I’ve written a couple of articles about my current credit card portfolio, including my favorite benefit on each of my cards (though when I wrote that article, I only had 10 cards).
As I’m trying to decide which credit cards to hold onto and which to ditch in the upcoming year, I figured it’d be helpful to more thoughtfully think about which are my favorite and last favorite cards and why.
Before diving into my ranking, here’s a list of the credit cards currently in my wallet:
- American Express Business Gold
- American Express Business Platinum
- American Express Business Plus
- American Express Hilton Honors Aspire
- American Express Hilton Honors Business
- Capital One Venture X
- Chase Freedom Unlimited
- Chase Ink Business Preferred (have two of these)
- Chase Sapphire Preferred
- Chase United Explorer
Since I have two Chase Ink Business Preferred cards, my ranking will only have 10 cards covered (perhaps I should have called this article “Ranking my 10 credit cards,” but I do technically have 11 cards!). Also, keep in mind that the benefits mentioned below are solely the benefits that I value the most from each card and are not meant to be a full list of card benefits.
Without further ado, here’s my ranking of my current credit cards, from my favorite to least favorite.
1. American Express Hilton Honors Aspire
The main reason that I love my American Express Hilton Honors Aspire card more than any other card in my wallet is quite simple — I get the most benefits out of this card. Below are my favorite benefits on the Aspire card:
- Hilton Diamond status. I love that this card comes with Hilton Diamond status (the highest-tier status that Hilton offers). I place a lot of value in Hilton Diamond status, as I’m upgraded to a better room on almost all of my stays and it includes complimentary breakfast on international stays, which compromises almost the entirety of my travel.
- Annual free Hilton night. Another Aspire benefit that I love is that the card comes with an annual free Hilton night, which you can use at any Hilton portfolio hotel, provided you can find award availability in a standard room. I exclusively use the annual free Hilton night at expensive, aspirational properties, including at the Conrad Bora Bora Nui, Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal, and Grand Wailea, a Waldorf Astoria Resort, where base rooms can easily cost over $1,000 per night.
- Hilton points earned on stays. As an Aspire cardholder, I earn 14 Hilton Honors points for every $1 spent on the card at Hilton-portfolio properties. On top of that, I also earn 20 points for every $1 spent as a Hilton Diamond member, a status that I only have because of the card. This means that I earn 34 points for every $1 spent on my Hilton-portfolio stays thanks to this card, which helps me maintain a healthy Hilton Honors points balance.
- The $550 annual fee is offset by the annual $200 flight credit and $400 Hilton resort credit. While I don’t love that American Express has changed these benefits so that the flight credit is now $50 quarterly and the Hilton resort credit is $200 semi-annually, making it harder to track and sometimes to earn (previously, these benefits were offered annually), most years I am able to entirely offset the annual fee with these credits, making the card essentially free.
Because of these benefits, the American Express Hilton Honors Aspire card is easily my favorite credit card.
2. Chase Sapphire Preferred
I’ve been a Chase Sapphire Preferred cardholder for many years, and while I often will cycle through cards, I’ve never been tempted to get rid of this card because of its benefits. Here are the benefits that make me a loyal cardholder and that make it my second favorite credit card:
- Earning 3 points for every $1 spent on dining, Instacart, meal delivery services, and select steaming services. I spend a lot on these categories, so I appreciate earning 3 points for my spend in these categories (and with the card’s 10% point bonus every year, this essentially becomes 3.3 points for every $1 spent on these categories).
- Earning 5 points for every $1 spent on Lyft. While this benefit is set to expire on March 31, 2025, I’ve already received a ton of value from this benefit and my hope is that the benefit will be renewed. While the 5 points for every $1 spent on Lyft benefit is also offered with the Chase Ink Business Preferred and Chase Freedom Unlimited cards, I only take advantage of it on my Chase Sapphire Preferred card since this card includes a 10% point bonus every year (essentially turning this into 5.5 points for every $1 spent).
- 10% point bonus every year. I love this benefit since it’s essentially free points for not cancelling the card.
- Ability to transfer points to United and Hyatt. While American Express and Chase share a lot of the same transfer partners, United and Hyatt are both exclusive to Chase. I especially enjoy the ability to transfer Chase Ultimate Reward points to United, which can sometimes help me maintain status since the airline counts United miles redeemed on United flights towards PQP that you need to obtain elite status with the airline. (Note: I’m only including this benefit for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card even though it also applies to my Chase Freedom Unlimited and Chase Ink Business Preferred cards, since I only need one of those cards to get this benefit).
Unless there’s a massive overhaul of the card, I don’t see myself getting rid of my Chase Sapphire Preferred card anytime soon.
3. American Express Business Plus
My third favorite card is the American Express Business Plus card, which is actually a pretty basic product with a $0 annual fee. Even though the card has less benefits than any other card on this list, it’s my third favorite credit card for these reasons:
- Earning 2 points for every $1 spent. My favorite benefit of this card is that it earns 2 Membership Reward points for every $1 spent, up to $50,000 spent in a calendar year, which makes this my go-to card for unbonused spend. Something to keep in mind is that the card does charge a foreign transaction fee, so you’ll want to make sure you only use the card domestically.
- Ability to transfer points to Hilton. I’m a big fan of the Hilton portfolio and the Hilton Honors program, which I’ll cover in more detail in a separate post. Because I’m often redeeming Hilton points, one of my favorite benefits of earning American Express Membership Rewards through this card is that I can transfer those points to Hilton, which I then use to book expensive, aspirational stays, usually at Waldorfs, Conrads, or SLH hotels (Note: I’m only including this benefit for the American Express Business Plus card even though it also applies to my American Express Business Gold and American Express Business Platinum cards, since I only need one of those cards to get this benefit).
- Access to point.me. All U.S. American Express cards that earn Membership Rewards have access to point.me included with card, which you can sign up for by visiting https://amex.point.me/. Point.me is a helpful tool to quickly search for reward bookings on flights, so I appreciate that I get access to the site with this $0 annual fee card. (Note: I’m only including this benefit for the American Express Business Plus card even though it also applies to my American Express Business Gold and American Express Business Platinum cards, since I only need one of those cards to get this benefit).
I do wish the card didn’t max out at $50,000 spent per year for the 2x point benefit, but I also think the cap is fair given that the card has no annual fee.
4. Chase Freedom Unlimited
The fourth spot is home to another $0 annual fee card, the Chase Freedom Unlimited card, which earned its number four spot thanks to the following benefits:
- Earning 1.5 points for every $1 spent. While the Chase Freedom Unlimited isn’t as generous as the American Express Business Plus card, earning 1.5 Chase Ultimate Reward points for every $1 spent on unbonused spend is a benefit that I take advantage of regularly. There are a few reasons why I value the 1.5x earning ability so highly, even though I can earn 2x points with either the American Express Business Plus or Capital One Venture X card: (1) I try to diversify the points that I have, so that all my points aren’t tied to a single currency (which can help both because of unique transfer partners and if there are transfer bonuses), (2) I like having Chase Ultimate Reward points on hand, since I can transfer those points to United and Hyatt (which I can’t do with American Express or Capital One miles), and (3) I personally value 1.5x Chase Ultimate Reward points higher than 2x Capital One miles, due to Capital One’s current transfer partners and Capital One offering less transfer bonuses than Chase.
- Earning 3 points for every $1 spent at drugstores. Since I now earn 3 points for every $1 spent on drugstore purchases thanks to the Chase Freedom Unlimited card, I’ve switched a lot of my daily essential spending to drugstores (like toilet paper, razors, shampoo, etc.), whereas previously I’d purchase those items at grocery stores. (Pro tip: To get maximum value, pair your drugstore purchases with Rakuten or TopCashBack to earn an extra 5-15% back on top of the Chase points earned for these purchases).
While not a current benefit of the card, I also have to mention the amazing sign-up bonus I got when signing up for the Chase Freedom Unlimited card. With my sign-up bonus, Chase doubled all the points that I earned on the card for an entire year (meaning my base earning was 3x and my bonused spend was 6x at drugstores and restaurants and 10x on Lyft). I wracked up almost 170,000 bonus points this way, which is not bad for a $0 annual fee card.
Similar to the American Express Business Plus card, the Chase Freedom Unlimited card charges a foreign transaction fee, so you’ll want to make sure that you only use this card domestically.
5. Chase Ink Business Preferred (have two of these cards)
If you would have asked me three months ago, this card would have made it into my top three favorite credit cards; but as of October 1, 2024, Chase reduced one of my favorite benefits of the card — the trip cancellation and interruption insurance — causing the card to drop a few spots down in my ranking.
Even with the insurance benefit being reduced by Chase, the Chase Ink Business Preferred card is still one of my favorite credit cards (it’s so nice that I got the same card twice!), for the following reasons:
- Earning 3 points for every $1 spent on travel and internet purchases. This is my go-to credit card for paying for travel — my largest annual expense aside from my home — since I earn 3 points for every $1 spent on all travel purchases. While my spend on home internet is much lower, I’m also happy to earn 3x points for that spend.
- Trip cancellation and interruption insurance. On top of earning 3x points for travel, a major reason that I used this card for all of my travel spend was that once I put any travel spend on the card, that trip was insured under Chase’s trip cancellation and interruption insurance. But as of October 1, 2024, Chase changed this benefit so that the maximum amount of trip insurance you can claim for trip cancellations or interruptions is the amount that you spent on the trip using the Chase Ink Business Preferred card. While I don’t think this was an unreasonable change in the benefit, it makes the travel insurance benefit less valuable to me, since I don’t always put all of my travel spend for a trip on my Chase Ink Business Preferred card (for instance, if I’m staying at a Hilton property, I’ll pay for the hotel with my Aspire card).
- Car rental coverage. Even though it’s been a while since I’ve rented a car on a trip, when I do, I always use the Chase Ink Business Preferred card since it comes with car rental insurance, in addition to earning 3x points for the rental.
While I still love this card, I will definitely feel less protected when I take a trip that I paid for using this card, since the insurance now has a lower cap than just a few months ago.
6. Capital One Venture X
I recently wrote about why I rarely use my Capital One Venture X card, but I still think it’s a powerhouse card with a number of great benefits. In fact, when friends ask what credit cards they should get, I tell them the best two-card strategy is the Capital One Venture X and the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. That is to say, even though I don’t use the card often, I do think the Capital One Venture X card offers a lot of value.
Below are my favorite benefits of the Capital One Venture X card:
- Earning 10 miles for every $1 spent on hotels booked through Capital One Travel. My favorite benefit of the Capital One Venture X card is earning 10 miles for every $1 spent on hotels booked through the Capital One Travel portal. If I’m booking a stay at a Hilton, Marriott, or Hyatt, I’ll almost always book directly through the hotel, but I book almost all other hotel stays through Capital One Travel to take advantage of 10x miles.
- The $395 annual fee is offset by the $300 annual travel credit and 10,000 anniversary miles. The Capital One Venture X card comes with a $300 annual travel credit for travel booked through Capital One Travel, in addition to 10,000 anniversary miles. Assuming a value of 1 cent per mile on the 10,000 miles (which I think is less than the miles are actually worth), that would come out to $100, meaning these two benefits alone are worth $400 per year, so you’re essentially being paid $5 to keep the card.
- Earning 2 points for every $1 spent. The Capital One Venture X card earns 2x points for unbonused spend (with everything except for travel and car rentals purchased directly through Capital One Travel counting as unbonused spend). While I love this benefit, I wish Capital One had better airline and hotel transfer partners, which is why I personally place more value on the 1.5x Chase Ultimate Reward points that I earn on the Chase Freedom Unlimited card and the 2x American Express Membership Reward points that I earn on the American Express Business Plus card than the 2x points I earn on the Capital One Venture X card.
- No foreign transaction fee. While I prefer both the American Express Business Plus and Chase Freedom Unlimited cards for unbonused spend, the Capital One Venture X card has a major advantage — the card doesn’t charge a foreign transaction fee. This makes the Capital One Venture X card my go-to card for unbonused spend when traveling internationally.
- Priority Pass. While a number of my credit cards include Priority Pass, I currently only take advantage of the Priority Pass benefit offered through the Capital One Venture X card. Something I love about Priority Pass offered through this card is that I can enter Priority Pass lounges by simply presenting the Capital One Venture X card itself instead of needing to open the Priority Pass app or keeping a physical copy of your Priority Pass card in my wallet.
- Complimentary PRIOR subscription. One benefit of the Capital One Venture X card that isn’t talked about much is that the card comes with complimentary access to PRIOR, which you can sign up for here. PRIOR describes itself a “travel magazine come to life” and, once you sign up, you’ll receive regular e-mails with (largely luxury) travel reviews, deals, and inspiration. A PRIOR subscription is $149 per year, and while I doubt I would ever pay for a subscription to the service, I do enjoy having access to it through the Capital One Venture X card.
While I won’t hold my breath, if Capital One added a transfer partner like American Airlines, Alaska, Marriott, Hyatt, or IHG, this card would shoot up in the rankings for me.
7. Chase United Explorer
When I was just getting started on my credit card journey, this was a card that I loved thanks to the two free annual lounge passes, priority boarding, and because the card used to offer a PQD waiver if you spent $25,000 on it each year (this benefit went away in 2018, but basically if you spent $25,000 on the Chase United Explorer card, then you could earn status with United solely based on the amount of miles that you flew that year, regardless of the cost of those flights).
But since I’ve held onto United Gold or Platinum status for the last decade or so and United got rid of the card’s PQD waiver, I place a lot less value on the card and its benefits. That said, below are a few benefits that I do still enjoy:
- The ability to earn PQP with spend. With the Chase United Explorer card, you earn 25 United Premier Qualifying Points (PQP) for every $500 spent, with a maximum of 1,000 PQP per year (except for bonus opportunities, mentioned below). This is the main reason I need the card, as I usually would not be able to maintain Gold or higher status without a PQP bump from credit card spend.
- The card often has promotions to earn either extra miles or PQP. Over the last few years, I’ve been offered a number of promotions where United gives me the chance to earn extra miles or PQP by meeting spend requirements on the card. For instance, this quarter I was offered a promotion where if I spend $9,000 on the card, I’ll get 18,000 bonus miles (since I’d already earn at least 9,000 points on the spend, this equates to earning 27,000 miles for $9,000 spent, or 3 miles for every $1 spent). Last year, I was able to maintain my Gold status only because of a bonus PQP offer.
- Better award availability for cardholders. While neither Chase nor United advertise this benefit, Chase United Explorer cardholders have access to increased award availability and Saver rates, making it easier and sometimes cheaper to redeem United miles for flights.
- It’s my oldest credit card, so getting rid of it would effect my credit score. Okay, so this isn’t technically a benefit, but it’s a big reason why I’m not considering getting rid of the card. I’ve had the card for well over a decade, and — even though I know my credit score would bounce back — I’d prefer to keep the card open as long as I’m getting to enjoy some benefits from the card.
If I ever switched my loyalty from United to another airline, I likely would get rid of the card since most of the benefits that I value are PQP-related.
8. American Express Business Platinum
I swore to myself that I was going to get rid of this card if they didn’t offer me a retention bonus this year (last year, they offered me a 6-figure retention bonus), but when no bonus was offered I still decided to keep the card for a few reasons:
- Access to The Centurion Lounge. I live in Los Angeles and actually do not like The Centurion Lounge at LAX (it’s pretty much in a basement with no light, which is not how I’d like to spend my time right before a long-haul international flight). That said, since I have Star Alliance Gold status, I like knowing that if I’m flying a non-Star Alliance airline that I’ll still have access to a premium lounge.
- The $695 annual fee is more than offset by the $400 Dell credit, $199 CLEAR credit, $120 wireless telephone service credit, $200 Hilton credit, and the $200 airline fee credit. These are generally the only credits that I take advantage of on the card, but these benefits alone are worth $1,079 (note that as a United Gold member CLEAR only costs $159 per year, so I used $159 instead of $199 as the benefit that I get from the annual CLEAR credit). Since I’m essentially making $384 by holding onto the card, it’s hard for me to justify getting rid of the card even though I almost never put spend on it.
- Access to pre-sale tickets for concerts. One of my favorite benefits of the American Express Business Platinum card is being able to access pre-sale tickets for select concerts. I’ve used this benefits to get seats to see Kygo, Stevie Nicks, Mariah Carey, and more, and I’m sure that I saved money and got much better seats by being able to buy the tickets during the pre-sale.
- Fine Hotels + Resorts. While I’ve yet to take advantage of booking a hotel through the Amex Fine Hotels + Resorts program, I appreciate having access to the program and feel like it is something I’ll take advantage of in the near future (lately, I’ve just been booking a lot of award stays).
After listing these benefits, I feel less bad about keeping the card this year even without a retention offer.
9. American Express Business Gold
The newest addition to my credit card portfolio is the American Express Business Gold card, which I got a few weeks back thanks to a 200,000 point sign-up bonus. That said, it’s a card that I pretty much only have because of the sign-up bonus, even though I do enjoy the following benefits:
- Earning 4 points per $1 spent on transit and U.S. dining. I put almost all my transit and U.S. dining purchases on this card, since it earns 4 points for every $1 spent in those categories (on the transit side, this includes rideshare services like Uber, Waymo, and Lyft, and on the dining side, it includes delivery services like DoorDash, Grubhub, and UberEats). That said, I do wish that the card didn’t limit the 4x earnings on dining to only U.S. purchases — with a $375 annual fee, I think they could afford to offer cardholders 4x points on all restaurants, so that you don’t need to remember to bring another card for dining purchases when traveling internationally.
- The $375 annual fee is partially offset by the $240 annual Gruhub credit. Since the card has a $240 annual Grubhub credit — offered as $20 per month credits — I’m able to partially offset the $375 annual fee, making it so the card essentially costs $135 per year.
Since I earn 3.3 points for every $1 spent on dining with my Chase Sapphire Preferred card (3x points + the 10% anniversary points) and I earn 3x on transit with my Chase Ink Business Preferred card, it’s unlikely that I’ll keep this card when it’s up for renewal unless I’m offered a nice retention bonus.
10. American Express Hilton Honors Business
If you would have asked me just a few months ago, this would have been my second or third favorite credit card. I absolutely loved the ability to earn a free Hilton night after spending $15,000 on the card, and would pair the night with my free award night from my Aspire card.
But American Express completely revamped the card early this year, and now it’s my least favorite card. While I do like that the card earns 5 Hilton Honors points for every $1 spent on every purchase (up to $100,000 in a calendar year), I don’t use this card because my American Express Business Plus card earns 2 Membership Rewards points for every $1 spent, which can be converted to 4 Hilton Honors points (and sometimes more, if there is a transfer bonus).
With that, I’d almost always rather earn 2 Membership Reward points than 5 Hilton Honors points for every $1 spent, since I have more flexibility with Membership Rewards.
I was actually planning to cancel the card when it come up for renewal a couple months ago, but for some reason American Express only charged me $95 to renew (even though they raised the annual fee to $195), so I decided to keep the card. I wish I had trusted my gut and cancelled the card, though — but since I have for another year, I told myself I’d take advantage of the 5 Hilton Honors points for every $1 spent with a few of my upcoming quarterly tax payments.
Bottom line
So there you have it, my ranking of my favorite to least favorite credit cards based on what’s currently in my wallet. It’s likely that I’ll use this list to decide which credit cards to cut next year, so I can add on some new cards in 2025.
What do you think of my ranking? Let me know in the comments!
