There are a lot of credit cards on the market. I frequently get asked what are my favorittre cards, and which ones I would recommend, so I thought I’d spent some time discussing this. In the past I have written about the different types of credit cards you can get, and how points rewards credit cards are my preferred type – this post puts some of that into practice byt showing you what cards I value most (of the ones I have), and why.
June 23rd 2025 UPDATE: The Chase Sapphire Reserve was revamped as of June 23rd 2025. Below details on the Chase Sapphire Reserve are from before the revamp. I will work on a new version of this post that incorporates those changes.
- The strategy behind my credit card portfolio
- Favorite all-around: Chase Sapphire Reserve (pre-revamp)
- Favorite for non-dining/travel: Capital One Venture Rewards
- Favorite no-annual fee card: Chase Freedom Ultimate
- My newest card: American Express Gold Card
- Summary
The strategy behind my credit card portfolio
I want to start out by briefly talking about my process for getting a new card, because indiscriminately amassing credit cards will not give you the best return on investment. Critically, you need to figure out the spend categories you spend the most on, and get credit cards that will give you the best return on them. It’s about ‘why, what and when’, in that order:
- Why: what do you need a new card for? What specific kind of spending will you put on it? For example, groceries or dining are categories many people spend a lot of money on.
- What: which card would be most suitable?
- When: what is the best timing to open the card?
There are many cards for which this analysis needs to be performed. With that said, there are some cards that are just really good in general, due to their combination of perks and bonus categories. They will work well for nearly everybody, I dare say, and deserve a place in your wallet – or at least consideration. That’s what I’m discussing here: my top recommendations for credit cards that I think work for everybody, and that everybody should consider getting.
With that said, do think about how each of these cards can help (or not help) your situation before getting them! Nothing is more annoying then getting a new card and finding you’re not able to maximize its value.
Favorite all-around: Chase Sapphire Reserve (pre-revamp)
Apply for the Chase Sapphire family (Preferred or Reserve) here!
June 23rd 2025 UPDATE: The Chase Sapphire Reserve was revamped as of June 23rd 2025. Below details on the Chase Sapphire Reserve are from before the revamp. I will work on a new version of this post that incorporates those changes.
An introduction to the family
The Chase Sapphire family may be one of the most popular family of premium credit cards around. There are two cards in this family: the Preferred and the Reserve. My favorite of the two is the Reserve, but before I get to that one, there are some differences between the two cards that are worth pointing out.
First of all, the Preferred is vastly cheaper, coming in with an annual fee of $95. That also means it’s less lucrative then the Reserve in terms of its perks. For example, unlike the Reserve, it doesn’t give you 3x return on travel, only 2x. It doesn’t come with any travel credits per se, though it does have a $50 hotel credit, however this needs to be used to book a hotel through Chase’s travel portal, so it is not particularly flexible. Also, if you want to redeem the points through the Chase travel portal, the value of your points will be 1.25 cents per point – 0.25 cents per point lower than the Reserve, which allows redemptions at 1.5 cents per point. In a previous post I mentioned how for economy redemptions, Chase Sapphire Reserve holders can use the Chase travel portal to get 1.5 cent/point, and this may turn out to be a great redemption path – so note that the Sapphire Preferred wouldn’t give you the same kind of return. Finally, it doesn’t come with any lounge access, such as Priority Pass, Air Canada Maple Leaf or Sapphire lounge access.
All this is to say that the lower annual fee comes with restrictions to the card’s use, but for the $95 annual fee, the Preferred is certainly well worth it and ranks highly as an excellent ‘starter’ premium credit card. Actually, I’ve had the Preferred for years. I found that a fitting strategy is to amass points until you’re ready to use it, and then either upgrade your card, or, better yet, downgrade the card and apply for the Reserve separately. This will make you eligible for the Reserve’s welcome bonus all over again as long as the last time you got a welcome bonus was over 4 years ago.
Luckily, when you use my link to apply for the Sapphire Reserve, you get the choice whether you’d want to apply for the Preferred or Reserve. So, feel free to use the link and decide which one is better for you!
Basic details (Sapphire Reserve)
- Current welcome bonus: 60,000 points when spending $4000 in the first 6 months of card ownership
- Annual fee: $550
- Bonus categories:
- 3x points on dining
- 3x points on travel
- 10x points on hotels and cars booked through Chase Travel portal.
- 5x points on flights booked through Chase Travel portal
- 1x points on everything else
- Other perks:
- $300 annual travel credit, valid for any kind of travel, including local transit.
- Lounge access through Prioirty Pass and access to Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounges on select itineraries.
- TSA PreCheck/Global Entry fee credit.
- 1.5x worth for points redemptions through Chase Travel portal
- Doordash DashPash premium (at least 12 months)
- Lyft Pink membership (2 years)
- No foreign transaction fees.
What do I use this card for?
Up until recently, I used this card for a great deal of my travel and dining purchases, owing to the 3x travel and dining bonus categories. Since I got the Amex Gold card recently (4x on dining), I now only use the Sapphire for travel purchases of all kinds, be it plane tickets or the subway.
Why do I like this card?
To me the, Sapphire Reserve card was long the most useful card in my wallet, thanks to its 3x bonus categories in travel and dining. Essentially, this card would give me the best return on spending on 80% of my purchases, thanks to these bonus categories. Now, I did mention that the Amex Gold has taken over for dining purchases, but the Sapphire reserve is still my go-to card for any kind of travel, including local transit (bus, subway etc). Second, I like this card for the lounge access that it provides. Besides the great Chase Sapphire lounges, you also get Priority Pass (1300 lounge locations) and access to Air Canada’s Maple Leaf lounges, under particular conditions. What this means is that you can access lounges at essentially every global hub airport that you may visit, with just this single card.
For me, those are the primary reasons to like this card and hold onto it. I will add that it also comes with some nice car rental and travel insurances and protections that you usually hope you don’t need, but when you do, it comes in handy. When I rent a car I almost always use the Sapphire Reserve the book it, so that the Reserve’s insurance policies will apply to the rental. And, the other perks are also ncie of course, such as the TSA PreCheck credit, and DoorDash and Lyft Pink memberships, though these are time-limited. All in all, with the $300 travel credit, the card cost decrease to $250, and with the Lyft, DoorDash and TSA PreCheck/Global Entry perks, you are getting a pretty good return on your upfront spend.
Ready to apply for this card? Apply for the Chase Sapphire family (Preferred or Reserve) here!
Favorite for non-dining/travel: Capital One Venture Rewards
Apply for the Capital One Venture here!
An introduction
Like the Sapphire, the Venture cards are also aprt of a family, with four members. However, the ones most popular are the Venture Rewards and Venture X Rewards cards, of which I have the ‘normal’ Venture card. However, the truth is that I may upgrade this card in the near future.
Like with the Sapphire, the Venture and Venture X differ in their annual fees, with the X being the more premium and more expensive, with a $395 annual fee. The Venture is $95. However, the truth is that the cards are generally very similar, with mostly the same bonus categories, and this is one of the reasons I opted for the cheaper Venture card. the Venture X card does get a $300 travel credit to be use in the Capital One travel portal, and 10,000 bonus points every card membership anniversary. As such, the Venture X kind of ‘pays for itself’, and so it can make a lot of sense to simply opt for the Venture X. However, I do not like that the travel credit has to be spent at the Capital One travel portal – this is the second reason I opted for the cheaper Venture card.
Basic details
- Current welcome bonus: 75,000 points when spending $4000 in the first 6 months of card ownership
- Annual fee: $95
- Bonus categories:
- 2x on everything
- 5x points when booking travel through the Capital One Travel portal.
- Other perks:
- TSAPreCheck and Global Entry fee credit.
- No foreign transaction fees.
- Hertz Five Star Status
What do I use this card for?
The Venture cards have a flat 2x points on everything. This makes it a very easy card to use, because you don’t need to think about what your bonus categories are. That said, there are some categories where I don’t want to use it, because I get better bonus categories on other cards. As such, dining (Amex Gold), groceries (Amex Gold), travel (Sapphire Reserve) and some other miscellaneous categories are squarely NOT on Venture, but everything else is – and the truth is that that represents a lot of purchases! For example, most online purchases, including Amazon, I will use Capital One Venture for.
Why do I like this card?
I like this card for its sheer flexibility. There are essentially no cards out there that have bonus categories so lucrative that they cover every single pat of my ‘spending life’. So, necessarily, I have multiple cards that together aim to provide me with the best return on spending. However, there are cases where the categories just consistently don’t lineup, and the only way to get that bonus category is by getting a store card, which I’m not interested in due to the assigned dollar value your points typically get with such cards. This situation typically comes up with large retailers such as Macy’s or online shopping merchants such as Amazon. That’s where the Venture family comes in: because of the industry-leading 2x points, it is the best way to get rewarded for non-category purchases, such as at Amazon.
What makes the Venture X even more lucrative than the Venture is the fact that, on balance, the card is basically free: as mentioned above, the $300 travel credit (But note: at Capital One portal only) and 10,000 anniversary bonus completely offset the $395 annual fee.
Ready to apply for this card? Apply for the Capital One Venture here!
Favorite no-annual fee card: Chase Freedom Ultimate
Apply for the Chase Freedom Unlimited here! (Note an error may pop up that the offer may not be available – in fact it increased since the link was created!)
An introduction
Another popular family of cards from Chase is the family of ‘freedom’ branded cards. There are two of them, the other one being the Freedom Flex, and they are generally quite similar. Both cards are without an annual membership fee, so it’s free to hold on to. This is nice, because you don’t need to ‘justify’ holding onto this card. You can keep it without using it, and not ‘lose money’ on it.
In terms of the biggest differences, it comes down to the bonus categories. While both cards get 3x points at drug stores and dining, the Flex gets you 5x on rotating categories and 1x on all else, and the Ultimate ‘just’ gets you 1.5x on everything else. As such, the Flex can get you outsized value as long as you peruse the categories in the rotating categories (which can be groceries, gas, etc). If you don’t use these categories, a flat 1.5x can end up being more lucrative.
Basic details
- Current welcome bonus: $250 when spending $500 in the first 3 months of card ownership
- Annual fee: $0
- Bonus categories:
- 3% cash back on dining
- 3% cash back at drug stores
- 5% cash back on travel through Chase Travel portal
- 1.5% on everything else
- Other perks:
- TSAPreCheck and Global Entry fee credit.
- No foreign transaction fees.
- Hertz Five Star Status
What do I use this card for?
I currently use this card for just one thing: drug store purchases. It is the only card that I have that earns 3x points on this category, which typically includes merchants such as CVS, Wallgreens and Duane Reade. In the past I used this card much more widely, before I got the Venture card, since its flat 1.5x was still better than the 1x that I would otherwise get from other cards. Since I got the Venture, however, that 1.5x is not as lucrative anymore.
Why do I like this card?
The card is free, so holding onto it really is a no-brainer to me. At that point, this card mostly serves to extend my credit history, plus I get occasional use out of it when shopping at drug stores. But let me be clear: for anybody just starting out with credit cards, the freedom ultimate (or flex) can be incredibly rewarding ‘starter’ cards. Without an annual fee, some very useful bonus categories and an often generous welcome bonus (usually $200 back after spending $500 in 3 months), this card is kind of a no brainer. Truthfully, the card might not make as much sense if you have a sizable collection of cards, but if you find yourself in a situation where you may need or want to downgrade some existing Chase cards, downgrading them to the freedom family could make for a good strategy.
Ready to apply for this card? Apply for the Chase Freedom Unlimited here! (Note an error may pop up that the offer may not be available – in fact it increased since the link was created!)
My newest card: American Express Gold Card
Apply for the American Express Gold Card here!
An introduction
Unlike other cards in my portfolio, the Amex Gold card is not really part of a ‘family’ as such. There are of course other cards in the Amex lineup, such as the well-known Platinum card, or the lesser-known Green and Blue card. However, these are all distinct products with little commonality, and so the Gold is really a standalone card within the Amex portfolio. it is on the expensive side but can be great for those of you that enjoy to go out for dinner or cook alike, as it rewards those activities with 4x bonus points, plus it has several statement credits for select chain restaurants and apps. It also comes with a generous welcome offer that should be very doable for many of you. Currently it still seems to be 100,000 points, awarded after 6 months when spending $6000 or more. This is referral-only, however, so use my referral link for a chance to get thos welcome offer (actual offer may vary).
Basic details
- Current welcome bonus: up to 100,000 points when spending $6000 in the first 6 months of card ownership (the exact number of points may vary)
- Annual fee: $325
- Bonus categories:
- 4x on dining
- 4x at US grocery stores
- 3x on flights purchased directly at the airline or through the Amex Travel portal
- 1x on everything else
- Other perks:
- $120 Uber Cash, to take rides or to use through Uber Eats in the US (10$ per month).
- $120 Dining credit, as $10 monthly statement credits for purchases at Grubhub, The Cheesecake Factory, Goldbelly, Wine.com, and Five Guys.
- $100 Resy credit (in 2 half-year installments).
- $84 Dunkin credit.
Why I got this card
The truth is that I had wanted this card for quite a while, but wasn’t eligible to receive the welcome bonus. How that worked out is a story in and of itself, but for the purposes of this post, I recently found that I was eligible again. And I certainly got it at a good time: through a referral I was able to get a bonus of 100,000 points and a 200$ restaurant credit, paid as statement credits of 20% on eligible dining expenses up to a maximum of $200.
Ultimately, my husband and I spend a large amount of money every year on groceries and dining. With its 4x points earning in these categories, the gold card is one of the most rewarding cards for these categories. I also like the 3x points on airfare bought directly through airlines, which is my preferred way of purchasing flights (as opposed to buying through a travel agency or bank travel portal). Amex Rewards points can then be transferred to some very lucrative and unique travel partners (such as ANA), but also some more common (yet valuable) ones, including Air Canada Aeroplan and Air France/KLM Flying Blue. As such, it’s fairly easy to see that you can potentially get a lot of value out of the Amex Rewards points.
The annual fee on this card is a little steep for my taste, at $325. However, if you diligently use all the credits that the gold card offers (Uber cash, Resy and Dunkin credits), you can easily get the cash value of the annual fee back ($424 in credits total vs $325 annual fee, not counting the 100,000 point welcome bonus). The only thing to know is that you do need to enroll for these perks, which can be done easily through the Amex App.
A word on the applying for an Amex card. Amex does something a little unique: They check whether you are eligible for the card BEFORE actually pulling your credit reports, so it’s quite safe to do a ‘pre-application’ of sorts. If you’re not eligible for the welcome offer, or if you’re not approved for the card, Amex will warn you before you ‘officially’ submit your application. A win-win for the consumer!
Ready to apply for this card: Apply for the American Express Gold Card here!
Summary
In this post I discussed my current all-around favorite credit cards. I have discussed their basic details, what I use them for, and why I like them. I hope these insights have been useful and I hope they have given you some ideas for your own credit card strategy. In summary, here’s my current category breakdown, in simple terms:
- Dining purchases: Amex Gold
- Groceries purchases: Amex Gold
- Travel purchases, as well as travel perks (lounges, insurance): Chase Sapphire Reserve
- Drugstore purchases: Chase Freedom Ultimate
- All other purchases (especially retail): Capital One Venture
But, if there is a key takeaway, is that you build your credit card portfolio around those categories that you spend the most money on, so you can earn their multiples in a rewards currency (I wouldn’t recommend cash back, typically). Use the three W’s: Why, What and When, in that order. The cards I have listed here go a long way to cover the major bonus categories and even leave some flexibility in the extent that you want to pay annual fees for them, with higher and lower priced credit cards, so they should work for many of you. Plus, they come with some nice perks to can really help to smoothen your (air) travel experiences with free lounge access and Global Entry/TSA PreCheck.
Do you have any other credit cards that you really like? let me know about them in the comments! Or would you like some help in deciding what credit card to get next? Reach out through the contact form and I’d be happy to help!
Disclaimer: the opinions expressed here are my own and are not sponsored by any bank or credit card issuer. My opinions should not be taken as financial advice, and you must take care to apply for credit cards within reason, and to use them responsibly, spending only within your means. Finally, I do receive a referral bonus from the bank or credit card issuer if you use the referral links I posted here, though these are not beyond what any other referrer would get. I’m not being specifically rewarded for recommending these cards over any others.
Points to Seats 
Leave a reply to My newest credit card: the IHG One Rewards Premier card! – Points to Seats Cancel reply