Dr. Credit Card - All about Credit Card Rewards (old review NOT updated)
Updated September 21, 2019. Please see our updated review here.
Top Credit Cards for Rewards
If the Top 10 list is what you need, stop here :-); otherwise, continue to see our detailed recommendations for the best credit cards for earning rewards - we won’t be talking about signup bonus, travel perks, or protection. Before April 2016, we had a page "Dr. Credit Card's Top List" for the best rewards card we recommended, and you may see this new page as a replacement and extension of the old list. We will be discussing two categories of cards simply because they are fundamentally different. We think the first question you need to ask when choosing a rewards card shall be “Do I want cashback/fixed-value rewards or the real miles/points?”
Best Cashback or Fixed-Value Rewards Credit Cards
These cards earn either straightforward cashback or fixed-value rewards miles/points which are not associated with or can’t be transferred to any frequent traveler programs. Fixed-value miles/points can be redeemed for merchandise, gift cards, statement credit, or travel, at fixed value. The advantage of this type of cards is simplicity - you never need to figure out how to maximize the value of your rewards or just how to effectively use your rewards.
Best Miles/Points Credit Cards
These cards earn either miles/points of a specific frequent traveler program or points that can be transferred to miles/points of multiple frequent traveler programs. For beginners, please check out our featured review on five programs that allow points transfer to multiple frequent traveler programs: Marriott vs. MR vs. UR vs. TY vs. CR. Since the value of these miles/points heavily depends on how your redeem them, they could be extremely lucrative but not easy to figure out. There are some real world examples in our recent post "Five Years of Earning and Redeeming Miles/Points with Credit Card - My Personal Story" if you are interested. Here I copy my explanation of miles/points value: "Basically the value comes down to how much I would pay for an airline ticket or a hotel night if I don’t have miles/points, rather than how much the airline/hotel charges. For example, if a round trip long haul business class ticket retails at $6,000 but will cost 120,000 miles to redeem, my miles value is not 5 cents per mile ($6,000/120,000 miles), but rather 1.8 cents per miles since I am willing to pay ~$2,200 for that ticket." With that squared away, let's look at the our top recommendations for miles/points credit cards that are best for earning you rewards.
Top Credit Cards for Rewards
- American Express EveryDay Preferred Card
- Citi Prestige World Elite MasterCard
- American Express Gold Card
- Alliant Credit Union Visa Signature
- U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve Visa Infinite
- Citi Premier Card
- Chase Sapphire Reserve Visa Infinite
- Barclays JetBlue Plus World Elite MasterCard
- Citi Double Cash Card
- Elan Fidelity Rewards Visa Signature
If the Top 10 list is what you need, stop here :-); otherwise, continue to see our detailed recommendations for the best credit cards for earning rewards - we won’t be talking about signup bonus, travel perks, or protection. Before April 2016, we had a page "Dr. Credit Card's Top List" for the best rewards card we recommended, and you may see this new page as a replacement and extension of the old list. We will be discussing two categories of cards simply because they are fundamentally different. We think the first question you need to ask when choosing a rewards card shall be “Do I want cashback/fixed-value rewards or the real miles/points?”
Best Cashback or Fixed-Value Rewards Credit Cards
These cards earn either straightforward cashback or fixed-value rewards miles/points which are not associated with or can’t be transferred to any frequent traveler programs. Fixed-value miles/points can be redeemed for merchandise, gift cards, statement credit, or travel, at fixed value. The advantage of this type of cards is simplicity - you never need to figure out how to maximize the value of your rewards or just how to effectively use your rewards.
- For general spending, Citi Double Cash has been our benchmark because of the unlimited 2% cashback with no annual fee; similar cards include Elan Fidelity Visa, Alliant Credit Union Visa Platinum, and Synchrony PayPal MasterCard. However, once your annual spending exceeds $20K, you will find Alliant Credit Union Visa Signature (unlimited 2.5% cashback, $99 annual fee, waived for the first year) a better option, especially with larger annual spending. When your combined balance with BofA is $100K+, BofA Premium Rewards Visa or BofA Travel Rewards Visa offers 2.625% cashback on everything. If you reside in one of the nine states where it is available, JCB Marukai Premium is even more attractive with 3% cashback and an effective annual fee of $5, as long as your annual spending is greater than $5K; the downsides are JCB's small credit lines in general as well as its more limited acceptance compared to Visa/MasterCard.
- Grocery Stores: Amex Blue Cash Preferred which carries a $95 annual fee but offers 6% cashback on groceries (up to $6,000 in purchases each year), unlimited 6% on streaming and 3% on gas and transit. We hate the annual spending cap on groceries, but Blue Cash Preferred is still the best grocery bonus cashback card out there.
- Gas Stations: Fort Knox Visa offers unlimited 5% cashback on gas without an annual fee. PenFed Platinum Cash Rewards Visa offers the same 5% cashback without an annual fee when you have a certain banking relation with PenFed (such as a checking account with direct deposit). PenFed Platinum Rewards Visa Signature, with no annual fee, offers unlimited 5x points (=4.25%) on gas and 3x on groceries and doesn't require a banking relation. Sam's Club MasterCard ($0 annual fee) offers 5% cashback on gas (up to $6,000 in purchases each year) and 3% on travel & dining, and you need to be a Sam's Club member to have this card. Citi Costco Anywhere Visa ($0 annual fee) offers 4% cashback on gas (up to $7,000 in purchases each year), 3% on travel & dining, and 2% on Costco; you need to be a Costco member to have this card.
- Dining: US Bank FlexPerks Gold Amex ($85 annual fee) offers 3x points (=4.5% travel rewards) on dining, 2x (=3% travel rewards) on gas and airfare, and 1x everywhere else (=1.5% travel rewards). Capital One Savor offers 4% cashback on dining and entertainment, without an annual fee.
- Travel: US Bank Altitude Reserve ($400 annual fee, $325 annual travel credit) offers unlimited 3x points (=4.5% travel rewards) on travel and mobile wallet spending. PenFed Premium Travel Rewards Amex offers unlimited 5x points (=4.25%) on airlines without an annual fee.
- Quarterly Rotating Categories: Discover it and Chase Freedom, both without an annual fee, offer 5% cashback on quarterly rotating categories, up to $1,500 in purchases in the 5% categories each quarter.
- Pick Your Categories: US Bank Cash+ ($0 annual fee) offers 5% cashback on 2 categories you choose from the 12 categories set by US Bank (unfortunately, gas, groceries, dining, airfare, and hotels are not among the current 12 categories), up to $2,000 in purchases in the 5% categories each quarter.
- The category you spend most each month: US Bank FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa ($49 annual fee, waived for the first year). It offers 2x (=3% travel rewards) on charity, cellphone, and one of the three categories you spend most each month: gas, groceries, or airfare.
- Finally, we save the best for last: when you also have Wells Fargo Visa Signature ($0), you will earn 4.5% or even 5.25% fixed value travel rewards on travel, gas, dining, and streaming services with Wells Fargo Propel Amex which carries no annual fees.
Best Miles/Points Credit Cards
These cards earn either miles/points of a specific frequent traveler program or points that can be transferred to miles/points of multiple frequent traveler programs. For beginners, please check out our featured review on five programs that allow points transfer to multiple frequent traveler programs: Marriott vs. MR vs. UR vs. TY vs. CR. Since the value of these miles/points heavily depends on how your redeem them, they could be extremely lucrative but not easy to figure out. There are some real world examples in our recent post "Five Years of Earning and Redeeming Miles/Points with Credit Card - My Personal Story" if you are interested. Here I copy my explanation of miles/points value: "Basically the value comes down to how much I would pay for an airline ticket or a hotel night if I don’t have miles/points, rather than how much the airline/hotel charges. For example, if a round trip long haul business class ticket retails at $6,000 but will cost 120,000 miles to redeem, my miles value is not 5 cents per mile ($6,000/120,000 miles), but rather 1.8 cents per miles since I am willing to pay ~$2,200 for that ticket." With that squared away, let's look at the our top recommendations for miles/points credit cards that are best for earning you rewards.
- Chase Sapphire Preferred (annual fee $95, waived for the first year) is still one mighty player in the miles/points arena. Generally, Sapphire Preferred returns one Ultimate Rewards (UR) point per dollar spent - we value a UR point at 1.5 cents after the 2014 devaluation thus its return is less than 2%. However, Sapphire Preferred also offers 2x points (=3%) on travel & dining. What is more important, UR has similar flexibility as Marriott Bonvoy when it comes to redemption, which is one great reason to choose it over cashback cards, and UR's transfer partners include United, Singapore, British, Flying Blue, Southwest, JetBlue, Hyatt, etc. In addition, when you shop online, you will find that UR Mall provides a great opportunity to rack up huge amount of points. This card used to be stronger in rewards, due to 3x points on airfare through UR and 7% annual dividend on earned points, both of which were discontinued in 2016. That is the reason why this card hasn't been able to make to the current Top 10 Credit Cards for Rewards. However, in August 2016, Chase introduced the high-end Sapphire Reserve (annual fee $450) which is merely $55 more than Sapphire Preferred after considering the $300 annual travel credit and offers 3x points (=4.5%) on travel & dining. Despite the higher annual fee, Sapphire Reserve actually represents better value for most travelers and is thus our #1 recommendation for personal UR cards.
- Amex Membership Rewards (MR) is another program that allows points to be transferred into frequent traveler miles/points, and Amex's partners include Air Canada, ANA, Avianca, Singapore, British, Cathay Pacific, Delta, Flying Blue, Etihad, etc. Currently we value a MR point at 1.5 cents a piece. In March 2014, Amex unveiled a new card EveryDay Preferred (EDP), with a $95 annual fee, returning up to 4.5x points (=6.75%), 3x (=4.5%), and 1.5x (=2.25%), on groceries (with an annual spending cap of $6,000), gas, and other purchases, respectively. As you can see, EDP is not only crazily lucrative in bonus categories but also the best personal card when it comes to general spending, and that's why it is ranked #1 Credit Card for Rewards. In October 2016, Amex revamped its iconic Platinum Card ($550 annual fee, with $200 airline credit, $200 Uber credit, $100 Saks credit) and added 5x points on airfare (=7.5%), which makes this card a powerhouse for airfare bonus while keeping all the lucrative premium travel perks that make this card famous. In October 2018, Amex enhanced the already impressive Premier Rewards Gold Card and rebranded it simply as Amex Gold Card, which carries a $250 annual fee but offers $100 annual airline credit and $10 monthly dining credit. The enhanced Gold Card has an extremely powerful 4-3-1 earning structure: 4x points (=6%) on groceries (within an annual spending cap of $25,000) and dining, 3x points (=4.5%) on airfare, and 1x (=1.5%) everywhere else. Even though its return on general spending isn't as great as EDP, Amex Gold's bonus categories could be even stronger than EDP's and its is rightly rated as the #2 Credit Card for Rewards.
- Relaunched in January 2019, Citi Prestige (annual fee $495, with $250 annual travel credit) offers an unmatched 5-3-1 earning structure. Citi Prestige returns 1x ThankYou (TY) point per dollar spent for general spending, 3 TY points for hotels & cruise lines, and 5 TY points for dining & airfare & travel agencies. On the redemption side, TY points may be transferred to several partners including Avianca, Turkish, Singapore, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, Flying Blue, JetBlue, Etihad, etc., and our current valuation for TY points is 1.5 cents per point. In this way, Prestige returns 7.5%, 4.5%, and 1.5%, on 5x, 3x, and 1x categories, respectively. In addition, you also enjoy the airport lounge access, hotel privileges, and the highest level of travel and consumer protection among all credit cards. Citi Premier (annual fee $95, waived for the first year) returns 1 TY point for general spending, 2 TY points for dining & entertainment, and 3 TY points for travel & gas. After January 2019 relaunch, Citi Prestige is generally a better rewards card than Citi Premier, even with a higher effective annual fee.
- Barclays JetBlue Plus Card (annual fee $99) is a true dark horse in our analysis. Unlike legacy airlines, JetBlue has a revenue based frequent flyer program, and its TrueBlue points can be redeemed for JetBlue flights at an almost fixed-value rate of around 1.4 cents per point. Here while you won't get exciting redemptions like an international long haul business/first class award, you do avoid hassles trying to find an available seat and maximize points value, as TrueBlue points are very straightforward. JetBlue Plus Card has a unique feature that returns 10% points each time you redeem for JetBlue flights, essentially increasing the value of TrueBlue points to 1.55 cents a piece. In addition, JetBlue Plus offers a very competitive 6-2-1 earning structure for JetBlue, dining & groceries, and other purchases (9.3%, 3.1%, and 1.55% respectively) and several valuable perks that easily justify the annual fee, including 5,000 anniversary bonus points, first bags free, and a potential Mosaic status after $50K annual spending. Our biggest concern is that we are not sure if JetBlue will suddenly devaluate its points, as we have seen in many times in the airline/hotel industry. That is exactly the reason why we always recommend miles/points cards with transfer partners over those affiliated with a certain airline or hotel chain, as the former are much more devaluation proof than the latter.
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.
Best Business Rewards Credit Cards
Until now we have been discussing personal credit cards, and we think we also need a list of for small business owners.
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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.
- Alliant Visa Signature + Wells Fargo Propel Amex: This combo is for people who love cash back or easy-to-redeem fixed value travel rewards. As presented before, Alliant Visa Signature, with an annual fee of $99 and 2.5% cashback on everything, will be your go-to card for general spending and better than those 2% cashback non-fee cards such as Citi Double Cash once the annual spending exceeds $20K. Adding a category bonus card to your wallet will certainly get you more cash or cash-equivalent rewards. Obviously, you can pick any of the cards that offer category bonuses from the section "Best Cashback or Fixed Value Rewards Credit Cards" to pair with Alliant Visa Signature based on your spending pattern. Here we recommend Wells Fargo Propel Amex which has no annual and offers 3x points on travel & dining & gas & streaming, and with Wells Fargo Visa Signature in your drawer these points equal to fixed value 4.5% travel rewards. If your annual 3x category spending is $26,000 per year, the extra rewards beyond 2.5% is $520. Technically here we are not talking about a combo anymore as you need another non-fee Wells Fargo Visa Signature to maximize rewards; however, because you only need to keep the Wells Fargo Visa Signature in the drawer, we will just consider Alliant Visa Signature and Wells Fargo Propel as the combo you are actually using daily. A great alternative is US Bank Altitude Rewards which has an effective annual fee of $75 after considering the $325 annual travel credits and offers 3x points (=4.5% fixed value travel rewards) on travel & mobile wallet purchases. For example, if your annual spending on the 3x categories is $18,000, the extra rewards beyond 2.5% cashback will be $18,000 x (4.5% - 2.5%) - $75 = $285.
- Amex EveryDay Preferred + Citi Prestige: With 30 transactions per month, EDP returns 4.5x points on groceries (up to $6K spent each year) and 3x on gas, while Citi Prestige returns 5x points on dining & airlines & travel agencies (=7.5% rewards) and 3x points on hotel & cruise lines. As for general spending, EDP returns higher rewards at 1.5x (=2.25% rewards) and will be ideal for most purchases other than foreign transactions. With this powerful combo, you can easily cover the five most important bonus categories: grocery, gas, dining, airfare, and non-air travel, with impressive returns - that is an incredible deal! You might replace Citi Prestige with either Amex Gold Card which covers groceries over $6K (4x, up to $25K spent each year), dining (4x), and airfare (3x), or Chase Sapphire Reserve which returns 3x points on travel & dining (=4.5% rewards).
- Chase Freedom Unlimited + Chase Sapphire Reserve: 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 our recommended premium UR card Sapphire Reserve, you can transfer the UR points earned from Freedom Unlimited to Sapphire Reserve's account so all of sudden these points become transferable to miles/points or can be redeemed for travel on any airline through Chase at a fixed 1.5 cents per point. 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 Reserve will be the card to use for travel & dining (3x). In addition, we recommend using Sapphire Reserve for foreign purchases. Lastly, if you don't mind having three cards in your wallet, adding Chase Freedom, which returns 5x on quarterly rotating categories, will make the amazing UR trifecta. UR points earned through Freedom are also transferrable to frequent traveler miles/points when you have Sapphire Reserve, 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) = 21,000) by adding this non-fee card to your wallet. Of course, you still may replace Sapphire Reserve with Sapphire Preferred and the same trick works - points you accumulated from either Freedom or Freedom Unlimited can be transferred to Sapphire Preferred's account and they become transferrable to miles/points.
Best Business Rewards Credit Cards
Until now we have been discussing personal credit cards, and we think we also need a list of for small business owners.
- The best business card for general spending is undoubtedly Amex Blue Business Plus, which offers 2x MR points (=3%) up to $50K spent each year without an annual fee. However, if you prefer cashback to all the efforts to achieve 1.5 cent value of MR points with the miles transfer feature, Amex Blue Business Cash, which offers a straight 2% cashback up to $50K spent each year without an annual fee, is a great alternative. Revamped in November 2018, Amex Business Gold Card ($295 annual fee) returns 4x points (=6%) on two categories you spend most each month from: airfare, U.S. dining, U.S. gas, U.S. advertising, U.S. shipping, and U.S. computer (select hardware, software, and cloud solutions), up to $150K in combined purchases each year. You will make a great combo by using Business Gold Card for 4x categories and Blue Business Plus for everything else. In addition to all the premium travel perks such as airport lounge access, luxury hotel privileges, Hilton Gold status, etc., Amex Business Platinum Card ($595 annual fee, with $200 annual airline credit, $200 annual Dell credit) offers 5x points on airfare booked through amextravel.com and "Pay with Points" redemption option with fixed value of 1.54 cents per point. Booking airfare through amextravel.com with the Platinum Card doesn't incur booking fees and allows earning frequent flyer miles and enjoying elite benefits, so it is actually a useful feature with a 7.7% return.
- Chase Ink Cash (no annual fee) offers a very strong 5-2-1 earning structure: 5x UR points on office supplies & telecommunication (up to $25K in combined purchases each year), 2x points on gas & dining (up to $25K combined each year), and 1x everywhere else. While this is a 5%-2%-1% cashback card by itself, when combined with a premium UR card, the points value 50% more in our book (1.5 cents per point). Actually, the best premium UR card to pair with Ink Cash is no one other than its big brother Chase Ink Preferred ($95 annual fee) which offers 3x points (=4.5%) on travel, shipping, online advertising, and telecommunication (up to $150K in combined purchases each year). Together, the duo covers 7 bonus categories (two 5x, three 3x, two 2x). If you throw in Chase Ink Unlimited (no annual fee) which return 1.5x points for general spending (=2.25% travel rewards), you will have an incredible UR business trifecta - comparable to the UR personal trifecta discussed before (Sapphire Reserve, Freedom, Freedom Unlimited).
- Barclays JetBlue Business Card ($99 annual fee) shares almost the same features as JetBlue Plus Card except that grocery stores is replaced by office supplies in the 2x bonus categories.
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