Over the years we’ve seen a lot of credit card annual fee inflation, as card issuers have raised the annual fees on some cards while also adding perks. The good news is that you don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars per year to get a card that’s extremely rewarding.
In this post I wanted to share some great credit cards with annual fees of under $100. I’ve chosen these cards for different reasons — some for the long term perks they offer, some for the return on everyday spending they offer, and some for offering both.
Of course it’s important to note that everyone is looking for different things in credit cards, so there’s not going to be a “one size fits all” best cards for everyone, since it all depends what your goals are. However, I consider the below to be some of the options with the widest appeal.
In this post:
The best low annual fee personal credit cards
When it comes to personal credit cards with annual fees of under $100, I tend to think the best options are those that can earn you the most points, those that can get you the most travel protection, and those that can get you perks that more than justify the annual fee. So below are my top five recommendations, in no particular order.
Chase Sapphire Preferred Card
The $95 annual fee Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (review) is probably the gold standard of reasonable annual fee cards. It’s ideal if you’re looking for a well-rounded travel rewards card that offers fantastic travel protection, and it’s especially good if you spend a lot on dining and travel.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card offers the following, among other things:
- Great return on spending, including 3x points on dining and online groceries, 2x points on travel, 10% anniversary bonus points, and more
- A $50 annual hotel credit through the Chase Travel Portal, with no minimum spending requirement
- Valuable travel protection, including for delayed flights, lost bags, damaged rental cars, etc.
- Useful points that can be transferred to airline and hotel partners or redeemed for a minimum of 1.25 cents each toward the cost of a travel purchase
Capital One Venture Card
The $95 annual fee Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card (review) (Rates & Fees) is one of the best cards for everyday spending, so it’s an excellent option if you just want an easy and super rewarding credit card that you can use everywhere.
The Capital One Venture Card offers the following, among other things:
- A flat 2x miles on all purchases, which is an unbeatable return on spending
- Valuable Capital One miles, which can be redeemed for one cent each toward a travel purchase, or can be transferred to Capital One’s airline and hotel partners, mostly at a 1:1 ratio
- Two visits to Capital One Lounges or Plaza Premium Lounges every year; I love the Capital One Lounge DFW
- Good basic travel protection, including rental car coverage
Citi Premier Card
The $95 annual fee Citi Premier® Card (review) can hold its own among reasonable annual fee cards earning transferable points. This card has the best bonus categories of any mid-range card, so if you’re looking to rack up points as quickly as possible, this is the card to go with.
The Citi Premier Card offers the following, among other things:
- Unbeatable bonus categories, as the card offers 3x points on dining, gas stations, groceries, airfare, and hotels
- Points that can be transferred to many airline and hotel partners at a 1:1 ratio
- A $100 annual hotel credit valid through the Citi Travel portal, which can be used to book a hotel costing $500+
IHG Premier Card
The $99 annual fee IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card (review) isn’t a card I’d get because of the return on spending it offers, but rather because the perks just for being a cardmember more than justify the annual fee.
The IHG Premier Card offers the following, among other things:
- An anniversary free night certificate valid at a property costing up to 40,000 points per night; you can even use points to top this off and redeem at a more expensive hotel
- IHG One Rewards Platinum status, which offers perks at IHG hotels, including room upgrades bonus points, and more
- A fourth night free on IHG award redemptions, which can stretch your points much further
- $50 in United TravelBank credit annually, in the form of $25 deposited twice per year
Even if you’re not in any way loyal to IHG, it should be possible to get outsized value here if you stay at hotels with any frequency. Given hotel rates nowadays, personally I think it’s easy to justify the card purely based on the annual free night certificate, and everything else is the icing on the cake.
World of Hyatt Credit Card
The $95 annual fee World of Hyatt Credit Card (review) is another card that I think is worth having for the perks alone.
The World of Hyatt Card offers the following, among other things:
- An anniversary free night certificate valid at a Category 1-4 property, which covers a majority of Hyatt properties around the globe
- World of Hyatt Discoverist status, which is Hyatt’s entry level hotel status, offering upgraded rooms, late check-out, bonus points, and more; you also get a fast track to other World of Hyatt status
While there are other perks, the free night award should be worth way more than $95 per year, given hotel prices nowadays.
The best low annual fee business credit cards
There are lots of great business credit cards out there, but which cards are “no brainers” and have annual fees of under $100? That narrows it down a bit, but there are still some great options. Below are my top three recommendations, in no particular order.
Chase Ink Business Preferred Card
The $95 annual fee Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card (review) is the single best business credit card out there, in my opinion. If you’re looking for a card with a huge bonus, great return on spending, and useful perks, this is it.
The Ink Business Preferred Card offers the following, among other things:
- Exceptional bonus categories, as the card offers up to 3x points on travel, shipping purchases, internet, cable, phone services, and advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines, for the first $150,000 in combined purchases each cardmember year
- An amazing cell phone protection benefit
- Travel protection, including rental car coverage
- Useful points that can be transferred to airline and hotel partners or redeemed for a minimum of 1.25 cents each toward the cost of a travel purchase
Capital One Spark Miles Card
The $95 annual fee (waived for the first 12 months) Capital One Spark Miles for Business (review) (Rates & Fees) is essentially the business card equivalent of the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card. This is one of the best business cards for everyday spending, so it’s an excellent option if you just want an easy and super rewarding credit card that you can use everywhere.
The Capital One Spark Miles Business Card offers the following, among other things:
- A flat 2x Spark miles on all purchases, which is an unbeatable return on spending
- Valuable Capital One miles, which can be redeemed for one cent each toward a travel purchase, or can be transferred to Capital One’s airline and hotel partners, mostly at a 1:1 ratio
- Two visits to Capital One Lounges every year; I love the Capital One Lounge DFW
- Good basic travel protection, including rental car coverage
IHG Premier Business Card
The $99 annual fee IHG One Rewards Premier Business Credit Card (review) is the business version of the IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card, and the perks are virtually identical.
The IHG Business Premier Card offers the following, among other things:
- An anniversary free night certificate valid at a property costing up to 40,000 points per night; you can even use points to top this off and redeem at a more expensive hotel
- IHG One Rewards Platinum status, which offers perks at IHG hotels, including room upgrades bonus points, and more
- A fourth night free on IHG award redemptions, which can stretch your points much further
- $50 in United TravelBank credit annually, in the form of $25 deposited every six months
Bottom line
There are a lot of great credit cards out there, though the above are my five favorite personal and three favorite business cards with annual fees of under $100 each. As you can see, some of these cards are great because of the return on spending that they offer, some are great because of the travel protection they offer, and some are great because of the perks that they offer.
Of course there are lots of other great low annual fee cards out there as well.
What’s your favorite credit card with an annual fee of under $100?
For Capital One products listed on this page, some of the above benefits are provided by Visa® or Mastercard® and may vary by product. See the respective Guide to Benefits for details, as terms and exclusions apply.
Obviously a promotion for those cards. There are a handful of other great cards with annual fees less than $100 and the benefits are more than that.
Let's hear them then!
Assuming this post excludes no annual fee cards (Lucky has another post for those)
- Amex Hilton Surpass ($95 fee, decent Hilton earnings structure, Hilton Gold status, ability to spend for a free night). This is a very underrated card IMO
- Various Chase hotel and airline cards (Marriott, United, British Airways, Aeroplan, Southwest, etc)
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Ben, just wanted to inform you on a covert devaluation to mileage plan. I have looked at flights from SFO to Tokyo on JAL through Alaska for a few months just to get a gage on last minute availability of business class, well, today for the first time ever there was a lot more availability than usual, the downside... it was for 120k one way. There was still 60k availability but it was very much less than usual. Dynamic pricing on this award has come.