We talk a lot about the ultra-premium credit cards with expensive annual fees, but there are plenty of people interested in credit cards with more modest annual fees. Luckily, there are some great $95 credit cards that can be supplemented with fee-free cards for a great travel rewards strategy.
Best $95 travel credit card combo
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Giant Mailbag
(01:20) – Melissa writes in with a question about locking in Hyatt prices before May 20th
(04:48) – Jonathan writes in offering a few key data points to update our Hyatt points advance article, which you can find here
Card News
(08:48) – American Express adds $300 in ChatGPT credits on The Business Platinum Card® from American Express and American Express® Business Gold Cards
(12:40) – See our updated resource for the best cards for Priority Pass here
Crazy Thing: Priority Pass Restaurants
(16:04) – Priority Pass Restaurants
Awards, Points, and More
(18:02) – Mastercard Launches Mastercard Airport Dining Experience (‘Taste By/Of Priceless’ Airport Lounges)
(22:13) – JetBlue and United Unlock Reciprocal Loyalty Benefits
(25:51) – Read Nick’s post about Citi Travel for rental cars here
(30:49) – Read more about Sixt offering prepaid fuel for $49.99 for rentals in the US for Sixt ONE members here
(34:31) – Points Path Pro now shows United discounted cardholder pricing
(36:23) – Read more about how to keep airline miles and hotel points alive here
Main Event: Best $95 travel credit card combo
(37:37) – We’ll focus on which combination of credit cards might make sense for someone to use, but we’ll stick to a $95 annual fee budget. We’ll focus on transferable points and include cash back that can be converted to transferable points
(40:27) – Capital One
(42:21) – Chase
(47:54) – Citi
(52:03) – Wells Fargo
(56:07) – Other considerations
(1:01:05) – Best Mixed-Bank $95 Wallet
(1:10:40) – Nick’s pick for best $95 wallet
(1:13:39) – Greg’s pick for best $95 wallet
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Music Credit – “Ocean Deep” by Annie Yoder
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I think the only variable I’d add is whether a hypothetical primarily domestic traveler is willing to book partner awards–e.g., Avios to book AA. I might be fine with the slightly more complex booking logic, but my parents probably wouldn’t. That might be an additional decision factor that could push someone toward a strategy centered on Chase vs. Citi vs. Bilt depending on most likely use case.
Really enjoyed the episode. Would love to see a follow up focusing on a no annual fee set up alluded to at the end of the podcast.
A Bilt Blue getting 2x on all spend ( after your first $2500 in spend ) seems like a strong card. Use the Bilt cash for an extra 1x instead of fussing with mortgage payments.
Add a CapOne Venture One and a Savor Card for 3x categories. Add a WF Autograph for some more categories like gas if you want.
All cards have no forex , decent protections, lots of transfer options or just cash back.
Really liked the US Bank Altitude Go suggestion you brought up for the free travel perks.
One could really earn and travel well for no annual fees. Even Nick’s parents could be on board for that!
I definitely disagree with Nick’s premise that people with $95 wallets are not traveling internationally since I know many people who just hold a Sapphire Preferred only or a Venture card only and travel internationally (though I’ll have to check with the Venture people if they transitioned to Discover) but I think his setup was a lot less convoluted than Greg’s idea for domestic-only travelers
(I think if your budget was simply $95, you would go for simplicity rather than try and grab every no annual fee card out there – if you wanted more cards you would up your annual fee “budget”. For that I think the Citi Strata Premier at $95 hits enough 3x categories that most people would use on a regular basis along with a good mix of transfer partners – that plus a Custom Cash would be a solid setup)
That’s my thought – most people are not “playing the game” and going for simplicity. If I was advising someone who never cared about credit card points but wanted to start out earning points on spend (not playing the SUB game), the default advice used to be “go get a CSR/CSP and a 1.5x Freedom Unlimited from Chase”. I really don’t think that’s the advice anymore – I think Citi’s products are much more compelling than that combo at exactly this price point, and I don’t think primary car insurance on the couple of family trips someone might be taking every year is going to rise to the top for most people.
As for Tony’s comment below – is Citi customer service spectacular? No. But are there actual people that you can get on the phone to resolve problems? Yes. Is that leaps and bounds above, say, Bilt customer service? Yes. Do I think most people who go to get a Citi Strata Premier and a couple of no fee cards are going to run into Tony’s launch issues on the CSE / Globe below? No.
Side note but I would be curious as to what percentage of people who aren’t in this hobby but do travel frequently think about travel insurance/protections. Honestly, as a young 20 something year old when I stumbled upon points/miles, I had no idea people valued this so highly (honestly have no idea if my friends even buy travel insurance for their trips)
I thought Ben at OMAAT’s post on this from last year was telling, where he basically said he’s never purchased travel insurance. I think it’s something that older people tend to think about a whole lot more but probably because they are more concerned about medical than anything else.
Yeah, I’m retired and travel several months per year but I never buy travel insurance. Fortunately my health insurance is global and I can just self insure everything else. It is nice to have coverage on a card but rarely plays much of a role in my calculations. I do value primary rental car coverage, but that probably isn’t rational.
I’m going to try and be a little bit more aware to at least charge award fees on the Ritz card to trigger any coverage – I have been putting car rentals on there already for primary rental car coverage but always just used my current SUB card for airfare.
‘Self-insurance’ isn’t a thing. You’re just knowingly or unknowingly willing to take on a lot of risk, if things don’t go according to plan. That’s fine, but don’t call it ‘insurance,’ because it’s literally the absence of insurance. You do you. Be safe.
Admittedly “self-insurance” isn’t a very accurate term, but I am using it to mean what you suggest (in the “knowingly” sense).
A lot of people misunderstand the main purpose of insurance, which is to protect against losses you can’t afford. If you purchase insurance you are paying somebody else to take the financial risk for you, and in the vast majority of cases you will come out ahead financially in the long run if you just accept the risk on losses that won’t be too devastating. (There are occasional exceptions to this rule.) I think this is referred to as “self-insurance” because it is sort of like you are paying yourself to take the risk instead of paying somebody else.
Some people view insurance as a way to reduce out of pocket expenses to as low as possible, but it usually makes more sense to ask yourself if you can afford the loss, and if so just skip the insurance. I’m always amazed at the people who will pay for coverage on a $200 loss but don’t have umbrella insurance.
Pierre, I used to mock travel insurance, but now I get it for each and every overseas trip, and any high-value domestic US trips, especially since there are limited consumer protections in the US, and specifically so I can get repaid if an airline’s mistakes cause me to miss a night or a cruise or tour that would otherwise cost me thousands of dollars. Most credit card insurance coverage is extremely limited, so those actual comprehensive plans are far better and do actually pay out. As always, gotta read the fine print.
Yep yep yep. Citi is the obviously correct answer.
Citi Strata Premier + DoubleCash (+ CustomCash if they want to go 3 cards deep) is what would work best for most people, most of the time, simply because it can flex to both transferable points (if they decide to dip their toe in that world) and cash back if they don’t. 3x (or 3% cash back) on most categories, 2x/2% on general spend, 5x/5% on a CustomCash category, no FTF and acceptance everywhere MC is accepted.
Yep. Or if you don’t want to deal with custom cash and 5x on one custom category up to $500/month, could do regular strata for 3x select transit and 3x one custom category with unlimited spend. Can run the math and see what works for you.
But I think the point is that most people don’t want to go 3 cards deep. Most want to just use the same card for everything. It’s actually what makes the $495 Bilt Palladium so attractive if you trust Bilt, but that’s not in the $95 and under framework. So as a $95 and under framework, the 1-2 punch of the Citi Strata Premier and Citi DoubleCash is pretty unbeatable.
And I can’t imagine most people really think that primary car insurance coverage is a reason to go with CSP/F.Un. anymore, although for some it will be. Most people will just say “I’m covered by my existing policy if anything happens, and it’s unlikely anything will happen.”
I think BoA is always worth discussing, as a $95 card with over $100 in value, and a 2.62 catch all
Admittedly the BoA nerfs severely hurt this card so it will become less attractive
Is 2.62 good on taxes and insurance?
Believe so. And also the annual double points usually November (up to $2500 spend usually) on each BofA card.
Chase is secondary in NY so equivalent to others on that basis for many of us.
I’m just trying to read the bottom lines from the youtube transcript (love you guys but not listening to an 80 minute podcast…) and feel like these are maybe recommendations for more advanced players not Average Joe and Jane (who are going to feel like they are doing something wrong by getting a business card).
In my judgment, for the regular joe, there’s just no beating the Citi $95 quadfecta (even the trifecta without the custom cash is excellent). Can stay within one easy to understand ecosystem that you don’t have to run a mortgage through or get a business card for. Get a minimum of 2x on everything and 3x on many, many things that depending on spending could easily bring one’s average to above 2.5x. And if you go abroad just use the Strata Premier.
Two years ago, would have said just get a CSR/CSP and a F.Un. or equivalent. Not anymore.
What ruins Citi is the absolutely atrocious mostly outsourced customer service. Recently made the front page of the Wall Street Journal for just horrible treatment of customers.
To be fair to Citi, after they got called out by the Wall Street Journal, they refunded the annual fee on the Citi Strata Elite (on both of my cards), and gave me the sign up bonus without further spend (and I got to double dip the credits first year) so they more than made up for it.
I have a feeling Chase would have told me to pound sand if something had happened on the Sapphire cards.
They had to because of the article. They did the same thing with P2’s Globe card but because there was no front page article, did say to pound sand. Chase isn’t great but Citi is on a whole different level of extreme garbage treatment.
Not to say that your feelings about a bank or product aren’t valid but for the purpose of this discussion – Citi and Wells Fargo (another bank that has been in the news in the past) do have very appealing cards to earn transferable points. And for some people being able to earn a ton of transferable points outweighs some of the negatives that you’ve pointed out. Sometimes that’s worth taking that perceived risk.
Still primary in NY if you don’t have a car/auto insurance; secondary if you do have a car/separate policy.
Same difference. If you have a secondary policy without a primary policy, it’s therefore primary. So no practical difference between Citi and Chase.
Usbank Smartly 1.0, Bilt Obsidian $95, Paypal Debit (two or more if possible with P2) because a lot of people buy groceries at Costco, Walmart, and/or Target. Surprised Greg didn’t say $95 Wells Fargo Premier Autograph for travel protections.
Oof. Huge nope on Obsidian. Debit? Yikes.
4.33x dining, 3.33x travel, 2.33x everything else and huge transfer bonuses might be why Greg recommended it in his $95 setup. What is yikes about earning 5% on EVERYTHING not just groceries at Costco, Walmart, and Target?
You can’t redeem for cash back anymore with the PayPal debit.
I heard that but what I don’t know is that if starting in August I would be able to redeem anyplace that takes PayPal checkout or just select places. Do you know?
Not anywhere – “select merchants” for checkout so I’m unsure what exactly that means (I don’t have the card)
Where do you see the term “select merchants” for checkout? “You may be offered the option to redeem Points during the checkout process when paying for a purchase using your PayPal account. Where available, you may redeem Points towards the total price of an eligible purchase.” From DOC I see: If you would like to redeem your PayPal Rewards Points using either option listed above, you must do so before 11:59 PM Pacific Standard Time on August 1, 2026. Alternatively, you may explore other available options to redeem your Rewards Points, for example, by redeeming at checkout. Redemption options will become:
you quoted it yourself “(only valid on some purchases)” and “Where available”
but it never says “select merchants” and my read is that where available could very well mean wherever paypal checkout is available. that’s very different than a curated list of select merchants and makes 5% cashback at costco, target, and walmart on all purchases not just groceries still very appealing and much better than 3% points at just Kroger, Sprouts, etc
Guess we will find out in August!
If they had meant all PayPal checkout, there would be no need for the disclaimer “only valid on some purchases” next to PayPal Checkout. They could just leave it as PayPal Checkout