Chase Sapphire Preferred Card

With numerous valuable transfer partners, no foreign transaction fees and a waived first year annual fee, this is quite simply one of the most valuable cards out there in the market today . The Chase Sapphire Preferred card (referral link here) offers a great initial bonus (currently 50k points) which can be transferred to a number of valuable transfer partners such as Southwest, Hyatt, United Airlines etc. and you can get an additional 5k points for adding an additional cardmember.

While I wouldn't suggest transferring to partners like IHG or Marriott, the ability to transfer to one of the airlines in each of the 3 main airline alliances and also to Hyatt offer tremendous value. In addition, earning double points on airlines, hotels, car rentals and dining with no foreign transaction fees means this is pretty much the go-to card for travelling and eating out.

The first thing to note for this card is the double points earned on all airlines. This alone pretty much trumps all airline branded credit cards aside from those like the British Airways card which offers 2.5 Avios points per $1. It also offers this earn rate for hotel and rental cars which is a great deal unless of course you have the hotel branded credit cards such as the Chase Marriott or the Hilton branded credit cards which provide more points per $1 spent.

Aside from transferring to multiple airlines, I find the biggest value to be had here is likely the transfers to Hyatt. Marriott also allows the same 1:1 transfer but since the Marriott card also pretty much provides the same benefits and since Marriott points are worth less than Hyatt points, it certainly makes Hyatt transfers more valuable to redeem.

This credit card offer comes with:

• Free 50k points after first purchase
• Extra 5k points for adding an additioanl cardmember
• No foreign transaction fees
• Transfers 1:1 to United Airlines (Star Alliance), Singapore Airlines (Star Alliance), British Airways (Oneworld), Korean Airlines (Skyteam), Southwest, Virgin Atlantic, Marriott, Hyatt and Priority Club
• 2 points per $1 spend on airlines, hotels, car rentals and dining
• 1 point per $1 spend on everything else
• Gets 20% off when redeeming points for airline, hotel, car rental and cruises through Ultimate Rewards
• Waived $95 annual fee for first year

The current 50k offer is quite sizeable and the waived first year annual fee makes this a no-brainer if you're looking to collect the most rewards from your credit card spending. This is my default card for all the 2 point / $1 category spending whereas the Amex Hilton card gets all my gas and grocery spending at 5 HHonors points / $1.  For all other non-category spending, I default to my trusty Amex Starwood card.

Disclaimer: This card is only available to US residents.  Also, I am not paid by Chase to endorse their products.