TL;DR: If you like earning credit card points for travel, the no annual fee Rakuten American Express is a must have because it offers a minimum of 5x points on everyday non-travel purchases, the most generous earning of any credit card. If you want the card, please use my referral link: https://r.imprint.co/wAXbbM

If you use credit cards to amass points or miles to redeem for travel, there are a couple of ironclad rules. One, prioritize spending for signup bonuses. Two, outside of contorting yourself for Bilt or having a banking relationship with a card issuer, earning 2x points for everyday spend is the best you can do. Three, use shopping portals to collect points for online shopping you would do anyway.

If you read travel blogs frequently, like me, you will also notice that every week there are articles discussing specific credit cards, even if that credit was discussed six months ago and there have been no changes. This recurrence is because travel blogs earn their income from referral fees: a reader learns about a credit card on a blog article, clicks the apply link in that article, signs-up for the card, and the blog earns its referral fee. You can tell when a card is offering increased referral fees because all of the blogs will suddenly discuss it, and you can tell which pay the highest fees by how often they are discussed.

If you have been following the space for a couple of years, you will also have learned that Rakuten, an online shopping portal, is one of the best places to start your online shopping because you can earn American Express Membership Rewards (MR) points, one of the three major transferable points programs. Rakuten also often has generous promotions, like 30x points for flowers on Mother’s Day, that make it one of the easiest ways to earn MR points. You may have also heard that Rakuten offers an American Express card that offers 4x extra points on all purchases made via Rakuten.

This bonus breaks ironclad rule #2. So long as you make a purchase at a merchant that has a relationship with Rakuten, you will earn a minimum of 5x points: 1x is the minimum default earn, then you get 4x additional points for having the card. This earning is not difficult, either, as many major retailers offer Rakuten points. PetMeds, Nordstrom, The Container Store, Macy’s, OfficeDepot, Uniqlo, Shutterfly, Lowe’s, Priceline, Macy’s, Bloomingdales, Target – all offer cash back if you start your shopping with Rakuten. (Cash back is the default reward, but Rakuten will convert them to MR points if you link your American Express account.) Target offers 1x points, but with the AmEx card that becomes 5x. As a parent of two kids, I spent an average of $200/month at Target on diapers, formula, food, clothes, or toys, so these points quickly add up. The Target spend is essential everyday spend, so earning 5x points is magnificent. The supplemental points earning does not end there: I just earned 6x points at Nordstrom (2x base, 4x for the AmEx card) for buying a suit, 8x at Macy’s for a sleeping bag (4x base, 4x card), 9x at PetMeds for medicine (5x base, 4x card), and 30x at Chewy for dog treats and poop bags.

This is all money I would have spent anyway, and now I am supercharging how lucrative that spending is. Since linking Rakuten and AmEx in late 2020, I have earned 52,760 points. Since opening the credit card in March 2026, I have earned 4,927 points I would not have. These are enough points for 2-4 domestic roundtrip flights or one long-haul international roundtrip, depending on the airlines and time of year. All for spending that I would have done anyway.

The points earning does not stop with 4x spend. For spending $1000 in the first three months of having the card, you can earn 10,000 extra MR points. If you use the card for dining at restaurants with a Rakuten affiliation, you get 10x points. Groceries are restaurants without an affiliation earn 2x points, the previous gold-standard set by the Capitol One Venture X (also a good card). The one catch is that the 4x bonus only applies to the first $10,000 of purchases per calendar year. I suppose many people could hit that ceiling, but I doubt it will be binding on me since I still put a lot of spend on my AmEx Gold (groceries, restaurants) and sign-up bonuses.

Despite the fact that the Rakuten American Express card is easily the best card for almost all of your everyday spend, I used the modal auxiliary verb (“may”) because the credit card is hardly ever mentioned on travel blogs. If you happened to miss its launch announcement, you may not be aware of it. If you happened to not read a blog one of the infrequent days the card is mentioned, you may not be aware of it. I assume the blogs’ aberrant behavior must be because referral fees are low for the card, so there is little incentive for them to promote it.

Fortunately for you, and me, I am not earning a living from referral links, so I have no problem accepting the “meager” incentive, 5,000 MR points. So, if the card sounds useful for you, please apply for one using my referral link: https://r.imprint.co/wAXbbM. Thank you!