The 7 most valuable premium rewards cards

A smiling woman lying on a yellow sofa holds one of her premium rewards cards while using a laptop to review all its benefits.Image: A smiling woman lying on a yellow sofa holds one of her premium rewards cards while using a laptop to review all its benefits.
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These days, there are a lot of premium rewards cards to choose from. And with annual fees of several hundred dollars each, these cards don’t come cheap.

At that high cost, it’s hard to decide whether these luxury cards are worth it. But believe it or not, the benefits these cards offer can be worth way more than the annual fees they charge — if you know how to make the most out of those benefits.

In fact, the most valuable premium rewards card features benefits that could be worth nearly $5,000 per year. Of course, you might not use every single one of those benefits, but as long as you use enough to offset the annual fee, the card might be worth it for you.

Let’s take a closer look at the seven most valuable premium rewards cards based on Credit Karma’s Total Benefit Value.


How we picked the most valuable premium rewards cards

To rank the most valuable premium rewards cards, we relied on Credit Karma’s Total Benefit Value, which estimates how much a credit card could be worth if you use each of its benefits once per year.

We found seven cards that are worth at least $1,000 and ranked them from most to least valuable. Based on our calculations, each of these cards more than doubles its annual fee in benefit value.

How to make the most of your premium rewards benefits

While finding a valuable premium rewards card is great, there are other factors to consider. Ultimately, the actual value you’ll receive depends on which perks you use and how often you use them. So it’s also important to consider how practical and easy the benefits are to use and pick a card that fits your spending habits.


About the author: Tim Devaney is a personal finance writer and credit card expert at Credit Karma. He’s a longtime journalist who prides himself on being a good storyteller who can explain complex information in an easily digestible wa… Read more.