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There are plenty of Visa rewards credit cards banging down your door for the privilege of a spot in17 your wallet, and some are much better than others. The good news: no matter what your travel style or rewards preference, there is a card that will work for you.
Visa cards include everything from cash-back cards with no annual fee to luxury travel cards that come with airport lounge access. Let’s take a look at the best Visa credit cards so you can pick the right one for your needs.
Best Visa credit cards of 2020
- Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card: Best for travel
- Chase Sapphire Reserve®: Best premium travel card
- Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card: Best for simple rewards
- Chase Freedom Unlimited®: Best no-annual-fee card
- Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card: Best business card
- Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card: Best no-annual-fee business card
Best Visa cards
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Best for travel
The Chase Sapphire Preferred card has a bonus of 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening.
The benefits of the Sapphire Preferred card are excellent and aren’t available on every Visa Signature card. It comes with a wide range of travel protections including primary rental car insurance, trip delay reimbursement, trip cancellation/interruption coverage and lost baggage/delayed baggage insurance.
Having this card allows you to transfer your Chase Ultimate Rewards points to any Chase hotel or airline partner. It’s also a great credit card for restaurants because it earns 2x Chase points on travel purchases and 3x points on dining purchases. When you pay for Lyft rides with the Sapphire Preferred you’ll 5x points.
$95
The Chase Sapphire Preferred is worth the annual fee in part because the fee is so reasonable. The coverages that comes with this card can be exceptionally useful even if you don’t use them very often. For example, I’ve received several reimbursements thanks to my Chase credit card’s trip delay protection totalling over $550.
Not only that, but I’ve also saved so much on rental car insurance by being able to decline the rental companies collision damage waivers thanks to the Sapphire Preferred’s primary rental car insurance. Having primary rental car coverage also means that you won’t have to file a claim with your personal insurance in the case of a problem, which could indirectly save you even more because your insurance premiums won’t increase. It’s these easily overlooked money-savings perks that make this card such a top-notch choice.
Chase Sapphire Reserve®
Best premium travel card
With the Chase Sapphire Reserve you can earn 50,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 in the first three months from account opening.
This is the luxury version of the Sapphire Preferred. The Sapphire Reserve’s benefits include many of the same coverages as the Sapphire Preferred, but with better terms. For example, the trip delay coverage kicks in after only a six-hour delay, whereas the Sapphire Preferred’s trip delay coverage only applies to eligible delays of 12+ hours or that require an overnight stay — so with the Reserve, you’re more likely to get greater value out of the coverages. But for most, these are minimal improvements. The real value comes from the card’s other perks.
The Sapphire Reserve comes with up to $300 in travel credits each cardmember year. To earn the credits all you have to do is make an eligible travel purchase which includes hotels, airfare, trains, parking, tolls, rental cars and more. You’ll also get $60 in DoorDash credit in 2020 and another $60 in credit in 2021. For dining and travel purchases the Reserve earns 33% more points (3x Chase points) than the Preferred, as well as 10x points on Lyft rides through March 2022.
My personal favorite benefit is the Priority Pass airport lounge access you get with the card. With it you get an unlimited number of visits to any of the 1,200+ Priority Pass lounges worldwide and you can bring up to two guest with you for free. This is also one of the few Visa Infinite cards issued in the U.S.
$550
Compared to other premium cards, like The Platinum Card® from American Express, the Sapphire Reserve’s annual fee is more justifiable because the credits are so easy to earn. It also has much better travel and purchase protections than competitors like the Citi Prestige.
But if you have airport lounge access with another card, then the Sapphire Preferred is a great, cheaper alternative. You can’t have both Sapphire cards at the same time, but you can product change Chase credit cards. So if you have one, you can upgrade or downgrade to the other — just know that you won’t earn a welcome bonus when you upgrade.
The information for the Citi Prestige has been collected independently by Million Mile Secrets. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Capital One Venture card
Best for simple rewards
Earn 60,000 bonus miles after you spend $3,000 on purchases within the first three months of account opening.
The biggest benefit of the Capital One Venture card is that it’s such a simple and rewarding card. For starters, it earns 2x Venture miles on every purchase, so you never have to worry about bonus categories. Plus, those miles can all be redeemed for 1 cent each toward an eligible travel purchase. That means you never have to worry about blackout dates or finding award space.
If you want to get extra value from your rewards, you can with a bit of extra effort, because Capital One miles transfer to several airline and hotel partners. If you use Capital One miles to book premium international flights you can easily book thousands of dollars worth of airfare.
$95
The Capital One Venture is worth the annual fee and is an overall solid choice, but for the same ongoing cost you could have the Chase Sapphire Preferred. The Sapphire Preferred has the same annual fee, but earns more valuable travel rewards, has better built-in coverages and come with a bigger bonus.
That said, not everyone can qualify for a Chase card because of the Chase 5/24 rule, which restricts you from opening any Chase card if you’ve open five or more cards from any bank in the past 24 months. Capital One credit cards don’t have the same application rules, although you are limited to having only two Capital One-branded cards at a time.
Chase Freedom Unlimited
Best no-annual-fee card
The Chase Freedom Unlimited has a $200 bonus offer after you spend $500 in the first three months after you open the account.
Because it’s a credit card with no annual fee, this isn’t a card you’d expect to have loads of benefits, but it’s a keeper nonetheless. The Freedom Unlimited earns 5% back on Lyft rides (through March 2022).
$0
This is the perfect card to pair with either the Sapphire Preferred or Sapphire Reserve. This is because the Freedom Unlimited earns cash back in the form of Ultimate Rewards points and you can pool Chase points between your accounts. When you do that, you can then transfer the rewards you earned with the Freedom Unlimited to Chase’s airline or hotel partners. Here’s an example of why that’s such a powerful feature: $300 cash back is equal to 30,000 Ultimate Rewards points. If you transferred those points to, say, Hyatt, you could book a reward night at a top-tier Category 7 luxury hotel that could easily cost $600 or more. So, in a sense, you just doubled the value of the rewards you earned.
This ability alone makes the Freedom Unlimited worth it.
Ink Business Preferred Card
Best business card
With the Ink Business Preferred card you can earn a bonus of 100,000 Chase points after you spend $15,000 in the first three months from account opening.
The benefits of the Ink Business Preferred include the ability to earn 3x Chase points on up to $150,000 in combined purchases for travel, shipping, internet, cable and phone services, as well as advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines. You’ll also earn 5x points on Lyft rides (through March 2022) and one point per dollar everywhere else.
When you use your card to pay your cell phone bill you’ll get coverage for lost or damaged phones. This insurance is rare to find with small-business credit cards and will reimburse you up to $1,000 per claim (up to three claims every 12 months) with a $100 deductible.
$95
This card has never had a higher bonus, so if you can meet the minimum spending requirements and can qualify for small-business cards, I wouldn’t hesitate to apply. This offer is worth at least $1,000 even if you only redeem the bonus for cash back, which is not even one of the best ways to use Chase points.
That said, this card has a much higher spending requirement than you’ll find on other cards with big travel bonuses, so it may not make sense for you.
Ink Business Unlimited Card
Best no-annual-fee business card
The Ink Business Unlimited card has a $750 bonus cash back after you spend $7,500 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
The Ink Business Unlimited is a business credit card that earns cash back and is essentially the small-business version of the Freedom Unlimited. It earns 5% back on Lyft rides and 1.5% back on all other purchases.
$0
It’s rare to find such a valuable welcome offer attached to a card with no annual fee. This is an exceptional card for any business with expenses that don’t fall into a traditional bonus category because it earns 50% more that the typical non-bonuses purchase.
You can also pair this card with the Ink Business Preferred (or the Sapphire Preferred or Sapphire Reserve) and transfer your points to Chase’s travel partners. So it’s easy to get the best of both world with the Ink Business Unlimited – the ease of cash back and the value of travel rewards.
What you need to know about Visa credit cards
Visa isn’t a card issuer, but a payment network that many different banks use for their cards. Visa cards come with three different designations: Visa, Visa Signature and Visa Infinite.
The plain Visa card is the lowest tier and is usually tied to cards with low or no annual fees. The benefits you get with this card aren’t as robust, but will include several standards, such as zero fraud liability. The Visa Signature is the next step up, and while many of these cards have annual fees, they rarely exceed $100 a year. Many of the best travel cards are Visa Signatures and have good travel protections. The Visa Infinite is reserved for the most expensive cards (typically with annual fees of $400-$500), and only a few cards that are issued in the U.S. have this designation. These cards usually come with different forms of annual travel credits, excellent travel and purchase protections and even airport lounge access.
It’s always good to carry a Visa card because they are widely accepted almost anywhere in the world.
Bottom line
Many of the top banks issue Visa cards, and the range of rewards you can earn is just as diverse. Everything from cash back to travel points are available with Visa cards. There are various types of Visa cards for different travel styles and spending habits. The Visa Infinite designation is reserved for more expensive cards with luxury benefits, while the typical Visa Signature card is less expensive, but comes with better perks than a standard Visa.
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