My Favorite Rewards Credit Cards

Best All-Around Card for Travel Rewards

Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Card - 1 point per $1 spent. 20,000 Starwood points = 25,000 airline miles (free ticket).

You can get 10,000 points or $100 gift certificate. (to stores like Amazon.com) just for signing up and making a purchase. Currently, you can also get an additional 15,000 points by spending $15,000 on the card within the first 6 months. That’s a potential total of 25,000 points, which can now be redeemed for any airline ticket priced up to $345.

This card is also great for people who like to travel and make the most of their existing frequent flier miles, and can be very useful for getting miles for many different airlines like Delta, American, and more. Click here for details. If you redeem for hotel rooms, you can get a cashback return of 6% or more. Annual fee is waived for the first year, and is $45 the second year if you keep it.

Best for All-Around Cash Rewards (Moderate-High Spending):

The American Express Blue Cash Card one is often touted in various financial magazines, but I would recommend it over the Chase Freedom card above only if you usually charge around $1,000 or more each on your credit card. This is because after you reach $6,500 in spending in a year, you start to earn 5% back on supermarkets, gas stations and drugstores (”Everyday purchases”) and 1.5% back on everything else! Until then, the rebates are only 1%/0.5%. Other benefits include no annual fee, and you can even get 0% APR on purchases for up to the first 12 months.

More Options…
Also see my recommended gas rebate credit cards and favorite business rewards credit cards.