The best premium rewards cards offer value that goes well beyond the cost of an annual fee. But finding the right credit card can be tricky.
Top-tier cards come stacked with high rewards rates and valuable benefits, like big spending credits, airport lounge access and other perks. But navigating a card’s full list of features can take some work. And it’s not always super clear when a high annual fee is worth the cost.
But if you know how to use these cards, they can be very powerful tools in your wallet. It’s all about matching your spending habits — especially on travel — to what a card has to offer.
Here’s a quick breakdown of six notable rewards cards and how you can get the best value for the fee.
Platinum Card® from American Express: Loaded with benefits
With best-in-class airport lounge access and numerous spending credits covering everything from travel to shopping, the Platinum Card® from American Express offers enough to justify the expensive $695 annual fee.
Heads up though: Because the valuable spending credits are often tied to specific brands or types of purchases, you’ll want to be sure you’ll get enough use out of them to make the Platinum Card® from American Express worth it.
Chase Sapphire Reserve®: Flexibility and variety
The Chase Sapphire Reserve® features perhaps the most useful benefit of any premium rewards card — an annual $300 credit that applies to any type of travel purchase.
That means you can cover more than half the card’s $550 annual fee with a typical airline ticket or hotel stay or a handful of rideshares and cabs. And the card comes with some solid travel benefits, like airport lounge access, and a few other spending credits to help cover the rest of the fee.
To unlock this card’s full potential, you’ll want to line up your regular spending with its bonus categories and then redeem your points through Chase Travel℠ or transfer your points to one of Chase’s partner airline or hotel brands.
Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card: Practical but premium perks
The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card offers clear value for the $395 annual fee — its two most useful benefits cover that cost all on their own.
- $300 travel statement credit on bookings made through the Capital One Travel portal
- 10,000 bonus miles every year on your account anniversary (worth at least $100 when redeemed for travel)
When you add in the card’s base rewards rate of two miles per $1 and all its other premium travel perks, it’s easy to see how you can get practical value with this card.
American Express® Gold Card: Rewarding for restaurants
The American Express® Gold Card doesn’t carry quite the wealth of perks offered by the first three cards on this list, but it’s arguably the best card if you spend a lot on restaurant dining or food delivery.
The two headline credits are for food delivery (and other eligible purchases) that can earn you up to $240 per year via monthly statement credits — but take note of the $325 annual fee.
You’ll also get decent rewards rates on restaurants, and at U.S. supermarkets for when you feel like cooking at home.
Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card: Straightforward rewards
If all the benefits and perks offered by some premium cards seem overwhelming, the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card comes with the promise of simplicity.
You’ll earn a base rewards rate of two miles per $1 spent on all purchases. And if you don’t want to go through the trouble of redeeming your miles for travel directly through Capital One, you can opt for statement credits to cover any travel purchase. Travel rewards don’t come much simpler than that.
While the card comes with a few nice perks and benefits, they’re unlikely to cover the fee on their own, so you’ll need to spend and redeem often enough to get value for the $95 annual fee.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card: Entry-level travel optimization
For those willing to put in some effort, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card carries real potential for the $95 annual fee.
It comes with a host of bonus spending categories and redemption flexibility, two qualities that make its sibling, the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, one of the most coveted cards out there. But with the leaner Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, which doesn’t boast as many top-tier credits or benefits, it’s important to use your points wisely to get the most possible value.
Essentially, the lower fee comes with a higher level of effort.