While there are several excellent long standing credit card offers, the specifics of the best offers are constantly changing (be it the annual fee, minimum spend requirement, or even amount of the sign-up bonus).

Continuing with what I started doing earlier this year, I’m making a post on the first Monday of every month with what I consider to be the best credit card sign-up bonuses of the month. If you read my blog on a daily basis then by all means skip this post, but I know it’ll be a useful, “current” place for me to refer people that ask about which cards they should sign-up for, a question I get a daily basis. This month the cards on the list remain the same, though there are a few changes to the specifics of the sign-up offers.

With that in mind, here are what I currently consider to be the 10 best credit card sign-up bonuses:

1. Ink Bold® Business Card and Ink Plus® Business Card

Current offer: 50,000 60,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $5,000 within three months
Annual fee: $95, waived the first year

Why it’s a great offer: This remains the single best credit card sign-up bonus out there. Ultimate Rewards points are one of the most valuable points currencies given that they can be transferred at a 1:1 ratio to United, Hyatt, and many other programs. The cards are also great for everyday spend given that they offer 5x points at office supply stores, and on cell phones, internet, and cable TV, and double points on gas and hotels. So this is a card that’s good for both for the sign-up bonus and for everyday spend. I value Ultimate Rewards points at 1.8 cents each, so to me these points are worth a whopping $900.

2. The Business Gold Rewards Card® from American Express OPEN

Current offer: 50,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $5,000 within three months
Annual fee: $0 introductory annual fee for the first year, then $175

Why it’s a great offer: This is a promotional sign-up offer on a card that doesn’t ordinarily come with any sign-up bonus. While there’s a high annual fee it’s waived for the first year, and at the very least has some good short term potential for earning points given that it offers triple points on airfare, double points on gas, shipping, and advertising, and one point per dollar spent on everything. I value Membership Rewards points at 1.8 cents each, so to me the sign-up bonus is worth $900. Furthermore there are often transfer bonuses from Membership Rewards to their partner programs, potentially making these points even more valuable. For example, there’s a 35% bonus on transfers to British Airways Executive Club at the moment.

Last month we saw a sign-up bonus of 75,000 Membership Rewards points on the card with the same minimum spend, though it was available for less than 24 hours, and in retrospect seemed to be a mistake. The 50,000 point offer is still a very good one.

3. Chase Sapphire Preferred® Visa Card

Current offer: 40,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $3,000 within three months
Annual fee: $95, waived the first year

Why it’s a great offer: Ultimate Rewards points are one of the most valuable points currencies given that they can be transferred at a 1:1 ratio to United, Hyatt, and many other programs. The cards are also great for everyday spend given that it offers double points on dining and travel, plus a 7% annual points dividend. I value the sign-up bonus on this card at $720. Given that you can get the Chase Ink Bold, Chase Ink Plus, and Chase Sapphire Preferred, that’s an easy 140,000 Ultimate Rewards points worth of sign-up bonuses alone, not factoring in the points you can earn for everyday spend.

4. Citi® Platinum Select® / AAdvantage® World MasterCard®

Current offer: 40,000 AAdvantage miles after spending $3,000 within three months
Annual fee: $95, waived the first year

Why it’s a great offer: After having “unofficial” 50,000 mile sign-up bonuses on the card for a long time now, the last “unofficial” link has finally been taken down, making the best sign-up bonus on this card 40,000 miles, which is still quite good. American miles are extremely valuable for OneWorld travel, and offer some of the best premium cabin redemptions out there, like first class between the US and Asia on Cathay Pacific for 67,500 miles one-way. I value American miles at 1.8 cents each, so this sign-up bonus is worth $720 to me.

5. British Airways Visa Signature® Card

Current offer: 50,000 Avios after spending $1,000 within three months
Annual fee: $95

Why it’s a great offer: British Airways has a distance based award chart which is extremely lucrative for shorthaul travel, as awards start at just 4,500 Avios one-way. Given that short flights are often disproportionately expensive when paying cash, I’ve found Avios to be invaluable. I value British Airways Avios at 1.3 cents each, so to me the sign up bonus is worth ~$550 (factoring in the annual fee).

6. Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve Visa Card

Current offer: Two free weekend nights at most Hilton family properties after spending $2,500 within four months
Annual fee: $95

Why it’s a great offer: In late March Hilton substantially devalued their award chart, making some properties as expensive as 95,000 HHonors points per night. These free night certificates are redeemable all the way up to category 10 properties, potentially making this sign-up bonus worth the equivalent of 190,000 HHonors points. So in terms of buying power, the value of these certificates has hugely increased over the past week compared to the buying power of HHonors points. Furthermore you get HHonors Gold status for as long as you have the card, which gets you free breakfast and internet. As far as I’m concerned those are the two most useful hotel elite benefits, and you get that all for the low annual fee on the card.

The Chase Hyatt Visa Card and Fairmont Visa Signature Card also offer similar sign-up bonuses of two free nights after completing the minimum spend, though I’d say the thing that gives the Citi Reserve Card the “edge” is that it gets you their mid-tier status as well, which is extremely valuable.

7. Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express and Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Card from American Express

Current offer: 10,000 Starpoints after the first purchase, 15,000 additional Starpoints after spending $5,000 within six months
Annual fee: $0 introductory annual fee for the first year, then $65

Why it’s a great offer: Starpoints remain the most valuable points currencies out there, and a great value for both hotel redemptions and airline mileage transfers. I value Starpoints at 2.2 cents each, so this sign-up bonus is worth $550 to me.

8. US Airways Barclays Mastercard

Current offer: 35,000 Dividend Miles after the first purchase
Annual fee: $85, waived the first year

Why it’s a great offer: Use it or lose it. Once the merger takes place it’s a near guarantee that Citi will be issuing American’s new co-branded credit card, so this card won’t be around much longer. It’s an easy 35,000 Dividend Miles given that you get the miles after the first purchase. I value US Airways miles at 1.6 cents each, so this sign-up bonus is worth ~$560.

It’s worth noting that while the above link seems to work as of now, I can’t guarantee for how long it’ll continue to work. Last time I posted a similar link the application continued to work though people started getting automatically rejected since the offer wasn’t intended to be publicly available. The only offer on which I can guarantee the bonus is my affiliate link, which only offers 30,000 Dividend Miles after the first purchase and doesn’t have the first year annual fee waived.

9. The Lufthansa Premier Miles & More World MasterCard®

Current offer: 20,000 Miles & More miles after the first purchase, 30,000 bonus miles after spending $5,000 within 90 days
Annual fee: $79

Why it’s a great offer: As discussed in this post, Miles & More miles are valuable both for domestic travel within the US and for travel in Lufthansa and Swiss first class. The sign-up bonus alone will get you enough miles for three one-way tickets within the US in United two cabin first class or three cabin business class.

10. Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard

Current offer: 40,000 miles after spending $1,000 within 90 days
Annual fee: $89, waived the first year

Why it’s a great offer: Each point can be redeemed for one cent towards the cost of travel, and you get a 10% refund of redeemed miles, making each point worth 1.1 cents. This sign-up bonus is therefore worth $440, and you can earn a pretty great 2.2% cash back towards travel for every dollar spent on the card.

Anyway, those are my top 10 cards based on sign-up bonuses this month. As you can see, not a whole lot has changed compared to last month. If you have any questions or other cards you think have great sign-up bonuses, let me know in the comments section!

(In the interest of full disclosure, I earn a referral bonus for anyone approved through some of the above links. All are for the best available offers. Thanks for your support!)

Update: unfortunately the deal seems to be dead

Earlier I posted about the amazing sign-up bonus that American Express is running on the Business Gold Rewards Card, offering 75,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $5,000 within three months. While the annual fee is $175, it’s waived for the first year.

Ordinarily the card doesn’t offer any sign-up bonus. The past few weeks they’ve been offering a promotional 50,000 point sign-up bonus, and since yesterday they seem to be unofficially offering a 75,000 point sign-up bonus. I say unofficially because not everyone seems to “see” the offer when they click the link. While American Express has rarely offered one day promotional sign up offers of 75,000 points, it has always been with a minimum spend of at least $10,000 to my recollection. And given how only some people can “see” the offer, I’d be willing to bet it will be pulled very soon, so I wouldn’t delay if you’re eying the card.

Anyway, I’ve gotten a ton of questions about the offer in the comments section and via email, so I figured I’d address some of the most common ones here.

When I click the link it shows a bonus for 50,000 bonus points. How do I get the 75,000 bonus point promotion?

For whatever reasons the offer doesn’t seem to come up on some computers or in some browsers. For example, the 50,000 point offer loads in all browsers on my laptop, while the 75,000 point offer loads in all browsers on my desktop.

So if you don’t see the 75,000 point offer try a different browser, try a different computer, try to clear your cookies, or try to do “private browsing,” all of which seem to do the trick. Heck, try your iPhone.

How should I fill out the application?

You don’t have to be an incorporated business with a tax ID to apply. You can apply as a sole proprietorship, and you can enter your name as your business name (or anything else you’d like). For the tax ID you can enter your social security number. A lot of people are thrown off by how to do that, given the way the application “chunks” the numbers. Just enter the first two digits of your social security number in the first field and the last seven digits in the second field.

How hard is it to get approved for this card?

Funny enough I had a post set up to publish yesterday (which I’ve now delayed) about how anecdotally I find American Express charge cards to be the single easiest “mainstream” cards to be approved for. It’s worth noting that both this and the personal Premier Rewards Gold Cards are charge cards. This means that you have to pay your balance in full each month. Obviously this is lower risk for the card issuers since they don’t carry the risk of you carrying a balance on a maxed out card for months.

Therefore I’ve found even those without long credit histories are having no trouble getting approved for this card. I had a 19 year old reader email me today that had no problems getting approved, for what it’s worth.

I’m between credit card “churns” — should I still apply?

A lot of people apply for credit cards every X number of days (be it 90 days, 120 days, or something else). The idea is that by applying for multiple cards on a single day you get to apply for multiple cards without having any of those inquiries show up on the credit score when any of the applications are being processed. While that’s a good strategy, I think a bit too much emphasis is placed on it at times. Applying for a card gives you a temporary credit score hit of a couple of points, and that won’t be the difference between an approval and a denial. This deal is too good to pass up, and if anything it’s worth pushing up a churn to take advantage of this. If you’re wanting to sign up for some other small business credit cards, the Chase Ink Plus® Business Card and Chase Ink Bold® Business Card are still offering 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $5,000 within three months, which is also a great deal. And given that they’re Chase business cards, they’re an excellent way to “diversify” where you’re picking up new business credit.

I applied and my card status is pending — what should I do?

Don’t worry, just because you didn’t get an instant approval doesn’t mean you’ll be denied. You can either wait it out, or I’d recommend calling up the American Express application line at (877) 399-3083. While Chase has legitimate credit analysts at their reconsideration line, the American Express line is staffed by outsourced agents that simply push the application through. Therefore you won’t be asked any questions. I had several family members apply under this offer and two of them weren’t instantly approved. Both called the application line and after being placed on hold for less than a minute were approved, without even having to answer any questions.

I applied under the 50,000 point offer in the past, will they match this better offer?

Back in the day American Express would match just about any better sign-up bonus if you had applied under a lesser bonus. Unfortunately they seem pretty strict nowadays, and based on the reports I’ve seen from the past couple of days, everyone is getting shot down. So if you signed up under the 50,000 point deal (which was already a really good deal), it appears as if you’re out of luck, unfortunately.

Anyway, if anyone has any other questions, let me know below!

(In the interest of full dislcosure I earn a referral bonus for anyone that’s approved through the above links. Thanks for your support!)

While there are several excellent long standing credit card offers, the specifics of the best offers are constantly changing (be it the annual fee, minimum spend requirement, or even amount of the sign-up bonus).

Continuing with what I started doing two months ago, I’m making a post on the first Monday of every month with what I consider to be the best credit card sign-up bonuses of the month. If you read my blog on a daily basis then by all means skip this post, but I know it’ll be a useful, “current” place for me to refer people that ask about which cards they should sign-up for, a question I get a daily basis. This month there are several changes to the list.

With that in mind, here are what I currently consider to be the 10 best credit card sign-up bonuses:

1. Ink Bold® Business Card and Ink Plus® Business Card

Current offer: 50,000 60,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $5,000 within three months
Annual fee: $95, waived the first year

Why it’s a great offer: This remains the single best credit card sign-up bonus out there, and the best part is that you can earn the bonus on both the Chase Ink Bold and Chase Ink Plus cards. So if you have just one of the above cards you can still get the other.

Ultimate Rewards points are one of the most valuable points currencies given that they can be transferred at a 1:1 ratio to United, Hyatt, and many other programs. The cards are also great for everyday spend given that they offer 5x points at office supply stores, and on cell phones, internet, and cable TV, and double points on gas and hotels. So this is a card that’s good for both for the sign-up bonus and for everyday spend. I value Ultimate Rewards points at 1.8 cents each, so to me these points are worth a whopping $900.

2. The Business Gold Rewards Card® from American Express OPEN

Current offer: 50,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $5,000 within three months
Annual fee: $0 introductory annual fee for the first year, then $175

Why it’s a great offer: This is a promotional sign-up offer on a card that doesn’t ordinarily come with any sign-up bonus. While there’s a high annual fee it’s waived for the first year, and at the very least has some good short term potential for earning points given that it offers triple points on airfare, double points on gas, shipping, and advertising, and one point per dollar spent on everything. I value Membership Rewards points at 1.8 cents each, so to me the sign-up bonus is worth $900. Furthermore there are often transfer bonuses from Membership Rewards to their partner programs, potentially making these points even more valuable. For example, there’s a 35% bonus on transfers to British Airways Executive Club at the moment.

3. Chase Sapphire Preferred® Visa Card

Current offer: 40,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $3,000 within three months
Annual fee: $95, waived the first year

Why it’s a great offer: Ultimate Rewards points are one of the most valuable points currencies given that they can be transferred at a 1:1 ratio to United, Hyatt, and many other programs. The cards are also great for everyday spend given that it offers double points on dining and travel, plus a 7% annual points dividend. I value the sign-up bonus on this card at $720. Given that you can get the Chase Ink Bold, Chase Ink Plus, and Chase Sapphire Preferred, that’s an easy 140,000 Ultimate Rewards points worth of sign-up bonuses alone, not factoring in the points you can earn for everyday spend.

4. Citi American AAdvantage Visa Card

Current offer: 50,000 AAdvantage miles after spending $2,500 within four months
Annual fee: $95, waived the first year

Why it’s a great offer: American miles are extremely valuable for OneWorld travel, and offer some of the best premium cabin redemptions out there, like first class between the US and Asia on Cathay Pacific for 67,500 miles one-way. I value American miles at 1.8 cents each, so this sign-up bonus is worth $900 to me.

5. British Airways Visa Signature® Card

Current offer: 50,000 Avios after spending $1,000 within three months
Annual fee: $95

Why it’s a great offer: British Airways has a distance based award chart which is extremely lucrative for shorthaul travel, as awards start at just 4,500 Avios one-way. Given that short flights are often disproportionately expensive when paying cash, I’ve found Avios to be invaluable. I value British Airways Avios at 1.3 cents each, so to me the sign up bonus is worth ~$550 (factoring in the annual fee).

6. Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve Visa Card

Current offer: Two free weekend nights at most Hilton family properties after spending $2,500 within four months
Annual fee: $95

Why it’s a great offer: In late March Hilton substantially devalued their award chart, making some properties as expensive as 95,000 HHonors points per night. These free night certificates are redeemable all the way up to category 10 properties, potentially making this sign-up bonus worth the equivalent of 190,000 HHonors points. So in terms of buying power, the value of these certificates has hugely increased over the past week compared to the buying power of HHonors points. Furthermore you get HHonors Gold status for as long as you have the card, which gets you free breakfast and internet. As far as I’m concerned those are the two most useful hotel elite benefits, and you get that all for the low annual fee on the card.

The Chase Hyatt Visa Card and Fairmont Visa Signature Card also offer similar sign-up bonuses of two free nights after completing the minimum spend, though I’d say the thing that gives the Citi Reserve Card the “edge” is that it gets you their mid-tier status as well, which is extremely valuable.

7. Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express and Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Card from American Express

Current offer: 10,000 Starpoints after the first purchase, 15,000 additional Starpoints after spending $5,000 within six months
Annual fee: $0 introductory annual fee for the first year, then $65

Why it’s a great offer: Starpoints remain the most valuable points currencies out there, and a great value for both hotel redemptions and airline mileage transfers. I value Starpoints at 2.2 cents each, so this sign-up bonus is worth $550 to me.

8. US Airways Barclays Mastercard

Current offer: 35,000 Dividend Miles after the first purchase
Annual fee: $85, waived the first year

Why it’s a great offer: Use it or lose it. Once the merger takes place it’s a near guarantee that Citi will be issuing American’s new co-branded credit card, so this card won’t be around much longer. It’s an easy 35,000 Dividend Miles given that you get the miles after the first purchase. I value US Airways miles at 1.6 cents each, so this sign-up bonus is worth ~$560.

It’s worth noting that while the above link seems to work as of now, I can’t guarantee for how long it’ll continue to work. Last time I posted a similar link the application continued to work though people started getting automatically rejected since the offer wasn’t intended to be publicly available. The only offer on which I can guarantee the bonus is my affiliate link, which only offers 30,000 Dividend Miles after the first purchase and doesn’t have the first year annual fee waived.

9. Lufthansa Miles & More World MasterCard

Current offer: 20,000 Miles & More miles after the first purchase, 30,000 bonus miles after spending $2,500 within 90 days
Annual fee: $79

Why it’s a great offer: As discussed in this post, Miles & More miles are valuable both for domestic travel within the US and for travel in Lufthansa and Swiss first class. The sign-up bonus alone will get you enough miles for three one-way tickets within the US in United two cabin first class or three cabin business class.

It’s worth noting that while the above link seems to work as of now, I can’t guarantee how long it’ll continue to work. It’s not an “official” offer and doesn’t have a landing page, so if you prefer to apply through an official link you can use this one, which has the same details except requires a minimum spend of $5,000 in order to earn the full sign-up bonus.

10. Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard

Current offer: 40,000 miles after spending $1,000 within 90 days
Annual fee: $89, waived the first year

Why it’s a great offer: Each point can be redeemed for one cent towards the cost of travel, and you get a 10% refund of redeemed miles, making each point worth 1.1 cents. This sign-up bonus is therefore worth $440, and you can earn a pretty great 2.2% cash back towards travel for every dollar spent on the card.

Anyway, those are my top 10 cards based on sign-up bonuses this month. If you have any questions or other cards you think have great sign-up bonuses, let me know in the comments section!

(In the interest of full disclosure, I earn a referral bonus for anyone approved through some of the above links. All are for the best available offers. Thanks for your support!)

This has been a rather boring year on the credit card front so far, with very few new or promotional offers out there. Chase continues to have some great offers, though it’s also where we’re most limited in terms of the number of new cards we can sign up for. There are about a dozen Chase cards I’d like to get, but I’m taking it slow since Chase isn’t really an issuer with which you can consistently pick up five new cards per year.

That being said, there have at least been a few good non-Chase offers that I’ve mentioned lately, so I figured I’d recap them, because they’re all recently increased or promotional and likely not around to stay:

1. The Business Gold Rewards Card® from American Express OPEN

This card ordinarily doesn’t come with any sign-up bonus, though at the moment is offering a sign-up bonus of 50,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $5,000 on the card within three months. While the annual fee on the card is $175, it’s waived for the first year. Back in the day Membership Rewards points used to be extremely easy to earn, though nowadays the sign-up bonuses are consistently lower than they used to be, and there are also fewer ways to earn them.

And I’m actually valuing Membership Rewards points more again given that they’re the easiest currency to use for bookings in Singapore Airlines Suites Class, which is one of my favorite products in the world. Also keep in mind that Membership Rewards frequently has transfer bonuses to their partner programs. For example, right now they’re offering a 35% transfer bonus to British Airways Executive Club, meaning 50,000 Membership Rewards points gets you 67,500 British Airways Avios.

2. Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard

The sign-up bonus on this card was recently increased to 40,000 points after spending $1,000 within 90 days. The annual fee on the card is $89, though it’s waived for the first year. This is about as good as cash back travel rewards credit cards get. You earn two points per dollar spent, and each point can be redeemed for one cent of value towards the cost of travel. Best of all you get 10% of your miles back whenever you redeem for travel, essentially making this a 2.2% cash back travel rewards card.

If nothing else the sign-up bonus on this card is worth $440 in travel. I recently wrote a post asking how much of a reward you guys need to apply for a credit card. My personal threshold is a $400 reward, and this card passes that threshold. And quite honestly that’s pretty tough to do consistently nowadays for those of us that have been in the game for a while. Lastly, keep in mind that many Barclay credit cards are churnable, so I suspect that’s also the case with this card.

3. Alaska Airlines Signature Visa

This card offers a 25,000 point sign-up bonus upon approval, and an additional $100 statement credit after spending $1,000 within 90 days. The card does have an annual fee of $75, which isn’t waived for the first year. Another benefit of the card is that you get a $99 coach companion certificate valid for travel on Alaska. The card is also churnable, so you can earn the sign-up bonus on this card multiple times. Alaska partners with Emirates, so it’s one of the few ways to redeem miles for an onboard shower.

Anyway, just figured I’d recap those three bonuses that I’ve recently covered, as I’m getting at least two of the three in a credit card churn later this week.

(In the interest of full disclosure, some of the above links earn me a referral bonus, and all are for the best available offers for each card — thanks for your support!)

Link: The Business Gold Rewards Card® from American Express OPEN

American Express is offering a 50,000 Membership Rewards point sign-up bonus on the Business Gold Rewards Card after spending $5,000 on the card within three months.

This card is essentially the business equivalent of the Premier Rewards Gold card, and offers the following benefits:

• Earn 50,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $5,000 in purchases on the Card in the first 3 months of Card membership†.
• Earn points even faster to get more rewards for your business.
• 3X points on airfare purchased from airlines. 2X points at US gas stations.
• Up to $100,000 in each category per year, then 1 point.
• Terms and limitations apply.
• Reduce travel costs, show appreciation for employees and clients, and offset everyday expenses by using points to get something back and grow your business.
• $0 introductory annual fee for the first year, then $175.
• †Apply online to qualify for this offer. See offer terms for details.

This card ordinarily doesn’t come with a sign-up bonus at all, though American Express has run one-day promotions for 50,000-75,000 Membership Rewards points in the past.

The annual fee on the card is $175, though it’s waived for the first year, so an especially great card to have for that time period.

This is about as good as the sign-up bonus on this card gets, so if you’re looking to rack up some extra Membership Rewards points I’d highly recommend taking advantage of this. I value Membership Rewards points at 1.8 cents apiece, and they also remain the most “transferable” points currency out there. My favorite use of them is for travel in Singapore Airlines Suites Class, as they’re transfer partners with KrisFlyer.

(In the interest of full disclosure, I earn a referral bonus for anyone that’s approved through the above link — thanks for your support!)