Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Brad & Jonathan independently rate each card based on rewards value, fees, and overall fit for the FI community. Ratings are not influenced by advertiser compensation.
Earn 75,000 bonus points
after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee: $95
The card that launched a thousand travel rewards journeys — including ours.
Chase Sapphire Reserve®
Brad & Jonathan independently rate each card based on rewards value, fees, and overall fit for the FI community. Ratings are not influenced by advertiser compensation.
Earn 100,000 bonus points
after you spend $6,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee: $795
The premium card we reach for when travel is more than a hobby.
Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
Brad & Jonathan independently rate each card based on rewards value, fees, and overall fit for the FI community. Ratings are not influenced by advertiser compensation.
Earn 75,000 Miles
when you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening
Annual Fee: $395
Premium travel without the premium bloat.
Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
Brad & Jonathan independently rate each card based on rewards value, fees, and overall fit for the FI community. Ratings are not influenced by advertiser compensation.
Earn more than $1,000 in Travel Bonuses with a limited-time $300 Capital One Travel stays credit, plus earn 75,000 bonus miles
once you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first 3 months of account opening—that's more than $1,000 in travel value
Annual Fee: $95
A refreshingly simple travel card.
Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card
Brad & Jonathan independently rate each card based on rewards value, fees, and overall fit for the FI community. Ratings are not influenced by advertiser compensation.
Earn 100,000 bonus points
after you spend $8,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee: $95
If you run a side hustle or small business, this is a no-brainer.
Ink Business Cash® Credit Card
Brad & Jonathan independently rate each card based on rewards value, fees, and overall fit for the FI community. Ratings are not influenced by advertiser compensation.
Earn $750 $1,000
when you spend $8,000 on purchases in the first four months after account opening
Annual Fee: $0
A gem for any business with spend on office supplies, internet, or phone.
Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card
Brad & Jonathan independently rate each card based on rewards value, fees, and overall fit for the FI community. Ratings are not influenced by advertiser compensation.
Earn $750 $1,000 bonus cash back
after you spend $8,000 on purchases in the first 4 months from account opening.
Annual Fee: $0
The quiet workhorse of the Chase business lineup.
Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Premier Business Credit Card
Brad & Jonathan independently rate each card based on rewards value, fees, and overall fit for the FI community. Ratings are not influenced by advertiser compensation.
Earn 60,000 points
after you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months your account is open.
Annual Fee: $149
A targeted card for businesses loyal to Southwest.
American Express® Gold Card
Brad & Jonathan independently rate each card based on rewards value, fees, and overall fit for the FI community. Ratings are not influenced by advertiser compensation.
You may be eligible for as high as 100,000 Membership Rewards® Points
after spending $8,000 in eligible purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Membership. Welcome offers vary and you may not be eligible for an offer.
Annual Fee: $325
Still the benchmark for dining and grocery earning.
British Airways Visa Signature® Card
Brad & Jonathan independently rate each card based on rewards value, fees, and overall fit for the FI community. Ratings are not influenced by advertiser compensation.
Earn 75,000 Avios
after you spend $5,000 on purchases within the first three months of account opening.
Annual Fee: $95
A specialist card with a loyal following.
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The is the card most people new to travel awards should likely start with. We highly value the Chase Ultimate Rewards® (UR) program and this is one of the easiest ways to start stockpiling your UR points.
Another reason to start with the is because of Chase's '5/24 rule' which essentially means that if you have been approved five or more credit cards (from any bank, not just Chase) in the last 24 months, you will automatically be rejected when you apply for any Chase credit card.
Bonus Information:
We love Chase Ultimate Rewards® points because of their transfer flexibility to become points/miles with over a dozen partners, including our four favorites:
- United
- Hyatt Hotels (the most reasonable award chart of any hotel chain)
- British Airways (distance-based award chart to use on American Airlines in the US)
- Southwest Airlines
Note of Caution: Once you transfer Chase points to a transfer partner, there’s no transferring them back! That’s why you should hold them in your Chase account until the point where you’re going to redeem them at a partner airline/hotel and only then make the transfer.
Learn how to apply for the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
This is a fantastic card that earns you Chase Ultimate Rewards® (UR) but it is the significant annual fee that keeps this card out of the top spot of our rankings.
Bonus Information
Learn how to apply for the Chase Sapphire Reserve®
Similar to the Venture is a valuable card because the miles have multiple redemption options: fixed-value where you redeem the miles to offset travel expenses at 1 cent per point and transfer to travel partners.
While the annual fee looks significant, the $300 annual travel credit offsets the vast majority and if you consider the 10,000 anniversary bonus miles as $100 in additional travel, it entirely wipes out the annual fee.
This card is worth holding for the lounge access and is currently the card ChooseFI podcast host Brad Barrett uses as his primary card for exactly that reason.
Bonus Information
Learn how to apply for the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
The is an interesting card because the miles you earn either work like a simple fixed-value card (where you redeem the miles to offset travel expenses at 1 cent per point), but now they are also flexible miles that can be transferred (similar to Chase UR).
So, you could use the miles you earned to offset various travel expenses like car rental, transfers, and booking fees, or send them to a Capital One transfer partner like British Airways, Air Canada, or Singapore Airlines.
Bonus Information
Learn how to apply for the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
The is our favorite business card and since it is a Chase card it should be among the first several cards you open (assuming you can qualify for a business credit card…more below).
Bonus Information
5/24 Implications:
When you apply for the , the 5/24 rule is used by Chase as an initial filter to decide if your application may be approved.
Interestingly, after you are approved for it, the does not get included in your 5/24 number for future card applications.
A Note on Business Cards: You do need to have a registered business to apply for a business card but think broadly about the definition of business. This card is designed for small businesses, even sole proprietor firms like dog-walking, cleaning, ride-sharing, Etsy retail, and more. If you have a side hustle, you probably have a qualified business.
Learn how to apply for the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card
We’re massive fans of the Chase Ultimate Rewards® program, and this card gives business owners yet another way to accumulate a significant number of these lucrative points.
As noted below, this card is billed as a “cash” card but when you combine the UR points with one of the premium transferrable UR cards, they all become the much more valuable transferrable points. This is a really important piece of information that holds true for multiple “cash” back Chase UR cards.
Bonus Information
Learn how to apply for the Ink Business Cash® Credit Card
This card’s bonus (and ongoing spend) describes itself as cash back, but a really interesting point to note is that these are actually Chase Ultimate Rewards® points, but they are not transferable to airline & hotel partners if this is the only Chase UR card you hold.
The critical piece of knowledge is you need to also hold one of the “premium” transferable cards (currently: Chase Sapphire Reserve®, Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card) and you can then combine your points from the into that premium card’s account for them ALL to become the more valuable transferable points.
Bonus Information
Learn how to apply for the Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card
If Southwest Airlines is an important carrier for your travel plans, the co-branded Southwest Airlines credit cards need to take a spot in your wallet.
This is especially so if you are trying to score the vaunted Companion Pass, which lets a family or friend fly free with you, regardless of whether you paid for the flight with points or cash. Even more amazing is that the Companion Pass stays in effect not just for the year you earn it but also through December 31st of the following year.
To earn the Companion Pass, you’ll need to earn 135,000 Rapid Rewards points in one calendar year. You can do this by flying 135,000 miles in a year, or the easier path would be to earn 135k Rapid Rewards points through one or more co-branded Southwest credit cards (business and personal options exist).
Bonus Information
Learn how to apply for the Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Premier Business Credit Card
This card is reliably one of our favorite ways to earn American Express Membership Rewards® points and the current bonus is one of the best public offers we’ve seen, making it a solid time to open this card.
Bonus Information
Learn how to apply for the American Express® Gold Card
We love British Airways Avios miles and have used them for “sweet spot” redemptions many times on American Airlines and similar options are available in the US on Alaska Airlines.
The British Airways award chart is based on distance, so for direct flights in the US on American or Alaska, you can often find incredibly valuable redemptions for far fewer miles than you’d spend if you had AA or Alaska miles! These same redemptions are available using BA Avios on their partners throughout the world, but interestingly the least useful redemption we’ve found is trying to fly to England from the US using Avios because of the “fuel surcharges” and taxes that get passed along.
The ‘sweet spot’ distance-based chart makes these miles you want in your toolkit!
Bonus Information
Learn how to apply for the British Airways Visa Signature® Card