Top 10 Credit Card Signup Bonuses

As promised a few weeks back, I put together my list of top 10 credit cards for signup bonuses.

The idea is that for folks with reasonably good credit (and see my thoughts on the effects of credit card signups on credit scores, in many cases it can actually help), the banks want you to travel around the world in a premium cabin almost for free.

This list is useful for card churning, every 3 months or so I look at my cards and signup for new ones for the bonuses. Chase cards are generally one bonus per card per person, lifetime (although a few exceptions exist). Citibank card bonuses can be had more often, for instance the American Airlines cards can be had about every 18 months. Bank of America and Barclays cards are definitely churnable.

Without further introduction, here’s my current top 10 list:

1. British Airways Visa 100,000 point signup bonus: 50,000 points with first purchase, 25,000 more after $10,000 spend, 25,000 more after the next $10,000 in spend. Fee is $75, they offer a free companion award ticket after $30,000 in spend, and the card earns 1.25 Avios points per dollar spent. No foreign currency transaction fees. Here’s my analysis on how to leverage the signup bonus into being 350,000 or even 700,000 points. (Note that there’s also an offer which Mommypoints flags that I haven’t been able to replicate, by test booking a British Airways flight some folks are able to get 50,000 points now, 50,000 points after a year, without minimum spend — you wait for the miles and pay two $75 annual fees but avoid a spend threshold for those miles.)

2. 50,000 American AAdvantage miles for a new Citi Visa or Citi Amex, each no fee the first year and miles awarded after $3000 in spend within four months. And consider getting them both at the same time using the two browser trick.

3. Chase Ink Bold Charge Card 50,000 point signup bonus 50,000 points after $5000 in spend within three months, fee waived the first year. Points transfer to United, British Airways, Korean Airlines, Southwest, Hyatt, Marriott, Ritz-Carlton, Priority Club, and Amtrak. It earns quintuple points on wireless/telecommunications services, cable and satellite TV and radio, and office supply stores and double points on hotels, gas stations, and with travel agencies, up to 200,000 points per year. The signup bonus on this card may soon require a higher minimum spend so worth grabbing this one soon.

4. Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa offers no fee the first year, 40,000 points after $3000 in spend within 3 months, no foreign currency conversion fees, double points on travel and dining, points transfer to United, Hyatt, Southwest, Amtrak, British Airways, Korean Airlines, Marriott Priority Club, and Ritz-Carlton.

5. US Airways Mastercard 40,000 points after first purchase and fee waived the first year. This is from Barclay’s Bank so gets a plus for not being Chase/Amex/Citibank, and is generally churnable — you can get the bonus more than once in a lifetime for this card.

6. United Explorer 50,000 point signup bonus, fee waived the first year.

7. 50,000 American Express Membership Rewards points for a new Platinum American Express card ($450 annual fee, but with benefits that make the fee worthwhjile).

8. Citi Thank You Premier Card with 50,000 point signup bonus after $2500 in spend within 3 months, no fee the first year. Currently points are worth only 1.25 cents apiece towards paid travel, though it’s expected that points will become transferrable to airline miles in the coming weeks.

9. Virgin Atlantic American Express with up to 65,000 points as a signup bonus: 20,000 miles after first purchase; 2,500 miles for each of the first two authorized users added to your account; 25,000 miles after $2,500 spend within 90 days; 7,500 for $15,000 spend within the anniversary year and an additional 7,500 if you hit $25,000 spend within the anniversary year. There’s a $90 fee for the card, not waived. Virgin Atlantic points can be transferred to Hilton, using them for travel on Virgin incurs some hefty fuel surcharges. A plus here because it’s a Bank of America card, so not Chase/Citi/Amex.

10. Southwest Visa 50,000 points after first purchase, $69 annual fee, it list this one last because while it’s a big headline number and though it doesn’ have a spending threshold for the bonus, it’s a Chase card and there are better Chase offers in my view and because I’m not excited about flying Southwest.

I usually try to grab no more than one card from each issuer at a time, though often I’ll grab a personal and small business card from an issuer and those will be treated separately. The really advanced churners will pay attention to which issuers pull credit reports from which companies in their home state to try to spread out their credit inquiries, I don’t worry about it to that same degree.

Note that this list of cards is of best signup bonsues, meaning the best for big points up front, which is different from the best cards to carry in your wallet for travel benefits (some cards with lounge access or companion tickets, etc. may make sense to carry) and different from the most rewarding for actual spending. Put enough spending on these cards to meet the minimums for signup bonuses, but in between card churns they may not make sense for more spend than that.

I’d love to hear your feedback on my list:

• Are there any better offers for these cards that I’ve missed? Please share those in the comments.

• Are there other card offers that you’d consider better than these 10? Make your case in the comments.

(Disclosure: three of the ten above offer referral credit to me if you use my links, as always I want to share the best available offers and sometimes like in the case of the current Ink Bold Charge Card offer my link is better than other publicly available offers, and other times is just as good. When I’m aware of an offer that’s better than something that will provide any credit to me, that’s the offer I share, hence 7 offers on this list don’t include my links.)