Best Rewards Credit Cards: Top Picks for Maximizing Your Earnings

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Many of the best rewards credit cards provide you with valuable points, miles, or cash back on your purchases. If you qualify and can pay your statement balance in full each month to avoid incurring interest, opening a rewards credit card is a great way to maximize your spending and work toward an award flight or hotel stay, or put some cash back in your pocket.

Top Rewards Credit Cards: About Our Winners

The best credit cards for rewards will offer you more than 1% back on any purchase, whether that comes in the form of travel rewards or cash back. You'll also get benefits such as purchase protection or travel insurance, and bonus categories for quickly earning rewards. The best cards even offer luxurious privileges such as airport lounge access and elite status with airlines, hotels, and car rental companies. 

These are the very best rewards credit cards right now, as chosen by our team of credit card experts at Business Insider.

Best Travel Rewards Card Overall

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is our top-choice travel rewards credit card for most people based on generous benefits and a reasonable $95 annual fee.

The Sapphire Preferred Card earns 5x points on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠ (2x points on all other travel purchases) and 3x points on dining instead of the Reserve's 5x total points on air travel and 10x total points on hotels and car rentals purchased through Chase Travel℠ (after earning the $300 travel credit) and 3x points on other travel and dining.

Points are worth 1.25 cents apiece on travel booked through Chase, and you can transfer them to airline and hotel partner loyalty programs. You don't receive an annual travel credit, but you'll still have car rental primary coverage, as well as trip delay coverage and purchase protection. And each year on your account anniversary, you'll receive a points bonus equal to 10% of all purchases made in the previous year.

We previously recommended the Chase Sapphire Reserve® as the best travel card, but switched to recommending the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card due to its annual fee increase, to $550 a year.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card can be a great travel rewards starter card until you travel enough to utilize premium benefits like airport lounge access on a regular basis. If you eventually decide that the Chase Sapphire Reserve is worth it, you can downgrade the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card to a Chase Freedom Unlimited® and apply for the Chase Sapphire Reserve.

Expert Tip: The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card comes with an annual statement credit of up to $50 for hotels booked through the Chase Travel℠ Portal and a 10% anniversary points bonus.

Read our Chase Sapphire Preferred card review.

Best Travel Rewards Card for Beginners

If you're new to credit card travel rewards, the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is an excellent starting point. It offers a generous welcome bonus of 75,000 miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first three months of account opening (worth $1,275 based on Business Insider's valuation of Capital One miles). 

This card's straightforward earning structure and its flexibility in redeeming rewards are very appealing for people who value simplicity. Cardholders earn 5x miles per dollar on hotels, vacation rentals and rental cars booked through the Capital One Travel Portal and 2x miles on all other purchases. 

On the redemption side, you can keep it simple by using your Capital One miles to offset travel purchases made with your card at a rate of 1 cent per mile — no fussing with award charts or availability. Alternatively, you can transfer your miles to Capital One's airline and hotel partners to book award travel and potentially get even more value.

You'll also get an impressive range of perks, including up to $120 in credit toward the Global Entry or TSA PreCheck® application fee, car rental insurance, travel accident insurance, purchase assurance, lost luggage reimbursement, and more.

Read our Capital One Venture card review.

Best Travel Rewards Card for Luxury Benefits

The Platinum Card® from American Express has a high $695 annual fee, but offers a long list of benefits to match. The Amex Platinum Card is also one of the best options for paying for flights because you'll earn 5x Membership Rewards points on airfare purchased directly with airlines and with American Express Travel (starting January 1, 2021, earn 5x points on up to $500,000 on these purchases per calendar year).

Like Chase Ultimate Rewards points, you can use Amex Membership Rewards points to purchase travel, gift cards, or products directly from the issuer, or transfer points to partner airline and hotel loyalty programs. The best value comes from that latter use. If you redeem points by using them to book flights through Amex, you'll get a value of 1 cent per point.

The Platinum Card® from American Express gives you access to the same Priority Pass airport lounges (enrollment required) as the Sapphire Reserve, plus Delta Sky Clubs when you fly Delta, as well as the proprietary American Express Centurion Lounges.

Amex Platinum Card members also get exclusive access to major events and experiences, including once-in-a-lifetime "By Invitation Only" events.

Of course, $695 is a lot to shell out each year. Up to $200 in annual airline fee credits** and up to $200 in annual Uber Cash credits (including Uber Eats)** certainly help offset that cost, but the airline credit can be difficult to use if you aren't checking bags or buying drinks on flights. 

Additional Benefits: The Platinum Card® from American Express has a slew of other benefits, some that require enrollment:

• Up to $300 annually in Equinox credits
• $199 per year in credits for CLEAR® Plus membership
• Up to $200 per year in credits toward eligible prepaid hotel bookings
• Up to $240 in annual credits toward eligible digital subscriptions
• A monthly credit for Walmart+ membership
• Up to $300 back for purchasing a SoulCycle At-Home Bike through Equinox+ (enrollment required

Read our American Express Platinum card review here.

Best Value Premium Travel Rewards Card

Capital One's travel rewards program has become very competitive, with expanded card benefits, new transfer partners, and occasional transfer bonuses. The transfer value has improved as well, with most partners offering a 1:1 transfer ratio, and Capital One miles are easy to earn and redeem.

Along with earning 10 miles per dollar on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel, 5 miles per dollar on flights and vacation rentals booked through Capital One Travel, and 2x miles on all other purchases, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card comes with top-notch benefits.

Cardholders receive $300 per year in credits toward travel booked through Capital One, Priority Pass, Plaza Premium, and Capital One airport lounge access (even for authorized users), a 10,000-mile bonus on each account anniversary (worth $100 in travel), and Visa Infinite travel and purchase benefits.

You can redeem miles at a fixed rate toward a statement credit to cover travel purchases with Capital One. For example, if you buy a $500 plane ticket, you can apply 50,000 miles to cancel that charge. Or, for potentially even more value, you can transfer miles to over a dozen Capital One airline and hotel partners.

Expert Insight: Capital One launched the Capital One Premier Collection, a luxury hotel booking program, for Venture X cardholders, as well as new Capital One Landing airport lounges for cardholders beginning in 2023.

Read our Capital One Venture X Rewards credit card review.

Best Flat-Rate Cash Rewards Card

All the other top picks in this guide earn credit card rewards that can be redeemed in a variety of ways, and they're especially valuable when you redeem for travel. The Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card is a cash-back card, on the other hand — this option may be a better option if you prefer the ultimate in flexible rewards or don't know for sure that you'll be traveling (rates and fees).

Cardholders earn 2% cash rewards on purchases, and there's a solid welcome bonus offer of $200 cash rewards bonus after spending $500 in purchases in the first three months from account opening. On top of that, the card offers a 0% intro APR on purchases and qualifying balance transfers for 12 months from account opening (then a 19.24%, 24.24%, or 29.24% variable APR). 

The Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card is a great choice if you want a card that earns a high rate of cash rewards without having to worry about keeping track of bonus categories. You'll earn a flat 2% cash back on what you buy.

If you want to get maximum value out of your spending, a rewards card will get you a higher return. For instance, the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card earns 2x miles on non-bonus purchases, but 2x miles isn't equal to 2% cash back. Our points and miles valuations peg Capital One miles at 1.7 cents each, because you can redeem them for travel through a variety of airline and hotel programs. Travel redemptions will usually get you more than 1 cent per mile or point in value. But if cash back is the most useful to you, this probably doesn't matter.

Read our Wells Fargo Active Cash card review.

Best Premium Rewards Card for Travel and Dining

With 5x points on air travel and 10x points on hotels and car rentals purchased through Chase Travel (after earning the $300 travel credit), 3x points on other travel and dining, and 1 point per dollar on everything else, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® makes it easy to maximize your everyday spending, and it comes with a slew of perks. It used to be our top travel rewards card pick, but now that it has a $550 annual fee, it's harder to recommend to everyone.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve's annual fee is offset by a travel credit of up to $300 each year, good for things like taxis, subway fares, parking, tolls, and flights. This effectively decreases the annual fee to $250, so you'll have to decide whether the card's other benefits are worth it for you.

You now get a complimentary two-year Lyft Pink All Access membership, $5 per month in DoorDash in-app credit (along with complimentary DoorDash DashPass membership through December 31, 2027). If you use these services frequently you may be able to justify the higher annual fee — but that's not the case for everyone.

Check out our guide to the best travel credit cards for more options like the Chase Sapphire Reserve.

Read our Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card review here.

Expert Insight: The Chase Sapphire Reserve® offers access to Chase Sapphire Lounges, now open in Hong Kong (HKG), Boston (BOS), LaGuardia (LGA), and John F. Kennedy (JFK) in New York. Cardholders also get access to the Chase Sapphire Terrace at Austin airport.

Best Travel Rewards on Dining and Groceries

The American Express® Gold Card earns a massive 4X Membership Rewards® points on purchases at restaurants worldwide (on up to $50,000 in purchases per calendar year, then 1X points), 4X Membership Rewards® points at US supermarkets (on up to $25,000 in purchases per calendar year, then 1X points), 3X Membership Rewards® points on flights booked directly with airlines or on AmexTravel.com, 2X Membership Rewards® points on prepaid hotels and other eligible purchases booked on AmexTravel.com, and 1X Membership Rewards® point on all other eligible purchases. Since you can easily redeem Amex points for more than 1 cent of value each when you transfer them to airline and hotel partners, this is one of the highest-earning available cards for everything food-related.

The American Express® Gold Card has an annual fee of $325 but offers up to $120 in dining credits per year (after enrollment), broken into chunks of $10 each month. Credits are good for purchases at Grubhub, The Cheesecake Factory, Goldbelly, Wine.com, and Five Guys. Cardholders also receive $120 per year in Uber Cash (this is only applicable to U.S. Eats orders and Rides, and the card needs to be added as a method of payment to the Uber app to receive the Uber Cash benefit). 

Read our Amex Gold card review.

Best for High-Yield Rewards (with High Risk)

The Save Wealth Premium has the potential to earn an extremely high rate of return. But it also comes with a whopping $750 annual fee and some risk. 

This card is unique because your rewards come in the form of investment dividends. Whenever you spend money on the card, the fintech company backing this card, Save, purchases stocks worth a little over double what you spent. After the investment has had time to grow — typically a little bit past the one-year mark —  Save deposits the returns on that investment into your linked bank account, minus a 0.79% management fee. You can either choose your own investments, or let Save choose for you, and the company estimates an average return rate of 5.7% per dollar spent. 

This strategy is unique in the reward space and can be a good option for people who are comfortable allowing the stock market to dictate their spending returns. It's also worth noting that you'll never lose money on your rewards, but you might end up with low to no rewards if the market takes a downturn. So we only recommend this card for people who don't mind trusting chance with their earnings. 

Read more in our Save Wealth Premium credit card review.

Choosing the Best Rewards Credit Card

Rewards credit cards give you something back for every dollar you spend — whether that's points or miles for travel, or cash back that you can use to lower your monthly bill or to treat yourself to a splurge.

How to Get the Credit Card You Want

To get the credit card you want, you'll need to have a good credit score at least, and ideally, an excellent credit score. You are most likely be approved for a credit card if your credit profile shows a low credit utilization ratio. 

If you currently carry a balance on an existing credit card, prioritize paying off that debt as soon as possible before getting a new card to bring your credit score back up. Always pay off your balance in full, since any rewards you could earn will be wiped out by high interest rates from your existing card debt. 

Rewards Credit Card Structures and Benefits

Credit card rewards typically fall into a few categories. You can choose from flat-rate rewards, tiered bonus categories, cards that reward you for additional banking relationships, and rotating category cards. You can also choose between earning cash back or points and miles. 

In addition, many cards offer high welcome bonuses to new cardholders who meet a spending requirement in the first few months after opening a card. Some cards also include benefits like travel and purchase protection. 

Strategies for Maximizing Rewards: Choose the Right Card(s)

The best way to optimize rewards card benefits is by making sure each dollar you spend earns at least 1.5 cents or more in value. You can do this by combining several credit cards in your wallet for different expenses — the American Express® Gold Card for groceries and restaurants, for example, plus the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card for flights and hotels. 

How Much Are Your Rewards Worth?

Wondering what your rewards can buy? Some cards offer as many as 14 points per dollar on certain categories, but the points multiplier is only half of the equation. You also need to know how much each point is worth.

Check out Business Insider's guide to what points and miles are worth to understand how many cents you'll get in value with different loyalty currencies. These valuations are based on all the different ways you can use a given type of points or miles, from redeeming them as statement credits to transferring them to a travel partner to book a flight.

Rewards Credit Card Bonus Categories

This guide can help you find your best reward credit card if you already know what you want. But what if you're not sure which type of credit card best suits your spending habits? 

If you want to maximize rewards on your everyday spending, look no further than the following credit cards. We'll break it down by spending category — from dining to gas to groceries.

Dining

Many people spend thousands of dollars on restaurants yearly, and many cards offer generous dining rewards. The true value depends on how much that reward currency is worth. We ranked some of the best dining credit cards in order of highest to lowest return based on how many rewards you earn per dollar spent, and the value of those rewards based on our estimations.

• Bilt Mastercard®: 3x spent on dining; 6x on Bilt Rent Day, which falls on the first of every month. Bilt Points are worth an average of 1.65 cents apiece, according to our valuations, so you're earning 4.95% back per dollar spent on dining most of the time, or 9.9% back per dollar on Bilt Rent Day. Remember, you must make at least five purchases per billing cycle to earn rewards on this card.
• American Express® Gold Card: 4x at restaurants worldwide. Amex points are worth 1.8 cents apiece, so you're earning 7.2% back per dollar. 
• Chase Sapphire Reserve® and Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card: 3x on dining. Chase Ultimate Rewards points are worth 1.8 cents apiece, so this is a 5.4% return on dining spend.

The Bilt Mastercard is a great option if you strategically dine out on the first of each month to take advantage of 6x dining returns. But the American Express® Gold Card, Chase Sapphire Reserve®, or Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card are better if you prefer to earn Amex or Chase points.

Gas and EV Charging

If you have a car, gas or EV charging may be a big spending category for you. Many cash-back credit cards earn bonus points here:

• American Express® Business Gold Card: 4x at the two categories where you spend the most each month, including U.S. gas stations (on up to $150,000 per calendar year, then 1 point per dollar) for a 7.2% return on spending
• Citi Strata Premier℠ Card : 3x on gas stations for a 4.8% return on spending
• Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card: 6x on eligible purchases at U.S. gas stations, for a 3% return on spending

Again, not all points are created equal, and whether 6 Hilton points are equivalent to (or higher than) 4% cash back or 4 Membership Rewards points depends on how you redeem your rewards. Most people will find the most value using the American Express® Business Gold Card for gas rewards. But if you're saving up your Hilton points for a high-end resort in the Maldives, for example, it could be worth channeling gas spend toward the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card.

Groceries 

• American Express® Gold Card: 4x at U.S. supermarkets on up to $25,000 per year, then 1x; 1.8% to 7.2% return on spending
• Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express: 6% cash back at U.S. supermarkets on up to $6,000 spent per year, then 1%; 1% to 6% return on spending; cash back is received in the form of Reward Dollars, which can be redeemed as a statement credit
• Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card: 6x on eligible purchases at U.S. supermarkets, for a 3% return on spending
• Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express: 3% cash back at U.S. supermarkets on up to $6,000 spent per calendar year, then 1%; 1% to 3% return on spending
• Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card: 3x on online grocery purchases excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs; 5.4% return on spending)

Earning 4x on the first $25,000 spent each year at U.S. supermarkets, the American Express® Gold Card offers the most generous payout on grocery spending. Considering the average U.S. household spends $4,445 on groceries per year, these limits shouldn't be problematic for most consumers.

Earning 6% cash back on the first $6,000 spent, the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express is a good option if you prefer cash back to rewards points. When maxed out, the 6% back equates to $360 cash back, which is enough for most people to book at least a couple of hotel nights or a round-trip transcontinental flight.

Flights and Other Travel 

• The Platinum Card® from American Express: 5x on flights booked directly with airlines or with Amex Travel on up to $500,000 in spending a year, and 5x on prepaid hotels booked on Amex Travel for a 9% return on spending
• Chase Sapphire Reserve®: 5x on air travel (9% return on spending); 10x on hotels and car rentals purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards® (18% return on spending); 3x on other travel purchases (5.4% return on spending)
• Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card: 5x on all travel booked through the Chase Travel℠ portal (9% return on spending)
• American Express® Gold Card: 3 points per dollar on flights booked directly with airlines or on amextravel.com (5.4% return on spending)

If you're looking for lots of rewards for flights, The Platinum Card® from American Express is a great choice. The card earns 5x points on flights booked directly with airlines and through Amex Travel. Prepaid hotel bookings made with American Express also earn 5 points on up to $500,000 on these purchases per calendar year). But while this card is a great option, not everyone will get enough value out of the 5x bonus categories to justify its $695 annual fee.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve® is a great alternative. While it earns a lower 3x on travel outside the Chase Travel portal, this bonus applies to all travel purchases, not just flights. Plus, the card's annual fee is partially offset by the $300 travel credit.

Unlike American Express, Chase doesn't restrict its travel credit to a specific airline. The credit automatically applies to any purchases coded as travel. That's why the Chase Sapphire Reserve® is such a popular card for earning and redeeming travel rewards.

Other Spending

• Chase Freedom Unlimited®: 1.5% cash back on most things, bonus cash back on eligible travel and drugstore purchases, can be combined with Chase Ultimate Rewards cards to boost your value
• Discover it® Miles: 1.5 miles per dollar spent, and Discover will match the Miles you've earned at the end of your first year (3% return on spending)
• Discover it® Cash Back: 1% cash back, with 5% in rotating quarterly categories on the first $1,500 in purchases each quarter you activate; then 1% cash back (1-5% return on spending) (from January 1 to March 31, 2025, earn 5% cash back at restaurants, home improvement stores, and select streaming services on up to $1,500 in purchases after enrollment, then 1%)

Many cash-back credit cards offer at least 1.5% cash back on everything, which is a great benchmark to keep in mind on purchases that aren't eligible for bonus points. The Discover it® Miles is a great option for those looking for a no-annual-fee card with accelerated earning power. Cardholders earn 1.5 miles per dollar spent, which is equivalent to 1.5% cash back. Discover will match all the rewards you earn at the end of your first year and can be redeemed for statement credits toward travel purchases or transferred to your bank account.

For those looking to maximize long-term earnings, the Chase Freedom Unlimited® is another great option. It earns 1.5% cash back on most things, with bonus cash back on eligible travel and drugstore purchases. If you have a Chase credit card for travel like the Sapphire Preferred Card or the Chase Sapphire Reserve, you can convert your Freedom Unlimited rewards to fully transferable Ultimate Rewards points. Essentially, you could earn 1.5 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent on everything beyond the bonus travel and drugstore categories, which equals a very solid return on every dollar you spend.

If you want the flexibility of earning occasional category bonuses, the Chase Freedom Flex® and Discover it® Cash Back are worth considering. Both cards earn 1% cash back along with 5% on select category bonuses. Bonus categories rotate every quarter and cardholders can earn 5% cash back on up to $1,500 worth of spending when they activate the bonus each quarter. Be sure to check the cash-back bonus calendar for Discover and Chase quarterly bonus categories for a better idea of where you can expect to earn more points (for Discover it® Cash Back, you can earn 5% cash back at restaurants, home improvement stores, and select streaming services, January 1 to March 31, 2025, on up to $1,500 in purchases after enrollment, then 1%).

For a more straightforward option, the Citi® Double Cash Card is solid. Cardholders earn 1% cash back on purchases and another 1% when they pay them off. Because you can convert your cash back to ThankYou points, the Citi® Double Cash Card is a great way to earn 2 ThankYou points on every dollar spent.

FAQs: Best Rewards Credit Cards

Why You Should Trust Us: How We Chose the Best Rewards Credit Cards

The best rewards credit card for you should offer benefits you can use that are worth the annual fee (if there is one). Look for perks such as statement credits that cover travel purchases and travel protection benefits such as trip delay and trip cancellation insurance.

When evaluating your next rewards credit card, consider the following factors:

• Does this card earn bonus points or miles where I spend the most?
• Can those points or miles be applied to rewards I'd actually want, such as airlines I typically fly or hotels I want to book?
• Is it easy to redeem my rewards, or will I get lost in a maze of draconian rules, restrictions, and blackout dates?

With these guidelines in mind, our editorial team of experts purposely left out many rewards credit cards currently available to new applicants to narrow down our list to the very best options.

We define "the very best options" as offering concrete value through benefits like annual statement credits and airport lounge access and through rewards such as bonus points on your everyday spending.

This list doesn't include any of our best airline credit cards or best hotel credit cards. If you're specifically interested in travel rewards rather than cash back, check out our full list of the best travel rewards credit cards.

Read Business Insider's guide to how we rate and review credit cards for more information on our methodology.

Jasmin Baron

Jasmin Baron is a credit cards writer and editor who has contributed her knowledge to sites like The Points Guy, Million Mile Secrets, and Business Insider.Her expertise in maximizing travel rewards grew from over two decades of experience in the aviation industry, including 18 years working as a pilot and flight instructor in her native Canada.

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Angela Fung

Marketing Compliance and Operations Manager

Angela Fung is the marketing compliance and operations manager for Business Insider’s personal finance team. She is a personal finance expert and has been a part of Business Insider for nearly four years. ExperienceAngela leads the compliance team in identifying and reducing risk for readers, the editorial team, and external partners. Her team aims to provide readers with accurate, up-to-date information about financial products and maintain reader trust. She ensures regulatory and partner marketing guidelines are upheld for partners and adheres to the personal finance team’s editorial standards so they can maintain editorial independence. Angela likes helping readers better understand personal finance so that they can build a strong foundation for their financial plan and, hopefully, give themselves the freedom to do more in other facets of their lives.ExpertiseAngela has expertise in and oversees compliance in the following areas of personal finance:

• Personal credit cards
• Business credit cards
• High-yield savings accounts
• CDs

She also has a thorough knowledge of federal regulation for consumer financial protection. A few examples include:

• Regulation Z, Truth in Lending
• Unfair, Deceptive, Or Abusive Acts Or Practices (UDAAP)
• Regulation N, Mortgage Acts and Practices Advertising Rule
• Endorsement Guidelines

EducationAngela graduated from the University of Chicago with a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience. In her free time, she shoots lifestyle photography, volunteers at Meals for Unity, and plays tennis.

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