Advanced general purpose reward cards

  Credit Card Reference

For most people, the best option for their everyday spending is the Chase Unlimited combination. If you can’t get those cards, your next best option is usually a good cashback card, like those from Alliant, the State Department Credit Union, and PayPal. However, depending on their individual circumstances, some people can do even better with other cards.

Each of these other options has additional restrictions, fees, or hassles—which makes them hard to recommend to everyone. However, they might be the best option for you.

Jump to

• Amex Blue Business plus card
• U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve card
• Good cards if you frequently travel on Amtrak
• Amex business card combination
• Other cash back cards that earn higher than 2.5%
• Cards with spending bonuses
• A few less good options

Amex Blue Business Plus card

If you are eligible for a business card, comfortable to use it for your personal purchases, and willing to commit to redeem all your points for frequent flyer tickets, the Blue Business Plus Card is almost certainly the most valuable general purpose reward card.

Blue Business Plus Guide

• The Amex’s Blue Business Plus card earns 2x Membership Rewards points on every purchase. If you expect to use your points on frequent flyer tickets, Membership Rewards points are valued at a minimum of 1.5 cents each. The resulting 3 cents per dollar (or higher) reward rate is better than you can get from ANY other card. Introduction to 'Transferable' Reward Points.
• When you are transferring to airlines, a Membership Rewards point is typically more valuable than an Ultimate Rewards or ThankYou points. Membership Rewards has around twice as many airline partners, giving you more flexibility when redeeming your points. Because they partner with Delta, you have the option of using your points to book non-saver level rewards, useful if you live in a Delta hub (but they don’t partner with United like Ultimate Rewards). Membership Rewards also has more frequent transfer bonuses, which can let you get more value when you transfer your points. Take Advantage of Transfer Bonuses to Get More Value from Your Reward Points.

So clearly, 2 Membership Rewards points is better than 1.5 Ultimate Rewards points or even 2 ThankYou points.

• Unlike the Chase Unlimited combo and the Citibank Double Cash combo, you don't need a separate card to be able to transfer your points to partners. The Blue Business Plus works on its own and without paying any annual fees. You can get additional cards, if you like, to earn extra rewards on bonus categories, but it is not a requirement to get full value from the points you earn on your everyday spending.
• The big drawback of Membership Rewards is that there is normally no good option for redeeming your points other than for frequent flyer tickets. Unlike Ultimate Rewards, there is no option to transfer to a hotel program at good value. And there is usually no way to use your points for purchases at more than 1 cent each.
• However, if you expect to use your points for frequent flyer tickets, there isn't much benefit to these additional redemption options. If you are flexible, know what you are doing, and are capable of generating lots of points, the most valuable way to use any kind of transferable reward point is almost always transferring them to frequent flyer programs to book award tickets.

And as discussed below, if you are willing to pay an extremely high annual fee for the Platinum Business card, you also get the option to cash-out your points at over 3 cents per dollar spent.

• This is especially true if you highly value premium-cabin award tickets. If you are using your points for economy-class award tickets, it is sometimes difficult to get as much value than you can get with Ultimate Rewards' other redemption options. In other words, it is not just easier to redeem your points for hotel nights via Hyatt, you are likely to get more value per point for those hotel stays than you would with most economy-class frequent flyer tickets.

But, if you highly value premium cabin awards and have the flexibility and patience to find award space, you'll almost certainly get better value by using your points for premium cabin tickets.

• Just be prepared to reward yourself far less frequently. It can take a long time to earn enough points from your credit card spending to get a frequent flyer ticket. It only takes around $5,000 of credit card spending with the Chase Unlimited card to reward yourself with a free night at a moderately priced Hyatt hotel or over $100 towards any travel purchase. But, it will take $100,000 of credit card spending with the Amex Blue for Business card to eventually earn enough points for two business class tickets to Europe. The business class tickets may represent more value for your spending, but it may take a long time to build up enough points.
• As with any American Express option, you'll still another card for some merchants. Not everyone accepts American Express.
• The Business Plus card doesn’t have an annual fee. But it does have a high foreign transaction fee, so you’ll need to use another card when you are travelling overseas. The Business Plus card doesn’t come with purchase price or return protection.
• The card is available to even the smallest business. It doesn't need to be your full-time job and your business doesn't need to be incorporated. Some sites say you need a minimum of $1,000 in revenue, but many people believe that is "projected annual revenue" moving forwards, and not "actual annual revenue" looking backwards. Like all business cards, it is supposed to be used only for business-related purchases, but many people use it for personal expenses, with no problems. Unlock Extra Reward Points with Business Credit Cards.

U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve card

Unless your highly value and have the flexibility to take advantage of premium-cabin award redemptions and can generate enough points to do so, the Altitude Reserve card earns the highest possible reward rate on many (but not all) of your purchases.

Altitude Reserve Guide

• The U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve card earns 3x points on travel purchases and payments made with mobile wallets, like Apple Pay. Each point is worth 1.5 cents towards travel purchases, giving you a cashback rate of 4.5%.  An increasing number of physical and online businesses will accept Mobile Wallet purchases, and if you have one of a number of Samsung devices, you can use your Samsung Wallet with any credit card terminal that accepts a card swipe. For purchases you make elsewhere, you’ll need to settle for just 1.5%, or use another card.
• If you are willing to prioritize using your mobile wallet whenever you can, the Altitude Reserve works like 4.5% cashback card that you can use on a significant portion of your everyday spending. Unless you highly value premium-cabin award tickets, 4.5 cents per dollar is likely better than 1.5 Ultimate Rewards points, or even 2x Membership Rewards Points.
• The Altitude Reserve is a pretty good option for travel purchases as well, earning nearly as much as the best cards in this category.
• One drawback is that the Altitude Reserve doesn’t come with Price or Return Protection.
• If you are willing to deal with the additional complexity, you could use the Altitude Reserve card in conjunction with another great general purpose reward card. You'd use the Altitude Reserve to earn 4.5% cash back whenever you can use your mobile wallet, and you'd use the other card (like the Chase Unlimited combo) with other merchants.

The Altitude Reserve has a $400 annual fee, but it comes with an automatic $325 rebate on travel purchases, which reduces your out-of-pocket expense to $75. You’ll also get other benefits such as 4 free airport lounge visits, and 12 Gogo inflight Wi-Fi passes. You need to be a customer of U.S. Bank to get the card, but cardholders of other U.S. Bank credit cards are supposed to count.

Good cards if you frequently travel on Amtrak

Amtrak points are actually the most valuable of all travel reward points, but you'll only earn 1 per dollar.

Amtrak Credit Card Guide

• If you frequently travel on Amtrak, you might get the most value from a card that earns Amtrak points. When you redeem Amtrak points for train tickets, they are worth 2.9 cents each. So 1 Amtrak point per dollar is slightly more value than you can easily get from 1.5x Ultimate Rewards or Membership Rewards points (although not the 2x Membership Rewards points from the Amex Blue for Business Card or 3x points from the Altitude Reserve cad), and you won't have to hassle with finding good frequent flyer redemptions. On the other hand, you won't have the upside of getting even more value per point (when you use them for particularly good redemptions) or to purchase business or first class frequent flyer tickets.
• For an Amtrak card to make sense, you need to spend enough at Amtrak, to be able to redeem most of the points you earn. For example, if you spend $10,000 per year on the card, you’ll need to spend at least $290 per year on Amtrak tickets, to use up each year's points.
• The Amtrak World card is usually the better option of the two Amtrak cards It gives you a free companion certificate and upgrade certificate, when you first get the card, and on every anniversary; earns 3x points on Amtrak purchases; and gives you a 5% rebate on award redemptions. In addition, you'll earn 2x points, valued at 5.8 cents per dollar, on any other travel purchase. Only the Sapphire Reserve's reward rate on travel is comparable. For each $5,000 you spend on the card, you'll get 1,000 tier qualifying points (up to 4,000 per year). The card comes with price protection, but not return protection. $79 annual fee.

There is also a no-annual-fee version of the card, that earns lower reward rates, and doesn't provide most of the extra benefits.

Amex business card combination

• If you have both the Amex Blue for Business Card and the Amex Business Platinum Card, you can earn 3.08% cash back. The Business Platinum card gives you a 35% rebate when you use your points to pay for certain airplane tickets purchased through Amex Travel. You'll receive the bonus for all tickets you purchase on your preferred airline, and for business and first class tickets, regardless of airline.

For example, if you purchase a ticket that costs $400, you'll need to use 40,000 Membership Rewards points. But, you'll get 14,000 points back. Instead of getting only 1 cent per point, you get the equivalent of 1.54 cents per point.

• With the combination of both cards, you'll be earning 3.08 cents per dollar. Even if you never use your points for (likely more valuable) frequent flyer redemptions, and only use them to purchase airfare, this combination works like a 3%+ cashback card. In addition, you'll always have the upside of using your points for particularly attractive frequent flyer award redemptions, by transferring your points to one of Membership Reward's partner frequent flyer programs.

Blue Business Plus Guide

Amex Platinum Card Guide

For this to work, you need to purchase enough in qualifying airfare per year to be able to use up all your points. You'll also need to choose a preferred airline that you travel on frequently, rather than focusing on an airline that lets you easily get the most value from the Platinum card's travel credit.

You'll need to qualify for business cards and be comfortable using them them for your personal purchases, and you'll need to be willing to pay the $595 annual fee for the Business Platinum card (which does come with some nice other benefits that can partially offset that fee). You'll also need to use another card with any merchant that doesn't take American Express or to avoid the Blue for Business card's 2.7% foreign transaction fee.

Cashback cards that earn higher than 2.5%

• You can earn 3% cash back with the Discover It Miles card. The reward rate on this card is 1.5% cashback, but you'll earn double the reward during the first year.



Discover it Miles Card Guide

It isn't that hard to string together multiple years of 3% rewards. You could cancel after the first year, temporarily switch to another card, and then re-apply. If you share finances with someone, you can alternate signing up for (and cancelling) the card, to continuously earn the first year promotional rate.

Discover cards aren't accepted everywhere, so you'll occasionally need to use another card for your purchase. The Discover card doesn't offer any purchase protections.

• If you have $100,000 in investment or retirement funds, which you would be willing to manage through Merrill Lynch, you can earn 2.625% with the BOA Travel Rewards Card or BOA Premium Rewards Card. That level of assets qualifies you for Bank of America "Platinum Honors" status, which gives you a 75% bonus for the rewards you earn from some Bank of America cards. The reward bonus boosts the earning rate from the Travel Rewards and Premium Rewards card from 1.5 cents per dollar to 2.625 cents per dollar. This is the highest long-term pure cashback rate available from any card.

  

  BOA Travel Rewards Guide
  If you have assets at another broker, you can usually transfer them to a Merrill Edge account, and manage them there (at little or no additional costs), to qualify for the higher reward rate.
• You can think of the Amtrak and Amex Business combination as high-value cash back cards. Each earns around 3%. But each is very limited in the way in which you can easily cash out.

When you earn Ultimate Rewards or Membership Rewards points, you have the upside of occasionally being able to use your points for especially valuable free tickets (or hotel nights).  With a cashback card, you have the advantage of using your points without much effort.

We enjoy the “game” of trying to get the most value from our points and the possibility of outsized redemptions. Plus, we love the feeling of getting “free” travel, even if deep-down we know we gave up real cash money to get those points. Other people may prefer the simplicity of a solid, sure, and steady 2.5-3% cashback. 

Cards with spending bonuses

Another way to boost the reward value you get from your everyday spending is to use a card that provides a spending bonus.

For example, the Hyatt credit card earns 1x Hyatt points on everyday purchases, valued at 1.7 cents per dollar. On the surface, this is less valuable than even a basic 2% cashback card. However, if spend $15,000 each year, you'll get an extra free night certificate (above and beyond the one you get for just keeping the card). We would value that certificate at $200 or more. If you spend exactly $15,000, the value of the free night certificate adds more than 1.3 cents per dollar to the card's regular reward rate, increasing the total rewards to over 3 cents per dollar.

• You'll earn a lower reward rate if you spend either less or more than the target amount. For example, if you wind up spending $14,000 on the Hyatt card, you won't get the second free night certificate, and your overall reward rate will only be 1.7. In addition, any spend you make above $15,000 only earns the base 1.7% reward rate.
• Before choosing this approach, make sure you'll be able to meet the annual spending requirement. You don't want to earn a lower ongoing reward rate all year long, and then not get the bonus you were shooing for. If it looks like you are going to miss the target, you'll need to fall back on the same sort of techniques you could use to help meet the spending requirement for a signup bonus. Tips to Easily Meet the Initial Spending Requirements of New Credit Cards.
• Once you've met the bonus spending requirement, you are better off shifting your spending to another card. As a result, this approach complements the other general-purpose credit card options, rather than fully replaces them. Just as with a card's initial spending requirement, it is a hassle to track your annual spending so that you'll know when to stop.
• If it is worthwhile to spend some money on the card's bonus categories, the reward rate for everyday spending is even higher. The card's bonus will be spread across fewer dollars of spending you would have done with another general purpose card. For example, the Hyatt's card's 4x reward reward for Hyatt purchases is more valuable than you can get from using another card. If you spend $1,000 per year at Hyatt, you'll only need $14,000 of everyday spending to earn the extra certificate.
• The Hyatt credit card is usually the best option for following this approach. It offers a fairly good regular reward rate and has a relatively low spending bonus threshold ($15,000). Most people will find opportunities to take advantage of both the Hyatt points and the certificate. Even better, the first free night certificate, which you get just for having the card, more than offsets the annual fee.
• There are some other interesting options. There are dozens of other cards that offer some sort of bonus when you hit spending thresholds. Some of the more options you might consider include:
Hilton Surpass Credit Card. Free night certificate with $15,000 of spending, but the base rate is only 2x Hilton points per dollar (0.9%). If you value the certificate at $300, spending exactly $15,000 gives you a reward rate of 2.9 cents per dollar. However, if you don't have a card that offers an even better reward rate on grocery store purchases, the Surpass card's 6x reward rate on groceries helps boost its everyday reward rate. $95 annual fee.
• Delta Platinum Credit Card. 10,000 bonus miles (and 10,000 elite qualifying miles) for every $25,000 of spend (up to 20,000 mile per year), plus 1x Delta miles per dollar. If you spend exactly $25,000, you'll earn a total of 35,000 Delta miles, which works out to 1.4x Delta miles per dollar. If you can't get good value from the card's annual companion certificate, the higher-than-normal $195 annual fee reduces the value of the rewards. We'd rather have 1.5x Ultimate Rewards or Membership Rewards points, but if you value the Delta elite qualifying miles, this can be a good deal.
• Radisson Premier Card. Free night certificate for every $10,000 of spend (up to 3 per year), plus 5x Radisson points per dollar. If you've got a decent chance to use it, we would value the free night certificate at around $150. That increases the reward rate to around 3.5%. $75 annual fee. The problem with this card is simply that many people will struggle to take decent advantage of the points or certificate, due to the small number of nice Radisson hotels in the US.
• Best Western Credit Card. 20,000 bonus points for $5,000 of spending, plus 2x points on any purchase. If you spend exactly $5,000, you'll earn 30,000 points, which we value at $180, or 3.6 cents per dollar. However, because the bonus reward is relatively low compared to the $59 annual fee, the net reward rate drops to a peak of 2.4%.

A few less good options

• The United Club card earns 1.5 miles for every $1 you spend. The card has a $450 annual fee, but comes with a United Club membership, several other benefits on United Airlines, and a few other travel benefits. However, 1.5x Ultimate Rewards points is better than 1.5x United miles, because you can transfer Ultimate Rewards points to United, as well as using them with other partners.
• The Marriott Bonvoy cards (old SPG Amex card) earns 2 Marriott points for every dollar you spend, with a $95 annual fee. For every 60,000 Marriott points you transfer to airline programs, you get 25,000 miles, with the possibility of earning even more during promotions. They have a much larger group of transfer partners than the other transferable reward programs, frequently allowing you to use fewer miles for your frequent flyer redemptions.

For years, this was this best reward card out there, and the go-to reward card for most of us. But, now there are much better options. Even before Marriott absorbed the SPG program, this card lost its luster. Starpoints were still the most valuable reward point, but earning 1.5 Ultimate Rewards points or 1.5-2x Membership Rewards points per dollar was a better option, even if you didn't penalize Starwood for their longer than normal transfer times to airline programs. Now that the base earning rate is 2x Marriott points (or .833 miles per dollar), rather than equivalent of 3x Marriott points (1.25 miles per dollar), using the card is an even worse option.

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