Choosing Your First Two Cards
Introduction
If you are new to travel rewards, we recommend you start with 1-2 cards.
Together, these should:
- Provide a huge signup bonus.
Your next vacation is on the bank. - Earn points quickly on routine spend.
Ideally 2x everywhere and 3-4x on dining and groceries. - Allow transferring points to travel partners (hotels, airlines).
This is how you get the most value for your points.
First Card Priorities
The Signup Bonus
Starter travel cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred routinely offer new or returning cardholders a large signup bonus.
75,000 transferable points for:
- Opening a card.
- Completing $4,000 in spend.
At a conservative point valuation of 1.5 cents each when redeemed for travel, that’s a $1,125 (28%) rebate on your spend. This is a very common signup bonus, but you can find offers all the way up to 200k points with a larger spend requirement.
Banks want your business and there are dozens of cards out there with similar bonuses. Many people finance all their travel by applying for a new card every six months and periodically closing or downgrading accounts they no longer want.
Earning on Routine Spend
Most people earn 1% or less on their purchases, but you can do at least 3x better.
Start with two cards:
- One should earn 3-4x on dining, gas, groceries or travel.
Wherever you spend the most. - And an “everywhere” card that earns 2x on all purchases.
Use this for everything else.
Given:
- Your two card combination
- $2,000 per month in expenses
- and a conservative 1.5 cent per point redemption rate.
You can easily average:
- 2.5x transferable points.
- 60,000 points per year.
- $900 in travel per year.
3.75% rebate on spend.
Transferable Points
Transferable points are bank points that can be transferred to hotel and airline loyalty programs as you need them. This allows you to find the best deals from a variety of partners while providing protection against devaluations within any one partner.
For example, you can:
- Transfer 5,000 Chase points into the Hyatt program.
These are now Hyatt points and can’t be transferred back. - Use your new 5,000 Hyatt points to book a night in a hotel.
To navigate transferable currencies, you will need to understand three things.
- Banks have access to different transfer partners.
Only Chase and Bilt can transfer to Hyatt. - Banks transfer to different programs at different ratios.
Capital One transfers to Choice at 1:1, but Citi transfers at 1:2, double the rate. - Currencies can have drastically different values.
Hyatt points are worth 4x as much as Hilton points.
To demystify this, several sites publish point valuations for every currency usually expressed in cents per point (cpp). We strongly recommend Frequent Miler’s Reasonable Redemption Values which describe the value you ought to expect for your points given a small amount of effort.
Show me an example.
Imagine you need to stay in a hotel.
- Your options are Hilton and Hyatt.
- Both hotels cost $100.
To pay with points, you might need approximately either.
- 20,000 Hilton points
Worth roughly half a cent each. - 5,000 Hyatt points
Worth roughly two cents each.
You could get those points by transferring:
- 20,000 Bilt points to Hilton at a 1:1 ratio.
Sure, go ahead, set your points on fire. - 10,000 Amex points to Hilton at a 1:2 ratio.
Meh, not a great deal, but maybe. - 5,000 Bilt or Chase points to Hyatt at a 1:1 ratio.
Congrats! You found the optimal redemption.
To bottom line it, you should generally expect to get at least 1.5 cents per bank point when redeeming through transfer partners, but that is considered the floor and the ceiling can be much, much higher.
Recommendations
First, let’s look at the issuers.
Top Issuers
American Express and Chase dominate the travel rewards space, offering the best transferable points cards as well as most of the co-branded cards.
Chase
- Best for beginners.
- Strong mix of hotels and airfare.
- Great signup bonuses.
- Good card linked offers.
American Express
- Good for advanced users.
- Favors international airfare.
- Best signup bonuses.
- Great card linked offers.
Citi is a moderately close third followed by Capital One. Both programs can offer surprising value from transfer partners not offered with Chase or Amex: Choice, Wyndham and Turkish.
Citi
- Sweet spot transfer partners.
- Best no fee credit cards.
- Ok card linked offers.
Capital One
- Known for simplicity.
- 2x everywhere travel cards.
Bilt is a rewards program with a single credit card issued by Wells Fargo. It has the most valuable currency and the best transfer partners, but it’s hard to accrue points unless you are renting.
Bilt
- Beginner friendly redemptions.
- Most valuable currency.
- Earn points on rent.
- No official signup bonuses.
- Just one card.
Best Cards
To start, you will need a card that enables transfer partners. Although our top pick for beginners is the Chase Sapphire Preferred, any of the cards in bold below will be fine.
Chase Sapphire Preferred ($95) or Reserve ($550)
- Sapphire Preferred is the most recommended starter travel card and our top pick.
- Pair with free cards to boost earnings: Freedom Flex, Freedom Unlimited.
Citi Strata Premier ($95)
- Our second favorite starter card.
- Pair with free cards to boost earnings: Custom Cash, Double Cash, Rewards Plus.
Capital One Venture ($95) or Venture X ($395)
- Only option for 2x everywhere and transfer partners in a single card.
- Pair with Savor ($95) or free Savor One to boost earnings.
Bilt ($0)
- Rare fee free card with transfer partners.
- Earn points on rent without fees (works like ACH).
The Amex Gold and Platinum can both be excellent cards, but the ecosystem favors international airfare, and it can be hard for some to recoup the annual fees. This makes them great intermediate cards but difficult to recommend to beginners.
Interesting Combinations
If you only get two cards, dividing your earnings between currencies can make it harder to reach meaningful point balances unless both currencies transfer to the same partners. That said, being in multiple ecosystems has many advantages including access to more transfer partners, more promotions and higher earning potential.Chase Sapphire + Bilt
- Share highly desired transfer partners like Hyatt and United.
- Add up to 50k points per year from 1x rent spend for free.
Chase Sapphire + Capital One Venture/X
- Get Chase partners and a 2x everywhere card (which Chase lacks).
- Venture X includes 10k points/year making it easier to reach useful balances with divided spend.
- Get 2 big signup bonuses.
Chase Sapphire + Citi Strata Premier
- Access to the two best hotel transfers (Hyatt and Choice 1:2).
- Pick up a fee free Double Cash to get a 2x everywhere card.
- Get 2 big signup bonuses.
Explore Cards
Choose your own cards below to see their combined earnings.