2021 BEST Credit Cards on the Market

hey i'm adam jusko from probably.com in this video we are going to look at the best credit cards on the market here in 2021 but before we do that i'm gonna ask you to please subscribe to this youtube channel if you have not already and if you have already i thank you for doing so so we are going to look at the best credit cards that are on the market as we're rolling into 2021 and into the first half of 2021 we try to update this video a second time each year so if you are watching it later in 2021 and you see a link up here to an updated version you can go check that out if you don't see anything up there that means this is the most up-to-date version so we're gonna look at the sort of best of what is out there if you or someone doesn't spend a lot of time thinking about credit cards maybe you want to upgrade whatever you've been holding or maybe you don't have any credit cards at all or maybe you have one but you'd like to get maybe one or two more to complement the rewards you're getting whatever the case might be we're going to kind of look at the best of what's out there not everything that's out there but the best of what's out there and give a few details about each card all right we're gonna start with cash back cards because that is the type of reward card that the most people are interested in it is also the type of card that many people are going to get if they are you know maybe upgrading from the first card they ever had or maybe their card just has lousy rewards and they want something a little bit better we're going to look at cards if you just want to hold one card that would be good for all your purchases and we'll also look at some cards or some combination of cards if you're willing to hold two three four or maybe even more cards so the number one card here in the cash back area if i were recommending any card to you not knowing anything about you right now it would be the chase freedom unlimited card this is a no annual fee card that is going to give you three percent cash back on your dining purchases three percent cash back on drugstore purchases it gives you five percent back on travel purchases if made through chase's ultimate rewards travel portal you'll also get 1.5 cash back on everything else that you buy with this card now this card used to be a card that only gave you 1.5 cash back on everything chase upgraded it last year and that upgrade is what caused me to upgrade it and make it sort of the number one card that i would recommend but even beyond those things i just told you there are also a couple bonuses that make it even better and make it even more solidly in that number one position that first bonus as i'm making this video is you'll earn 200 bucks if you spend 500 with the card in the first three months of having it you're also going to get five percent back on your grocery store purchases for the first year that you have the card now grocery store purchases doesn't include things like target and walmart it is sort of dedicated grocery stores that's what you're going there for it doesn't sell a million other things but between that bonus and the five percent on groceries and the three percent on restaurants and three percent on drugstores the five percent on the travel through the portal all kinds of stuff going on with this card so if you were just going to get one card right now that is the one i would tell you to get so the chase freedom unlimited giving you sort of the most bang for your buck if you want just one card to add to your wallet here in 2021 however if you are someone that is interested in adding multiple cards sort of building a rewards portfolio you might say among your cards oftentimes what i've recommended in the past is to start with a two percent flat cash back card meaning you're gonna get two percent back on everything you buy no matter what category it's in or anything else now the downside to these two percent flat cash back cards usually is that they aren't going to come with upfront bonuses so if you wanted to start there the cards to look at would be the city double cash card the paypal cashback mastercard the fidelity visa and rolling out as i'm making this video the sofi credit card also a two percent flat cash back card not a lot of difference with these cards you'll want to do maybe a little more research to see the fine print on some of them but mostly what they're giving you is that two percent cash back each gives it to you a little differently but if you want two percent flat cash back on everything you want to start there those are the cards to look at now let's talk about some complimentary cards on the cash back front these are cards that i wouldn't necessarily make my number one card out of my wallet but they give you something extra in certain purchasing categories i'm going to start with two cards that have sort of a wide range of three percent cash back categories and if you only wanted to hold maybe a second card on top of the chase freedom unlimited or a two percent flat cash back card one of these would be my choice as that second card and so the first one is the wells fargo propel american express card a card that gives you three points per dollar which equals three percent cash back when you redeem and a bunch of categories including restaurants travel gas streaming services a lot of stuff with this card a nice bonus with this card as well so that is one i can very definitely recommend if you are someone that qualifies to be a member of navy federal credit union it's more rewards american express card also a great second card it gives you three percent back on groceries on gas on restaurants and one percent everywhere else it as i'm making this video also has a nice bonus opportunity as well so if you're gonna go for two cards and then you wanted to be done you could go for that chase freedom unlimited or one of those two percent flat cash back cards and then add one of those two cards i just talked about all right now if that wasn't enough for you we'll look at some other cash back cards that would give you enhanced rewards in either some different categories that those cards didn't touch on or some bigger rewards even in some of those categories so if you want to further complement maximize that cash back at every turn here are some other cards to consider first u.s bank cash plus card no annual fee card gives you five percent cash back in two categories of your choosing from a list the interesting thing about this card is that those five percent categories oftentimes are categories that you're not going to see in a lot of other credit cards in particular utilities cell phone service internet and streaming services bunch of other stuff too sometimes you'll see them in other cards but to get five percent on those to choose to get that on an ongoing basis makes this a pretty nice card you'll also get two percent in some other categories so you can check out the rest of that card but those five percent categories are really the place where that card shines next up the chase freedom flex and the discover it card two cards that give you five percent cash back in rotating categories that change each calendar quarter that means every three months they're going to be new categories where you get five percent cash back so you have to kind of stay on top of these cards to understand where you're going to get that five percent cash back the chase freedom flex the better of the two cards because in addition to those five percent rotating categories it gives you a lot of what the chase freedom unlimited card gives you that i talked about at the beginning including the three percent all the time on restaurant purchases three percent all the time and drugstore purchases the five percent at the chase travel portal you'll also get those same bonuses now anything that falls outside of those categories you would get one percent cash back with this card the discover it card the five percent categories are good but you're only going to get one percent on everything else with that card you will get a bonus of everything you earn in the first year doubled so that's a one-time doubling of your rewards on that discover it card but beyond that it's all about the five percent categories the only card with an annual fee that i'll mention in this cashback section is the blue cash preferred card from american express it has a 95 annual fee but you'll get six percent back at u.s supermarkets you'll get six percent back on streaming services and it has some other enhanced categories as well if you are spending over three thousand dollars roughly per year on your us supermarket purchases well then this card will make a lot of sense for you if you're not spending that much on groceries and you don't want to pay that 95 annual fee american express does have sort of a watered down no annual fee version of this card the blue cash every day card that will still give you three percent on your grocery store purchases which is pretty nice too the us bank altitude go a new card that debuted within the last 12 months its big feature four percent back on restaurant purchases is a no annual fee card has some other good stuff going on in terms of cash back a nice bonus as well the bank of america cash rewards card not a card that i really love overall except it gives you three percent cash back in one category of your choosing from a list that they supply and one of the choices on that list is online shopping so if you have this card you can get three percent cash back on pretty much everything that you buy online if you're a member of sam's club or a member of costco both of them have pretty nice credit cards that are particularly strong in the gas category the sam's club card will give you five percent of those gas purchases the costco card will give you four percent on gas purchases other nice enhanced categories on those as well but you have to be a paid member of sam's club or costco in order to get those the walmart credit card is a no annual fee card that is going to give you five percent back on your walmart.com purchases now that includes walmart.com or walmart mobile app purchases of groceries for delivery or for pickups so if you are someone that likes to shop for your groceries at walmart that is a way for you to get five percent on your groceries via walmart so you have to do it on walmart.com or via that walmart app you can't go in store and get that five percent doesn't make any sense i know but that is how it works so you have to order it for delivery or pick up in order to get the five percent if you go in walmart and do your grocery shopping shopping or any other shopping you're only gonna get two percent in there if you are a frequent target shopper it's a no-brainer to get the target red card it gives you five percent off all of your purchases at target it's not a five percent reward it is a five percent discount on all your purchases if you don't have the card and you shop at target you're paying five percent more than everybody else in a similar vein if you're an amazon prime member it would be silly not to get the amazon prime visa that is going to give you five percent back on your amazon.com purchases as well as whole foods purchases it has some other enhanced reward categories as well but it's that five percent at amazon that is the big selling point you're already paying to be an amazon prime member so why wouldn't you get the card that's going to give you five percent back on those purchases if you're not an amazon prime member the card's still okay not bad you'd still get three points per dollar or three percent reward on your amazon purchases but not quite as exciting as it would be if you're an amazon prime member all right let's look at the best travel credit cards a very murky category as we get into 2021 if you're watching this in june you already know what has gone on for the last six months or so but i'm making this in early january and we're very unsure about what the travel market is going to look like so that makes it very unsure as to whether you should even get a travel credit card here in 2021 but there are a few points i can make and the first point i would make is if you are someone who's thinking of getting a travel credit card but you don't want to pay an annual fee you probably shouldn't get a travel credit card because most of the no annual fee travel credit cards aren't going to be very good or at least they're going to be less rewarding than a good cash back card like the ones i already talked about would be so if you're someone that travels a lot you'd be better off paying an annual fee for a car that's going to give you more rewards even if it does have that annual fee because the difference is going to be significant between a car that has no annual fee and a card that has an annual fee you get way more rewards way more perks from a travel car that you have paid a little bit to get so stay away from those no annual fee travel cards second even if you are willing to pay an annual fee for a travel credit card you should only do so if you are someone that either travels often or puts a lot of charges on their cards preferably both the people that are going to get the most value from a travel credit card are people that are already traveling a lot for work or pleasure and are putting a lot of charges on to their cards because these cards are going to reward you more for your travel purchases and they're going to obviously give you more points or miles the more money that you actually charge to the card so if you're someone that doesn't travel very often you might accrue some points and miles but you're not going to get very many you're not going to redeem them very often it's not going to make up for what you're paying with the annual fee same thing if you don't put very much in terms of charges on those cards you might earn some points and miles but it's not going to make up for that annual fee with the points and miles that you get from it because you didn't really buy very much and since you don't travel very much you're not getting sort of the enhanced benefits that these cards give now if you're sold on getting a travel credit card you still sort of have two choices or two paths to go down you could get a card that makes you sort of commit to an airline or a hotel chain or you could get a flexible travel credit card that allows you to earn points that you can use in a lot of different ways and those cards come from chase american express etc so if you are someone that already uses a particular airline often or you stay at a particular hotel chain often it can make sense to commit to a credit card from that airline or that hotel chain delta american united southwest hilton marriott they all have more than one card even for you to choose from that can work for you if you are already staying at those places often if you're not already staying at those hotels or flying those airlines often doesn't make sense really to commit to one of their credit cards because yeah you'll earn some rewards with them but you're not going to earn anything sort of outside of that and some of the extra benefits you get from those cards like free check bags etc you're not going to use them very often so it's not going to be something where it makes sense so if you're not going to commit to one if it doesn't make sense to commit to one that's when you want the general market sort of flexible cards that we'll talk about next now if you want one of those flexible travel cards there are sort of four big ones that i would talk about that you should take a look at but they're all going to have annual fees over 400 two of them over 500 so again you have to be somebody that travels a lot and can take advantage of some of the travel credits and things that come with these cards in order to make it worth it the big four sort of in this category are going to be the american express platinum the chase sapphire reserve the city prestige card and the u.s bank altitude reserve visa now you probably want a recommendation of which of those four cards is the best but it's hard to give one right now because number one i don't know if any of them are worth it at a time when it is difficult for most people to travel regularly doesn't make a whole lot of sense but here's what i would say about each of the four cards the chase sapphire reserve last year i said it was the best travel card and then they increased the annual fee significantly to 550 without really adding anything else to it just a price hike and that means it's not necessarily the best anymore it still has a significant travel credit to it it has decent rewards it does allow you to transfer the points that you earn on the card into the frequent flyer of or hotel programs of some good travel partners including southwest united marriott and others so that is a nice feature or you can use your points and get a 50 boost on the rewards you earn through the chase ultimate rewards portal so it still has a lot of good stuff going on and a lot of people still swear by it but at five hundred fifty dollars it's not nearly as good as it was at four hundred fifty dollars the american express platinum card also a five hundred 550 annual fee american express is sort of an everything but the kitchen sink in terms of what they throw at you to justify that 550 if you're someone that travels often in particular you buy airfare and you pay for hotels with this card well then get some really nice rewards as i make this video huge bonus opportunity with this card some of the other benefits can be sort of harder to decide what they are worth you get some credit for saks fifth avenue purchases you've got an uber credit that you can use each month you have some other benefits and you know sort of status with other travel companies so a lot going on with this card you really need to kind of look at the fine print to decide if it is going to be worth it for you in particular american express does have transfer partners where you can send your american express points into the frequent flyer or hotel programs of other companies in particular delta and hilton are american express partners but there are some other international airlines as well some people find a ton of value in american express's membership rewards points some people less so so you really want to do your homework before you decide to spend that much on that card city prestige card 495 annual fee get five points per dollar on airfare five points per dollar at restaurants three points per dollar at hotels you are going to get a 250 travel credit probably the biggest selling point with this card the place where you would make your decision as to whether you want it or not is the fact that you can get a fourth night free at hotels when you use this card to pay for it so if you stay at the same hotel for four nights you use this car to pay for it the fourth night will be free you can use that benefit up to twice per year so if you use that and you're staying at a you know nicer hotel that might pay for your annual fee right there and then you can take advantage of all those other benefits and rewards on top of that so good for some people doesn't make sense for others finally the us bank altitude reserve visa only a 400 annual fee not only 400 that's still a lot but you've got a 325 travel credit that can offset that 400 annual fee you've got a lot of other perks and benefits with this card i actually find it a little less interesting than the other cards even though it has that lower annual fee but some people really swear by it so another card to take a look at and then before we leave travel if you're someone that spends a lot with your credit cards but you don't necessarily travel a lot but you'd like to travel i also would say look at the american express gold card it has a 250 annual fee and your rewards mostly are going to come from places that aren't travel so you're going to get four points per dollar on supermarket purchases you're gonna get four points per dollar on restaurant purchases you do get three points per dollar on flights you've got a 120 dollar dining credit with this card it has a nice big bonus opportunity for new card holders so potentially this is a card if you used it a ton you could get a lot of american express points that you could use toward travel without necessarily having to be someone that spends a lot on travel to begin with all right rewards cards cash back traveler of the most interest to the most people so we spent the most time on them but i want to hit some other categories as well best student credit card the bank of america cash rewards card for students it is the student version of the general market bank of america cash rewards card a no annual fee card that has some decent rewards if you're a college student looking for your first card this is the place that i would recommend you start in terms of small business cards i'll give you five names not going to go into too much detail on these but the first is the chase inc business preferred card a nice rewards card the chase inc business cash card a nice card as well american express has a couple of flat cash back flat reward cards you might choose there's the blue business cash card that gives you two percent on everything you buy with the card or the blue business plus card that gives you two membership rewards points per dollar on everything you buy the us bank business cash rewards card another small business card we like all right finally i'm going to talk about some cards for people that don't have a credit history or maybe have a credit history that doesn't qualify them for the very best rewards cards like the ones we've talked about in this video so first off if you are someone whose credit score is okay but not great maybe you're in the 650 to 700 credit score range i would tell you probably the place to start is look at something like the capital one quicksilver or other capital one cards capital one known to work with people who maybe have a little bit lower credit score same thing for discover the discover it card the discover it miles card oftentimes they will work with people whose credit scores are a little bit lower as well now not bad credit but if you're in sort of that middle range now if you have bad credit you have fewer choices perhaps the capital one platinum card is one that you could qualify for you probably would get a rather small credit line it has a high interest rate it has no rewards but it may be unsecured credit meaning you don't have to put a deposit down in order to get it if you can get your hands on a unsecured card from merrick bank that is another place that potentially you could look at they have their double your line card where if you make all your payments on time for seven months they'll double your credit line that card is an invitation card you can't always get your hands on it easily you can look around the internet and go on the merrick bank site and see if you can fill out a form to try and get qualified for it but it is not always easy now if you have bad credit a secured credit card oftentimes is going to be better than an unsecured card because the unsecured card might give you a very low credit line high interest rate maybe an annual fee where a good secured card could actually be a better deal even though you have to put a security deposit down to get it best secured cards in my opinion the discover secured card often times will graduate you to an unsecured card in a fairly quick time frame if you make all your payments on time bank of america has good secured cards the chime credit builder is a new credit account that is sort of difficult to describe in few words but it has been popular over the last year or so since it was introduced we have another video on that that you could check out to try and understand how that all works finally if you are someone that doesn't have a credit history at all what i would say is you should probably start maybe looking at capital one or discover for their cards to see if you could be approved for any of those especially if you have some income i could see them approving you even without a credit history the pedal card is one that i sometimes recommend for people because it specializes in giving cards to people that don't have a credit history if you can't get approved anywhere else that's when i would consider one of those secured cards in order to build up some credit but i'd say give those other issuers a try first before i went the secured card route so that's it it's finally over questions comments put them in that comment section below otherwise thanks for watching and as always please go to proudmoney.com where we do credit card reviews we talk personal finance we talk deals and all sorts of other fun stuff too thank you for watching bye

Channel: ProudMoney - Credit Cards & Personal Finance

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Length: 22min 23sec (1343 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 05 2021