from Houston, and state Rep. Vince Perez, of El Paso, stayed overnight with Collier, who represents a minority-majority district in Fort Worth.

On Tuesday, more Democrats returned to the Capitol to tear up the slips they had signed and stay on the House floor, which has a lounge and restrooms for members.

Dallas-area Rep. Cassandra Garcia Hernandez called their protest a “slumber party for democracy,” and she said Democrats were holding strategy sessions on the floor.

“We are not criminals,” Houston Rep. Penny Morales Shaw said.

Collier said having officers shadow her was an attack on her dignity and an attempt to control her movements.

Republican leader says Collier ‘is well within her rights’

Burrows brushed off Collier’s protest, saying he was focused on important issues, such as providing property tax relief and responding to last month’s deadly floods. His statement Tuesday morning did not mention redistricting, and his office did not immediately respond to other Democrats joining Collier.

“Rep. Collier’s choice to stay and not sign the permission slip is well within her rights under the House Rules,” Burrows said.

Under those rules, until Wednesday’s scheduled vote, the chamber’s doors are locked, and no member can leave “without the written permission of the speaker.”

To do business Wednesday, 100 of 150 House members must be present.

The GOP wants 5 more seats in Texas

The GOP plan is designed to send five additional Republicans from Texas to the U.S. House. Texas Democrats returned to Austin after Democrats in California launched an effort to redraw their state’s districts to take five seats from Republicans.

Democrats also said they were returning because they expect to challenge the new maps in court.

Republicans issued civil arrest warrants to bring the Democrats back after they left the state Aug. 3, and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott asked the state Supreme Court to oust Wu and several other Democrats from office. The lawmakers also face a fine of $500 for every day they were absent.

How officers shadowed Democratic lawmakers

Democrats reported different levels of monitoring. Houston Rep. Armando Walle said he wasn’t sure where his police escort was, but there was still a heightened police presence in the Capitol, so he felt he was being monitored closely.

Some Democrats said the officers watching them were friendly. But Austin Rep. Sheryl Cole said in a social media post that when she went on her morning walk Tuesday, the officer following her lost her on the trail, got angry and threatened to arrest her.

Garcia said her 9-year-old son was with her as she drove home, and each time she looked in the rearview mirror, she could see the officer close behind. He came inside a grocery store where she shopped with her son.

“I would imagine that this is the way it feels when you’re potentially shoplifting and someone is assessing whether you’re going to steal,” she said.

Riccardi reported from Denver. John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, and Sara Cline in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, contributed to this report.