Choosing the right Reward Credit Cards can be a challenging decision. Depending on the amount of money charged to a card in a given year, a rewards card can be worth hundreds or even thousands of dollars in added value for the cardholder.
Before choosing a reward credit card, you’ll want to make sure you use the card in an intelligent way. It’s important to remember that the even the best rewards card is not worth it if you carry balances from month to month, as interest charges will more than counter any rewards you would earn.
Identifying your spending habits
Choosing a rewards credit card requires more than simply picking the overall “best” card. Instead, it is important to understand your spending habits. This is because the best rewards cards tend to offer the biggest rewards multipliers for
Now, with all of that out of the way, here are the four best rewards credit cards.
Chase Sapphire Reserve
The Chase Sapphire Reserve card is one of the most popular and highly-regarded rewards cards on the market. It is, without a doubt, a “premium” card, indicated in large part by its $450 annual fee.
Despite the fee, the Chase Sapphire Reserve is arguably the best rewards card on the market, provided you have sufficient spend in the right categories.
Best benefits
The Chase Sapphire Reserve card offers several benefits which have come to be expected by premium travel rewards cards. These include:
- Travel protection
- Global Entry or TSA Precheck application reimbursement
- Access to airport lounges, in CSR’s case, this includes the “Priority Pass” lounge network
- Priority customer service
In addition, the card offers a $300 annual “travel credit”, which is actually quite easy to use. “Travel” has a broad definition, with everything from fast food, Uber/Lyft rides, and of course airfare, hotels, and car rentals qualifying as well. This also reduces the effective cost of the card to $150.
In addition, the CSR offers triple-point accumulation on that broad travel category. This means that everyday purchases, which certainly would not be considered “travel” by regular standards, will earn triple points.
What makes the CSR stand out as an even more exceptional value is the fact that booking hotel rooms, flights, and several other travel-related items through the Chase portal gives card holders an additional 50% on their points This means that you can get up to 4.5x points (3x for travel expenses and a 1.5x multiplier when spending through the Chase portal).
Who should (and shouldn’t) get the Chase Sapphire Reserve card
The CSR is ideal for customers who travel at least a moderate amount each year, and who can take advantage of the $300 travel credit, the 3x travel spend multiplier, and especially the 1.5x Chase portal multiplier.
However, the $450 annual fee is a steep one, particularly if you don’t travel much. If that’s the case, another card might make more sense for you.
Costco Anywhere Visa Card by Citi
The Costco Anywhere Citi card is a great option for people who spend a significant amount at Costco each year. It is also great for people who prefer cash back instead of “rewards points”, which can sometimes be limited in where they can be redeemed.
Perhaps the most significant benefit is the 4% cash back that you get on gas purchases (at Costco or anywhere else), which makes the already-low price of Costco gas even more appealing. However, the 4% cash back applies at virtually every gas station, so this benefit is worthwhile even if you don’t go to Costco for gas all that often.
The card also offers 2% cash back on Costco purchases, as well as 3% on restaurants and various travel-related expenses.
Who should get the Costco Anywhere Card
As you might expect, the Costco Anywhere Card is best for people who do a significant amount of their spending at Costco. Otherwise, you probably won’t be able to maximize the benefits.
The other nice thing about this card is that there is no annual fee, which means it can serve as a complimentary card.
The downside, however, is that the credit is given once a year, which means you won’t get your rewards until the January of the following year.
Wells Fargo Propel American Express Card
The Wells Fargo-branded AMEX card is a fairly
straightforward rewards card that is useful for people who want big points
multipliers on a wide range of categories.
Currently, the Propel card offers 3x points in the following categories:
- Eating out in restaurants and ordering food into your home
- All gas station purchases
- Rideshare and other transit fares
- A range of travel-related expenses, including car rentals, hotels, Airbnb, flights, and a few other categories
This is in addition to the 1x points on all other purchase categories.
As an added bonus, the Propel card currently offers 0% APR on all purchases and balance transfers in the first year of owning the card.
Who should get the Wells Fargo Propel Card
The Propel card is a solid value for most people looking for a rewards card, thanks to the variety of points multipliers. Of course, this is more beneficial if you have significant spend in the categories with the greatest multipliers.
There aren’t a lot of downsides to the card, especially since there is no annual fee. However, it is an American Express card, which is accepted in fewer places than Visa or MasterCard, so this is something to consider.
Discover it Cash Back
The Discover it Cash Back card is great for people who like to get the maximum percentage of cash back rewards. With 5% cash back in select (and rotating) categories, the Discover it card can add up to significant value for card holders.
The obvious downside, of course, is that you will need to keep track of the rotating categories. In addition, if a category doesn’t match your spending habits, you might not get much value out of the card.
For that reason, the Discover it card is perhaps the best complimentary card on this list
Which Rewards card should you pick?
When choosing a card, the most important thing to determine is which one will provide the greatest value based on your specific spending habits. However, it is also important to think about value beyond simply maximizing the value in terms of dollars.
For example, for some people, getting cash back every month or every quarter is the best type of reward. If reducing the effective price you spend on products is most important, this might make sense for you.
For others, however, their rewards balance is more of a “bonus” or “vacation fund”. In these cases, it might make more sense to go with a card that offers larger reward value that is also limited to specific categories. For example, the 50% bonus on points spent on travel
Susan McCullah is an established writer who has created dozens of informative articles about credit scoring, identity theft, budgeting, taxes, debt, and finance. She has worked in the Credit Reporting industry for 15+ years and is FCRA certified. Susan regularly conducts in-person presentations and webinars on the topics of credit scoring formulation, raising credit scores, and identity theft.
