Credit cards are one of my favorite financial tools. They may have a controversial reputation, but you can get all kinds of benefits from the top credit cards. With the right one, it’s possible to save $500 to $1,000 or more every year.
Often, the hardest part is finding the card or cards that are right for you. I have ample experience with this, as I’ve used over 20 different credit cards. Here’s exactly what I look for to decide if a card is worth getting.
A high return on spending
I always get rewards cards. Rewards are one of the most valuable credit card perks, as they allow you to earn cash back or travel points on your everyday spending.
With these cards, it’s important to check the rewards rate to see how much you’ll earn. If you have a high credit score, I’d recommend looking for a card that earns either:
- A flat rate of 2% on purchases
- 3% or more in bonus categories where you spend money regularly
If you’re getting a travel card, also see how much its points are worth. Let’s say you find two cards earning 3 points per $1 in the same bonus categories. But with one of them, you can redeem rewards at $0.01 per point toward travel. With the other, you get $0.015 per point — 50% more. For every 10,000 points you earn, you’d get an additional $50 in value from the second card.
Want to find a quality travel card without searching for hours? Click here for our list of the best travel rewards cards that could help you save big on airfare, hotel stays, and more.
A competitive welcome offer
A welcome offer is a bonus you can earn as a new cardholder. In most cases, you earn the welcome offer by meeting a spending requirement. For example, spend $500 in the first three months for a $200 bonus. Or, spend $6,000 in the first six months for 75,000 bonus points.
This is a big benefit of opening a new credit card. Welcome offers are usually the fastest way to earn rewards. Here’s what I consider a good welcome offer, depending on the type of card and the cost:
- For a cash back card with no annual fee, look for a welcome offer worth at least $150 to $200.
- For a travel card with an annual fee, look for a welcome offer worth at least $500 in travel rewards.
Before you apply for a card, check that you can meet the spending requirement for its welcome offer, too. If you won’t be able to spend enough, the card probably isn’t worth getting, because you’ll miss out on the welcome offer. It’s also not a good idea to overspend. You’re better off getting a card with a spend requirement you can reach from your regular bills.
A reasonable annual fee
I don’t mind paying an annual fee for a credit card. While some people are against this, cards with annual fees tend to have a lot more perks than no annual fee cards.
The key is that the annual fee is reasonable for the benefits offered. I always want to get significantly more value from a card’s benefits than I pay for its annual fee. If it costs me $95 per year, I want to save at least $200 to $300 from its rewards and other features.
Go over the card’s benefits to estimate how much value you’d get from it. Make sure to consider how easy these benefits are to use. For example, some cards have a high advertised value because they offer lots of spending credits. I ignore the advertised value and only count the spending credits that won’t require any effort to use.
To recap, the three features I look for in a credit card are:
- A high return on my spending
- A large welcome offer
- A reasonable annual fee for the card’s benefits
Some people will have other priorities. For example, if you need to refinance debt, then you need a card with a 0% intro APR on balance transfers. But if you’re looking for a rewards card, the three features I listed are typically the most important.
