One Key™ Card review: A fit for travel deal-hunters?

If you typically spend more than $100 across Expedia, Hotels.com and Vrbo in a year, the premium One Key+™ Card can easily be more lucrative than the no-annual-fee version. 

The One Key+ Card’s $99 annual fee is easy to justify thanks to the $100 of OneKeyCash you’ll get each year on your account anniversary and the up to $100 credit toward a Global Entry® or TSA PreCheck® application fee every four years.The One Key+ Card’s base rewards rate is also slightly higher than the One Key Card’s — 2 percent OneKeyCash on general spending versus 1.5 percent.

The One Key+ also stands out for its perk. The card starts you off with Gold status, which comes with perks ranging from free room upgrades, early check-in and late check-out to VIP Access stays. It also boosts your discount on eligible Expedia and Hotels.com bookings to 20 percent. 

Perhaps most importantly, Gold status nearly doubles your base OneKeyCash rewards program rate on VIP Access stays (versus a 50-percent increase with Silver status). Given the extra value, the One Key+ Card is most likely a better choice than the no-annual-fee version if you use Expedia, Vrbo or Hotels.com regularly.

Despite its $95 annual fee, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card could be far more useful depending on your spending habits. It earns similar rewards rates on dining and online grocery purchases (excluding Walmart, Target and wholesale clubs), plus 2X points on general travel purchases — which includes discount travel sites. You could even earn 5X points on vacation rentals, hotels, flights and more through the Chase Travel portal.

Then, when it’s time to redeem, you can redeem your points for cash back at 1 cent apiece, Chase Travel bookings at 1.25 cents apiece, or around 2.0 cents apiece on average with the right transfer partner. You can also get even more bang for your buck with annual bonus points and credits, top-tier travel insurance and other valuable perks.

If you’re not sure you want to take on an annual fee, though, you might want to consider the Wells Fargo Autograph℠ Card. 

The Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards credit card can easily adapt to reward key categories that the One Key Card doesn’t. It earns 2 percent cash back at wholesale clubs and grocery stores, plus 3 percent back on your choice of six possible categories (up to $2,500 of combined 3 percent and 2 percent categories each quarter, then 1 percent).

You can change the 3 percent categories monthly to bonus categories the One Key Card doesn’t carry in order to maximize your spending. For example, the online shopping category could cover day-to-day purchases from sites like Amazon and Walmart.com, and specialty retailers like Ticketmaster can reward concerts and other travel activities. The general travel category can also earn 3 percent rewards on purchases the One Key Card won’t, such as tourist attractions, public transportation and parking.

If you want a back-up credit card that’s easier to handle, though, the Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card or another a flat-rate cash rewards card may be worth considering instead.

Although other popular travel cards may have bonus categories that overlap with the One Key Card categories, an option like the Chase Sapphire Preferred could earn rewards that can be redeemed for either a full cash back value or potentially more than 1 cent per point toward travel. The Sapphire Preferred could allow you to earn 2X points on eligible vacation rentals and other general travel purchases that don’t fall under the One Key Card’s categories. Then, you could redeem those points for 1.25 cents each toward Chase Travel or around 2.0 cents each on average with the right transfer partner.

The Sapphire Preferred could also come in handy for benefits like its stellar travel insurance, annual $50 Chase Travel hotel stay credits and rideshare and delivery service partner perks.

However, the Wells Fargo Autograph or Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card (See Rates & Fees) could also be worth considering if you won’t use another rewards card enough to justify an annual fee.

There are very few cards that can compete with the One Key Card if you prefer the local comforts of vacation rental homes and Bed and Breakfasts over hotel chains. The One Key Card and its premium counterpart are two of the rare few cards that allow you to redeem for vacation rentals, and they’re the only cards that earn rewards specifically for Vrbo and third-party discount travel sites. 

The One Key Card may open the door to more discounts if you don’t like to limit your travel plans to whatever options you can scrounge up within the walls of an issuer travel portal like Chase Travel and American Express Travel. You won’t have to rely on annual travel credits and other travel portal-specific perks to make up for the sheer savings discount travel sites like Expedia, Hotels.com and Vrbo could provide. Plus, the automatic One Key Silver status could net you even deeper discounts and extra rewards on eligible property stays.

The One Key Card reward categories perfectly suit gas, food and overnight pitstops during occasional trips. Plus, the flat-rate 1.5 percent OneKeyCash could squeeze extra rewards from souvenirs, attractions and other purchases along the way that wouldn’t fall within traditional travel card categories. These features could make this card an easy, all-in-one option to rack up rewards on purchases on the road to help you save on the hotel and vacation rental stays at the end of the day — especially if you can leverage your automatic One Key Silver status.

The primary criteria for a rewards or cash back card’s rating is its rewards value. This includes the 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 first calculate its average rewards rate based on how much it earns in different bonus categories and how closely its categories align with the average person’s spending habits, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

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 $22,500.  

Some of the major spending categories that contribute towards the annual spend include:

• 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.

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

To start, each rewards or cash back card is scored based on whether it offers an intro APR and how its ongoing APR compares to the rates available on other rewards or cash back cards. 

We also score each card based on how its annual fee influences its 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, but if a card offers terrific value via its ongoing rewards and perks, it can earn a high score even if it carries a high annual fee. 

With this in mind, we rate a card based primarily on how its ongoing rewards value and ongoing perk value (such as annual credits or bonuses) stack up against other cards in the category when you subtract its annual fee.

We rate each card’s flexibility based on the restrictions it imposes on earning and redeeming rewards and factor this rating into a card’s overall score. 

Flexibility factors include whether a card only allows you to earn a high rewards rate on a small amount of spending or requires you to meet a certain earning threshold before you can redeem rewards. We also examine whether your points are worth less when you redeem for some options versus others and whether a card gives you the flexibility to transfer rewards to airline and hotel partners. 

We also score each card’s set of features – its perks and benefits — against five tiers of features to provide a rating. 

We break down these tiers as follows:

• Tier 1 has less than standard card features (an ultra-streamlined card that offers basic utility and next to nothing in the way of ancillary benefits. 
• Tier 2 includes the benefits you’d expect on standard Visa or Mastercard credit cards, such as free access to your credit score, car rental insurance and $0 liability for fraudulent charges. 
• Tier 3 includes “prime card” or better-than-average card features like cellphone insurance, lost luggage insurance, concierge services and purchase protection. 
• Tier 4 includes luxury features such as airport lounge access, elite status with an airline or hotel and credits for expedited security screening membership programs. 
• Tier 5 includes the sort of exemplary benefits you’ll find on top-tier luxury cards, such as high-value travel credits, cardholder memberships and other unique and valuable perks.

You’ll get the best approval odds if you apply for the One Key Card with a good to excellent credit score (a FICO score of 670 or higher, or a VantageScore of 661 or higher).

The One Key Card is a Mastercard — one of the two most widely-accepted major credit card networks. 

Depending on your credit score and other factors, you may be able to qualify for the World Elite Mastercard version of this card. World Elite status could include some of the highest-tier Mastercard perks, such as discounts and other perks with partners like Peacock, Lyft, Instacart and Booking.com. However, the available card network perks may vary from card to card, so you should contact the issuer or consult your card agreement to see which Mastercard perks are included.

The One Key Card is issued by Wells Fargo, one of the major U.S. credit card issuers. In J.D. Power’s latest credit card issuer customer satisfaction survey, Wells Fargo ranked slightly below average at seventh out of sixteen credit card issuers.