Originally Posted by
aspenedelen
Since Hilton decided to go Amex I now have three business Amex cards and zero Visa or MC cards. I unfortunately need one as some places still do not take Amex which perturbs me.
A little background, I travel a lot and spend quite a bit for business. I fly Delta (I have the Business Plat Amex), stay with Hilton (Hilton Honors Business Card) and Amex Business Platinum metal card for my travel as I get Centurion Lounge access and all the other perks.
My credit score is above 810 and I have very little debt other than a mortgage on my home due to building a additional wing and a business mortgage on a building I recently purchased.
What is bar none, the best value Visa card out there for semi high spenders that will maximize reward points?
Appreciate any advice
Well, you need to decide (and explain to us) what kind of rewards points other than Delta or Hilton would be useful to you; Consider the fact that you don't need to fly an airline paid to want to collect its miles for award trips, and you don't need to stay at a hotel program paid much to want to collect its points for award trips.
For example, would a Chase United Explorer card (Visa) make sense because United has better "saver" award availability?
Would a Barclay AA Aviator card (MC) make sense because it has the most thorough Chip + PIN implementation (especially useful for unattended kiosks in parts of Europe)?
Would a hotel card for another program make sense because there are places with no Hilton family properties? (If you travel to national parks for example, there are many gateway towns with only Choice or Best Western or WyndhamRewards properties, plus indie hotels. If you travel to Scandinavia outside the city capitals, you'll only find Choice, Best Western, and Club Carlson, among the programs you know from the USA.)
And, btw, does it need to be a Visa, or would an MC be just as good? (There's a very few establishments that only take Visa and maybe a very few establishments that only take MC, but the vast majority of establishments that take one also take the other.)
And, btw, there are hotel cards for 3 hotel programs from Chase (IHG MC, Marriott Visa, and Hyatt Visa) which give you a free hotel night in exchange for an annual fee ($49 to $99) each year after the first (the first year the annual fee is waived). They're what I call "net negative" annual fee cards.
Which brings us to the point, do you care whether your Visa/MC card has an annual fee or not?