Credit Cards for Excellent Credit
WalletHub makes it easy to find the best credit card for excellent credit.
If you don’t know whether you have excellent credit, you can quickly check your latest credit score for free on WalletHub. And if you’d like a recommendation, our editors picked their favorites in the most popular credit card categories.
Best Credit Cards for Excellent Credit:
- No First-Year Fee: Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card
- Travel Rewards: Barclaycard Arrival® Plus World Elite Mastercard®
- Big Rewards Bonus : Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
- Everyday Cash Back: Citi® Double Cash Card – 18 month BT offer
- Getting Out of Debt: The Amex EveryDay® Credit Card from American Express
- Restaurant Rewards : Capital One® SavorOne℠ Cash Rewards Credit Card
- Big-Ticket Purchases: Citi Simplicity® Card - No Late Fees Ever
- Business Rewards: Ink Business Preferred℠ Credit Card
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- Earn 50,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $625 toward travel when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards®
- Chase Sapphire Preferred® named a 'Best Travel Credit Card' by MONEY® Magazine, 2016-2017
- 2X points on travel and dining at restaurants worldwide & 1 point per dollar spent on all other purchases.
- 1:1 point transfer to leading airline and hotel loyalty programs
- Get 25% more value when you redeem for airfare, hotels, car rentals and cruises through Chase Ultimate Rewards. For example, 50,000 points are worth $625 toward travel
- No blackout dates or travel restrictions - as long as there's a seat on the flight, you can book it through Chase Ultimate Rewards
- No foreign transaction fees
- See More Details & Reviews About TheChase Sapphire Preferred® Card
- INTRO OFFER: Discover will match ALL the cash back you’ve earned at the end of your first year, automatically. There’s no signing up. And no limit to how much is matched.
- Earn 5% cash back at different places each quarter like gas stations, grocery stores, restaurants, Amazon.com, or wholesale clubs up to the quarterly maximum each time you activate.
- Plus, earn unlimited 1% cash back on all other purchases - automatically.
- Redeem cash back any amount, any time. Rewards never expire.
- Use your rewards at Amazon.com checkout.
- Receive FREE Social Security number alerts-Discover will monitor thousands of risky websites when you sign up.
- No annual fee.
- See More Details & Reviews About TheDiscover it® Cash Back
- Unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase - it's automatic
- Earn a $150 Bonus after you spend $500 on purchases in your first 3 months from account opening
- No minimum to redeem for cash back
- Cash Back rewards do not expire as long as your account is open
- 0% Intro APR for 15 months from account opening on purchases and balance transfers, then a variable APR of 16.74-25.49%. Balance transfer fee is 5% of the amount transferred, $5 minimum
- Free credit score, updated weekly with Credit Journey℠
- No annual fee
- See More Details & Reviews About TheChase Freedom Unlimited®
- Enjoy a one-time bonus of 50,000 miles once you spend $3,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening, equal to $500 in travel
- Earn 2X miles on every purchase, every day. Plus earn 10X miles on thousands of hotels; learn more at hotels.com/venture
- Named ‘The Best Travel Card' by CNBC, 2018
- Receive up to $100 application fee credit for Global Entry or TSA Pre✓®
- Fly any airline, stay at any hotel, anytime; no blackout dates
- Miles won't expire for the life of the account and there's no limit to how many you can earn
- No foreign transaction fees
- $0 intro annual fee for the first year; $95 after that
- See More Details & Reviews About TheCapital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card
- The ONLY card with No Late Fees, No Penalty Rate, and No Annual Fee… EVER
- 0% Intro APR on Balance Transfers and Purchases for 18 months. After that, the variable APR will be 15.74% - 25.74% based on your creditworthiness
- There is a balance transfer fee of either $5 or 5% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater
- The same great rate for all balances, after the introductory period
- Save time when you call with fast, personal help, 24 hours a day – just say “representative”
- Enjoy the convenience of setting up your own bill payment schedule on any available due date throughout the month
- See More Details & Reviews About TheCiti Simplicity® Card - No Late Fees Ever
- Enjoy a one-time bonus of 20,000 miles once you spend $1,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening, equal to $200 in travel
- Earn 1.25X miles on every purchase, every day and pay no annual fee. Plus earn 10X miles on thousands of hotels; learn more at hotels.com/venture
- Fly any airline, stay at any hotel, anytime
- Travel when you want with no blackout dates
- Miles won't expire for the life of the account and there's no limit to how many you can earn
- Enjoy a low intro APR on purchases for 12 months; 13.74%-23.74% variable APR after that
- No foreign transaction fees
- See More Details & Reviews About TheCapital One® VentureOne® Rewards Credit Card
- Earn 2% cash back on purchases: 1% when you buy plus 1% as you pay
- No categories to track, no caps on cash back, no annual fee*
- Balance Transfers do not earn cash back
- 0% Intro APR on Balance Transfers for 18 months. After that, the variable APR will be 15.24% - 25.24% based on your creditworthiness*
- Click 'Apply Now' to see the applicable balance transfer fee and how making a balance transfer impacts interest on purchases
- See More Details & Reviews About TheCiti® Double Cash Card – 18 month BT offer
- One-time $150 cash bonus after you spend $500 on purchases within 3 months from account opening
- Earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase, every day
- No rotating categories or sign-ups needed to earn cash rewards; plus, cash back won't expire for the life of the account and there's no limit to how much you can earn
- 0% intro APR on purchases for 15 months; 14.74%-24.74% variable APR after that
- 0% intro APR on balance transfers for 15 months; 14.74%-24.74% variable APR after that; 3% fee on the amounts transferred within the first 15 months
- Pay no annual fee or foreign transaction fees
- See More Details & Reviews About TheCapital One® Quicksilver® Card
Rates & Fees | Terms Apply
- $150 statement credit after you spend $1,000 in purchases on your new Card within the first 3 months.
- 3% cash back at U.S. supermarkets (on up to $6,000 per year in purchases, then 1%).
- 2% cash back at U.S. gas stations and at select U.S. department stores, 1% back on other purchases.
- Cash back is received in the form of Reward Dollars that can be easily redeemed for statement credits, gift cards, and merchandise.
- Terms Apply.
- Low intro APR: 0% for 15 months on purchases and balance transfers, then a variable rate, currently 14.74% to 25.74%.
- Over 1.5 million more places in the U.S. started accepting American Express® Cards in 2017.
- No annual fee.
- See More Details & Reviews About TheBlue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express
- Enjoy 60,000 bonus miles after spending $5,000 on purchases in the first 90 days
- Earn unlimited 2X miles on every purchase
- Book travel your way—no airline, seat or hotel restrictions—and redeem your miles for travel statement credits
- Get 5% miles back to use toward your next redemption, every time you redeem
- Miles don’t expire as long as your account is open, active and in good standing
- No foreign transaction fees
- International Chip and PIN for use at self-service chip terminals around the world
- See More Details & Reviews About TheBarclaycard Arrival® Plus World Elite Mastercard®
WalletHub's Best Credit Cards for People With Excellent Credit
The best credit card for excellent credit is the Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite Mastercard, if you’re in the market for rewards, because it gives you a $600 travel rewards bonus for spending $5,000 in the first 90 days your account is open. That bonus covers the cost of the Arrival Plus card’s $89 annual fee, that kicks in the second year, for nearly seven years. So the two miles per $1 spent that you’ll earn on purchases will be pure savings.The best credit card for people with excellent credit who want a 0% APR is the Amex EveryDay Credit Card. Amex EveryDay gives you 0% on purchases and balance transfers for 15 months. It also has a $0 balance transfer fee for the first 60 days, and there’s never an annual fee.
There are lots of other exceptional offers, too. Credit cards for excellent credit tend to be the best cards on the market, after all. So you might want to check out the rest of your options before applying.
WalletHub’s editors compared 1,000+ offers to find the very best deals in each of the most popular credit card categories .You can see how they compare below.
2018's Best Credit Cards for Excellent Credit:
| Best For… | Card Name | Annual Fee | Editors’ Rating |
| Travel Rewards | Barclaycard Arrival® Plus World Elite Mastercard® | None 1st yr, $89 after | 5.0 / 5 |
| No First-Year Fee | Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card | $0 for 1st yr, $95 after | 5.0 / 5 |
| Getting Out of Debt | The Amex EveryDay® Credit Card from American Express | None | 5.0 / 5 |
| Everyday Cash Back | Citi® Double Cash Card – 18 month BT offer | $0* | 5.0 / 5 |
| Big Rewards Bonus | Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card | $0 Intro for the First Year, $95 after | 4.5 / 5 |
| Restaurant Rewards | Capital One® SavorOne℠ Cash Rewards Credit Card | None | 4.8 / 5 |
| Big-Ticket Purchases | Citi Simplicity® Card - No Late Fees Ever | $0* | 3.7 / 5 |
It’s important to note that you don’t have to pick just one of the best credit cards for excellent credit. You could try the Island Approach, by getting a card for each of your biggest needs. For example, you could apply for a rewards credit card to use for everyday expenses and later get a 0% credit card to avoid interest on big purchases or balance transfers. It's a great way to save because you can assemble the best rewards and the best rates rather than settling for average terms on a single card. Just don’t apply for multiple cards at once.
That’s not our only tip, either. If you’d rather come to your own conclusions about which excellent-credit credit card best meets your needs, take these pointers to heart. It will lead to the best results.
How to Find the Best Credit Card for Excellent Credit – 5 Tips
- Cut your options in half. Do you want rewards or financing? It’s as simple as choosing between paper and plastic at the grocery store, and this decision will split the universe of credit cards for excellent credit into an even smaller segment. It all comes down to whether you plan to pay your bill in full each month. If you do, go with rewards. If you don’t, focus on 0% cards.
From there, you can reduce your list of viable options even further by choosing between cash back and travel rewards or 0% purchases and 0% balance transfers. - Be realistic about your travel habits. A lot of people want travel rewards credit cards but don’t really need them. If you’re in the market for rewards, as opposed to 0% rates, you need to consider what type of card will allow you to earn the most value and redeem often enough to actually enjoy the fruits of your labor. So leave the travel cards to frequent travelers, not the folks who take a trip or two per year.
- Use the Island Approach. No credit card is perfect, offering the best possible terms in every category, from fees to rewards to interest rates. So don’t go looking for a single card to meet all of your needs. Instead, consider using a few different cards, each of which is designated for a specific type of transactions. For example, one card could be for gas rewards, another for everyday cash back and another still for paying down a big-ticket purchase over time. That’s called the Island Approach.
- Don’t be scared of annual fees. Paying an annual fee isn’t necessarily a bad thing when you have excellent credit. If doing so enables you to get far better terms than are available from no annual fee credit cards and thus save more money overall, then it’s money well spent. You just have to factor such fixed costs into your calculations.
- Understand excellent credit won’t always cut it. Excellent credit doesn’t guarantee you approval for an excellent-credit credit card. A number of other factors are in play, too, including your income and existing debt obligations. So if you want to maximize your chances of getting your top credit-card choice, focus on improving your complete financial picture.
Finally, if you’d prefer not to do the legwork, you can simply sign up for a free WalletHub account to get customized card recommendations as well as free credit scores, reports and 24/7 monitoring.
Questions & Answers
Comparing credit cards for excellent credit can be tough. But you’ve got the knowledgeable WalletHub community on your side. We encourage everyone to share their knowledge while respecting our content guidelines. Please keep in mind that editorial and user-generated content on this page is not reviewed or otherwise endorsed by any financial institution. In addition, it is not the financial institution’s responsibility to ensure all posts and questions are answered....show moreshow less
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What happens if you apply for a credit card for excellent credit without excellent credit? Reply
Every time you apply for a credit card, your credit score will temporarily drop. And the more applications you submit within a short period of time, the worse the damage will be. As a result, applying for a credit card that you know you won’t get approved for will only set you back, making it harder to qualify for a more appropriate card the second time around.
So make sure to check your latest credit score for free on WalletHub before choosing and applying for a new card. And hold off on trying to get an excellent-credit credit card until you have the requisite credit standing. There are plenty of great cards for people with good, fair or even bad credit that you can use in the meantime.
Why do some credit cards for excellent credit have annual fees? Reply
You might assume that the best credit cards are the cheapest. But with rewards in particular, it’s often a case of getting what you pay for. Issuers can only give away so much free stuff, after all. So those that offer truly generous rewards may use annual fees to offset some of the cost. But such offers can still end up saving you more money than the no-fee alternatives, assuming you pick the right one and use it strategically.
This is one reason comparing rewards credit cards can be so confusing. It’s also why crunching the numbers to see how much net rewards value each card will provide based on your own spending habits is so important.
With that being said, things are a bit different if you don’t plan to pay your bill in full every month or make purchases on a regular basis. You don’t want to pay a fee to finance a big-ticket purchase or transfer a balance, as doing so would be like paying interest in advance. And most 0% credit cards for people with excellent credit don’t charge annual fees in recognition of the fact that prospective customers want to minimize costs. Similarly, you’ll want to choose from one of the many no-annual-fee credit cards for excellent credit if you plan to use your card sparingly because you might not earn enough rewards to break even.
Who can get a credit card for excellent credit? Reply
More than one-third (38%) of U.S. adults have excellent credit, according to WalletHub data. And another 17% are in shouting distance, with good credit. If you don’t know which group you’re in, you can check your latest credit score for free on WalletHub.
Doing so will make it easier to gauge your odds of approval for an excellent-credit credit card. Just remember that you credit score isn’t the only factor that an issuer will take into account. Your income and existing debt obligations also contribute to your overall creditworthiness, for example.
How are credit cards for excellent credit different from other cards? Reply
A number of things separate credit cards for people with excellent credit from the crowd. Some are obvious. Others may come as a surprise. Here are the most important differentiators:
- Exclusivity – You generally need a long, (mostly) spotless credit history to get an excellent-credit credit card. You also need enough income to justify a spending limit of at least $10,000.
- Better Terms – Since issuers don’t have to worry as much about missed payments, credit cards for people with excellent credit tend to have lower interest rates and better rewards than other cards.
For example, the average APR among credit cards for people with excellent credit is just 13.16%, according to WalletHub’s latest Credit Card Landscape Report. Meanwhile, credit cards for people with good and fair credit charge 18.14% and 22%, respectively.
Sign-up Incentives – Many excellent-credit credit cards offer big initial rewards bonuses and/or 0% introductory APRs for an extended period of time as a way to attract new customers. Banks are eager to sell more than just credit cards (e.g., investing and retirement services) to members of this elite credit segment, after all.
What benefits come with excellent-credit credit cards? Reply
I definitely agree that cards requiring "excellent" credit most always have the best perks, as there is less liability involved. As someone who had credit problems in the past, I do not recall any of the "so-so' cards having lucrative rewards programs (in fact, most offered no points and involved paying high annual maintenance fees). After re-building my credit and responding to an offer for the Chase Sapphire card in the mail, I gained approval and access to some of the best benefits on the market! I now use my card for nearly all purchases and pay it off in full each billing cycle.
Featured Credit Cards
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