Flexible Points
We also looked for credit cards that let you redeem rewards in more ways than one, or at the very least, could be redeemed for statement credits to cover purchases. Keep in mind there are a lot of excellent airline and hotel credit cards available too, which you should consider if you prefer to earn points in a specific loyalty program.
Valuable benefits
Credit cards with substantial annual fees should offer valuable cardholder benefits for travel and shopping. The higher the annual fee, the more you should expect from your card.
Understandable Annual Fees
Finally, we took a close look at annual fees and what cardholders could expect in return in terms of benefits and perks. Most of the best reward cards charge an annual fee, so we didn’t count them out. Instead, we made sure the annual fees made sense in terms of the value you could receive in return.
Callout: One factor we didn’t consider in this ranking is each credit card’s annual percentage rate, or APR. Since rewards credit cards that offer bonus deals charge high interest rates, you shouldn’t pursue rewards or bonus deals if you plan to carry a balance. The credit card deals explained on this page only make sense to pursue if you have a plan to pay your credit card bill in full each month.
