Many credit card promotions change monthly. The welcome bonus you see today might not be the same tomorrow. I recommend striking while the iron is hot. But how do you know when to apply?
Well, it’s a good thing you have experts like us to alert you to the best promos and offers. Let’s take a look at this month’s best credit card deals.
Best Airline Credit Card Promotion: Alaska Airlines Visa Signature
The Alaska Airlines Visa Signature is always highly rated by the carrier’s loyal customers. The reason is simple: its a very rewarding credit card.
The Alaska Airlines credit card has a lot going for it. In addition to a solid 30,000-mile sign-up bonus, you’ll get all the standard perks you’d expect from an airline card, namely free checked bags and the ability to earn miles through spending.
The outstanding benefit of this card, though, is Alaska’s famous companion fare. The first year you have the card, you can take someone with you on a flight for just the cost of taxes and fees ($22+).
More Info: Alaska Airlines Credit Cards – How to Get 95K Alaska Bonus Miles
Every year after that, you can bring along a friend or family member for just $99 plus taxes and fees. That one benefit alone can be worth hundreds of dollars a year. Not bad for a card that charges an annual fee of just $75.
The Runner Up: Delta SkyMiles Cards
Both the Gold and the Platinum Delta SkyMiles credit cards from American Express are currently not running promotions that can increase their welcome offers to an all-time high. You can earn up to 30,000 SkyMiles with the Gold Delta card and up to 50,000 SkyMiles with the Platinum Delta card.
The Delta SkyMiles program does not publish award charts, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t great deals to be had.
Thinking about a trip abroad for the summer? With 30,000 miles, you could easily get from the United States to Europe and back in economy class. Or if you save up another 10,000 miles, you could travel in style with a one-way to Europe in business class.
Keep in mind that American Express bonuses are once per lifetime, but these are all-time high Delta deals, so this decision should be easy for you.
Both Delta Amex cards also offer statement credits—$50 on the Gold card and $100 on the Platinum card. These credits can be redeemed for airfare, in-flight meals and even Delta gift cards.
Best Credit Card Promotion for Transferable Points: ThankYou Premier
For a limited time, the Citi ThankYou Premier card has increased its welcome offer to 60,000 points, which is a great bonus for this travel card.
This credit card earns bonuses in quite a few categories, including travel, dining and entertainment, so it should be no problem to rack up a healthy stash of points for your next adventure.
Flexible points, like Citi ThankYou points, are quite valuable in the award travel world, and 60,000 of them can really get you started. ThankYou points can be redeemed for travel via the Citi Travel Center at a rate of 1.25 cents each. You can book just about any airline or hotel through the site.
Points can also be transferred to an array of airline partners, which can lead to some fantastic redemptions. Partners include Air France/KLM, Singapore Airlines and JetBlue, to name a few. For example, 60,000 points can buy you a round-trip ticket to Europe in economy class by transferring them to Flying Blue, which is Air France and KLM’s joint loyalty program.
If you can’t find a good redemption opportunity directly through a frequent flyer program, the bonus is worth $625 when redeemed for airfare, hotel rooms and other purchases made via Citi’s travel portal. That opens up a ton of possibilities.
Biggest Sign-Up Bonus for Transferable Points: The Club Carlson Visa
Another great promotion right now is for a lesser-known card, the Club Carlson Premier Rewards Visa Signature. I mention it because the current sign-up promo is for a total of 85,000 points!
Earn 50,000 Gold Points after your first purchase plus 35,000 points once you spend $2,500 on your card within the first 90 days. Points can be transferred to the program’s airline partners. You could also use them for a lot of free hotel stays.
If you often stay at one of the Carlson Rezidor hotel brands, such as Radisson, Park Inn, Country Inn and Suites and Club Carlson, you’ll earn a massive number of points with this card. Each dollar you spend at a Carlson property earns 10 points.
Best Credit Card Promo Offer for Hotel Stays: Hilton Ascend
We don’t really know if the Hilton Honors Ascend card from American Express is currently offering its highest bonus simply because it’s a new card product. We have yet to see if it’ll go up or down. Having said that, this co-branded Hilton card is pretty nice and it currently has a great sign-up bonus.
You can earn 125,000 Hilton Honors points and a free Weekend Night Reward after signing up for this card. Hilton has done away with its confusing hotel categories and award charts. While redemption rates still vary, 125,000 points is still a good haul.
Some properties require as few as 5,000 points per night. That means you can stay somewhere for 15 nights! For example, Hilton Sharm Waterfalls Resort in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, starts at just 5,000 points per night.
Don’t forget about the 5th Night Free benefit for elite members. If you hold any kind of status with Hilton, and the Hilton Ascend card comes with automatic Elite Gold status, you can extend your stay even longer. Redeeming enough points for four nights will get you a fifth night at no additional cost. That’s hard to beat.
Best Credit Card Deal for Hotel Stays and Air Travel: Marriott Bonvoy Boundless
The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless™ Credit Card from Chase comes with a high special welcome bonus, which is always worth a mention. The Credit card offers a sign-up bonus of 75,000 points after spending $3,000 in the first 3 months.
You can get so much out of Bonvoy points because they are insanely flexible. Marriott has over 40 airline transfer partners, the most of any program. Better yet, you’ll get a 5,000-point bonus every time you transfer 60,000 points to a frequent flyer program. The 25,000-point sign-up bonus may not seem like much, but Bonvoy points are the most valuable in the business
If you don’t have this card, it’s worth getting for the flexibility alone.
Best Cashback Credit Card Promo: Alliant Cashback Visa
If you’re looking for a good cashback card that earns a bonus on all purchases, the Alliant Cashback Visa is hard to beat. While the 3 percent cash back you’ll earn as part of the card’s first year promotional offer is excellent, you’ll definitely want to keep this card for the unlimited 2.5 percent back you’ll get after that.
The one catch with this card is that it has a $59 annual fee, though it’s waived for the first year. That means that you’re going to want to make sure that you earn enough with this card to at least cover that fee.
If you don’t think you’ll spend enough, you should consider one of the other excellent cashback cards on the market. Our experts’ have put together a list of recommendations that you can find here, including a few no-fee cards that offer 2 percent back.
Biggest Cashback Sign-Up Bonus: Elements Cash Rewards Visa
The card I’m about to mention is probably not on your radar. Ever heard of the Elements Cash Rewards Visa? This cashback card’s earning rate is just 1 percent for every purchase, but this isn’t why it made our list.
The Cash Rewards Visa card from Elements Financial offers new cardholders a $300 cash bonus! Yes, all you have to do to earn the bonus is make at least 10 purchases totaling no less than $1,000 on your card within the first 3 months. After that, the generous cash reward is yours.
All cash back you earn is credited to your statement automatically, so you don’t even have to do anything to redeem your points. The card also offers 0% APR on purchases and balance transfers for six months. That promotional offer, along with the $300 in cash back, makes this credit card option quite interesting, even though the ongoing earning rates are rather mediocre.
Best Offer for Business Owners: Ink Business Preferred
Small business owners have a lot of credit card options, too. But the best credit card promotion right now goes to the Chase Ink Business Preferred card. It has excellent earning potential and a huge sign-up bonus.
The sign-up bonus on this card is 80,000 Ultimate Rewards points, and it hasn’t dropped since the card launched in 2016. You can also try for a higher bonus of 100,000 points at a local Chase branch, but you will have to apply in person.
The Ink Business Preferred card earns triple points in multiple categories, including travel, shipping purchases, internet, cable, phone services and more. That’s outstanding.
Better yet, those points are very flexible when it comes to redemptions. They can be used for travel via the Chase Travel Portal at a rate of 1.25 cents per point. Just about any airline you can think of is on that site, along with most hotels. Chase also has multiple travel partners that you can transfer your points to, including United and Southwest.
The 80,000-point sign-up bonus is a nice haul. It’s worth $1,000 when redeemed through the travel portal! You can take multiple domestic and international trips on Southwest Airlines for that kind of money.
You could also take one roundtrip to almost anywhere in the world by transferring those points to United Airlines and using its Star Alliance partners for an international adventure. Ultimate Rewards points have so many uses that you’ll never run out of options.
Don’t think you qualify for a business card? Let’s find out. Do you sell anything on eBay or Etsy? Do you perform independent contractor work? Do you drive for Lyft or Uber? All these things qualify as a small business. As long as you’re honest on your credit card application, you can score some great bonuses.
In Conclusion
If one or two of these card promotions have grabbed your attention, I recommend acting quickly. Many of these offers are for a limited time only. Plus, you never know when an issuer will decide to change a sign-up bonus.
You can’t go wrong with any of the cards we’ve mentioned. The real question is, which card will you choose?