Advanced Options for Everyday Spending (2021)

Easily Earn Points for Free Travel, Get a Great General Purpose Reward Card and Use It for All of Your Spending

For most people, the best option for their everyday spending is the Chase Unlimited combination. If you can’t get those cards, your next best option is usually a no-annual-fee 2% cashback card, like those from the State Department Credit Union and PayPal. However, depending on their individual circumstances, you might do even better with other cards.

Each of these other options has extra restrictions, fees, or hassles—which makes them hard to recommend to everyone. However, they might be the best option for you.

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Amex Blue Business Plus Card
Citibank Double Cash combo
Cashback cards that earn at least 2.5%
U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve Card
The Amtrak Card
Cards with spending bonuses

Amex’s Blue Business Plus Card earns 2x Membership Rewards points on every purchase. If you expect to use your points on frequent flyer tickets, Membership Rewards points are valued at a minimum of 1.5 cents each. The resulting 3 cents per dollar (or higher) reward rate is better than you can get from ANY other card. Introduction to 'Transferable' Reward Points.
When you are transferring to airlines, Membership Rewards points are typically more valuable than Ultimate Rewards or ThankYou points. Membership Rewards has around twice as many airline partners, giving you more flexibility when redeeming your points. Because they partner with Delta, you have the option of using your points to book non-saver level rewards, useful if you live in a Delta hub (but they don’t partner with United like Ultimate Rewards). Membership Rewards also has more frequent transfer bonuses, which can let you get more value when you transfer your points. Take Advantage of Transfer Bonuses to Get More Value from Your Reward Points.

So clearly, 2 Membership Rewards points is better than 1.5 Ultimate Rewards points or even 2 ThankYou points.

Unlike the Chase Unlimited combo and the Citibank Double Cash combo, you don't need a separate card to be able to transfer your points to partners. The Blue Business Plus works on its own and without paying any annual fees. You can get additional cards, if you like, to earn extra rewards on bonus categories, but it is not a requirement to get full value from the points you earn on your everyday spending.
The big drawback of Membership Rewards is that there is normally no good option for redeeming your points other than for frequent flyer tickets. Unlike Ultimate Rewards, there is no option to transfer to a hotel program at good value. And there is usually no way to use your points for purchases at more than 1 cent each.
However, if you expect to use your points for frequent flyer tickets, there really isn't any benefit to these additional redemption options. If you are flexible, know what you are doing, and are capable of generating lots of points, the most valuable way to use any kind of transferable reward point is almost always transferring them to frequent flyer programs to book award tickets.

And as discussed below, if you are willing to pay an extremely high annual fee for the Platinum Business Card, you also get the option to cash-out your points at over 3 cents per dollar spent.

This is especially true if you highly value premium-cabin award tickets. If you are using your points for economy-class award tickets, it is sometimes difficult to get as much value than you can get with Ultimate Rewards' other redemption options. In other words, it is not just easier to redeem your points for hotel nights via Hyatt, you are likely to get more value per point for those hotel stays than you would with most economy-class frequent flyer tickets.

But if you highly value premium cabin awards and have the flexibility and patience to find award space, you'll almost certainly get better value by using your points for premium cabin tickets.

Just be prepared to reward yourself far less often. It can take a long time to earn enough points from your credit card spending to get a frequent flyer ticket. It only takes around $5,000 of credit card spending with the Chase Unlimited Card to reward yourself with a free night at a moderately priced Hyatt hotel or get over $100 of cash value. But it will take $100,000 of credit card spending with the Amex Blue for Business Card to eventually earn enough points for two business class tickets to Europe. Saving up for the business class tickets may represent more value for your spending, but it is likely to take a long time to build up enough points for your trip.
As with any American Express option, you'll still another card for some merchants. Not everyone accepts American Express.
The Business Plus Card doesn’t have an annual fee. But it does have a high foreign transaction fee, so you’ll need to use another card when you are travelling overseas. The Business Plus Card doesn’t come with purchase price or return protection.
The card is available to even the smallest business. It doesn't need to be your full-time job and your business doesn't need to be incorporated. Some sites say you need a minimum of $1,000 in revenue, but many people believe that is "projected annual revenue" moving forwards, and not "actual annual revenue" looking backwards. Like all business cards, it is supposed to be used only for business-related purchases, but many people use it for personal expenses, with no problems. Unlock Extra Reward Points with Business Credit Cards.

Amex Business Card Combo

If you have both the Amex Blue for Business Card and the Amex Business Platinum Card, you can earn the equivalent of 3.08% "cashback". The Business Platinum Card gives you a 35% rebate when you use your points to pay for certain airplane tickets bought through Amex Travel. You'll receive the bonus for all tickets you purchase on your preferred airline and for business and first-class tickets, regardless of airline.

For example, if you buy a ticket that costs $400, you'll need to use 40,000 Membership Rewards points. But you'll get 14,000 points back. Instead of getting only 1 cent per point, you get the equivalent of 1.54 cents per point. With the combination of both cards, you'll be earning 3.08 cents per dollar.

Even if you never use your points for (sometimes more valuable) frequent flyer redemptions and only use them to purchase airfare, this combination works like a 3%+ cashback card whose points can only be used for travel purchases.

Blue Business Plus Guide

Amex Platinum Card Guide

For this to work, you need to buy enough in qualifying airfare per year to be able to use up all your points. You'll also need to choose a preferred airline that you travel on frequently, rather than focusing on an airline that lets you easily get the most value from the Platinum Card's travel credit.

You'll need to qualify for business cards and be comfortable using them for your personal purchases and you'll need to be willing to pay the $595 annual fee for the Business Platinum Card (which does come with some nice other benefits that can partially offset that fee). You'll also need to use another card with any merchant that doesn't take American Express or to avoid the Blue for Business Card's 2.7% foreign transaction fee.

Alternatively, you can combine the Blue for Business Card with the Schwab Platinum and deposit your points, at 1.1 cents each (1.25 cents until September), into your Schwab account. This makes the Blue for Business Card a 2.2% cashback card.

Citibank Double Cash combo

If you know you are going to use your points for frequent flyer tickets, but you are unwilling or unable to get business cards, you should consider the Citibank Double Cash combo.

Like the Chase unlimited combo, you need to get two cards that are designed to work together. The Double Cash Card is good at earning points on your everyday spending. A Citi Premier (or Citi Prestige) card is needed to get full value from all your points and also provides bonus points on certain categories of spending.

Citi Double Cash Guide	The Double Cash Card earns 2x ThankYou points on every purchase and has no annual fee.
Citi Premier Guide	The Premier Card earns 3x ThankYou points on several categories and enables you to transfer your points to many different airline partners. You'll get 3x points on all of the major bonus categories: air travel, hotels, dining, groceries, and gas. It has a $95 annual fee and usually offers a very lucrative 60,000-point signup bonus.

If you want to get a little fancier, you can add in the:

Citi Rewards+ Guide

The no-annual-fee Rewards+ Card gives you a 10% rebate on your ThankYou points redemptions, boosting the value of the rewards you earn with the other two cards. If you get this card, you won't use it (except once per year to keep it active). It simply increases the value of the rewards you earn from the other two cards. For example, if you spend $25,000 with the Double Cash card and convert the points to frequent flyer miles, you'll get 50,000 miles and 5,000 of your points back. This works out to 2.22 miles per dollar. The rebate is capped to the first 100,000 points you redeem each year (10,000 points total).

The Double Cash combo generally earns more transferable credit card points (and thus more airline miles) than the Chase Unlimited combo. You earn 2-2.22x points with the Double Cash versus 1.5x points with the Chase Unlimited card and earn bonus points on gas and groceries (but not on travel purchases other than airfare and hotels).

Besides being available to people who aren't willing or able to get business cards, the Double Cash combo has an advantage over even the Blue for Business card. Amex doesn't have an answer to the convenient bonus category rewards of the Premier card. You can get good bonus category rewards with Amex, but you'll need a combination of more expensive cards to do it.

So why don't we recommend this as the best possible combo?

If you are primarily interested in frequent flyer tickets, we think Membership Rewards are better than ThankYou Rewards by a big enough margin to offset the advantages of the Premier card's "all-in-one" bonus categories. Membership Rewards has a better and much bigger set of partner airlines and it is much easier to earn lots of extra Membership Reward points through signup, referral, and upgrade offers.
If you aren't completely comfortable with frequent flyer programs, Ultimate Rewards remains the better option, primarily due to the ease and value of free Hyatt hotel nights (and the slightly higher cash-out rates).
It is difficult to cancel ThankYou cards. If you do, you can lose your points associated with that card, even if you still have another card with the program.

Cashback cards that earn at least 2.5%

If you are looking for a cashback card, you can possibly do better than the 2% back from one of the many no-annual-fee options.

You can earn 3% cash back with the Discover It Miles Card. The reward rate on this card is 1.5% cashback, but you'll earn double the reward during the first year.

Discover it Miles Card Guide

It isn't that hard to string together multiple years of 3% rewards. You could cancel after the first year, temporarily switch to another card, and then re-apply. If you share finances with someone, you can alternate signing up for (and cancelling) the card and continuously earn the first-year promotional rate.

Discover cards aren't accepted everywhere, so you'll occasionally need to use another card for your purchases. The Discover Card doesn't offer any purchase protections.

If you have $100,000 in investment or retirement funds which you would be willing to manage through Merrill Lynch, you can earn 2.625% with the BOA Unlimited Cash Rewards Card, BOA Premium Rewards Card, or BOA Travel Rewards Card. That level of assets qualifies you for Bank of America "Platinum Honors" status, which gives you a 75% bonus for the rewards you earn from some Bank of America cards. The reward bonus boosts the earning rate from these cards from 1.5 cents per dollar to 2.625 cents per dollar. This is the highest long-term pure cashback rate available from any card.

BOA Unlimited Cash Rewards Guide

If you have assets at another broker, you can usually transfer them to a Merrill Edge account and manage them there (at little or no additional costs) to qualify for the higher reward rate.

The BOA Premium Card has the added advantage of providing extended warranty, 90-day purchase protection, and rarely available return protection (which can offset the cost of a purchase if a store won't accept a return).

If you are willing to make some effort, you can get 2.5% back from the Alliant Cashback Card. As long as you meet their banking qualifications, you'll qualify for 2.5% cashback on the first $10,000 you spend each statement period (with no annual fee).

First, you'll need to join the Alliant credit union. If you don't qualify through other means, you can make a $10 donation to Foster Care for Success to join. Then apply for the credit card and make sure you are approved. To boost your rewards to 2.5%, you'll need to open a high-rate checking account, opt into eStatments, maintain an average daily balance of $1,000, and make at least 1 deposit per month to the account. If you don't want to use the account, just set up an automatic transfer into and out of the account each month.

If you can justify a high annual fee, a little known card from the Fairwinds credit union might be your best option. The Fairwinds Visa Signature Card earns 5x points on travel, 3x points on restaurants, and 2x points on all other purchases. But when you book your points for travel through the CURewards website, you'll get 1.5 cents per point. That works out to 3% on everday spending, 4.5% on restaurants, and 7.5% on travel. The downside is that the card has a $249 annual fee and doesn't with any special premium card benefits. However, if you spend enough money each year, the high reward rate might make it your best option.
Some other interesting options are only available to people in certain parts of the country. The AOD Visa Signature Card has no annual fee, no foreign transaction fee, and earns 3% back on all purchases, making it the theoretical king of cashback cards. However, the credit union is primarily limited to people in Northern Alabama. You could qualify by joining the Northeast Alabama Bicycling Association for $5/month for a month or two. You'll then need to do an excessive amount of paperwork to open the credit union account. Once your done, it can still be tough to get approved for the card.

The Farmers Insurance Federal Credit Union Crystal Visa is similar to the Alliant Card. It earns 3% the first year with a waived annual fee and then 2.5% with a $99 annual fee. But it is only available to people who belong to a limited set of businesses. The PCM Credit Union Platinum Card is only available to people in the Green Bay area. But it provides 5%! cashback on all purchases. The gimmick is that rewards are capped to $50 per month ($1,000 in spending).

When you earn Ultimate Rewards or Membership Rewards points, you retain the upside of occasionally being able to use your points for especially valuable free tickets (or hotel nights). With a cashback card, you have the advantage of using your points without much effort.

We enjoy the “game” of trying to get the most value from our points and the possibility of outsized redemptions. Plus, we love the feeling of getting “free” travel, even if deep-down we know we gave up real cash money to get those points. Other people may prefer the simplicity of a solid, sure, and steady 2.5-3% cashback.

U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve Card

Unless your highly value premium-cabin award tickets and have the flexibility to take advantage of them, the Altitude Reserve Card earns the highest possible reward rate on many (but not all) of your purchases.

Altitude Reserve Guide

The U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve Card earns 3x points on travel purchases and any payments made with mobile wallets (like Apple Pay). Each point is worth 1.5 cents towards travel purchases, giving you a cashback rate of 4.5%. An increasing number of physical and online businesses will accept Mobile Wallet purchases, and if you have one of a number of Samsung devices, you can use your Samsung Wallet with any credit card terminal that accepts a card swipe. For purchases you make elsewhere, you’ll need to settle for just 1.5% or use another card.
If you are willing to prioritize using your mobile wallet whenever you can, the Altitude Reserve works like 4.5% cashback card that you can use on a significant portion of your everyday spending. Unless you highly value premium-cabin award tickets, 4.5 cents per dollar is likely better than 1.5 Ultimate Rewards points or even 2x Membership Rewards Points.
The Altitude Reserve is a pretty good option for travel purchases as well, earning nearly as much as the best cards in this category.
If you are willing to deal with the additional complexity, you could use the Altitude Reserve Card in conjunction with another great general purpose reward card. You'd use the Altitude Reserve to earn 4.5% cash back whenever you can use your mobile wallet, and you'd use the other card (like the Chase Unlimited combo or a 2% cashback card) with other merchants.

The Altitude Reserve has a $400 annual fee, but it comes with an automatic $325 rebate on travel and dining purchases, which reduces your out-of-pocket expense to $75. You’ll also get other benefits such as 4 free airport lounge visits and 12 Gogo inflight Wi-Fi passes. You need to be a customer of U.S. Bank to get the card, but cardholders of other U.S. Bank credit cards are supposed to count. It doesn't offer any price or return protection.

The Amtrak Card

Amtrak points are actually the most valuable of all travel reward points, but you'll only earn 1 per dollar.

Amtrak Credit Card Guide

If you frequently travel on Amtrak, you might get the most value from a card that earns Amtrak points. When you redeem Amtrak points for train tickets, they are worth 2.9 cents each. So 1 Amtrak point per dollar is slightly better than you can easily get from 1.5x Ultimate Rewards or Membership Rewards points (although not as good as 2x Membership Rewards points from the Amex Blue for Business Card or 3x points from the Altitude Reserve cad) and you won't have to hassle with finding good frequent flyer redemptions.
For an Amtrak card to make sense, you need to spend enough at Amtrak to be able to redeem most of the points you earn. For example, if you spend $10,000 per year on the card, you’ll need to spend at least $290 per year on Amtrak tickets, in order to use up each year's points.
The Amtrak World Card is usually the better option of the two Amtrak cards When you first get the card and on each anniversary, you'll get a free companion certificate and upgrade certificate. It earns 3x points on Amtrak purchases and gives a 5% rebate on award redemptions. In addition, you'll earn 2x points, valued at 5.8 cents per dollar, on any other travel purchase. Only the Sapphire Reserve's reward rate on travel is comparable. For each $5,000 you spend on the card, you'll get 1,000 Amtrak tier qualifying points (up to 4,000 per year). The card comes with price protection, but not return protection. $79 annual fee.

There is also a no-annual-fee version of the card, that earns lower reward rates and doesn't provide most of the extra benefits.

Cards with spending bonuses

Another way to boost the reward value you get from your everyday spending is to use a card that provides a spending bonus.

For example, the Hyatt Card earns 1x Hyatt points on everyday purchases, valued at 1.7 cents per dollar. On the surface, this is less valuable than even a basic 2% cashback card. However, if you spend $15,000 each year, you'll get an extra free night certificate (above and beyond the one you got for just keeping the card). We would value that certificate at $150 or more. If you spend exactly $15,000, the value of the free night certificate adds at least 1 cent per dollar to the card's regular reward rate, increasing the total rewards to over 2.75 cents per dollar.

You'll earn a lower reward rate if you spend either less or more than the target amount. For example, if you wind up spending $14,000 on the Hyatt Card, you won't get the second free night certificate and your overall reward rate will only be 1.7. In addition, any spend you make above $15,000 only earns the base 1.7% reward rate.
Only take this approach if you are sure you are going to be able to meet the spending requirement. You don't want to earn a lower ongoing reward rate all year long and then not get the bonus you were shooing for. If it looks like you are going to miss the target, you'll need to fall back on the same sort of techniques you could use to help meet the spending requirements for a signup bonus. Tips to Easily Meet the Initial Spending Requirements of New Credit Cards.
Once you've met the bonus spending requirement, you are better off shifting your spending to another card. As a result, this approach complements the other general purpose credit card options, rather than fully replaces them. Just as with a card's initial spending requirement, it is a hassle to track your annual spending so that you'll know when to stop.
If you spend some money on the card's bonus categories, the reward rate for everyday spending is even higher. The card's bonus will be spread across fewer dollars of spending you would have done with another general purpose card. For example, the Hyatt's Card's 4x reward rate for Hyatt purchases is more valuable than you can get from using another card. If you spend $1,000 per year at Hyatt, you'll only need $14,000 of everyday spending to earn the extra certificate.
The Hyatt Credit Card is usually the best option for following this approach. It offers a fairly good regular reward rate and has a relatively low spending bonus threshold ($15,000). Most people will find opportunities to take advantage of both the Hyatt points and the certificate. Even better, the first free night certificate, which you get just for having the card, more than offsets the annual fee.
There are some other interesting options. There are dozens of other cards that offer some sort of bonus when you hit spending thresholds. Some of the more options you might consider include:

Hilton Surpass Credit Card

Radisson Premier Card. Free night certificate for every $10,000 of spend (up to 3 per year), plus 5x Radisson points per dollar. If you've got a decent chance to use it, we would value the free night certificate at around $150. That increases the reward rate to around 3.5%. $75 annual fee. The problem with this card is simply that many people will struggle to take decent advantage of the points or certificate, due to the small number of nice Radisson hotels in the US.
Best Western Credit Card. 20,000 bonus points for $5,000 of spending, plus 2x points on any purchase. If you spend exactly $5,000, you'll earn 30,000 points, which we value at $180, or 3.6 cents per dollar. However, because the extra bonus is relatively small compared to the $59 annual fee, the net reward rate drops to a peak of 2.4%.
FordPass Rewards Visa. $200 statement credit every cardholder year you spend $6,000 (every 12 billing cycles after account opening). While the 1% on everyday purchases needs to be redeemed through Ford, the $200 is a straight credit against any type of spending. That's 3.3% pure cashback on top of whatever Ford points you earn (on exactly $6,000 of spending).
Sonesta Hotels Credit Card. 30,000 bonus points if you spend $7,500 in a cardmember year. That works out to 5x points per dollar with exactly $7,500 of spending. Although not everyone has good opportunities to redeem with Sonesta.