Alliant Credit Union Visa Signature, which carries a $59 annual fee and offers unlimited 3% cashback for the first year and 2.5% cashback thereafter, was introduced earlier this year, but I haven't got a chance to write the review and crunch the numbers until recently.  After Year 1, you need to spend $11,800 a year on this card to beat a 2% cashback card with no annual fees, such as Alliant Visa Platinum Rewards, Citi Double Cash, or Fidelity Visa, as $11,800 x (2.5 - 2)% = $59.  If your have large annual spendings, this card is hugely lucrative - for example, if your annual spending is $100K, you will earn an additional $440 over a 2% card after considering the $59 annual fee.  After I put this card through our analysis considering all four "P" factors, this card becomes the #2 Best Credit Card for Rewards and #9 Best Credit Card by Dr. Credit Card.  Even though we are sad to see one of our longtime favorite Amex Premier Rewards Gold dropping out of the Top 10 list, the more competition the better for the consumers.

If you ever wonder if Alliant Visa Signature is the best cashback card out there when you spend at least $12K a year, there are a few options you may want to look into:

• If you qualify for a USAA Credit Card and keep monthly direct deposit of at least $1,000 in your USAA checking account, you will earn unlimited 2.5% cashback without an annual fee.  However, not everybody is eligible to become a USAA member.

• For BofA customers who has a combined balance of $100K+, the new BofA Premium Rewards Visa will likely be a better card, as it offers unlimited 2.625% cashback for general spending and 3.5% for travel and dining, assuming you will be able to make use of the annual $100 airline incidental credit to effectively cancel out the $95 annual fee.
• Merrill Lynch Octave is by-invitation only and is exclusive to Merrill Lynch's richest clients (requiring at least $10M in asset with them).  If you qualify for this card, the annual fee will be consider $600 after you make use of $350 annual travel credit.  With that, you enjoy a few other travel perks including airfare discount, which may or may not offset the hefty effective annual fees.  However, the biggest perk is 2.5x points earning rate for everything, and your cashback equivalent rate is up to 5%.  Note that you may only achieve 5% by redeeming for tickets that are exactly $500 each.  In reality, it should be reasonable to achieve a redemption value of 1.6 cents per point, then your earning rate will be 4% which is still amazing.

The bottom line: for most consumers, Alliant Visa Signature is the "King of Cashback".  We could only hope that it won't be dramatically changed in the near future.
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Of course, we have been making other updates throughout the site.  For example, early this week Amex has again brought back limited time offers for the four Delta SkyMiles Amex Cards: personal and business Gold (60K miles + $50), personal and business Platinum (70K miles + 10K MQMs + $100).

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We have been making updates throughout the site in the past couple of weeks.  Here are some highlights:

• Citi AAdvantage Executive WEMC has been offering a signup bonus of 75,000 miles.  The card carries a $450 annual fee but provides full American Airlines Admirals Club membership for the primary cardholder and the complimentary access to the Admirals Club for each authorized user who can be added without a fee.
• Synchrony Bank has increased signup bonus of Cathay Pacific Visa from 25,000 miles to 50,000 miles.  The $95 annual fee is not waived.
• CNB Crystal Visa Infinite has a in-branch only signup bonus of 50,000 points.
• BofA Virgin Atlantic WEMC has an increased signup bonus of 75,000 miles (advertised as 90K as usual).

We have been continuing to make updates throughout the site.  Here are some highlights:

• BofA MERRILL+ Visa Signature has an incredible 50,000 points offer.  Please see our review for details.  There are reports indicating that you don't need a Merrill Lynch relation to apply and get approved, and a relationship with Bank of America may or may not be required.  50K points are worth $500-$1,000 and we think it should be reasonably easy to redeem them for $800 in airfare.  Even though this card is worth keeping after the first year as there is no annual fee, we won't recommend it for general spending.
• We also reviewed the super-exclusive BofA Merrill Lynch Octave Amex, which carries an annual fee of $950 and is by-invitation-only exclusively for Merrill's richest clients who maintains at least 10 million dollars in asset with them.  The most interesting feature of the card is the up to 5% travel rewards for general spending (4% is reasonably achievable).
• Chase Marriott Visa has a new offer: two free nights at Category 1-5 hotels & $200 statement credit after spending $3,000 within 3 months of new account opening, an additional 7,5000 points after you add the first authorized user and make the first purchase within the same 3 months, and waived first year annual fee ($85).  The old offer of up to 87,500 points is still available.  Please see our review for details.  As for which offer is better, it depends on your value for Marriott points and free nights.  In our book, the new offers is worth $445 and the old offer is $440 - about the same.
• Please always check our Promotion page for the current credit card signup offers which are ranked by our value.     

Please check out our Promotions page for currently the best offers including four new offers: 60,000 miles on Citi AA Executive WEMC, 60,000 miles + 10,000 MQMs + $100 credit on Amex Delta Platinum SkyMiles (personal or business), 50,000 miles + $50 credit on Amex Gold Delta SkyMiles (personal or business), and 30,000 miles + $100 credit + a $99 companion certificate on BofA Alaska Visa.

Our Points page has been updated to reflect our revised recommendations for the Best Two-Card Combos, which we copy below:

Best Rewards Credit Card Combos
Theoretically you need way too many cards to maximize rewards - one for gas, one for groceries, one for dining, one for airfare, one for hotels, one for general spending, and so on.  In real life, most of us can't manager that.  That is why here we will recommend the best two-card combos that will hand you much bigger rewards than a single card while still keeping things manageable.

• Fidelity Visa | Citi Double Cash + one category bonus cashback card: This combo is for people who love cash back!  As presented before, Fidelity Visa and Citi Double Cash, both with no annual fees and offer a straightforward unlimited 2% cashback, are extremely hard to beat.  Of course, you may also consider Barclays Arrival Plus for 2.11% travel rewards and other added benefits come with the $89 annual fee.  No doubt you will put most of your spending on one of these three cards.  However, adding a 5% category bonus card will certainly get you more cash.  You need to do your math to figure out which category you spend the most and how much you can earn by carrying an extra card.  Say if you spend $500 each month on a 5% category, every year you will earn $500 x 12 x (5-3)% = $180 beyond your normal 2% cash back by carrying this extra card.  Some people may say "$180 is awesome! I am in." but some may say "For the hassle of remembering which card to use, I will pass."  So it is totally up to you.  Now let's look into the most popular bonus categories to give you some ideas: (a) Groceries: Amex Blue Cash Preferred ($75 annual fee, 6% on groceries for up to $6,000 spent each year) - to maximize cashback, you will spend $6,000 a year on groceries and the extra cashback you earn beyond 2% is $6,000 x 4% - $75 = $165; (b) Gas: PenFed Platinum Rewards Visa Signature ($0 annual fee, 5x points on gas) - if you monthly gas expense is $600, the extra cashback  beyond 2% is $600 x 12 x 2.25% = $162;  (c) Airfare: PenFed Premium Travel Rewards Amex ($0 annual fee, 5x points on airfare) - if your annual airfare expense is $8,000, the extra cashback beyond 2% is $8,000 x 2.25% = $180; (d) Chase Freedom or Discover it ($0 annual fee, 5% on quarterly rotating categories, up to $1,500 spent each quarter) - the annual maximum extra cashback beyond 2% is $1,500 x 4 x 3% = $180; (e) US Bank Cash+ ($0 annual fee, 5% on two categories you select, up to $2,000 spent each quarter) - the annual maximum extra cashback beyond 2% is $2,000 x 4 x 3% = $240.
• Amex SPG + Amex Premier Rewards Gold | Citi ThankYou Premier: This powerful combo is for people who prefer miles/points to cashback.  Amex SPG will be the card for most general spending, as it has the highest return rate (=2.25%) among all four programs that allow points transfer to frequent traveler miles/points.  Then, you may choose between PR Gold and ThankYou Premier as the second card.  Both offer very powerful bonus categories: PR Gold covers airfare (3x) and gas & groceries & dining (2x); ThankYou Premier covers gas & travel (3x) and dining & entertainment (2x).  While Amex MR points and Citi ThankYou points are worth pretty much the same in our book, which card to pick eventually depends on your spending patterns and the frequent traveler programs you have in mind for transfer.  Finally, you may also consider Sapphire Preferred, Amex EDP, or Citi Prestige as the bonus category card.
• Amex EveryDay Preferred + Citi Prestige: We highly recommend this combo as an alternative to the previous one, for the simple reason that the two cards complement each other in the bonus categories almost too perfectly.  With 30 transactions per month, EDP offers highest return for groceries (4.5x, up to $6,000 spent each year) and gas (3x), while Prestige covers airfare & hotels & travel agencies (3x) and dining & entertainment (2x).  So with this combo, you can easily cover the five most important bonus categories: grocery, gas, dining, airfare, and non-air travel, with only two cards - that is an incredible deal!  As for general spending, EDP returns higher rewards at 1.5x (=2.25%) and will be ideal for most purchases.  However, we recommend using Citi Prestige for items that may have price drop within 60 days such as electronics for the Citi Price Rewind benefit, and when traveling abroad for the waived foreign transaction fees and embedded EMV chip.
• Chase Freedom Unlimited + Chase Sapphire Preferred: Even though Chase Freedom Unlimited is branded as a cashback card, it actually earn UR points at 1.5x for all purchases without an annual fee.  Normally you won't be able to transfer UR points earned through Freedom Unlimited to frequent traveler miles/points since it is a lower tier UR product, limiting the value of a point at 1 cent.  However, the secret here is that if you have a premium UR card such as Sapphire Preferred, you can transfer the UR points earned from Freedom Unlimited to Sapphire Preferred account so all of sudden these points become transferable to miles/points.  This hugely increases the value of Freedom Unlimited, making it returning an impressive 2.25% cashback equivalent for general spending based on our current valuation of UR points.  Obviously, Sapphire Preferred will be the card to charge to for travel & dining (2x).  In addition, we recommend using Sapphire Preferred for foreign travel and items that may have price drop within 90 days.  Lastly, if you don't mind having three cards in your wallet, adding Chase Freedom, which returns 5x on quarterly rotating categories, will make amazing Chase UR triplets.  UR points earned through Freedom are also transferrable to frequent traveler miles/points when you have Sapphire Preferred, and then Freedom returns an incredible 7.5% on 5x categories.  Bear in mind there is a quarterly $1,500 spending cap for the 5x categories on Freedom, so if you do everything exactly right, you will be earning an extra 21,000 UR points a year (1,500 x 4 x (5 - 1.5) = 24,000) by adding this non-fee card to your wallet.

Similar deals were offered twice earlier this year, in August and then in October.  Now it is back.  When you open a new Virgin Atlantic WEMC and pay the $90 annual fee, you will receive 20,000 miles after the first use, an additional 5,000 miles for adding two authorized users, and an additional 50,000 miles after spending $12,000 within 6 months.  So the total bonus for signing up the card is up to 75,000 miles.  Then upon each anniversary, you will receive 7,500 miles if you spend $15,000 in the previous membership year, and an additional 7,500 miles if you spend $25,000 in the previous membership year.  So it is misleading to call the offer 90K since the 15K annual bonus is a standard feature of the card. 

Application Page

We blogged about the same offer in August and it expired about a month later.  Now it is back - no surprise here since BofA has made an 50K offer (advertised as 65K) on and off many many times throughout the past years.

When you open a new Virgin Atlantic Black WEMC and pay the $90 annual fee, you will receive 20,000 miles after the first use, an additional 5,000 miles for adding two authorized users, and an additional 50,000 miles after spending $12,000 within 6 months.  So the total for signing up the card is up to 75K.  Then upon each anniversary, you will receive 7,500 miles if you spend $15,000 in the previous membership year, and an additional 7,500 miles if you spend $25,000 in the previous membership year.  So it is misleading to call the offer 90K since the 15K annual bonus is a standard feature of the card. 

Application Page

BofA has been offering 50K (advertised as 65K) for its Virgin Atlantic Black Card for a few years - it was never continuous but for limited time several times a year.  This is the first time we have seen a new offer advertised as 90K.  You will receive 20,000 miles after the first purchase, an additional 5,000 miles for adding two authorized users, and a additional 50,000 miles after spending $12,000 within 6 months.  So the total for signing up the card is up to 75K.  Then upon each anniversary, you will receive 7,500 miles if you spend $15,000 in the previous membership year, and an additional 7,500 miles if you spend $25,000 in the previous membership year.  So again it is misleading to call the offer 90K.

Compared to the 50K offer which requires $2,500 spending, you need to spend an additional $9,500 to receive an additional 25,000 points.

Application Page (75,000 miles & $90 annual fee)

BofA has just brought back the 50,000 miles offer for its Virgin Atlantic WEMC, advertised as 65,000 miles.  You receive 20,000 miles after the first use, an additional 25,000 miles when you spend at least $2,500 within 90 days, an additional 5,000 miles for adding two authorized users, and finally up to 15,000 miles upon 1st anniversary.  We always think BofA's marketing is kind of deceptive here since not only to get the final 15,000 miles you need to spend $15,000 in the first year, but also this is actually a standard feature on the card and shouldn't be considered as signup bonus.  The $90 annual fee is not waived for the first year. From the past experience, we know that this is a limited time offer but don't worry if you miss it since it will be back again.

Application Page

We never blogged about the signup bonus on BofA Alaska Airline Visa Signature before since the best offer used to be 30K which was not considered good enough.  Finally BofA is bringing this long waited 50K offer, making it on par with competitors.  One thing to note is that the $75 annual fee is not waived.  You will receive 25K miles upon card opening and an additional 25K miles if you spend $1,000 within 90 days.  Even when it says "by invitation only" on the page, based on the past experience when you apply through the link and are approved for a Visa Signature you will almost certainly receive the 50K bonus.  If your credit is not good enough and are only approved for a Visa Platinum you will only get 5K miles.  Since the page also indicates limited time offer, act fast if you are interested.

Application Page (expired)

[Update 1/15/2014] While the old link expired a while ago, there is another new link that gives exactly the same 50K upon signup.  Click on this link to apply.
 
[Original Post] This offer has been on and off in the past several years.  So the bottom line is if you miss it just be patient and wait a fee months.

As always, they advertise the offer to be 65,000 points but since the last 15,000 points is a standard feature of the card, we consider this offer to be 50,000 points upon signup:

• 20,000 Flying Club bonus miles after your first retail purchase;
• 25,000 additional Flying Club bonus miles after you spend at least $2,500 in qualifying purchases;
• Earn 5,000 Flying Club bonus miles when you add two authorized users to your card;
• Earn up to 15,000 additional bonus miles upon anniversary (you need to spend up to $25K within a year).

Application Page (DEAD)

The other interesting thing is that Virgin Atlantic Black is now a World Elite MasterCard instead of Amex.