Top Credit Cards for 2024 – K-Digital Educate
Everyone needs a credit card for tons of reasons. And in this article, I’m going over my favorite personal credit cards for 2024 and beyond. These are cards that anyone can sign up for. I specifically chose cards with really high welcome bonuses and insanely good rewards. My goal is to help you choose the best credit card possible to start earning points and rewards.
And if you want, you can also read the full reviews of each card. I’ll leave a link down below in the description. Towards the end of the article , I’ll be talking about why I’m such a big believer in credit cards, how I personally earn points that allows me to travel across the world, stay in crazy hotels all for free, and why I think the credit card game is one that you should play.
But yeah, first, let’s go over my favorite cards. So the first credit card I’m talking about today is the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. This is a card that I’ve had for many, many years, I think over 10 years now. And let me tell you guys why I think this is a great choice for everyone. First of all, right now, they have a really solid intro offer.
So right now, you’ll earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening. That’s worth at minimum $600. But when done right, this can be worth $2,000, $3,000, even $5,000 when redeemed correctly. This card does have an annual fee.
It’s $95, so it is quite low. And if you guys take advantage of all the perks that come with this card, it is 100% worth it. So let’s go over what the rewards are for this card. Besides that big sign-on bonus, you’re gonna get 5x points when you book travel through the Chase Travel Portal.
You’re also gonna get 3x points on dining. You’ll get 2x on all travel purchases, and then 1x cashback for everything else. Now, if you travel a lot, this card is really, really great because there are a ton of perks. The first is that there are no foreign transaction fees. So if you use this card overseas, you’re not gonna pay a 3% fee,
Which is pretty standard on most credit cards. You’ll also get a $50 annual credit towards hotel stays through Chase Ultimate Rewards. There’s trip cancellation and interruption insurance, trip delay reimbursement, baggage delay insurance, and a lot more. You also get a ton of perks with Lyft, DoorDash, as well as other services.
And you also earn annual bonus points, which equal 10% of your total purchases for the previous year. Now, if you’ve seen any of my other videos, you’ll know that I absolutely love Chase Ultimate Rewards. I think these are some of the best points that you guys can get, just because of how easy they are to use, whether you want just cashback, or if you want to actually transfer them to airline partners and get the max value for your points.
In terms of my personal portfolio of points, Chase points are by far my highest balance. And that’s just because I’ve had so many different Chase credit cards. Now, of course, there are other cards out there that do not have an annual fee. But based on my own calculations, if you spend any money at all on this card, or if you’re able to hit the minimum spend in those three months,
Then that is going to immediately pay for six years of having this card at least. So if you use this card actually for travel or for restaurants, and you get that sign on bonus, then it’s absolutely worth it. And in terms of the credit score needed to actually qualify for this card, they say you’re going to need good to excellent credit.
So between $670 to $850. Okay, so the next card I want to talk about is the Amex Gold card. Now, this is a really cool looking card. It’s completely metal. You can get in gold or rose gold colors.
And let me tell you guys why I am such a big fan of this card. So first of all, right now they have a welcome bonus where you get 60,000 membership rewards points after you spend $6,000 within the first six months of having the card. See, Amex does give you a bit more time to meet that minimum spend,
At least compared to Chase. And there is an annual fee for this card. It’s $250, so a bit more than the last card we talked about. But I’ll show you guys why it’s completely worth it. In terms of rewards, this is really great, especially if you like dining out.
Because you get 4x points when you go to restaurants. And yes, this does include takeout and delivery in the US. You’re also going to earn 4x points when you shop at US supermarkets. This is on up to $25,000 of spend per calendar year. And you’re also going to get 3x points on flights
Booked directly with airlines or on amextravel.com. So yeah, if you like eating out, if you like travel, this is a perfect card for you. Now, you might be wondering those 60,000 Amex points, are they comparable to the 60,000 Chase points?
I’d say that yes, Chase and Amex points are very, very similar in terms of how much they’re worth. I find that Chase points are a little bit easier to use. But in the grand scheme of things, I think Chase and Amex, they have some of the best credit card point programs out there.
So yes, this is a premium credit card. So it does come with a ton of other perks. For example, if you add your gold card to your Uber account, basically you’re going to get $10 of credit every single month. There’s also an annual $120 dining credit.
So basically how that works is you get $10 in statement credits every single month when you use the gold card at Grubhub, The Cheesecake Factory, Goldbelly, Wine.com, Milk Bar, and some Shake Shack locations. And then if you guys ever stay at the hotel collection, you do get a $100 experience credit with a minimum two-night stay.
Just like the Chase card we just talked about, this card has no foreign transaction fees. So that’s really great for overseas travel. And yeah, overall, this is a really impressive looking card. It comes with a lot of really great rewards.
And if you’re able to take advantage of the statement credits, then it is 100% worth that annual fee. Plus having a gold card, that’s pretty cool. Okay, so the next card we’re talking about is the Capital One Venture Rewards credit card.
So first off, the intro offer on this card is really great right now. You get 75,000 points when you spend $4,000 on purchases within three months from account opening. So that’s gonna be worth at least $750, even more if redeemed correctly. Now there is an annual fee on this card.
It’s $95, so quite low. And let’s talk about the rewards, which is why I really like this card. So this is one of those cards which is a great everyday card. And the main reason is because you get 2x points on every single purchase. So think about every time you go out and shop and use this credit card,
You basically get at least 2% back in cash. It’s a very simple card, meaning there aren’t all these different categories that you need to keep track of. Rather, you just use a card and you get 2x points on everything. Now there is one bonus category for this card,
And that’s for hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel. For those types of purchases, you actually get 5x points back. Now this is a premium card, so there are some great perks that come with it. One being that you get a $100 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck. So if you guys haven’t yet signed up for that, I really recommend it.
It’s gonna save you guys a lot of time at the airport. And I think everyone should have Global Entry or TSA PreCheck. This card also has no foreign transaction fees, which is great. And I forgot to mention, guys, with Amex, with Chase, with Capital One, all these premium credit cards, they all come with different insurance.
So that’s why I definitely recommend using a credit card for any type of purchase because you do get insurance. If you use a debit card, you are straight out of luck if something bad happens. The Venture card also comes with 24-hour travel assistance services, auto rental, collision damage waiver, as well as an extent warranty on eligible items.
Now Capital One points, they are not as good as Amex and Chase points in my opinion. They’re a little bit harder to use. There are not as many travel partners that you can transfer the points to, but they are still good. And worst case scenario, you can just redeem them for cash back.
Now the Capital One Venture Rewards actually has a twin, and that is the Capital One Venture X Rewards card. Very, very similar. Same exact sign-on bonus, but this card has an annual fee of $395. So of course, there are perks that make it worthwhile.
So I’m not going to count this as a separate card since it’s basically the same card as the Venture Rewards. But yeah, the Venture X, it does come with a $300 annual credit for bookings through Capital One Travel. You also get 10,000 bonus miles, which is worth $100 of travel every single year.
And you get 10x miles on hotels and rental cars booked through their website and 5x miles on flights booked through their website. So yeah, very similar. Just a higher annual fee, but it does come with that $300 credit. Okay, and then finally, we have the Amex Platinum.
This is like the king of all credit cards. It’s super heavy. It’s made of metal. It’s a really cool silver color. And when you take this card out of your wallet,people know, oh, that person is serious. So right now, the welcome offer for this card is going to be 80,000 points. That’s after you spend $8,000 in the first six months of having the card. Of course, these bonuses change all the time. So it might be a little bit different based on when you guys watch this video.
Now, yes, don’t be scared, but the annual fee for this card is $695. That’s a lot, but that’s why I saved this card for last. It’s not going to be the right choice for many guys watching this video. But for people that have a little bit more money to spend on a credit card, this card is the one to get.
So in terms of the cashback rewards, this card is just okay. You get 5x points for flights booked directly with airlines or through American Express Travel. And you also get 5x points on prepaid hotels booked with Amex Travel. Besides that, you’re just going to get a flat 1x cashback on everything else.
I don’t have this card for the cashback rewards. I have this card for the other perks that come with it. So first of all, if you guys travel a lot, then this card will for sure pay for itself. You get access to Centurion lounges, which are some of the best lounges available. You get complimentary elite status with Hilton and Marriott.
You also get access to a premium concierge. And there are so many annual credits that come with this card. They’re worth easily $500. You get a $200 hotel credit every single year. $240 digital entertainment credit.
That’s $20 each month on eligible purchases. A $155 Walmart Plus credit. And guys, I have Walmart Plus myself. It is amazing. I basically never go to the grocery store.
And that’s just because of Walmart Plus. There’s a $200 airline fee credit. $200 Uber cash credit. $300 Equinox credit. This is my favorite gym.
It’s the gym I go to almost every single day. You get a $189 Clear Plus credit. $100 global entry or TSA pre-check credit. $100 credit every single year for Saks Fifth Avenue. $300 SoulCycle at-home bike credit.
And yeah, that’s a lot of credits. So as you guys can see, yes, this card is extremely expensive. Every time I see that annual fee get charged, you know, it hurts me a little bit. But then I think about all the different credits and perks I get with this card. And it makes me feel a little bit better.
This is a classic example of spend a lot of money on something up front. And get rewarded with a ton of different things worth well over what you’re spending on that annual fee. Again, this is not the card for most of you guys since that is a lot of money. But for you travelers, for you people with a little bit more money to spend,
I’m telling you guys getting those perks is super, super worth it. If you guys want to learn more about the perks for this card, I definitely recommend checking out the article down below. We went through all of them, but you probably forgot. I already forgot.
And yeah, it’s good to refresh your mind because if you do, I think you guys will want this card. So I’m going to put a graphic on the screen that basically compares these four different credit cards. It’s going to compare the sign-on bonus, the annual fee,
The overall rewards rates, as well as some of the premium perks. I know there’s a lot of stuff, so you guys can pause the screen. Or again, you guys can learn more about these cards at the links down below. Okay, so now comes the part where we talk about why I’m such a big fan of credit cards and why I think you guys should take advantage of all these offers
And continuously rotate through these cards. So today I probably signed up for close to 20 different credit cards. And the reason is because of this. When you sign up for a lot of credit cards, this actually can help your credit score.
I have an 800 plus credit score. But you take advantage of all these great welcome bonuses where you get a ton of points. And then for every purchase you make, whether it be personal purchases or business purchases, you start accumulating rewards.
And the great thing about these rewards is that you can spend them on really cool experiences. Experiences that you probably would not want to pay for just using cash. So for example, I’ve flown business class to Asia, to Europe, a bunch of places. It’s all free just because of all the points that I’ve earned. I’ve used my points at hotels across the world.
Sometimes I’ve even used my points for cashback. Points are sort of like a currency. And the really cool thing is that just for spending money that you would have spent anyways, you are basically getting rewarded. Now, you might be wondering, why should I use credit cards?
Why can’t I just use a debit card and call it a day? Well, debit cards, they’re super dangerous. Because if you actually lose your card, it’s very easy for someone to steal your card and just start using it to make purchases. When this happens, it’s very hard for you to get your money back.
However, when you have a credit card, there is a lot of insurance built in. Meaning if someone steals your credit card, makes a bunch of fraudulent charges, it’s very, very easy for the credit card company to reimburse you. Now, the reason why these credit cards are able to pay us such big welcome bonuses and give us cashback for purchases is because they make a percent
of every single charge that’s charged on their credit cards. So let’s say, for example, someone makes a purchase of $100 using a Chase credit card. Well, the store that you’re buying from is actually going to pay Chase a fee. Let’s say that’s about 3%, so $3 on that $100 purchase. And part of that money, that goes to paying cash back to you.
So yeah, you can sort of think of it as a free rebate. It’s a rebate that you can only get if you have a credit card. And yeah, it is a little bit annoying for shop owners, but that really is just the cost of doing business. And now when it comes to points redemption, you guys,
There are so many ways you guys can spend your points. Because like I said earlier, it is a currency. The easiest way to spend your points is to just get cash back. And that is the most simple, but it’s also not the best use of your points. If you want to get the maximum redemption value for each of your points,
It is crucial that you transfer them to airline partners and redeem those points directly through the airline. So for example, what you can do is transfer 100,000 points from Chase Ultimate Rewards to, let’s say, United. Now with those 100,000 United mileage plus points,
We can redeem that for a bunch of different reward flights. And the thing is that when you do this right, these points can be worth 3 to 6 cents per point. That’s in comparison to the 1 cent per point that you’re going to get when you just redeem cash back.
This is why earning cash back is so great. So for example, a bunch of the cards we talked about in this video, they get 2x points. So let’s think of that as a 2% rebate. Now with that 2% cash back, let’s multiply that by 3 to 6x,
Which is what you can expect to get if you redeem them correctly. And that basically gives us a 6 to 12% rebate on all our purchases. This is absolutely bonkers. It means that you’re getting 6 to 12% cash back on every single thing you buy. And you can start to see that if you spend a lot of money,
You get a ton of money back. And you get to spend that money on experiences that you may not have otherwise spent money on. That’s another really important lesson, right? Money is not always the most important thing in the world.
Memories, experiences, those things matter a ton. And credit cards have been able to give so many people really amazing travel experiences. Memories that will last a lifetime. I know that sounds cheesy, but it really is something that is huge.
I want more of you guys to travel. I want you guys to experience business class. And yeah, I just want you guys to make memories. Because yes, having more money, having that cash back can be great. But making those memories, most of the time, it is way better.
That’s my little rant about credit card points. Why I think everyone should get them. And the credit cards we talked about in this video, they can absolutely help you start building up your points stockpile, which you can redeem for amazing future travel.
All right, that’s it for this article. My hands are tired. Hopefully this article inspired you to go out there, get personal credit cards, take advantage of the rewards that you get. If this does that for at least one of you guys, then I’ll be happy. Share this article with a friend.
I write a ton of articles about personal finance, investing, and entrepreneurship. And my whole goal is to help you guys live financially successful lives. All right, thank you so much for your time. And I’ll see you in the next one. Peace.
