YOUR CREDIT CARD OUTLET

What is the best credit card with visa to get that gives the best rewards?

I have answered a similar question about a week ago. So here is my answer again. I have done lots of research on this. Let’s first breakdown the rewards into a few categories to compare :

1. airline tickets
2. other travel rewards like hotels, vacations, cruises etc.
3. gift certificates
4. merchandise catalog.

Before I go on, I just want to mention that there are a few major reward programs.

1. amex membership rewards
2. citi thankyou redemption network.
3. chase choosemyrewards (for flexible rewards card and travel plus card).
4. Bank of America Worldpoints (used to be MBNA until they were taken over).
5. Capital One No Hassle Miles & Amex Blue Sky (similar formula).

Alright, lets get the easy part out of the way. If you are looking for rewards mainly for merchandize, then the program with the most merchandize in their catalog is the membership rewards from american express. You should consider getting the Blue Card from American Express. But citi’s ThankYou Redemption has the coolest apple ipod in their catalogs, which no other program has.

If gift certificates is what you are looking for, the both the Discover Platinum Card and Worldpoints from BOA have the most partners. The worldpoints require more points to get a gift card with a similar dollar value. But both have more merchants in the gift card category.

If you are looking for cruise vacations and hotels, then the membership rewards is the program to go for. It has more hotel partners (15 versus 3 for most) and more cruise vacations in their catalogs than all other programs. The Blue Card or the Amex Green or Gold charge card is the card to get.

Now for the most complicated decisions : Airline Tickets.

There are a few factors that you have to consider :

1. Do you fly any specific airline?

2. Do you mind restrictions like having to book 21 days in advance, staying over on a saturday and not taking your preferred flight?

For the first question, if you fly just a specific airline, you may want to consider that specific airlines credit card or the amex green or gold charge card where you can transfer points into miles for 21 airline partners. Or get the Starwood Preferred Guest credit card where you can transfer points to miles on about 30 airlines.

2. The second issue is more tricky. All airline credit card reward programs have similar restrictions, but they vary in a couple of subtle but very important ways. Let’s go through them below.

Chase Flexible Rewards or Travel Plus program.

This card has the usual restrictions and you have to abide by them. But the best feature of this program is that you can choose your own flights. If you flight ticket cost exceed the limit for the set amount of points, you just pay the difference. This is one feature that all other programs do not have. The Travel Plus card allows you to redeem for business or first class tickets as well.

The other great feature of these two chase cards is that you can also transfer points to UA, Continental and BA miles.

Citi ThankYou – comes with the usual restrictions but gives you the flexibility to redeem for a ticket without the restrictions (you may require more points because of this). But unlike the Chase program, you cannot be guaranteed the flight that you want. Citi will choose which flights are available for the itinery you want. Hence, you may find that flights are available with other agents but not with citi. So you may end up having to take a longer connecting flight. (this is a common issue with all credit card reward program except chase).

The good thing about citi is that their cards allow you to earn more points for every $ you spend than other cards. The citi professional for example allows you to earn 3 points/$ on certain categories of expenses while the premierpass card allows you to earn points on the miles you fly as well.

BOA – similar program to thankyou network. But presently, their cards have the lowest apr if you have great credit. 7.99% apr for most of their worldpoints card.

Capital One and Blue Sky – these programs let you use points for a set number of tickets. So for example, if you ticket cost $xx, then you require yy number of points. So like the chase program, you can choose whichever flight you want and use whichever travel agent you want.

I hope this has been helpful. Below are a few links you may find useful. I realize that you are just looking for a visa, but I thought I should cover amex as well for completeness sake.

ANZ Rewards Visa Credit Card featuring Barbara ANZ TV Commercial