Since credit card welcome bonus offers are constantly changing, and the value of certain point programs can vary drastically, we’ve put together this monthly guide to keep you up to date on which cards are currently offering the best welcome offers. We suggest taking a look at this list before you sign up for a credit card!
10 Best Personal Credit Card Welcome Bonus Offers in September 2023
7 Best Business Credit Card Welcome Bonus Offers in September 2023
* This bonus value is an estimated valuation calculated by Upgraded Points after analyzing redemption options, transfer partners, award availability, and how much Upgraded Points would pay to buy these points.
** Calculated as bonus points divided by the dollars spent to achieve the bonus.
Best Personal Credit Card Welcome Bonus Offers Card Details
The Platinum Card® from American Express
Not only does the Amex Platinum card have one of the best welcome offers, but it is also one of the best travel rewards cards that you can apply for. While it does charge a large annual fee, frequent travelers are more than able to make up for the expense thanks to the variety of credits it offers, hotel and rental car elite status, and the fact that it is the best credit card for airport lounge access — including access to Amex Centurion Lounges, Priority Pass lounges (upon enrollment), Plaza Premium Lounges, and many more.
Check out some of the best ways to redeem the Amex Platinum card’s welcome offer.
Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
The Capital One Venture X card is a great all-in-one premium rewards card thanks to perks like 10x miles on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel, 5x miles on flights booked through Capital One Travel, and an uncapped 2x miles on all other purchases.
Plus you’ll receive lounge access to Priority Pass lounges, Plaza Premium Lounges, and Capital One Lounges, an up to $300 annual travel credit, 10,000 annual bonus miles, cell phone protection, and more.
Take a look at all of the best ways you can put the Capital One Venture X card welcome offer to good use.
Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
Playing little brother to the Capital One Venture X card is the Capital One Venture card, and while it doesn’t offer all the bells and whistles of the premium version, it currently offers the same great welcome offer and plenty of solid perks.
It also earns an uncapped 2x miles on all purchases, a Global Entry or TSA PreCheck credit, 2 complimentary Capital One Lounge or Plaza Premium Lounge visits per year, and more.
Need more redemption ideas? Read our full guide on the best ways to redeem Capital One miles.
American Express® Gold Card
The Amex Gold card is easily one of our favorite rewards cards. This is because Amex Membership Rewards points are some of our favorite points to earn, and the Amex Gold card is great at earning them. With it, you’ll earn 4x points at U.S. supermarkets (on up to $25,000 in spend) and restaurants, plus 3x points on flights booked directly with airlines or at Amex Travel.
Cardholders also receive great benefits (some of which require prior enrollment), such as Uber Cash of up to $120 annually (up to $10 monthly Uber Cash for Uber Eats orders or Uber rides in the U.S.), up to $120 in annual dining credit (up to $10 each month at select restaurants and food delivery services), travel protections, access to Amex Offers, and more.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
The Chase Sapphire Preferred card is one of our top picks when it comes to starter travel rewards credit cards thanks to its combination of bonus categories, benefits, and the value of Chase Ultimate Rewards points.
Cardholders earn 5x points on travel purchased through the Chase travel portal, 3x points on dining, online grocery purchases, and select streaming services, and 2x points on all other travel purchases. Plus, on your account anniversary, you’ll earn bonus points equal to 10% of your total purchases made the previous year.
You’ll also receive annual statement credits for hotel stays, Gopuff, and Instacart, along with excellent travel and purchase protections. When you’re ready to redeem, you receive a 25% bonus when redeeming through the Chase travel portal, or transfer your points to one of the excellent Chase airline and hotel transfer partners.
Hot Tip: Read more about the benefits of the Chase Sapphire Preferred card to learn why it is one of our favorite travel rewards cards.
Chase Sapphire Reserve®
The Chase Sapphire Reserve card is the premium, big-brother, version of the Chase Sapphire Preferred card and offers more perks and higher bonus categories, but with a higher annual fee.
It earns 10x points on hotels and rental cars purchased through the Chase travel portal, 5x points on flights purchased through the Chase travel portal, plus 3x points on dining and general travel purchases. Cardholders receive an up to $300 annual travel credit, Priority Pass lounge access, and top-notch travel and purchase protection.
Of course, it still offers the same great access to the Chase airline and hotel transfer partners, but when you redeem points through the Chase travel portal, your point bonus value increases by 50%.
United Club℠ Infinite Card
For United loyalists, you’d be hard-pressed to find a card better suited for you than the United Club Infinite card.
Not only does it offer a full United Club membership, but you’ll also receive perks like free checked bags, Premier Upgrades on award tickets, 25% back on United inflight purchases, the ability to earn Premier Qualifying Points for your spend, and a 10% discount on United Economy Saver awards within the continental U.S. and Canada.
Citi Premier® Card
In terms of great all-around starter travel rewards cards, the Citi Premier card is up there with the best of them. It is excellent at earning points as it offers 3x points at restaurants, supermarkets, gas stations, airfare, and hotels. You’ll also receive $100 off a single hotel stay of $500 or more each year you hold the card.
While we don’t value Citi ThankYou Points quite as highly as other transferable points currencies, they are still incredibly useful when redeemed through the ThankYou portal, and you also have access to excellent transfer partners such as Avianca, Turkish Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, and more.
If you need some inspiration, read through our complete guide to some of the best ways to redeem your Citi ThankYou Points.
British Airways Visa Signature® Card
You might initially feel that British Airways Avios would be useless to you if you seldom fly with British Airways, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
In fact, British Airways Avios are incredibly useful when it comes to booking short-haul flights within the U.S. with American Airlines and Alaska Airlines, its Oneworld partners. Domestic U.S. flights on American Airlines and Alaska Airlines under 1,151 flight miles (think NYC to Miami) can be booked for just 9,000 Avios each way. This can be immensely helpful on short routes where the cash costs are high.
The British Airways Visa card has interesting benefits, as well, including 3x Avios on British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Iberia flight purchases, and 2x Avios on hotel accommodations. You’ll also receive 10% off British Airways flights starting in the U.S., up to $600 in Rewards Flight statement credits, and the popular Travel Together Ticket if you spend $30,000 on the card in a calendar year.
Citi®/AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard®
The AAdvantage Executive World Elite card went through a major refresh earlier in 2023 which add new perks to the card.
In addition to Admirals Club access for you and up to 2 traveling companions, the card still offers a free checked bag for you and up to 8 traveling companions, a 25% rebate on inflight food and beverage purchases, priority boarding, and a Global Entry or TSA PreCheck credit.
The new perks of the card include 4x miles on American flights on up to $150,000 in spend, and then 5x miles for the remainder of the year, plus 10x miles on rental cars booked through aa.com/cars and hotels booked through aa.com/hotels. There are also new statement credits, including an up to $120 annual statement credit for Avis or Budget car rentals, an up to $10 monthly statement credit for Grubhub, and up to $10 monthly Lyft credit after taking 3 eligible rides in a month.
Cardmembers can also earn 10,000 bonus Loyalty Points after reaching 50,000 Loyalty Points in a status qualification year, plus an additional 10,000 bonus Loyalty Points after reaching 90,000 Loyalty Points in the same status qualification year.
Best Business Credit Card Welcome Bonus Offers Card Details
The Business Platinum Card® from American Express
The Amex Business Platinum card offers a welcome offer large enough to redeem for some big-time travel value. Plus, the card is also a great fit for traveling business owners who are looking for a premium credit card that offers the best airport lounge access, expedited security screening through Global Entry and CLEAR Plus, and helpful annual statement credits with companies including Dell, Indeed, and Adobe (enrollment required).
Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card
The Ink Business Preferred card is a great all-around business rewards card that offers 3x points on your first $150,000 in spend each year on travel, shipping purchases, and advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines, plus internet, cable, and phone services — allowing business owners to really rack up points with this card.
Plus, even with only a annual fee, it offers access to Chase transfer partners, your points are worth 25% more through the Chase travel portal, and you have great coverage, such as cell phone insurance, purchase protection, extended warranty protection, rental car insurance, and more.
Read through our guide on the best ways to redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards points to see just how much value this welcome offer can provide you.
Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card
Another great -annual-fee business card option, the Ink Business Unlimited card earns an unlimited 1.5% cash-back on all purchases and offers useful perks for business owners like employee cards at no additional cost, purchase protection, extended warranty protection, and more. Further, it is also one of the best 0% APR business credit cards.
Ink Business Cash® Credit Card
The Ink Business Cash card is a fantastic -annual-fee business credit card for those whose spending habits align with its bonus categories. You can earn 5% cash-back on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases at office supply stores and on internet, cable and phone services each year and 2% cash-back on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases at gas stations and restaurants each year.
American Express® Business Gold Card
The Amex Business Gold card is a great option for business owners looking to earn as many Amex Membership Rewards points as possible.
Plus, it offers perks like trip delay insurance, baggage insurance, and access to Amex’s The Hotel Collection.
If you’re a frequent Southwest flyer, the Southwest Performance Business card can offer great value. It earns 4x points on Southwest purchases, 3x points on hotel and rental car partners, and 2x points on local transit, social media and search engine advertising, and internet, cable, phone, and select streaming services.
You’ll enjoy 4 complimentary Upgraded Boardings each year, 9,000 annual bonus points, inflight Wi-Fi credits, and a $500 annual fee credit towards point transfers.
Beyond the value that you can receive from the welcome bonus offer, one aspect that is so great is that this welcome offer gets you 64% of the way to the 135,000 points needed to earn the highly coveted Southwest Companion Pass. If you’re unfamiliar, the Southwest Companion Pass gets you buy one, get one free flights (on both cash and award tickets) for you and a traveling companion for the rest of the year in which you earn it, and all of the following year — talk about big-time value!
Ink Business Premier℠ Credit Card
The Ink Business Premier card is the newest business credit card from Chase, and it is sure to be a hit for business owners with large expenditures, as the card earns an uncapped 2.5% back on every purchase of $5,000 or more and 2% back on every other purchase.
While the card does earn Ultimate Rewards points, unfortunately, the rewards are not combinable with cards that have access to Chase transfer partners like the Ink Business Preferred card. That said, the card is still very compelling, and quite lucrative given the ability to earn $1,000 in cash back after you spend $10,000 on purchases in your first 3 months from account opening.
How To Choose the Right Credit Card Welcome Bonus?
While a credit card welcome offer is great, one important thing to take into account before signing up for a new card is whether or not the card is a good fit for you. Consider the card’s bonus categories, benefits, protections, redemption options, and annual fee.
If most of the card’s perks seem like a good fit for you, then the welcome bonus you receive is just that — a bonus!
Is a Credit Card Welcome Bonus Worth It?
A credit card welcome offer is extremely worth it. A new bonus can kick-start your rewards balance and get you that much closer to your next vacation. The best welcome bonus offers can be worth thousands of dollars in travel.
Consider this, if the welcome offer on a card like the Amex Gold card is 60,000 points, you would need to spend a combined $15,000 on its 4x bonus categories of U.S. supermarkets and restaurants before you’d earn 60,000 points. This is why a great card welcome bonus can be so lucrative!
Methodology: How We Selected the Best Credit Card Welcome Bonus Offers
Put simply, we rank the best credit card welcome bonus offers based on the dollar valuation we think the bonus provides. Of course, not all loyalty programs offer the same value proposition, so we determine the value of a current bonus offer based on our monthly points and miles valuations. For instance, if a welcome bonus offer is 60,000 points, and we value those points at 2 cents each, we’d say that bonus is worth $1,200 and it would be ranked accordingly.
Final Thoughts
There you have it — the best credit card offers for this month! Keep in mind that, though a welcome offer might be great, it might not necessarily be the right card for you. Make sure you are weighing which cards can offer you the most value, beyond just the welcome offer, when deciding what new card to add to your wallet.
Don’t forget that we update this page each month, so remember the check back next month as new welcome offers are released to see which cards make our top list.
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.
For the trip delay insurance benefit of the American Express® Business Gold Card, eligibility and benefit level varies by card. Terms, conditions and limitations apply. Visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by New Hampshire Insurance Company, an AIG Company. For the baggage insurance plan benefit of the American Express® Business Gold Card, eligibility and benefit level varies by card. Terms, conditions and limitations apply. Visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by AMEX Assurance Company.
For the baggage insurance plan benefit of the American Express® Business Gold Card, eligibility and benefit level varies by card. Terms, conditions and limitations apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by AMEX Assurance Company.
The information regarding the American Express® Green Card was independently collected by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.
The information regarding The Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card was independently collected by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.
For rates and fees of The Platinum Card® from American Express, click here.
For rates and fees of the American Express® Gold Card, click here.
For rates and fees of The Business Platinum Card® from American Express, click here.
For rates and fees of the American Express® Business Gold Card, click here.
