Best Chase credit cards for May 2024

Major Chase travel credit cards like the Sapphire Preferred and Sapphire Reserve top the charts, partly because of the cards’ stellar perks, benefits packages and high rewards rates. Its travel cards also rank highly because of its Chase Travel℠ portal, which can boost your earnings significantly. Chase has an extensive list of travel partners and a 1:1 redemption rate, which can take your rewards value even further.

Editor’s choice: The Chase Sapphire Preferred

The no-annual-fee Chase Freedom Unlimited® and Chase Freedom Flex℠ cards prioritize maximizing the cash back value of your everyday spending. Holding one or both of these cards can help you rack up rewards, through the Freedom Unlimited card’s flat-rate rewards or the Freedom Flex card’s high-rate rotating categories. 

These Chase cards can give you an edge over rival cards with their additional year-round 3 percent dining and drugstore cash back plus solid perks with rideshare and delivery service partners.

Editor’s choice: The Chase Freedom Unlimited

Chase business credit cards check a lot of boxes when it comes to value, earning rates and spending categories. Small businesses and corporations alike will find something valuable in the Ink Business Unlimited, Ink Business Cash or Ink Business Preferred — whether the business’ largest expense is travel, dining or office supplies. There’s even the flat-rate Ink Business Premier® Credit Card for big spenders who want to optimize the rewards spending on their diverse expenses.

Editor’s choice: The Ink Business Unlimited credit card

Chase offers more than a few co-branded credit cards with companies like Southwest Airlines, Amazon and United Airlines. Chase issues these cards that highly reward purchases you make with specific brands and can supercharge your earnings. For example, Chase’s suite of Southwest Airlines cards reward Southwest purchases, then cardholders can use those earnings to get discounts, statement credits or upgrades with the airline. If you have some strong brand loyalty, a co-branded card could make earning points easy.

Editor’s choice: The Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier credit card

Chase has one card designed specifically for balance transfers: the Chase Slate Edge℠. It doesn’t have the most competitive features, but it does have unique advantages like its one-time credit limit increase and an annual APR reduction feature.

Most Chase credit cards require a good to excellent credit score, but the Chase Freedom Rise℠ Credit Card is the issuer’s sole credit-building card. It’s a solid flat-rate rewards card with no annual fee and no secured deposit, which is rare for a card that’s potentially available with no credit history.

*The information about the Chase Freedom Rise℠ Credit Card and the Chase Slate Edge has been collected independently by Bankrate.com. The card details have not been reviewed or approved by the card issuer.

For cards that put earning rewards front and center, a key criteria for their inclusion in our list of the best credit cards is whether they offer impressive rewards value. This includes a card’s average rewards rate, estimated annual rewards earnings, sign-up bonus value and reward redemption value.

To estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings, we calculate its average rewards rate based on how much it earns in different bonus categories, as well as how closely those categories match the average person’s spending habits. In other words: Does the card earn rewards at a high rate in the most popular spending categories?

We use consumer spending data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to get a reliable third-party measure of people’s spending habits. The most recent BLS data estimates average total spending in 2022 was $72,967 per consumer. We then narrow our focus to which purchases are likely to be put on a credit card and earn rewards, subtracting expenditures like housing, vehicle purchases and education. This gives us a total “chargeable” annual spend of around $25,500.  

This includes the following spending by category:

• Groceries: $5,700
• Dining out: $3,600
• Entertainment: $2,400
• Gas: $3,100
• Apparel and services: $1,900

Using this data, we assign a weighting to each of a card’s bonus categories. For example, a card’s grocery rewards rate receives a 22 percent weighting based on how much of the average person’s budget is spent on groceries. We also estimate the redemption value of points or miles from various issuer, airline and hotel rewards programs.

This weighting and rewards valuation allows us to estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings — how many points or miles you’d earn with a given card if your spending was about average and you used the card for all of your purchases — as well as what those points are worth. We also use point valuations to determine a card’s sign-up bonus value

With these calculations complete, we assign each card a score based on how its average rewards earnings, sign-up bonus value, rewards rate and redemption value stack up against other rewards cards.

The better these values, the higher its score will be, making it more worthy of inclusion in our list and increasing its potential ranking, particularly in the Rewards and Cash Back categories.

We also score cards based on how much it costs to keep them in your wallet or carry a balance. 

We rate all cards based on how their ongoing average APR compares to the average APR you’ll find on other cards in their primary category. However, the impact of an especially high or low APR on a card’s overall score depends on its primary category.

For rewards-earning cards, this factor has only a minor influence on the card’s score and whether the card is included in our list, since rewards card users generally try to avoid carrying a balance. That said, rewards-earning cards may get a solid boost in score if they also offer an intro APR on balance transfers or new purchases, since such offers aren’t always present on these cards.

More important to these cards’ scores and their inclusion in our list is how their annual fees influence their overall value. We consider a card’s annual fee in two ways — how it ranks relative to the fees you’ll find on other cards in the category and how it impacts a card’s overall rewards value. 

Cards with an annual fee will always be at a slight disadvantage in our scoring system since annual fees inherently cut into your rewards value. However, if a card offers terrific value via its ongoing rewards and perks, it can earn a high score and a spot in our list even if it carries a high annual fee. After all, the highest rewards rates and most valuable perks are often found on cards with annual fees. 

Interest rates and intro APR offers play a much larger role in a card’s score and whether it’s included in our list when the card is designed specifically for users looking to save on interest charges. This could include cards in the Balance Transfer and Low Interest categories, as well as those designed for people new to credit or working to rebuild their score (the Credit-Building category). 

We strive to feature cards with the most generous intro APR offers and lower balance transfer fees or ongoing APRs in our Balance Transfer and 0% Intro APR card categories. In these categories, factors like intro APR period length, ongoing APR and balance transfer fee make up a large portion of a card’s overall score and influence our decision to include it in our best cards list.

Along with rewards value and cost, we consider other factors that could give cards great long-term value, like flexible rewards redemption, unique and valuable perks or the ability to switch to another card with the same issuer after you’ve paid off debt or improved your credit score.

We rate rewards-earning cards based on the restrictions they impose on earning and redeeming rewards and consider this when deciding on a card’s inclusion in our list. 

These restrictions could include only allowing users to earn a high rewards rate on a small amount of spending or requiring users to meet a certain earning threshold before they can redeem rewards. We also examine whether points are worth less when you opt for some redemption options over others and whether a card gives you the flexibility to transfer rewards to airline and hotel partners. 

We also evaluate each card’s perks based on their value, usefulness and uniqueness. Cards that offer top-tier benefits like airport lounge access or travel credits are likely to stand out in the Rewards and Travel categories, but we also aim to highlight cards that offer valuable under-the-radar perks, like the ability to graduate from a secured to an unsecured card with responsible use.

For low-interest, balance transfer and credit-building cards, we factor in the presence of a rewards program (as this could give the card better long-term value) and perks designed to help cardholders protect their credit score (like free credit monitoring or the ability to prequalify with no impact to your score).

The best Chase credit card will be whatever card best fits your personal needs. However, in terms of reward earnings, perks and benefits, the top contenders for the best Chase cards are the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Chase Sapphire Reserve.

Most Chase credit cards require a good to excellent credit score. This means you’ll need a FICO score of 670 or higher to apply and be feasibly approved.

The only other major Chase credit card that is more easily accessible with a lower credit score is the credit-building Chase Freedom Rise.

Although the no-annual-fee cards in the Chase Freedom family are excellent first rewards cards, they might not be great starter options since these cards — and most Chase products — require a good to excellent credit score (a FICO score of 670 or higher). As the issuer’s only credit-building card, the Chase Freedom Rise℠ may be the easiest to be approved for since it could be available with no credit history.

However, based on information from Chase, the card is intended for applicants with no credit history looking to establish credit, so it might be harder to get approved if you have a bad credit score that you’re looking to rebuild. Fortunately, Chase also mentions that you can improve your approval odds if you already have a Chase checking account with at least a $250 balance before applying.

No. You will automatically start earning rewards when you spend with a Chase rewards card. If your card has rotating bonus reward categories, activation may be required to access bonus rates.

The quickest way to close a Chase account is to call Chase and request a cancellation. You can also send the cancellation request through your online account or even send a letter in the mail.