VISA Rewards Credit Cards

The Visa Signature Concierge service is basically a glorified customer-service line that’s available to Visa Signature cardholders 24/7. What’s unique is that they’ll help you with certain types of special requests. They include booking dining, entertainment and recreation; coordinating travel; and delivering gifts.

The good news for folks who don’t have a Visa Signature credit card is most of that is pretty easy to do online without one.

“Visa Platinum Rewards” is branding language found on a surprising number of Visa credit cards, but Visa Platinum is not an official Visa benefits tier, such as Visa Signature or Visa Infinite. More than 200 Visa credit cards have the word “Platinum” in their name, yet not all of them have rewards and even fewer are elite offers.

Still, there are several top-notch Visa Platinum credit cards with plenty of worthwhile perks. You can find the best options listed by category below.

Best Visa Platinum Rewards Cards

• UMB Simply Rewards Visa Platinum Credit Card
• PenFed Platinum Rewards Visa Signature® Card
• The Golden 1 Credit Union Platinum Rewards for Students
• Wells Fargo Business Platinum Credit Card

The best Visa Platinum rewards cards may also come with supplemental benefits such as rental car insurance, extended warranties and travel accident insurance. But so too do many Mastercard rewards cards, and you don’t want to miss out on a great deal by eliminating from consideration cards from one major network without a good reason.

There are hundreds of Visa credit cards with rewards points, which individual credit card issuers give cardholders for making purchases and reaching certain milestones, but Visa does not have its own rewards points. Rewards are the responsibility of the banks and credit unions that issue credit cards, and Visa is not a credit card issuer.

Visa still provides plenty of perks, just not points, miles or cash back for making credit card purchases. Cardholders can claim special Visa offers for savings on travel and shopping, for instance. Visa also is responsible for secondary credit card benefits such as rental car insurance, extended warranty protection, travel insurance and more.

When it comes to rewards points credit cards on the Visa network, the points that you can earn are worth about 1 cent each, on average. The exact value varies by rewards program and depends on what you redeem the points for. Typically, you can spend your Visa card’s rewards points for travel, merchandise through an issuer’s online shopping portal, cash, gift cards, charity donations and more. In some cases, Visa rewards points may be worth more with some redemption methods than others.

You can earn rewards points by making purchases with the right Visa credit card as well as by meeting the spending requirements for a bonus, referring a friend and more, depending on the card.

There isn’t a single Visa rewards points catalog for all Visa credit cards. When you earn rewards points, miles, or cash back on a Visa credit card, Visa (the card network) isn’t responsible for how you use those rewards. Instead, Visa credit card rewards can be redeemed through each credit card’s issuer.

Visa does, however, offer a range of perks to its cardholders that could be considered rewards. Some of the most basic are car rental insurance and a $0 liability guarantee. Visa also offers cardholders discounts for some hotel reservations and merchandise from various retailers via the Visa Offers & Perks page. Some of the Visa discount offerings include Pizza Hut, Lenovo, Princess Cruises, Target, Hertz, Grand Hyatt Vail, and many others. You could call these rewards, but they’re better defined as “perks.”

To see what other perks and discounts your Visa card is eligible for, log into your credit card account on your card issuer’s website and find the perks or benefits section. Or, you can call your credit card’s customer service number.

The best Visa rewards card is the Chase Freedom Unlimited® because it has a $0 annual fee, offers great rewards and is on the Visa card network. Chase Freedom Unlimited rewards cardholders with $200 for spending $500 in the first 3 months, plus 1.5 - 5% cash back in ongoing rewards on purchases.

That said, choosing the right Visa rewards card for you depends on how you plan to use the card and redeem your rewards. People who travel a lot will want different cards than people who mainly charge gas and groceries, for example. Similarly, students will want cards that cater to their specific needs, as will business owners. Your choice of cards is limited by your creditworthiness, too. Luckily, there are options for everyone. 

Popular Visa Rewards Cards

• Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card

• Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

• Chase Freedom Unlimited®

• Bank of America® Travel Rewards Credit Card for Students

• Capital One® Spark® Cash for Business

The best Visa rewards cards provide the most value if you pay your monthly bill in full. If you carry a balance from month to month, interest charges could negate, if not wipe out completely, any rewards earned. Finally, it’s worth noting that credit cards change networks from time to time, but all of the above cards are Visas as of the date of posting.

In order to have good Amazon.com Credit Card approval odds, you should start with at least a good credit score. Generally, the higher your credit score, the better your odds of approval are. However, your credit score is just one part of your creditworthiness. On its own, it does not guarantee approval. Chase Bank, which issues the Amazon.com Credit Card, doesn’t publicly disclose specific approval requirements. But they will review such things as your income, employment status and total amount of debt. Other things that affect your odds of approval are your payment history, age of accounts and recent credit inquiries.

If you have less than good credit, your approval odds are better for the Amazon.com Store Card. You’ll only need a fair credit score to have a reasonable shot at getting the card. The tradeoff is that unlike the Visa Signature card, which you can use anywhere Visa cards are accepted, the Amazon.com Store Card is limited to purchases on Amazon.com and at retailers that accept Amazon Pay. And you’ll only get rewards from the store card if you’re a Prime member, unlike the Visa.

Visa rewards points redemption policies vary by issuer and by the type of rewards. The Visa card network does not issue or control rewards points on any Visa cards. All rewards, rules, expiration terms, and redemption values are set by the credit card issuer, and Visa is not a card issuer.

But there are some general guidelines that will give you an idea of what your Visa card may offer in terms of redemption. For starters, there are three types of rewards currencies for credit cards (including Visa cards): cash back, points, and miles. All work pretty much the same way, allowing you to redeem by either going online or calling the card’s issuer. The difference is the flexibility that each offers cardholders.

Cash back rewards are the most flexible and the simplest to use. Rewards earned are a percentage of the purchases made, returned to the user. Cash back rewards can be usually be redeemed for a check, direct deposit into a bank account, or a statement credit.

Points are earned for each purchase and generally can be redeemed for gift cards, merchandise, hotel reservations and/or cash back, depending on the card. Miles are typically redeemable for travel expenses at any hotel or airline, among other options. But in the case of co-branded airline cards, miles are a good value only when redeemed for purchases with that specific airline.

Most Visa rewards points never expire as long as your account remains active, though some cards’ rewards could be lost after 12+ months of account inactivity. Similarly, you will lose any unredeemed rewards when you close the account, but there may be a grace period in which you can redeem points before they become invalid. Check your Visa rewards card’s terms and conditions for specifics.

The best Visa Select rewards credit card is the BBVA Compass Select Visa card. It offers a 50,000 points bonus for spending $4,000 in the first 90 days, along with 4 points per $1 spent on entertainment, 3 points per $1 spent on dining, and 2 points per $1 spent on travel. All other purchases earn 1 point / $1 spent. There is a $99 annual fee. But it’s waived for the first year.

The “Select” in “Visa Select” doesn’t really mean anything special. Various issuers add that word to a card’s name to make the card sound more attractive. Each card has different terms and rewards set by the issuer. But some cards, like the BBVA card, really are worthy of the “Select” title.

The best Capital One Visa rewards card is the Capital One Venture Rewards card because it offers a sign-up bonus of 60,000 miles when you spend $3,000 in the first 3 months. You can redeem for any travel expense, too, with no restrictions. The annual fee is $95.  All these factors make Venture not just a good Visa rewards card but also one of the best travel rewards cards in general.

For travel rewards without the annual fee, the VentureOne Rewards card has a 20,000 miles initial bonus for spending $500 in the first 3 months. However, you only get 1.25 miles per $1 on all purchases.

Both Venture and VentureOne, like all Capital One credit cards, do not charge foreign transaction fees.

The best Chase rewards Visa card is the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card because it offers a sign up bonus of 60,000 points for spending $4,000 in the first 3 months. Also, there’s 2 points / $1 spent on travel and dining purchases. All other purchases earn 1 point / $1. And you can transfer points to over a dozen hotel and airline loyalty programs at a 1:1 ratio. The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card comes with a $95 annual fee.

If you prefer straight cash back rewards and don’t want to pay an annual fee, you should consider Chase Freedom Unlimited®. You’ll earn 5% on travel purchased through Chase, 3% on dining at restaurants and drugstores, and 1.5% on all other purchases.

As rewards cards on the Visa network, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and the Chase Freedom Unlimited® card enjoy wide global acceptance. Visa cards can be used in more than 200 countries and territories, at almost all merchants where credit cards are accepted. The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is better for international purchases, because it has a $0 foreign transaction fee. Chase Freedom Unlimited® charges a foreign transaction fee of 3% of each transaction in U.S. dollars.