Dr. Credit Card - All about Credit Card Rewards
Updated August 30, 2024.
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.
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.
Top Credit Cards for Rewards
- Capital One Venture X Visa Infinite
- Capital One Venture Visa Signature
- Citi Strata Premier Card
- American Express EveryDay Preferred Card
- Chase Sapphire Preferred Card
- Alliant Credit Union Visa Signature
- American Express Gold Card
- Chase Aeroplan World Elite MasterCard
- U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve Visa Infinite
- Chase Sapphire Reserve Visa Infinite
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 you don't mind maintaining another checking account (Alliant Credit Union High-Rate Checking Account), you will find Alliant Credit Union Visa Signature (2.5% cashback with a $10K per cycle spending cap) a better option. When your combined balance with Bank of America (BofA) & Merrill Lynch is $100K+, BofA Premium Rewards Visa ($95 annual fee, $100 annual airline incidental credit) returns 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. Introduced in November 2021, BofA Premium Rewards Elite Visa Infinite ($550 annual fee, $300 annual airline incidental credit, $150 lifestyle credit) offers an elevated redemption value for airfare through BofA Travel Center at 1.25 cents per point and thus returns an astonishing 3.28% travel rewards for general spending when you combined balance is $100K+. However, maintaining such a high balance with one particular bank just doesn't work for most consumers, so we consider lower rewards rates (1.65% or 2.06%) for these BofA cards in our analysis.
- 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% fixed-value rewards) on airfare through UR, and 3x points (=4.5% fixed-value rewards) 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.
- Mobile wallet: US Bank Altitude Reserve ($400 annual fee, $325 annual travel credit) offers 3x points (=4.5% fixed-value travel rewards) on travel & mobile wallet. As mobile wallet being increasingly popular in the U.S., the potential rewards for this category could be huge.
- 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.
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, Air Canada, 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% travel rewards) on travel through UR, 3x points (=4.5% travel rewards) on dining & online groceries & streaming, 2x points (=3% travel rewards) 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% travel rewards) on Chase Dining & hotels & car rentals through UR, 5x points (=7.5% travel rewards) on airfare through UR, 3x points (=4.5% travel rewards) 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% travel rewards), 3x (=4.5% travel rewards), and 1.5x (=2.25% travel rewards), 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. In October 2016, Amex revamped its iconic Platinum Card ($550 annual fee, with the annual $200 airline incidental credit, $200 Uber credit, and $100 Saks credit) and added 5x points on airfare (=7.5% travel rewards), 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 incidental credit and $10 monthly dining credit. The enhanced Gold Card has an impressive 4-3-1 earning structure: 4x points (=6% travel rewards) on groceries (with an annual spending cap of $25,000) and dining, 3x points (=4.5% travel rewards) 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. 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% travel rewards).
- Citi Prestige ($495 annual fee, $250 annual travel credit) offers an impressive 5-3-1 earning structure after the January 2019 revamp but has been discontinued to new applicants since July 2021. The mid-tier premier product Citi Strata Premier ($95 annual fee) returns 1 ThankYou (TY) point for general spending, 3 TY points for groceries & gas and EV charging & dining & airlines & hotels, and 10 TY points for hotels & car rentals & attractions booked through Citi, single-handedly covering all five most important bonus categories: grocery, gas, dining, air travel, 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 Strata Premier returning impressive 4.5% travel rewards for all these bonus categories. The Citi Strata Premier is currently #3 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. Capital One increased the value of Capital One (C1) Miles in April 2021 by adding more partners and increasing the transfer ratio to 1:1 for more than half of the partners and enhanced this program again in October 2021 by making the transfer ratio 1:1 on most partners. You may transfer C1 Miles to Air Canada, Avianca, Turkish, Singapore, British, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, Flying Blue, Etihad, etc. at 1:1 ratio, and our current valuation for C1 Miles is 1.5 cents per Mile. The 2021 enhancement has turned the long-serving Capital One Venture ($95 annual fee) which always returns 2 Miles on everything a powerhouse for general spending (=3% travel rewards). Introduced in November 2021, Capital One Venture X ($395 annual fee, $300 annual travel credit, 10K Miles anniversary bonus) is even more powerful due to its unmatched 10-5-2 earning structure (10x Miles on hotels & car rentals through Capital One Travel, 5x on airfare through Capital One Travel, and 2x everywhere else). No wonder these two cards have taken the top 2 spots on this list.
- Wells Fargo introduced Autograph Journey Card ($95) early 2024 with the miles/points transfer feature with the following transfer partners: Avianca, Avios (British, Aer Lingus, Iberia), Flying Blue, and Choice Hotels. Due to the limited number of partners, our current valuation for Wells Fargo points is 1.3 cents per point, and we hope this valuation will increase in the future with more partners being added. Autograph Journey returns 5x (=6.5% travel rewards), 4x (=5.2% travel rewards), 3x (=3.9% travel rewards), and 1x points, for hotels, airlines, other travel | dining | gas and EV charging, and other purchases, respectively.
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 duos 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 duos, compared to a single 2% cashback card ($1,200 cashback per year) or a single Alliant Visa Signature (2.5% cashback =$1,500). Obviously, you need to do your own math based on your spending patterns and points valuation to see which duo will be the best for your case.
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.
© 2011-2024 DrCreditCard.net All rights reserved.
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 duos 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 duos, compared to a single 2% cashback card ($1,200 cashback per year) or a single Alliant Visa Signature (2.5% cashback =$1,500). Obviously, you need to do your own math based on your spending patterns and points valuation to see which duo will be the best for your case.
- Alliant Visa Signature + US Bank Altitude Rewards: This duo is for people who love cashback or easy-to-redeem fixed-value travel rewards. As presented before, Alliant Visa Signature, with 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. 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 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. Using the numbers in our case study and assuming your annual spending on the 3x categories is $22,000, the total rewards earned with this duo will be $22,000 x 4.5% + $38,000 x 2.5% - $75 = $1,865, which is $665 more than a single 2% cashback card and $365 more than single Alliant Visa Signature.
- 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, where we won't consider the 10x as category bonus due to the potential loss of hotel points accumulation and status recognition for hotel bookings and the inability to apply coupons/promotions for car rentals but do consider 5x airfare through UR as an effective bonus category which equals to 7.5% travel rewards) and foreign purchases (thanks to the waived foreign transaction fees). Using the numbers in our case study, your total rewards earned with this duo 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 $155 more than a single Alliant Visa Signature. This duo may appear to be far inferior to the previous duo on paper, especially if you choose the fixed value redemption option, but if you choose the miles/points transfer option, your situation could be very different. For example, if you enjoy aspirational miles/points value and know how to leverage the programs of Chase's transfer partners, you will probably choose this duo over the cashback duo any day. 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 duo 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 duo, 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 trio. 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% travel rewards). As for general spending, EDP returns higher rewards at 1.5x (=2.25% travel rewards) and will be ideal for most purchases other than foreign transactions. With this powerful duo, 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 duo 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 $415 more than a single Alliant Visa Signature. 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 Strata Premier: Citi Double Cash is branded as a 2% cashback card without an annual fee or spending cap but actually earn TY points which cannot be transferred to frequent traveler programs. However, if you have a premium TY card such as Citi Strata 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 Strata 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 duo 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 $655 more than a single Alliant Visa Signature. Here the same caveat as in the Amex case - 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 Strata Premier's 3x categories with higher rewards but also home improvement and drugstores that could potentially hit $500 monthly cap.
- Capital One Venture X + Capital One SavorOne: when it comes to the miles/points transfer feature, Capital One Venture X ($95 effective annual fee after considering $300 annual travel credit and 10K Miles anniversary bonus) is the final boss due to its unmatched 10-5-2 earning structure: 10x Miles on hotels & car rentals through Capital One Travel which we don't consider in our analysis due to the same reasons discussed in the Chase duo section, 5x Miles on airfare through Capital One Travel (=7.5% travel rewards), and 2x Miles on general spending (=3% travel rewards). Venture X by itself already returns $55,000 x 3% + $5,000 x 7.5% - $95 = $1,930, more than either the Chase duo or the Amex duo! Now, when you pair it with the non-fee SavorOne which earns 3% cashback on groceries & dining & entertainment & streaming and transfer your cash rewards to your C1 Miles for the elevated value with the frequent traveler miles/points transfer feature, you will earn an additional $14,000 x (4.5 - 3)% = $210, which pushes the total annual rewards by the duo to be $2,140, which is $940 more than a single 2% cashback card and $640 more than a single Alliant Visa Signature. Of course, you may replace SavorOne with the $95 Savor which returns 4% cashback on dining & entertainment & streaming (=6% travel rewards with the miles/points transfer feature) and 3% cashback on groceries (=4.5% travel rewards) and increases the total annual rewards by the duo to be $2,165 after considering the annual fees; however, most consumers will probably pick SavorOne for no need to worry about beating the $95 annual fee on Savor, unless the annual spendings in dining etc. is significantly larger than our assumption of $8,000. The other alternative to SavorOne is Citi Strata Premier, which will increase the total annual rewards even further to $2,210; however, we think it is probably wiser to stay within the same ecosystem for simplicity and quicker points accumulation. No matter which card you pick to pair with Venture X, this duo won't necessarily return much more than the Citi duo; however, if you appreciate Venture X's additional travel perks and protection (airport lounge access, hotel privileges, car rental privileges, primary rental car insurance, cellphone protection, travel delay coverage, etc.), you will probably choose it over the Citi duo.
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 arguably Amex Blue Business Plus (BBP), 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 duo 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 incidental 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 trio - comparable to the UR personal trio 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 (=3% travel rewards). It is also similar to Amex BBP discussed before ($50K spending cap to earn 2x, with no annual fee): when you spend less than $50K per year BBP is better, and if you spend much more than (e.g. $60K), Spark Miles will come out ahead even with its $95 annual fee. Capital One Venture X BUSINESS ($395 annual fee), the business version of Capital One Venture X Card, might be even better due to the extra perks provided.
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