If you found an offer online for two free roundtrip airline tickets, you’d probably start hunting for a catch or dismiss it offhand. You might even think you’d risk a computer virus just by clicking on it. Such is the level of benefit provided by the Southwest Airlines Credit Card. Eight hundred dollars worth of Wanna Get Away fares given to consumers who open this card and make a single purchase simply seems too good to be true, even considering the $99 annual fee.
This limited-time offer isn’t all that unusual in the current credit card landscape, however. Consumers with excellent credit are now more in-demand than ever as the Great Recession wreaked havoc on the personal finances of many and credit card companies are finding it increasingly difficult to profit off consumers with below-average credit scores. One of the primary methods employed by issuers to attract the cream of the credit crop is to offer rewards credit cards with attractive up-front bonuses.
As a result, there are many more offers where the Southwest Airlines Credit Card came from. In selecting its “Best Rewards Credit Card Deals” list, Card Hub examined over 800 credit card offers and discovered that nearly 60% of them came with some form of an initial rewards bonus. These rewards come in the form of points, miles and cold hard cash, and range in worth from $10-$800. You’re not interested in low-end savings though, so without further ado, here are the highlights of what we found:
- The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, which has no first-year annual fee, gives users $625-worth of travel expenses in return for spending $3,000 during the first three months their accounts are open. Rather have cash? Chase gives you the option of $500 cash back instead.
- When you spend $1,000 within the first three months of opening the Capital One Venture Rewards Card, you get 25,000 bonus miles, which are redeemable for $250 in travel expenses. It too has no first-year annual fee.
- Earn $200 cash back after spending $500 in the first three months with the Chase Freedom Visa, which doesn’t have an annual fee either.
- Are you a small business owner? The New Ink Cash Business Card, also from Chase, offers $250 cash back when you spend $5,000 in the first three months and has no annual fee.
While Groupon and other purveyors of daily deals are getting all the attention, these credit card deals seem to be better any day of the week. Not only are the rewards they provide far more lucrative than most, if not all, Groupon savings, earning them doesn’t necessitate changing your spending habits.
You either get your perks as a result of making a single credit card purchase or meeting a relatively low spending threshold within a period of months. You’re probably going to charge that much on a credit card anyway, so why not get a couple free flights or a few hundred extra dollars in doing so?
This article comes from the team of writers at Card Hub, a leading credit card comparison website.
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