Ranking Every Mid-Tier Travel Credit Card (2026) | Best Transferable Points Cards Ranked!

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]The points of miles world is built on the back of transferable currency cards and kind of the main tier that matters most in this space is that $95 to $150 range. What we call midtier travel cards because these are cards that allow you to take your transferable points that you earn and move them over to partner airlines and hotels to get maximum value. Now, there are a lot of cards available in this space, and I'm going to go over most of them today and put them in a tier list of where I think they rank against one another from S tier, the very best, down to Dtier, and tell you why I think each of them rank the way that I put them on the list, and what I think some of the benefits and some of the downsides of each one of them are. So, if you would, please hit the like and subscribe button, and let's get right into the tier list.

[00:01:03]We start off with Chase cards and there's two we're going to consider today because I am going to look at some business cards in this as well. And of course, in every card that we're considering, they allow transfers to some of their travel partners. So, we're not considering things like with City, there's a few of their cards that do allow reduced rate transfer. We're not considering those. We're considering the ones that have kind of the broad transfer list where they give the best transfer rates. So, when it comes to Chase, we start with the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. Now, this has often been touted as the best first travel card for people, and I think there was a time that that was true, but many of their competitors have gotten better, and I think it's impacted this card significantly. Now, the Chase Sapphire Preferred card is a $95 annual fee card.

[00:01:57]It has 3X on dining. It has 3X on streaming services. And it has also 2x on things like general travel. It also has 3x on online grocery, which is weird because you can't just go in the straight to the grocery store. You got to use the grocery store app and then at some places you can get that 3x. and then it's 1x on everything else. So, those multipliers are they're kind of okay. Not compared to their competitors, they're not all that great, but still could be okay for your dining card or whatever. Now, this card gives a $50 credit once a year if you book through Chase's travel portal for a hotel. The problem with that is sometimes Chase's travel portal, I find them to be more expensive than many of their competitors travel portals. So that might only be worth $40 or $35 or something compared to what others would have available at maybe a little bit lower price. So it does offset the fee some, but I don't think it's a a big big factor. Now, there's also really good protections on this card. So the card gives protections like primary rental car coverage when you rent a car, and that's very, very good. It also has other good baggage protections, things like that. So, that has to be factored in. It often has a what I would call a good signup bonus.

[00:03:21]Not a great one, not a fantastic one, but certainly not a bad one either. And that is, you know, somewhere in the 65 to $75,000 point range, which is kind of par for the course for these 95 to $150 cards, which is all right. And it has no foreign transaction fees, which is which is really a good boost. So, where would I put the Chase Sapphire Preferred? I would put it in the C tier. It's just kind of middle of the road. It used to be higher when the competition was less, but now I think it's just a C-tier card.

[00:03:53]Next is the Chase Business Inc.

[00:03:56]Preferred card. This one also allows transfers to all of their partners. So, you could have either the Sapphire Preferred or the Ink Preferred and transfer to the same partners at the same rates. It know has no foreign transaction fee. Now, where this one really shines, it has a fantastic signup bonus most of the time. 90 to 100,000 points. And on a $95 card, that's really, really good. Now, it's a business card, so you have to be able to have a side gig or something to get it, but it's usually not very hard for most people to get. Now, where this card really shines, it has a 3x extremely broad general travel category. So you're going to get 3x on planes and 3x on hotels, 3x on trains, 3x on taxis, 3x on ride share. I mean it's super super broad and it has no foreign transaction fees. So you can use that when you're traveling overseas and I often do that when I'm traveling for this channel when I'm traveling outside the country. So that's really good. It also gets 3x on things like advertising, like if you did Facebook, social media, stuff like that.

[00:05:04]It gets 3x on your phone bill. It gets 3x on cable. It gets 1x on everything else. So, its multipliers really with that broad 3x travel category. I think that's really pretty good. It also has cell phone protection and really all of the other great protections that the Sapphire Preferred has. So, this is a really good card when it comes to protections. And of course, it has Chase's partners, which Chase's partners are good. I don't think they're great. I don't think they're excellent, but they're good. So, where would I rank the Inc. preferred card? I'm going to rank it above its personal card counterpart.

[00:05:44]And I'm going to say that this is a B tier card because of those broad travel multipliers and because it gives all the same transferable currency partners that its Sapphire preferred cousin does. I think it's just a little bit better card and I certainly prefer it over the other one. So, I'm going to put the ink preferred in the B tier. Then we move into AMX. And here we have two cards.

[00:06:10]And the first one is the MX green card.

[00:06:13]Now, the green card does not have a very good signup bonus. It's just kind of fair. I mean, it's about 40,000 points most of the time. The green card has no foreign transaction fees, which is good.

[00:06:25]It has 3x on dining, 3x on travel, transit. That's pretty good multipliers.

[00:06:33]It has pretty good protection, although it doesn't have primary rental car coverage. So, that's kind of a downside.

[00:06:40]Uh, MX has good partners. I would say they are about equal with Chase. Not anything super special, but pretty decent and a person can get a lot of value from them. And then the only thing this card really gives to offset the $150 annual fee is it gives a clear credit. Now, I don't give it a lot of a lot of love on this because clear credit, it's helpful, but I don't use it all the time. Clear's not in every airport, and it doesn't always mean that you're going to go to the front of the line. Sometimes, yes, sometimes no. So, I think there could be better credits to offset a higher annual fee of $150. So, where do I put the MX Green card?

[00:07:20]Overall, I think the MX Green card is a Ctier card. I don't think it's rises to the level of that INC preferred card and some other cards, but I think it's kind of it's okay. It's not great, but it's okay. Now, we get to MX's business card, the Blue Business Plus. This is a zero annual fee card that gives access to MX's partners. That is fantastic. It gives 2x on everything. It's just simple. Up to $50,000 in spend every year. and it has pretty good protections. Not the best, but they're they're okay, but there's a couple downsides. This card has a really really low signup bonus most of the time. Now, sometimes they'll come out with like a 75K as a special offer. That's good. And I would get it all day at that, but generally it's like around 15,000 points, which is just like, uh, is that good at all? I I mean, it's up to you, but I I don't think I would waste a credit card application on 15K. So, is this card good? Yes. It also is the only card on this list with foreign transaction fees. So, you would never want to use it outside of the United States. So, where does it rank? I also have to put the Blue Business Plus because of that foreign transaction fee, the 50K cap on the 2X, and also just the abysmal signup bonus it usually has. I put it down in the C tier along with the AMX green card. Now we move to the City Strata Premiere. It's the only city entry on this list. It's $95 a year. It does have some travel protections.

[00:09:00]They're not as good as Chase's because you only get secondary car rental. But where this card shines, it has awesome awesome multipliers. You get 3x city points. You get it on dining. You get it on on hotels, you get it on airfare, you get that on gasoline, and you get it on groceries. Now, the card again has just kind of a a good sign up bonus. Usually around 60, 65, 70,000 points. That's all right. And it has no foreign transaction fees, which is really good because you can travel the world with this card. And we have it gets 10x through city's portal on some things like hotels and car rentals, but I don't generally consider portals as part of my overall equation. It gives a $100 credit if you book a $500 or more hotel night or nights in the city travel portal. H it's okay. I mean, $100 gets back your whole annual fee, but you got to book a a hotel that's $500 or more.

[00:10:02]We've used it some, some some years we don't. But where this card really shines is it earns city thank you points. City thank you points because of American Airlines are very very valuable. That is a fantastic fantastic list of transfer partners. So where do I put this card? I think the City Strata Premiere card is our first A tier card on this list. It's a very very good $95 travel card. Now, we look at two cards in the Capital One ecosystem. We have the Capital One Venture card, $95 a year, and it's really simple. 2X Capital 1 miles on everything. Now, it has no foreign transaction fees. No Capital One cards have foreign transaction fees, which is really cool. It signup bonus is really quite good. It's usually better than some of its competitors. Upward of 75,000 points much of the time. So, that really gives it a boost. I I think what kind of drags this card down is there's really no way to get back any of that $95 as far as your annual fee. Doesn't really have credits like some of the others. Uh this card, you know, it's it's all right. I it I think Capital 1 miles aren't as good of a transfer partner list as some of the others. So, I'm going to put the Capital One card, even though it does have some okay travel protections and things, I'm going to put it in the C tier. Then there is the Capital 1 Venture 1 card. It's a no annual fee card. Again, no foreign transaction fees, but it only earns 1.25x, but it does give you access to all of their travel partners. So, if you have other Capital One cards, you could kind of merge them with this card and transfer those points out. So, that's good kind of as a placeholder card. But 1.25x, that is below everybody else.

[00:11:53]that is way low standard for a card that is a kind of a catch-all type card. So, this is really the first card and the only card on this list that I really think is a D tier card. Then we come to the Wells Fargo autograph card. It's a no annual fee card. It has no foreign transaction fees. Sign up bonuses not that great really most of the time, but this card is really, really powerful.

[00:12:17]Now, let me tell you the first downside.

[00:12:19]Wells Fargo has the weakest transfer partner list, but some of them are very good. But this card, wow, it has really good protections. This card also can provide cell phone protection. That's really, really good. But where it shines for a no annual fee card with no foreign transaction fees is it has incredible multipliers. Dining, travel, gas, streaming, transit, phone, all 3x. All of it. And the phone's really cool because you get great phone protection for that 3X. This is a really good card.

[00:12:55]Yes, the transfer list is weak, but the card is amazing. And I I I know some will probably disagree and want to put it down a level, but I think this card is an S tier card. Even though the signup's not great, even though it doesn't have the best transfer partner list, I think as an earner, it's just so far ahead of so many others. I think it's just barely better than the City Strata Premiere card and I'm gonna put it in the S tier. Then there's the Wells Fargo autograph journey card. It's their $95 entry and it also has no foreign transaction fees. It has a better signup bonus. Still not great, but a a better signup bonus than its little brother.

[00:13:37]And it gives some cool multipliers. 5x on hotels directly, 4x on flights directly, 3x on dining and other travel.

[00:13:45]And then it for $95 it gives a $50 easy to use airline credit. That is really cool. Where does this card rank? Well, I think this card is an A tier card. Not quite as good as the autograph because of the fee. And I I just I'm so impressed with the autograph for that no annual fee, but I think this one's really close because of that 5x on hotels directly, 4x on flights. I I think it is an A tier card. The last two we look at are from Built. There's the built blue card. It's the one on everything plus 4% built cash. Now, I'm not going to get into this video all the details of the built ecosystem, but there are a lot of ways to use that built cash. But when it comes to the blue card, I think it's definitely the weakest of all of Bill's card. The real boost to it is you can pay your rent or mortgage if you use built cash and so forth and so on. So, that's going to boost your earnings above that 1x if you utilize that. It has no foreign transaction fees. So, that's good. But overall, I think the Built Blue card is still just a Ctier card. And the last one is the Built Obsidian card. This is their $95 card. It gives 3x on either dining or on groceries. But what's really awesome is if because you're getting the 4% of Built Cash. You can use that for points accelerated with this card and you can get 4x on either dining or grocery. That's amazing. And it gives 1x on everything else. And with the accelerator, you can get 2x. It's a really, really good card. So, this card also, no foreign transaction fees. You get access to all the built stuff. I think this card's amazing. And even though I think the Palladium, which I have, is even better. I guess it'd be an S+ card. I'm going to say the built Obsidian card is an S tier card. So, that's my list for today. Tell me down in the comments if you agree or disagree. Thank you for watching today.

[00:15:38]Consider my channel memberships. I have two of them. I do early release videos for Spreadsheet Warriors. I even have special sessions every month. Check those out. Please hit the like and subscribe button and I will see you here next time.