AAA Credit Card Review

Both of these cards come with a handful of Visa Signature credit card perks, including:

The AAA Daily Advantage Visa® and AAA Travel Advantage Visa® are both cash-back rewards credit cards, but they earn bonus cash back on different purchases.

The AAA Daily Advantage Visa earns:

• 5% cash back on grocery store purchases
• 3% cash back on gas and electric vehicle charging stations, wholesale clubs, streaming services, pharmacy and AAA purchases
• 1% cash back on all other purchases

Cardholders can earn a maximum of $500 combined from the 5% and 3% bonus categories each calendar year at grocery stores, gas stations and wholesale clubs, after that purchases earn 1% for the rest of the year. So if you use this card exclusively for grocery store purchases, you would earn 5% back on $10,000 in spending.

The AAA Travel Advantage Visa earns:

• 5% cash back on gas and electric vehicle charging station purchases
• 3% cash back on grocery stores, restaurants, travel and AAA purchases
• 1% cash back on all other purchases

The AAA Travel Advantage card lets you earn a maximum of $350 in combined cash back each calendar year in the 5% bonus category, after that purchases earn 1% back for the rest of the year. That’s the equivalent of spending $7,000 a year at gas stations and electric vehicle charging stations.

Redeeming

You can redeem cash back for a direct deposit or statement credit once you have earned at least $5 in rewards. You can also cash out your rewards for gift cards or merchandise and travel through participating AAA clubs.

Both AAA credit cards have the same rates and fees. There are no annual fees and no foreign transaction fees. Balance transfers and cash advances are charged a 5% fee of the amount of the transaction with a $10 minimum. The standard APR is a variable 19.24% to 33.24% and there is no introductory APR offer. There is a fee of up to $41 for late payments and returned payments.

The Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express is CNBC Select’s best credit card for groceries. It has a higher rate of return for groceries than the AAA Daily Advantage card on grocery purchases (6% back on the first $6,000 in purchases per year at U.S. supermarkets) and U.S. streaming services (6% back).

It also has a more generous welcome offer and a $0 intro annual fee for the first year, then $95 (see rates and fees). The Amex Blue Cash Preferred card has better benefits, including return protection, up to $84 a year in Disney Bundle credits ($7 a month with an eligible $9.99 a month Disney Bundle subscription) and up to $120 in annual Equinox credit ($10 a month). These credits can offset the card’s annual fee (see rates and fees), so the decision may come down to how much cash back you’ll earn with each card. The AAA Daily Advantage limits the bonus cash-back categories to $500 in rewards each year before the return drops to 1%. So if you expect to earn more cash back than that, the Blue Cash Preferred could be more lucrative.

AAA Travel Advantage Visa vs. Chase Freedom Flex℠

The Chase Freedom Flex earns 5% cash back on the first $1,500 in combined purchases in a variety of rotating quarterly categories. That’s a potential $75 in bonus cash per quarter or $300 per year. While this is $50 lower than the $350 annual cash-back cap for the AAA Travel Advantage card’s 5% bonus category, it applies to a wider range of purchases and the Chase Ultimate Rewards points you earn with the Freedom Flex can be much more valuable.

When you pair the Freedom Flex card with a Chase credit card that allows point transfers such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or Chase Sapphire Reserve®, you can also transfer the points you’ve earned with your Freedom Flex card. For example, $300 cash back is 30,000 Chase points, which you can transfer to Hyatt to book a standard night award at a Category 7 hotel, like the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa or Park Hyatt Tokyo. A night at these hotels can cost $700+, so having the ability to transfer Chase points dramatically increases the Freedom Flex’s value.

The AAA Daily Advantage and AAA Travel Advantage cards both have value. They have no annual fees and earn cash back, which is always useful and never complicated. If you want to add a card to your wallet to use exclusively for groceries or gas stations, then these cards are hard to beat. However, the bonus cash-back categories for both cards have an annual limit, so heavy spenders may be better off with a card without limited bonus categories.

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For rates and fees of the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express, please click here.