Dr. Credit Card - All About Credit Card Rewards

Dr. Credit Card - All about Credit Card Rewards before October 2021 (old review NOT being updated)

Updated August 16, 2021. 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. 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 and 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 effectively use your rewards.

General Spending: Citi Double Cash has been our benchmark because of the unlimited 2% cashback everywhere with no annual fee; similar cards include Elan Fidelity Visa, Alliant Credit Union Visa Platinum, and Synchrony PayPal MasterCard. However, if your annual spending is between $20K and $120K, you will find Alliant Credit Union Visa Signature (2.5% cashback with a $10K per cycle spending cap, $99 annual fee, waived for the first year) a better option, especially with larger annual spending. When your combined balance with Bank of America (BofA) is $100K+, BofA Premium Rewards Visa ($95 annual fee, $100 annual airline credit) offers 2.625% cashback on all purchases, and BofA Travel Rewards Visa (no annual fee) returns the same 2.625% rate but in fixed-value travel rewards.
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), also 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: Abound Visa offers unlimited 5% cashback on gas, also 3% on home improvement, without an annual fee. PenFed Platinum Cash Rewards Visa offers 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% fixed-value rewards) 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% fixed-value travel rewards) on dining, and 2x on gas & airfare. Chase Sapphire Reserve ($550 annual fee, $300 annual travel credit) offers 3x points on dining & travel (=4.5% fixed-value travel rewards, also transferrable to frequent traveler miles/points - see the next section). US Bank Altitude Go offers 4% cashback on dining, without an annual fee. Capital One Savor offers 4% cashback on dining & streaming & entertainment (and 3% on groceries), with a $95 annual fee.
Travel: Chase Freedom Unlimited and Freedom Flex both offer 5% cashback on travel booked through Chase without annual fees. Chase Sapphire Reserve ($550 annual fee, $300 annual travel credit) offers 10x points (=15% fixed-value travel rewards) on Chase Dining & hotels & car rentals through UR, 5x points (=7.5%) on airfare through UR, and 3x points (=4.5%) on other travel & dining. US Bank Altitude Reserve ($400 annual fee, $325 annual travel credit) offers 3x points (=4.5% fixed-value travel rewards) on travel & mobile wallet spending. PenFed Premium Travel Rewards Amex offers 5x points (=4.25% fixed-value rewards) on airlines without an annual fee.
Quarterly Rotating Categories: Discover it and Chase Freedom Flex, 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+ (no 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 bonus categories), up to $2,000 in purchases in the 5% categories each quarter.
The Category You Spend the Most: Citi Custom Cash (no annual fee) offers 5% cashback on the top eligible category you spend the most each billing cycle, up to $500 spent per cycle, and Citi generously keep groceries, gas, dining, select travel, home improvement in the bonus categories.
We save the best for last: when you also have Wells Fargo Visa Signature (no annual fee), 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 without paying an annual fee.

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 six programs that allow points transfer to multiple frequent traveler programs: Marriott vs. MR vs. UR vs. TY vs. C1 vs. CR. Since the value of these miles/points heavily depends on how you redeem them, they could be extremely lucrative and challenging at the same time. There are some real world examples in our old post "Five Years of Earning and Redeeming Miles/Points with Credit Card - My Personal Story" if you are interested. Here I would like to reiterate my explanation for 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 (providing a semi-private suite with a flat bed) ticket retails at $6,000 but will cost 140,000 miles to redeem, my miles value is not 4.3 cents per mile ($6,000/140,000 miles), but rather 1.5 cents per miles since I am willing to pay ~$2,100 for that ticket." Most of us can't pay $6,000 in cash for an airline ticket, yet the miles redemption option provides an opportunity to achieve what we can only dream of without miles. That is why once you start appreciating the aspirational value of miles/points, you will choose the miles/points transfer option at 1.5 cents over the fixed-value redemption option at 1.5 cents whenever you could. However, the most challenging part of the miles/points transfer feature is that you need to know how to leverage each (or at least some) transfer partner(s)' frequent traveler programs, and that is definitely not as easy as it appears to be. With that squared away, let's look at the our top recommendations for miles/points credit cards that are best for your rewards.

Chase Ultimate Rewards (UR) program allows points to be transferred to frequent traveler programs such as United, Singapore, British, Flying Blue, Southwest, JetBlue, Hyatt, etc., and our current valuation of UR points is 1.5 cents per point. In addition, when you shop online, you will find that the "Shop through Chase" shopping portal provides a great opportunity to rack up huge amount of points as well. With the August 2021 revamp, Chase Sapphire Preferred ($95 annual fee) has finally come back to the game and become one of our favorite miles/points card again, returning 5x points (=7.5%) on travel through UR, 3x points (=4.5%) on dining & online groceries & streaming, 2x points (=3%) on other travel, and 1x everywhere else. In addition, it also gives you 10% annual points bonus based on your spending, which essentially increases the points value by another 10%. The high-end Sapphire Reserve ($550 annual fee, $300 annual travel credit) offers 10x points (=15%) on Chase Dining & hotels & car rentals through UR, 5x points (=7.5%) on airfare through UR, 3x points (=4.5%) on other travel & dining, as well as much better travel perks and consumer protection. Sapphire Reserve is considered a hybrid card when it comes to rewards, as in addition to the miles/points transfer feature, it also offers a strong 1.5-cent fixed-value travel redemption option, as discussed in the previous section.
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%), for groceries (with an annual spending cap of $6,000), gas, and other purchases, respectively. As you can see, EDP is extremely lucrative not only in the bonus categories but also for general spending, and that's why it is ranked the #2 Credit Card for Rewards. In October 2016, Amex revamped its iconic Platinum Card ($550 annual fee, with the annual $200 airline credit, $200 Uber credit, and $100 Saks credit) and added 5x points on airfare (=7.5%), which makes this card a powerhouse for airfare purchases 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 impressive 4-3-1 earning structure: 4x points (=6%) on groceries (with an annual spending cap of $25,000) and dining, 3x points (=4.5%) on airlines, and 1x everywhere else. Even though its return for general spending isn't as great as EDP, Amex Gold's bonus categories could be even stronger than EDP's and it is rightly rated as the #4 Credit Card for Rewards. In October 2019, Amex Green Card received the long overdue revamp with an increased annual fee of $150, annual $100 CLEAR credit and $100 LoungeBuddy credit, and a very competitive earning rate of 3x points on travel & dining (=4.5%).
Citi Prestige ($495 annual fee, $250 annual travel credit) offers an unmatched 5-3-1 earning structure after the January 2019 revamp but has been discontinued to new applicants since July 2021. Revamped in August 2020, Citi Premier ($95 annual fee) returns 1 ThankYou (TY) point for general spending and 3 TY points for groceries & gas & dining & airlines & hotels & travel agencies, single-handedly covering all five most important bonus categories: grocery, gas, dining, airlines, and non-air travel. 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, making Citi Premier returning impressive 4.5% travel rewards for all these bonus categories. The revamped Citi Premier has unseated EDP as the new #1 Credit Card for Rewards.
Capital One introduced the miles/points transfer feature in 2018 with 12 partners and a transfer ratio of 1:0.75 for most, and further increased the value of Capital One (C1) Miles in 2021 by adding more partners and increasing the transfer ratio to 1:1 for more than half of the partners. You may transfer C1 Miles to Avianca, Cathay Pacific, Etihad, etc. at 1:1 ratio and to Air Canada, Turkish, JetBlue, etc. at 1:0.75 ratio, and our current valuation for C1 Miles is 1.3 cents per Mile. This enhancement has made Capital One Venture ($95 annual fee) which always returns 2 Miles on everything a powerhouse for general spending (=2.6%).
Barclays JetBlue Plus Card ($99 annual fee) 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 pretty 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 multiple transfer partners over those affiliated with a specific airline or hotel program, 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 groceries, one for gas, 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 would like to recommend the best two-card combos that will hand you much bigger rewards than a single card while still keeping things manageable. To make it easier to understand how lucrative these combos could be, we will do a little case study here, assuming the annual credit card spending is $60,000, of which $6,000 goes to groceries, $6,000 goes to gas, $8,000 goes to dining, $5,000 goes to airlines, and $5,000 goes to other travel including hotels. Let's see how much more we can get out of these combos, compared to a single 2% cashback card ($1,200 cashback per year) or a single Alliant Visa Signature (2.5% cashback with $99 annual fee = $1,400). Obviously, you need to do your own math based on your spending patterns and points valuation to see which combo will be the best for your case.

Alliant Visa Signature + Wells Fargo Propel Amex: This combo is for people who love cashback 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 (assuming you won't hit the $10K per cycle spending cap), will be your go-to card for general spending and better than those 2% cashback non-fee cards such as Elan Fidelity Visa 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 become 4.5% fixed-value travel rewards. Using the numbers in our case study, your annual 3x category spending will be roughly $24,000 per year, and thus the total rewards earned with this combo will be $24,000 x 4.5% + $36,000 x 2.5% - $99 = $1,880, which is $680 more than a single 2% cashback card and $480 more than a single Alliant Visa Signature. Here technically 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 can just consider Alliant Visa Signature and Wells Fargo Propel Amex as the combo you are actually using daily. A great alternative is US Bank Altitude Rewards ($75 effective annual fee after considering the $325 annual travel credit) offers 3x points (=4.5% fixed-value travel rewards) on travel & mobile wallet purchases. Assuming your annual spending on the 3x categories is $18,000, the extra rewards beyond a single 2% cashback card and a single Alliant Visa Signature will be $485 and $285, respectively.
Chase Freedom Unlimited + Chase Sapphire Reserve: Even though Chase Freedom Unlimited is branded as a cashback card, it actually earns UR points at 5x for travel through UR, 3x for dining & drugstores, and 1.5x for other purchases, without an annual fee. Normally you can't transfer UR points earned from Freedom Unlimited to frequent traveler miles/points since it is a lower tier UR product, limiting the value of a point to 1 cent; however, the secret here is that if you have our recommended premium UR card Sapphire Reserve ($250 effective annual fee after considering the $300 annual travel credit), you can transfer the UR points earned from Freedom Unlimited to Sapphire Reserve's account so that all of sudden these points become redeemable for 1.5-cent fixed-value travel through Chase or transferable to frequent traveler miles/points (also valued at 1.5 cents in our book). This hugely increases the value of Freedom Unlimited, making it returning impressive 2.25% travel rewards for general spending and higher rewards for bonus categories. You will most likely use Sapphire Reserve for travel & dining (3x points = 4.5% travel rewards, and elevated for travel booked through UR at 5-10x points) and foreign purchases (thanks to waived foreign transaction fees). Using the numbers in our case study, your total rewards earned with this combo will be $5,000 x 7.5% + $5,000 x 4.5% + $8,000 x 4.5% + $42,000 x 2.25% - $250 = $1,655, which is $455 more than a single 2% cashback card and $255 more than a single Alliant Visa Signature. You may replace Sapphire Reserve with Sapphire Preferred and the same trick works - points you accumulated from Freedom Unlimited can be transferred to Sapphire Preferred's account and they become transferrable to miles/points; however, the fixed-value redemption option on Sapphire Preferred is lower at 1.25 cents per point. The Sapphire Preferred + Freedom Unlimited combo will return a little more at $1,735 per year; however, we still think it is worthwhile to pay $80 for the Sapphire Reserve + Freedom Unlimited combo, for redemption flexibility, better travel perks, and the best consumer protection provided by any credit card. Lastly, if you don't mind having three cards in your wallet, adding Chase Freedom Flex, which returns 5x points on quarterly rotating categories (and also the same 5x travel through Chase, 3x dining & drugstores, as Freedom Unlimited), will make the amazing UR trifecta. UR points earned through Freedom Flex also enjoy the elevated redemption value when you have a premium UR card, and then Freedom Flex returns an incredible 7.5% on 5x categories. If you max out the $1,500 spending cap for 5x categories each quarter, you will be earning an extra 21,000 UR points per year (1,500 x (5 - 1.5) x 4 = 21,000 points = $315) by adding this non-fee card to your wallet.
Amex EveryDay Preferred + Amex Green Card: With 30 transactions per month, EveryDay Preferred (EDP) returns 4.5x points on groceries (up to $6K spent each year, =6.75% travel rewards, based on our current MR valuation) and 3x points on gas (=4.5% travel rewards), while Amex Green ($150 annual fee) returns 3x points on travel & dining (=4.5% rewards). 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 all five most important bonus categories: grocery, gas, dining, airfare, and non-air travel, with impressive returns - that is an incredible deal. Using the numbers in our case study, with this combo you will earn a total rewards of: $6,000 x 6.75% + $6,000 x 4.5% + $30,000 x 2.25% - $95 + $18,000 x 4.5% - $150 = $1,915, which is $715 more than a single 2% cashback card and $515 more than a single Alliant Visa Signature. The extra rewards with this combo appears to be similar to those from Alliant Visa Signature + Wells Fargo Propel Amex; however, the real difference is which redemption option you prefer: the hassle-free cashback, or the aspirational yet challenging miles/points transfer. If you enjoy aspirational miles/points value and know how to leverage the programs of Amex's transfer partners, you will probably choose this combo over the cashback combo any day. You might also replace Amex Green with Amex Gold which returns 4x points on groceries (up to $25K spent each year), 4x on dining, and 3x on airlines, or Chase Sapphire Preferred which returns 5x travel through UR, 3x on dining & online groceries & streaming, and 2x on other travel.
Citi Double Cash + Citi Premier: Citi Double Cash is a 2% cashback card without an annual fee or spending cap, and starting September 2019, you might transfer your cashback to TY points at a ratio of 1:100. Normally, we recommend keeping cashback as is because it is hard to achieve better value with TY points. However, if you have a premium TY card such as Citi Premier ($95 annual fee) and combine all your TY accounts, the TY points earned from Double Cash become transferrable to miles/points of multiple frequent traveler programs. Based on our current valuation, Double Cash becomes a powerhouse for general spending, returning 3% travel rewards, beating both Chase Freedom Unlimited and Amex EveryDay Preferred. Of course, you want to use Citi Premier for groceries & gas & dining & airlines & hotels & travel agencies (3x points =4.5% travel rewards) and foreign purchases. Using the numbers in our case study, your annual spending for the 3x categories will be $30,000, and the total rewards earned with this combo will be $30,000 x 4.5% - $95 + $30,000 x 3% = $2,155, which is a whopping $955 more than a single 2% cashback card and $755 more than a single Alliant Visa Signature. Here the caveat is as in the Amex case, that you need to know how to leverage Citi transfer partners' programs to realize the projected value. Lastly, you might add Citi Custom Cash (no annual fee) to your wallet if you don't mind three cards, to cover $500 you spend the most among the eligible categories each billing cycle for 5% cashback or 7.5% travel rewards because you already have a premium TY card to activate the miles/points transfer feature. The ten eligible categories include not only groceries, gas, dining, and select travel that kind of overlap with Citi Premier's 3x categories with higher rewards but also home improvement and drugstores that could potentially hit $500 monthly cap.

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/points 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 & 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%), you will have an incredible UR business trifecta - comparable to the UR personal trifecta discussed before (Sapphire Reserve, Freedom Unlimited, Freedom Flex).
Capital One Spark Miles ($95 annual fee) is similar to the personal Capital One Ventura Card and returns 2x C1 Miles on everything (=2.6%).
Barclays JetBlue Business Card ($99 annual fee) shares almost the same features as JetBlue Plus Card except that grocery is replaced by office supplies in the 2x bonus categories.