I thought it might be fun to hand out some awards for different things. The first award we’re giving out is for the best new credit card of 2017. The only requirements was that the card had to be released in 2017 and it has to be a credit card.
Contents
The Short List
This was fairly easy to put together as we already maintain a list of new credit cards with dates. The cards we’ve covered on this site that were released in 2017 are as follows (in order of newest to oldest)
- 11/02/17:Â Barclaycard Uber.
- 10/25/17:Â Deserve Pro
- 10/17/17:Â Capital One Savor Card. Basically a relaunch of the Capital One Premier Dining.
- 10/17/17:Â HSBC Premier World Elite
- 10/5/17:Â HSBC Cash Rewards
- 09/18/17:Â Bank of America Premium Rewards Credit Card
- 09/15/17:Â Petal Card
- 09/07/17:Â American Express Blue Delta SkyMiles Credit Card
- 09/06/17:Â Navy Federal More Rewards American Express Card
- 09/05/17:Â Chase United TravelBank Card
- 08/30/17:Â Paypal 2% Cashback Mastercard
- 07/30/17:Â Regions Bank Explore Secured Card
- 06/30/17:Â Santander Ultimate Cashback
- 06/07/17:Â UBS Visa Infinite Card
- 05/25/17:Â American Express Blue Business Plus Credit Card
- 05/01/17:Â U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve
- 03/22/17:Â Capital One Premier Dining
- 03/14/17:Â Alliant Cashback Visa Signature Credit Card
- 03/13/17:Â Cathay Pacific Credit Card by Synchrony Bank
- 02/13/17:Â PenFed Power Cash Rewards Visa
The Finalists
Of those I narrowed it down to the following cards:
- Barclaycard Uber.
- $100 sign up bonus
- 4% cash back on eateries, 3% on travel
- No annual fee
- Bank of America Premium Rewards Credit Card
- 50,000 point sign up bonus (worth $500)
- $95 annual fee (not waived first year)
- $100 in airline incidentals annually
- Earns 3.5x points per $1 spent on travel & dining purchases & 2.625x points per $1 spent on all other purchases with top tier Bank of America Preferred Rewards status
- U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve
- 50,000 point sign up bonus (worth $750 towards airfare)
- Annual fee of $400, not waived for first year
- $325 in annual travel credits (based on a cardmember year)
- Card earns 3x on mobile payments & 3x on travel purchases made directly with airlines, hotels and car rental agencies.
- Alliant Cashback Visa Signature Credit Card
- $59 annual fee, waived first year
- Card earns 3% cash back first year and then 2.5% cash back
- No sign up bonus
- Cathay Pacific Credit Card by Synchrony Bank
- $95 annual fee
- Sign up bonus was 50,000 miles
Quick note: I should have included the Blue Business Plus from American Express but I forgot.
The Medalists
Bronze – Barclaycard Uber
The sign up bonus of $100 is relatively weak, but 4% cash back on eateries is as good as it gets. One of the nice things about restaurant spend is for a lot of business people it’s a reimbursable expense and it can be easy to spend a lot monthly on this category. Obviously if you don’t spend much on eating out then a card that with a small sign up bonus like this is fairly useless. If Barclaycard adds airline partners as rumored, this card would be even stronger but I didn’t take that into consideration yet.
Silver – Alliant Cashback Visa
3% cash back on all purchases in the first year is the same value proposition as the Discover it Miles. The upside to this card is the fact you can earn 2.5% cash back on all purchases year two onwards. This makes it one of, if not the best card for every day spend. The lack of any sign up bonus does hurt it though and this card certainly isn’t for everybody.
Gold – U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve
This card is just insane value in the first year, you get a bonus worth $750 and then you also get another $325 in travel credits. It does have an annual fee of $400, but I’ll pay that when I’m getting $750 + $325 back and other benefits. I had even higher hopes for this card with the 3x mobile wallet category but saying they have been strict with this is an understatement. For me this is one of those cards that is a no brainer to apply for for the first year bonuses and then it’s equally a no brainer to cancel the card after the first year as the long term value proposition isn’t there.
Final Thoughts
I think that the Bank of America card was unlucky to have missed out on a medal and I could easily see some people replacing the Uber/Alliant card with the Premium Rewards. My reasoning behind not having it medal was the fact that it actually replaced the Merrill+ card and I think that was actually better value with the sign up bonus being worth up to $1,000. I’d love to hear readers feedback and thoughts on this list, feel free to share your top 3/5 in the comments below and also why you agree or disagree with my list. I’d also love feedback on what people think of these awards and what other categories you’d like to see. Here’s hoping to an even better selection for 2018!
Happy New Year and thanks for all the great info during 2017. Let’s hope 2018 will be even better!
Fingers crossed!
Thats actually not entirely true with the Alliant Visa. You dont have to make $100k+ annually in order to qualify for it. It just helps your approval. I’ve seen countless folks get this card, but the best deal for that card, is to get their regular one with the 40k signup bonus and then product change to the 3%, then 2nd yr change it if the AF doesnt make sense. I mean it depends a lot on a persons level of natural spending too. Despite category spending and so forth, yeah, but even not category spending generally speaking I’d like to always be working on a next bonus or some type of offer… The only thing that lightly grinds my gears here with this writeup, and no offense DOC, but lets look at the 3 contenders here. 1. Uber … Barclays… they will love or hate you as you know. I’m talking, having a person, including myself and several friends and family, be mandated to submit copies of professional licensure, utility bill/bank statement, SS card, and ID/DL…. not once, but 3 times. Oh, and you can’t send it certified either. So there goes all your information in the wild multiple times. Ok! Then get accused of falsifying information or that your voice sounds different than a previous call. Its crazy! 2. US Bank Altitude Rewards- Us Bank, enough said. And as previously stated, you can’t really just go HAM on this one with its best feature. And now that they have or will modify how the points interact with flex perks, it diminishes the value even more …And good luck getting approved, even if you try the gold checking account thing just to get established. I’ve had a half dozen people try this technique, and not one of them get a stated limit or specific apr…… 3. Alliant- have been great to me using their shared secure loan technique for a little credit score boost, but not once have I ever got a good offer in the mail from them like I’d hoped. I think my favorite this year would be the biz plat when the 50% was easier, fnbo travelite no AF, and also getting the Bank of America Better Balance Rewards like 2 weeks after it was discontinued using an app link dump, and of course the two Merrill+ cards. I mean honestly I do really love my double cash card with citibank. Not too hard to get the APR below 8 percent, generous credit line, best customer service (at least with the long distance EO number) and recurrent BT offers like BOA does, and the extended warranty…. and dont forget almighty discover. They are always being great offering 0% apr for 1yr on new purchases on a card <3 yrs old, or extra cash back, or letting old card members get double cash back doing the apple pay thing. I mean my most used card overall has certainly been my American Express Business Platinum only because of… Read more »
Although I don’t use the doublecash it also has Citi’s price protection which is SOOO overlooked.
I bought gifts from amazon with ATT access more this year. Saved almost 30% with Earny.
I purposely bought some computer equipment that was OOS from an overpriced 3rd party and submitted the paperwork – got it at retail.
Hundreds of dollars saved.
And the worst deal? “Discover To Remove Many Card Benefits After February 28th, 2018“
But then that means you spend way too much on those places so you lose out in the long run.
Uber card. Nothing else even comes close.
Nearly all of my organic spend is at restaurants, breweries, wineries, food delivery services, etc. so I’m getting 4% cashback on basically everything. Effortlessly.
$100 sign-up bonus.
$600 cell phone insurance
$50 streaming credit
1% BT fee
NO ANNUAL FEE
Hope Barclay’s can maintain this…
I second you. Uber card is the best daily driver out there.
I share your same worry about whether Barclay can maintain the great benefits on the Uber card. The past 18 months have seen three cards with benefits so good that they seem to be at risk of being cut back: Chase Sapphire Reserve, USAA Limitless, and now the Barclay Uber. Chase has already made a few changes to the CSR and may make more. USAA seems to have retreated on the Limitless. I sure hope Barclay can make money on the Uber card.
I thought you were going to make a poll and get us involved. Then offer up your thoughts and whether you agree with your readers. There’s always 2018!!
Might do that for other categories.
That’s what I’m wondering. Can’t hurt to try I suppose. No one has a datapoint yet since the card is less than 1 year old. I don’t see a post about what constitutes reimbursable expense on the Alt Reserve. DoC usually has a post about which charges (mainly airline gift cards) are reimbursable. I don’t see one for Alt Reserve.
I used the card right after I got it in May. Took a trip in June. They reimbursed pretty much anything travel related – hotel room, uber, baggage fees…pretty easy. And they did it very quickly.
I picked up the Altitude Reserver card in May when it was issued. I am a long time US Bank account holder for checking and savings. I think the card is great. They seem to be very broad in allowing for the $325 credit. It posts automatically. Spent a weekend in Chicago in June and hotels, Uber, even a restaurant posted as a credit. Very easy. On the negative side I went to the website to use some of the points I have and it seems the points assigned to various travel items are quite high. Not sure about the value there. 35K points for one week of car rental seems very high to me, especially when you are consider a Ford Fusion for that amount.
I would agree that the AMEX Blue Business Plus is the #1 card right now. We’ve been picking up about 10K MR points per month on that card, which for us is a good deal. I’m hoping the 100K bonus for the Amex Bus Platinum will return in January. I’m going to lose the AMEX Everyday Preferred and the Green Card as well to make room for the Bus platinum.
I strenuously object to this, PenFed credit union power cash visa signature credit card should have won instead of Alliant credit union 2.5% cash credit card.
After 10 years with the Alliant credit union credit card including the first AF waiver you’ll rack up in $531, with the PenFed credit union power cash visa signature credit card you just maintain $500 In your checking account to maintain 2% cash back.
In order to be eligible for the Alliant credit union credit card you have to make 100k gross income, plus you need to spend $2,360 just to break even with the AD.
Sorry but the PenFed credit union power cash visa signature credit card wins hands down!!
I disagree with you David. There are other 2% cards out there such that PenFed’s addition does not stand out. Since most readers of this blog already have one of those cards (Fidelity, Double Cash, Paypal 2% MC, Barclaycard A+, CapOne Venture, etc.) the PenFed offers no additional benefit to use and a low $100 signup bonus. If you’re a cashback type of person or have a spouse that wants a single card to use, meeting the $12k/year to break even with Alliant’s AF is pretty easy to meet.
I haven’t seen that income requirement for the Alliant card before, can you share where you read that?
Well in regards to the Alliant credit union credit card I called the bank representative and he said you need to make 100k to qualify.
PenFed credit union power cash visa signature credit card is superior for the following reasons:
2% unlimited cash back on everything as long as you maintain $500 In checking
No annual fee
No foreign transaction fee
Sure sign up bonus is weak as would the 5 year cash back expiration, although it shouldn’t take 5 years to redeem cash back.
Good post. I would give the B of A Premium the gold for this year with the $500 cash sign up bonus plus being able to use the $100 incidental in both 2017 and 2018 along with getting TSA pre-check for the $95 fee. I guess everyone’s opinion will differ some based on how you can use the benefits. I like points but I also like cash!