In response to my recent post “What is the best credit card?” a reader pointed out that I should have included the Wells Fargo Propel card on the list. I agree, but for one thing: even though the Propel is issued by Wells Fargo, it’s an Amex card. The point of that post was to recommend a single rewarding card (or sometimes two) for those who don’t want to carry around lots of different cards. I can’t recommend Amex or Discover cards to that audience since they’re often not accepted internationally. Even in the US there are many merchants that don’t accept Amex cards.
Still, the Wells Fargo Propel card is interesting because it has great earning power for a no-fee card. Heck, it has great earning power for any card, especially when combined with the no-fee Wells Fargo Visa Signature card to redeem points for airfare at 1.5 cents per point. Does that make the Wells Fargo card the single best no-fee travel rewards card? Let’s dig into the data to find out…
Initial contenders
We maintain a database of rewards cards which we use to populate all of our credit card pages (Best Credit Card Offers, Best Big Spend Bonuses, Best Rewards for Everyday Spend, Best Category Bonuses, etc.). I dug through the database to find cards with no annual fee, no foreign transaction fees, and which are available today for new signups. That resulted in this lengthy list of cards:
| Card Info Name and Earning Rate (no offer) |
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Earning rate: 3X flights, hotels, homestays, car rentals, dining, gas, rideshares, transit, and streaming services |
Earning rate: 1.5X everywhere; 3X for travel booked through BOA's travel center |
Earning rate: ✦ 4% gas and EV charging (up to $7K spend / year) ✦ 3% restaurant & travel; 2% Costco ✦ 1% everywhere else Base: 1% Travel: 3% Dine: 3% Gas: 4% |
Earning rate: 3% cash back on up to $2K in spend in the category you choose each quarter: gas stations, travel & entertainment, restaurants, discount & warehouse stores, grocery stores, utilities & office supply stores, electronics and computer and camera stores, department and apparel and sporting good stores, auto parts & service, and home improvement stores Base: 1% Travel: 3% Dine: 3% Gas: 3% Grocery: 3% Shop: 3% Office: 3% Biz: 3% Other: 3% |
Earning rate: 4X Travel for PenFed Honors Advantage Members ✦ 3X travel otherwise ✦ 1.5X everywhere else. Advantage membership is available to anyone who opens an Access America Checking account, or to military members. |
Earning rate: ✦ 2X Miles for travel and dining ✦ 1X everywhere else |
Earning rate: ✦ 7X Hilton eligible Hilton purchases ✦ 5X US restaurants, US Supermarkets, and US gas stations ✦ 3X on all other eligible purchases |
Earning rate: ✦ 2X restaurants and grocery ✦ 3X JetBlue ✦ 1X everywhere else✦ |
Earning rate: 1.5% everywhere ✦ 5% on hotels and rental cars booked via Capital One Travel Base: 1.5% Other: 5% |
Earning rate: 3X Expedia purchases |
Earning rate: 1.5 miles per dollar for all spend. Base: 1.5% |
Earning rate: 5X at Choice Hotels ✦ 3X at gas stations, grocery stores, home improvement stores, and phone plans ✦ 1X everywhere else |
Final contenders
Next, I winnowed down the list to the cards that offer more than 1.5% base earnings or at least 3% travel, based on our Reasonable Redemption Values (RRVs). These restrictions eliminated cards like Capital One QuickSilver, Discover It Miles, JetBlue, Choice, Hilton, Arrival, SavorOne, and Expedia.
The remaining list of contenders is 7 deep (sorted with best rewards for travel purchases on top):
| Card Info Name and Earning Rate (no offer) |
|---|
Earning rate: 3X flights, hotels, homestays, car rentals, dining, gas, rideshares, transit, and streaming services |
Earning rate: 1.5X everywhere; 3X for travel booked through BOA's travel center |
Earning rate: ✦ 4% gas and EV charging (up to $7K spend / year) ✦ 3% restaurant & travel; 2% Costco ✦ 1% everywhere else Base: 1% Travel: 3% Dine: 3% Gas: 4% |
Earning rate: 3% cash back on up to $2K in spend in the category you choose each quarter: gas stations, travel & entertainment, restaurants, discount & warehouse stores, grocery stores, utilities & office supply stores, electronics and computer and camera stores, department and apparel and sporting good stores, auto parts & service, and home improvement stores Base: 1% Travel: 3% Dine: 3% Gas: 3% Grocery: 3% Shop: 3% Office: 3% Biz: 3% Other: 3% |
Earning rate: 4X Travel for PenFed Honors Advantage Members ✦ 3X travel otherwise ✦ 1.5X everywhere else. Advantage membership is available to anyone who opens an Access America Checking account, or to military members. |
Grading criteria
We’re not done yet. The ideal travel card would check all of these boxes:
- Accepted everywhere (sorry Amex)
- Rewarding for all travel (hotels, airfare, trains, cruises, etc.)
- Rewarding for dining (I expect that travelers eat out often)
- Rewarding for all other purchases
- Automatic travel protections
- Other valuable perks
Fee-Free Travel Credit Cards Graded by Greg
| Accepted World-wide? | Rewarding for ALL Travel? | Rewarding for Dining? | Rewarding for all other purchases? | Automatic Travel Protection | Other Valuable Perks | |
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| PenFed Pathfinder Rewards American Express Card |  |
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| Wells Fargo Propel World American Express® Card | |
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| Huntington Voice Mastercard | |
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| Bank of America Travel Rewards Visa | |
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| Bank of America Travel Rewards with Platinum Honors | |
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| Costco Anywhere Visa | |
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| Uber Visa Card | |
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| Paypal Cashback Mastercard |
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Explanation of ratings
- Accepted worldwide? Visa or Mastercard gets an A, Amex gets a C.
- Rewarding for all travel? 3% or more gets an A if the definition of travel is broad. 2% to under 3% gets a B. 1.5% to under 2% gets a C. Huntington Voice gets a B because 3% is limited to $2K spend per quarter and because you must choose a single 3% category. Bank of America Travel Rewards gets lower grades because only purchases booked through their travel portal are eligible for higher travel rewards.
- Rewarding for dining? 3% or more gets an A. 2% to under 3% gets a B. 1.5% to under 2% gets a C. Huntington Voice gets a B because 3% is limited to $2K spend per quarter and because you must choose a single 3% category.
- Rewarding for all other purchases? 2% or more gets an A. 1.5% to under 2% gets a B. Under 1.5% gets an F. Uber gets a C instead of an F because a good number of “everywhere else” purchases get 2% (online purchases, including online purchases made with third party payment methods like PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay, Android Pay, and Samsung Pay).
- Automatic travel protections: Cards without travel protections get an F. Those with travel protections, including car rental and trip cancellation & interruption, get an A. Wells Fargo Propel gets a B because it includes travel protections, but not trip cancellation & interruption.
- Other valuable perks: I gave a B to cards that offered almost any perks at all beyond those granted automatically by the payment network since these are fee-free cards after all. PenFed gets an A because it includes $100 in airline fee reimbursements every year. That’s awesome for a fee-free card.
Which is best?
Costco Anywhere Visa
| Card Name w Details & Review (no offer) |
|---|
No Annual Fee Earning rate: ✦ 4% gas and EV charging (up to $7K spend / year) ✦ 3% restaurant & travel; 2% Costco ✦ 1% everywhere else Base: 1% Travel: 3% Dine: 3% Gas: 4% Card Info: Visa Signature issued by Citi. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Noteworthy perks: No annual fee with paid Costco membership |
| Accepted World-wide? |
Rewarding for ALL Travel? |
Rewarding for Dining? |
Rewarding for all other purchases? |
Automatic Travel Protections |
Other Valuable Perks |
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| Costco Anywhere Visa | |
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I was shocked to find that the Costco Anywhere Visa checked the most boxes. If I hadn’t started from our card database, I wouldn’t have even thought to include this card in a travel card roundup. Of course, this one isn’t really fee-free since you are required to have a paid Costco membership to get the card. Still, for those who shop Costco anyway, it’s a strong performer. It’s not good for everywhere else spend, so I’d recommend pairing it with something like the Paypal Mastercard to fill in that hole. Notably, the Costco Anywhere Visa is the only non-Amex card in the roundup to include automatic travel protections.
Uber Visa
| Card Name w Details & Review (no offer) |
| Accepted World-wide? |
Rewarding for ALL Travel? |
Rewarding for Dining? |
Rewarding for all other purchases? |
Automatic Travel Protections |
Other Valuable Perks |
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| Uber Visa Card | |
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The Uber Visa card also checks a lot of boxes and also should be paired with a good “everywhere else” card. But this one lacks travel protections.
Other notables
| Card Name w Details & Review (no offer) |
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FM Mini Review: Meh. Points are only worth about 0.85 cents each. I recommended this card when it used to be fee-free, but not for $95 per year. $95 Annual Fee Earning rate: 4X Travel for PenFed Honors Advantage Members ✦ 3X travel otherwise ✦ 1.5X everywhere else. Advantage membership is available to anyone who opens an Access America Checking account, or to military members. Card Info: Visa Signature issued by PenFed. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Noteworthy perks: $100 Domestic Airline Fee Credit ✦ $120 Global Entry credit ✦ Priority Pass Membership ($32 per visit) |
FM Mini Review: Combine points with the Wells Fargo Visa Signature to get 1.5 cents per point in value towards travel (or 1.75 cents per point if you spend $50K per year on the Visa Signature and combine your points). No Annual Fee Earning rate: 3X flights, hotels, homestays, car rentals, dining, gas, rideshares, transit, and streaming services Card Info: Amex Credit Card issued by Wells. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. |
The PenFed card offers outstanding perks for a no-fee card, but it’s not very rewarding outside of travel purchases. The Wells Fargo Propel card offers a bit less in the way of perks, but a bit more in rewards. Both would have been standouts in this roundup if only they were Visa or Mastercards. I just can’t bring myself to crown an Amex card as a best Travel Card. Amex just isn’t accepted in enough places.
| Card Name w Details & Review (no offer) |
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No Annual Fee Earning rate: 1.5X everywhere; 3X for travel booked through BOA's travel center Card Info: Visa Signature issued by BOA. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Noteworthy perks: Up to 75% bonus for Preferred Rewards banking customers |
No Annual Fee Earning rate: With Platinum Honors status with Bank of America's Preferred Rewards program, this card earns: 2.625X points for all spend (and 5.25X for travel purchased through BOA's travel center) Base: 2.625X (2.63%) Card Info: Visa Signature issued by BOA. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. |
The Bank of America Travel Rewards card offers the best rewards of the bunch for those who have $100K or more in assets combined across Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, and Merrill Edge. Unfortunately, it doesn’t offer travel protections. For those interested in this card, I think you’re better off paying the $95 annual fee for the Bank of America Premium Rewards card instead. See this post for full details: Bank of America cards: awesome if you’ve got $100K lying around.
Alternatively, it’s worth considering pairing this card with one of the fee-free cards that offer good travel protections. That way you can pay for transportation with a card that offers travel protection, and then pay for other stuff with the Travel Rewards card in order to greatly increase your overall rewards earnings.
Where are the transferable points?
I’m on record many times saying that transferable points programs are my favorite rewards programs. These are bank issued points that can be used to purchase travel, redeem for cash, or transferred to airline and hotel loyalty programs. Unfortunately, none of them offer the combination required for inclusion in this post. The best no-fee transferable points card, in my opinion, is the Amex Blue Business Plus which offers 2X everywhere for the first $50K of spend per year, then 1X. Unfortunately, Amex does charge foreign transaction fees with this card.
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[…] Best Fee-Free Travel Credit Card […]
You’ve got it listed as Propel World which is decidedly not AF free.
Yikes! Thanks for pointing that out. We’ll fix it ASAP
I use Costco card to purchase gas for international trips, 4% and no foreign transaction fee.
Bank of America cards and Barclays cards are two of the only ones that work in those European ticket machines that require PINs to make a purchase. This isn’t common, but have run into it in the Netherlands, Spain, Denmark and France. It’s nice having a card with the PIN for travel and if there’s no annual fee, it could be a good card to hang onto long term.
Sounder
U are right I spent all kinds of time on calling getting the so called Right cards . The right card I have is Hawaiian Airlines card .I dropped it it then got another @ 60k points and will keep an extra year Because it Works no hassle in EU.Buy stuff from a machine not an hr long line.
CHEERs
My understanding is that all pen fed cards also offer a true chip and pin capability as well?
What is interesting about the Costco Visa card is that it is not the best earning card at Costco. The BOA 3.2.1 cash back cards with Preferred Rewards earn 3.5% instead of the 2%.
Altitude Reserve earns 4.5% at Costco, and Ducks unlimited earns 5% at Costco gas stations.
It’s nice to see articles discussing lesser-known cards like these which still offer great value for people who don’t do enough spending to justify paying for cards with an annual fee.
One card you could add or put instead of the Paypal Cashback Mastercard is another PenFed card: the PowerCash Rewards Visa Signature. It, too, has 2% cash back on everything, with no annual fee or foreign transaction fee, but adds in travel accident insurance, plus it has a sign-up bonus of $100 for $1500 spend. Like the PenFed Pathfinder card mentioned above, it does require having an Access America checking account with PenFed to get the full 2% rewards rate.
Thanks. That’s a great suggestion.
you should have included other criteria “ease of redeeming rewards”. not sure you would like costco very much after including this one, cause you only get rewards once a year and in store.
Very good point.
Greg, PenFed points are worth only about .85 cents each, so 4x/1.5x would work out to 3.4%/1.27%. I’m unaware of any way to get more value out of them (unless you’re including the travel credits in your calculations).
Thanks. I’ve updated the RRV to 0.85. PenFed told me a while ago that hotel redemptions get up to 1.25 cents per point value with 1.18 average, but I’m not seeing anyone reporting that from actual experience. So, I think it’s fair to lower the RRV to 0.85.
The PenFed Pathfinder does indeed earn 1.5 pointers per purchase on regular spend but the problem is you you do not get to redeem 1 point for 1 cent. I think its closer to 1.2 after factoring redemption
Right. Good point. The RRV is based on the value when redeeming points for travel not for cash.
Being an AMEX card, do you know if the WF Propel card is limited to a “once in a lifetime” sign-up bonus?
I don’t think it’s managed by American Express, it just runs on their network, so it’s not restricted.