Editor’s note: This is a recurring post, regularly updated with new information.
Credit cards are usually categorized by issuer or type (cash back, travel, cobranded, etc.). The payment network for your card (Visa, Mastercard, Amex or Discover) doesn’t matter as much.
However, there are times when it does make a difference. For example, Amex isn’t as widely accepted as other issuers (though that is starting to change) and bill-pay services like Plastiq have limitations for Mastercard, Visa and Amex cards. Further, small vendors in the U.S. and many stores abroad often only accept one type of credit card. For these reasons, it’s important to have a diverse portfolio of cards from multiple issuers and payment networks.
Visa is the largest payment network in the world. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the best Visa credit cards to have in your wallet.
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The Best Visa Credit Cards of 2020:
- Chase Sapphire Preferred Card: Best for sign-up bonus and travel benefits
- Ink Business Preferred Credit Card: Best for business owners
- Chase Sapphire Reserve: Best for premium travelers and restaurant-goers
- Chase Freedom Unlimited: Best for nonbonus spending
- Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card: Best beginner travel card
- Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Credit Card: Best low-cost card for Marriott guests
- Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® credit card: Best for Alaska Airlines flyers
- Chase Freedom: Best for rotating bonus categories
- Bank of America® Premium Rewards® credit card: Best for Bank of America clients
In This Post
Comparison of the best Visa credit cards of 2020
As you can see, our top picks run the gamut from starter cards to travel cards to business cards and more. Here is a general overview and comparison of our best Visa credit cards of 2020.
| CREDIT Card | Best for | Bonus | Annual Fee |
| Chase Sapphire Preferred Card | Sign-up bonus and travel benefits | 60,000 Ultimate Rewards points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening | $95 |
| Ink Business Preferred Credit Card | Business owners | 100,000 bonus points after you spend $15,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening. | $95 |
| Chase Sapphire Reserve | Premium travelers and restaurant-goers | 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening | $550 |
| Chase Freedom Unlimited | Nonbonus spending | $200 cash back after spending $500 on purchases in the first three months of account opening | $0 |
| Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card | Beginner travelers | 50,000 miles after you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening. | $95 (waived first year) |
| Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Credit Card | Marriott guests | Earn 75,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening. | $95 |
| Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® credit card | Alaska Airlines flyers | 40,000 bonus miles + $100 statement credit and Alaska’s Famous Companion Fare from $121 ($99 fare plus taxes and fees from $22) after you make $2,000 or more in purchases within the first 90 days of opening your account |
$75 |
| Chase Freedom | Rotating bonus categories | $200 cash back after spending $500 on purchases in the first three months of account opening | $0 |
| Bank of America® Premium Rewards® credit card | Bank of America clients | 50,000 points after you spend $3,000 in purchases in the first 90 days of account opening | $95 |
The information for the Ink Business Preferred, Chase Freedom, Chase Freedom Unlimited, Capital One Venture has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Details on the best Visa cards
Let’s take a deeper dive into each of these cards and see how they can fit into your wallet.
Chase Sapphire Preferred
Sign-up bonus: 60,000 Ultimate Rewards points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening
Annual fee: $95
Why you’ll love it: The Chase Sapphire Preferred is arguably the card that made travel points and miles what they are today and there are plenty of reasons why this Visa card should be the next addition to your wallet. The card’s 2x points on dining and broad description of travel (including airlines, hotels, motels, timeshares, car rental agencies, cruise lines, travel agencies, discount travel sites, campgrounds, passenger trains, buses, taxis, limousines, ferries, toll bridges and highways, parking lots and garages) will help you pile up points quickly. Chase Ultimate Rewards points are among the most valuable rewards available since you can get 25% more value on travel when you redeem your points directly through the Chase travel portal. You can also transfer your points to any of Chase’s 10 airline and three hotel transfer partners.
The Sapphire Preferred has no foreign transaction fees and offers valuable trip delay protection, trip interruption and cancellation protection, delayed baggage coverage and primary rental car insurance — all of which became even more valuable after Citi eliminated similar benefits from its cards last year.
Check out our full card review for more details.
Ink Business Preferred Credit Card
Sign-up bonus: 100,000 bonus points after you spend $15,000 on purchases in the first three months.
Annual fee: $95
Why you’ll love it: Although it’s not Chase’s most-premium card offering, the Ink Business Preferred has an excellent sign-up bonus and rewards categories that fit common small-business expenses. The card’s 100,000 Ultimate Rewards bonus points are worth a mind-boggling $2,000, based on TPG’s latest valuations.
This is also a great Visa card that business owners can use long term. Your annual fee of $95 will get you access to free employee cards, no foreign transaction fees and cellphone insurance, as well as some strong business-friendly bonus categories, including 3x points for your first $150,000 each account anniversary year spent on travel, shipping, internet, cable, phone services, social media advertising and search engine advertising.
Check out our full card review to learn more.
Chase Sapphire Reserve
Sign-up bonus: 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening
Annual fee: $550
Why you’ll love it: The Chase Sapphire Reserve continues to be one of the best credit cards for travelers. This Visa card’s $550 annual fee is offset by premium benefits — most notably a $300 annual travel credit (good for anything from Uber rides to plane tickets to hotels) that brings your actual out-of-pocket cost down to $250 a year. The Sapphire Reserve also offers 3x points on travel (excluding the $300 travel credit) and dining, which are both loosely defined to include spending on items such as public transit and meal delivery services.
You’ll also get access to a concierge service and travel perks that include a Priority Pass Select membership and a Global Entry/TSA PreCheck application-fee credit. The Sapphire Reserve also offers travel and car rental coverage similar to the Sapphire Preferred, although the terms are slightly different. Check out our guide to Chase Sapphire Preferred vs. Chase Sapphire Reserve: Which Credit Card to Get for a full comparison.
Check out our full card review to learn more.
Chase Freedom Unlimited
Sign-up bonus: $200 cash back after spending $500 on purchases in the first three months of account opening
Annual fee: None
Why you’ll love it: The Chase Freedom Unlimited is a versatile Visa card that can be used alone or paired with other cards.
Earn an unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase. However, since Chase lets you pool points between its credit cards, if you also hold one of the first three cards on this list — a Chase Sapphire Reserve, Ink Business Preferred or Chase Sapphire Preferred — you can transfer your points from the Freedom Unlimited to these cards, turning them into full-fledged Ultimate Rewards points. This means you can transfer them to Chase’s hotel or airline partners and potentially get much more than just 1 cent apiece. In fact, TPG values Ultimate Rewards points at 2 cents each, and 1.5 points per dollar on everything with the Freedom Unlimited multiplied by 2 cents gives you a consistent 3% return, making the card one of the most compelling cards for everyday spending even after the first year.
Check out our full card review for all the details.
Chase Freedom
Sign-up bonus: $200 after you spend $500 on purchases in the first three months of account opening
Annual fee: None
Why you’ll love it: Although its earning potential is a lot less than the Chase Freedom Unlimited, the Chase Freedom can be a useful tool in your points-building arsenal. Like the Unlimited, the Freedom comes with no annual fee and the ability to maximize the value of your points by combining it with another member of the Chase Trifecta. The major difference lies in its earning power.
Where the Chase Freedom Unlimited gets a flat 1.5% back on all purchases (3% on the first $20,000 in your first year), the Chase Freedom earns 5% on your first $1,500 spent in rotating quarterly categories (activation required) and 1% everywhere else. The categories change each year, but they’ve included gas stations, grocery stores, Lyft and mobile payments like Apple Pay in the past. If you can max out all four quarterly sets of categories, you’ll earn 30,000 points per year on these purchases. According to TPG valuations, that’s worth $600 if you have a Chase Ultimate Rewards card.
Check out our full card review to learn more.
Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
Sign-up bonus: 50,000 miles after you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first three months
Annual fee: $95 (waived first year)
Why you’ll love it: With this great beginner travel card from Visa, you’ll earn 2x miles on every purchase. The Venture offers a simple way to earn and redeem your miles. You can either redeem them as a statement credit for 1 cent apiece for recent travel purchases made with your card or you can transfer miles earned from the Venture card to 15 airline partners.
Its $95 annual fee is waived the first year, and the Venture offers a Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee credit (up to $100) — a feature many mid-tier travel cards do not have.
Check out our Capital One Venture card review.
Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Credit Card
Sign-up bonus: Earn 75,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening.
Annual fee: $95
Why you’ll love it: If you stay at Marriott hotels, or would like to, the Bonvoy Boundless card is attractive because of its 6x earnings at participating Marriott properties. Plus, you get a free-night award on each account anniversary valid at any property charging up to 35,000 points per night. If used well, this free night should more than offset the card’s annual fee, although you won’t get your first free-night award until your first account anniversary. Plus, you’ll get automatic Silver Elite status in the form of 15 elite-night credits each year.
Check out our full card review for more details.
Alaska Airlines Visa Signature credit card
Sign-up bonus: Get a $100 statement credit, 40,000 bonus miles and Alaska’s Famous Companion Fare from $121 ($99 fare plus taxes and fees from $22) after you make $2,000 or more in purchases within the first 90 days of opening your account.
Annual fee: $75
Why you’ll love it: Alaska Mileage Plan miles are consistently ranked as the most valuable airline miles in TPG’s monthly valuations. Alaska offers generous routing rules, amazing alliance and non-alliance partners and almost laughably low award rates (such as 70,000 miles for a first-class ticket to Asia). However, Alaska miles are hard to earn outside of frequent sales and its transfer partnership with Marriott. Because of that, its Visa credit card can be a valuable tool in your points-and-miles strategy. Plus, Alaska Airlines has announced that it is joining the Oneworld alliance by mid-2021 and has reupped its partnership with American Airlines.
Related reading: Here’s why Alaska Airlines miles are the most valuable
The $75 annual fee is lower than most credit cards for airline miles and the included annual companion certificate can more than make up for the cost.
Check out our full card review for more information.
Bank of America® Premium Rewards® credit card
Sign-up bonus: 50,000 points after you spend $3,000 in purchases in the first 90 days of account opening
Annual fee: $95
Why you’ll love it: If you’re looking for cash back more than travel rewards, the Bank of America Premium Rewards card has the potential to be one of the most rewarding options for existing Bank of America customers. In addition to a sign-up bonus worth $500 (as points are worth a fixed 1 cent each), this Visa card has a unique earning structure. You’ll earn 1.5x points back on all purchases except for travel and dining, which earn 2x points. That isn’t groundbreaking, but certain Bank of America customers are eligible for higher bonus rates.
If you have an eligible Bank of America checking account and a three-month average combined balance of $20,000 or more in Bank of America and eligible Merrill investment accounts, you can sign up for the Bank of America Preferred Rewards program. This will increase your earnings on the Premium Rewards card by an amount based on your account balance:
| Spend Categories | Tier 1 – Gold ($20,000 – $50,000) | Tier 2 – Platinum ($50,000 – $100,000) | Tier 3 – Platinum Honors ($100,000+) |
| Travel/Dining Earnings | 2.5x points | 3x points | 3.5x points |
| Other Earnings | 1.875x points | 2.25x points | 2.62x points |
Even at the high end, this isn’t quite as strong as the Chase Sapphire Reserve, which offers an equivalent of 6% back on travel and dining. However, remember that the Premium Rewards card has a much lower annual fee. If you’re after a cash-back credit card and all the flexibility it affords, 2.625% for everyday spending is about as good as it gets — if you’re able to reach the Platinum Honors tier.
Check our full card review to learn more.
How we chose the best Visa cards
We reviewed the Visa credit card lineup and studied their sign-up bonuses, rewards, perks and annual fees. Since Visa does not issue cards directly like American Express, we evaluated cards from various financial institutions like Chase and Bank of America along with cobrand partners to determine this list.
As always, head to the TPG cards hub to see the best credit cards currently available.
FAQs
What are the different types of Visa cards?
Visa is not a card issuer directly, but Visa cards come with a variety of benefits baked in. There are three variants: Visa, Visa Signature and Visa Infinite. Basic Visa cards usually come with standard benefits like zero fraud liability and an auto rental collision damage waiver.
What is Visa Infinite and what is Visa Signature?
Visa Signature cards — like the Chase Sapphire Preferred — come with more enhanced travel benefits and purchase protection. Some Visa Signature cards include specific travel-related assurances like:
Visa Infinite cards are at the top of Visa’s lineup and have perks like Infinite concierge, car rental privileges, and a Global Entry application fee credit. These Visa Infinite cards, like the Chase Sapphire Reserve, all have an annual fee of at least $450 or more.
Bottom Line
It’s worth knowing which payment network your credit cards use. You shouldn’t apply for or use cards based solely on the payment network, but you should try to have a diverse mix in your wallet. Especially before you travel outside the country or try to make large purchases, you should have different types of credit cards available in case a merchant can’t process one of them. There’s nothing worse than getting to the end of a meal or a long cab ride in a foreign country, only to find out you don’t have a way to pay your bill.
Additional reporting by Madison Blancaflor, Benét J. Wilson, and Chris Dong.
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