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  Credit Card Reference

After you’ve put together your core credit card collection, and taken advantage of the best available signup bonuses, you are likely to have signed up for many different credit cards from Chase, American Express, Citibank, and probably even Bank of America.

At that point, it can be helpful to expand your activities to other credit card companies, who aren’t going to wonder why you are signing up for your umpteenth card from their bank. On the other hand, each of these banks tends to be less lenient with their approvals than Chase, Amex, etc.

Some of the better options from each of these credit card companies are listed below: Some of this information comes from Doctor of Credit.

Jump to

• Barclays
• U.S. Bank
• Capital One
• Wells Fargo

Calculating Sign-up Values

To determine the net sign-up value, we calculate an approximate value of the points you'll receive, based on our "base-value" for each type of point. We then subtract the costs of earning the bonus.

The first of these costs is the annual fee, if it isn't waived for the first year you have the card. The other cost is the opportunity cost of using the card for enough spending to qualify for the signup bonus. For every dollar you need to spend, we assume that you could have earned 2.5 cents in value from your general-purpose reward card, and then subtract the value of the points that you would receive by using the new card. For example, if you have to spend $3,000 on the new card to earn the bonus, and you receive 1.5 cents per dollar, you are giving up $30 in rewards you could have earned by using your general-purpose reward card instead. To keep things simpler, we don't factor in bonus rewards, either from the new card, or from the existing cards that you could have been using. Template:Best Sign-up Offers from Smaller Banks/Box

Barclays

One advantage of Barclays is that they usually use the TransUnion credit bureau, which is used less frequently by the other credit card companies. As a result, Barclays is likely to see very few recent inquiries.

They have several cards with solid signup bonuses. However, you can usually only be approved for one of their cards, every six months. In addition, they are less likely to approve you for an additional card, if you haven’t been using your existing Barclay cards for ongoing spending. This can make it difficult to collect signup offers from multiple cards. If they start denying you, you might cancel your existing cards, and try again later.

Hawaiian Airlines Credit Card Guide	$620 signup value. Promotional offer of 50,000 Hawaiian miles (with $3,000 initial spend. At 1 cents per mile, the points alone are valued at $500. But, you also get a 50%-off companion ticket, valued at $250. If you have an opportunity to use the companion certificate, this is the most valuable sign-up offer for any Barclay card. $89 annual fee. The promotional offer for the business version of the card has 40,000 mile signup bonus (on first purchase).
Arrival Card	$520 signup value. Promotional offer of 60,000 Arrival points (with $5,000 initial spend), good for $630 in travel credits. $89 annual fee.
Aviator Card Guide	$500 signup value. Promotional offer of 50,000 American Airlines miles (on first purchase). At 1.2 cents per mile, the miles are valued at $600. $95 annual fee. The business version of the card has the same offer available.
JetBlue Credit Card Guide	$450 signup value. 40,000 JetBlue miles (with $1,000 initial spend). JetBlue operates a fixed-value reward program, where you don't need to find award space to use your points. At a value of 1.4 cents per point, the miles are valued at $560. $99 annual fee. You might want to wait until a better promotional offer is available to sign-up for this card.
Miles & More Credit Card Guide	$450 signup value. 50,000 Miles and More points (with $5,000 initial spend). At a value of 1.2 cents per mile, the points are valued at $600. $89 annual fee. Template:Best Sign-up Offers from Smaller Banks/List U.S. Bank In general, it can be hard to get U.S. Bank credit cards. Unless you have a banking relationship with them, they will often deny your application. Assuming you can get approved, there are no absolute limitations to the number of cards you can hold, or how many times you can earn a signup bonus. Doctor of Credit has a post that says that you can increase your U.S. Bank approval chances, by freezing two minor credit bureaus, called SageStream and ARS, before applying for one of their cards. We have never bothered. Altitude Reserve Guide $630 signup value. 50,000 Altitude Reserve points, valued at 1.5 cents each (with $4,500 initial spend). The card has a $400 annual fee, but a $325 automatic travel credit, brings the effective annual fee down to $75. Business Edge Travel Card Guide $350 signup value. 25,000 FlexPerks, valued at 1.5 cents each (with $2,000 initial spend). Annual fee is waived the first year. Flexperks Travel Card Guide $350 sign-up value. Promotional offer of 25,000 FlexPerks, valued at 1.5 cents each (with $2,000 initial spend). Annual fee is waived the first year. Flexperks Gold Card Guide $340 sign-up value. 30,000 FlexPerks, valued at 1.5 cents each (with $2,000 initial spend). $85 annual fee. Template:Best Sign-up Offers from Smaller Banks/List Capital One You can apply for one Capital One card every six months. You might be able to get up to two copies of the same cards, even though they have an overall limit of two Capital One branded cards. Unfortunately, unlike most other credit card applications, applying for a Capital One card, generates an inquiry on all three of your credit reports. It can be hard to get approved for Capital One Cards, if you have recently been applying for a bunch of credit cards from other banks. And calling the reconsideration line, usually doesn't help. Be aware, that unlike most other credit card companies, Capital One reports your business card balances on your personal report. Capital One Venture Card Guide $450 signup value. Promotional offer of 50,000 Venture Miles (with $3,000 initial spend). The annual fee is waived the first year. This card also comes with a $100 TSA fee credit. Captial One Spark Card Guide $430 signup value. This is a business card. $500 cash (with $4,500 initial spend). Annual fee is waived the first year. Signup offers of up to $1,000 have been available. A similarly valued offer of 50,000 Venture Miles is available on the Spark Miles business card. Capital One Venture Card Guide $190 signup value. Once you are past the two versions of the Spark card and the Venture card, the value of Capital One signup bonuses drops precipitously. 20,000 Venture Miles (with $1,000 initial spend). No annual fee. Template:Best Sign-up Offers from Smaller Banks/List Wells Fargo You may have difficulty getting one of Wells Fargo's better cards, if you don’t have a banking relationship with them. As with any other bank that has this policy, if you really want a card, it is not that hard to temporarily set up a checking account, and you just might be able to score a checking account signup bonus as well. Wells Fargo Reward Credit Cards Guide $625 signup value. Earns 4x extra points on your first $12,500 worth of gas, grocery, and drugstore purchases in the first six months. If you can maximize the bonus (probably through gift cards), you'll be earning an extra 50,000 points, worth $750 towards airfare purchases. No annual fee. Wells Fargo Reward Credit Cards Guide $625 signup value. Has the same initial bonus as the Signature card. But if you don't also have the Signature card to unlock the 50% bonus on airfare redemptions, you can only get 1 cent each from your points. Credit Cards 101 The Best Credit Card Signup Bonuses Credit Card List Template:Best Sign-up Offers from Smaller Banks/Page