The best credit card for car rentals
On car rentals, American Express Classic Green Card comes out ahead at $6.00 per $100 spent, $1.50 more than the next card down.
Every card below is scored the way Cardful scores it at a checkout: the rate is multiplied by what that issuer's points are actually worth, so a points card and a cash-back card can be compared in the same unit. Counts as: Hertz, Avis, Enterprise, Turo.
The short version
- Earns the most: American Express Classic Green Card — rewards worth $6.00 per $100 of car rentals, with a $150 annual fee.
- Best with no annual fee: Wells Fargo Autograph — rewards worth $4.50 per $100.
- Is the fee worth it? On car rentals alone, Classic Green Card out-earns the no-fee pick once you spend about $10,000 a year here. Below that, the free card comes out ahead unless the premium card's other categories or credits make up the difference.
| # | Card | Earns | Point value | Per $100 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Classic Green Card
American Express · $150/yr
Travel, including airfare, hotels, campgrounds, car rentals and cruises
|
3x | 2.00¢ / pt | $6.00 |
| 2 |
Autograph
Wells Fargo · No annual fee
|
3x | 1.50¢ / pt | $4.50 |
| 3 |
Autograph Journey
Wells Fargo · $95/yr
Travel other than hotels and airlines
|
3x | 1.50¢ / pt | $4.50 |
| 4 |
Bilt Mastercard
Bilt · No annual fee
|
2x | 2.00¢ / pt | $4.00 |
| 5 |
Blue Business Plus
American Express · No annual fee
2x on every purchase, with no bonus categories to track · Up to $50,000 per year, then the base rate
|
2x | 2.00¢ / pt | $4.00 |
| 6 |
Sapphire Preferred
Chase · $95/yr
Travel booked anywhere else
|
2x | 2.00¢ / pt | $4.00 |
| 7 |
Venture Rewards
Capital One · $95/yr
Base rate — no bonus category applies here
|
2x | 1.80¢ / pt | $3.60 |
| 8 |
Venture X
Capital One · $395/yr
Base rate — no bonus category applies here
|
2x | 1.80¢ / pt | $3.60 |
Cards that pay more here with a condition attached
Left out of the ranking above because each one needs something from you — a category chosen in the card's settings, or buying at one particular store. If that condition fits how you shop, these can beat everything in the table.
- Custom Cash (Citi) — 5x if you choose Car Rental as your category; Up to $500 per billing cycle, then the base rate.
- Customized Cash Rewards (Bank of America) — 3% if you choose Car Rental as your category; Up to $2,500 per quarter, then the base rate.
How to use this list
- Check the store codes as car rentals. Issuers pay by the category the merchant registers under, not by what you bought. This page counts: Hertz, Avis, Enterprise, Turo.
- Start with the cards you already have. Find the highest one of yours in the table — that is your card for car rentals today, no application needed.
- Read the small print under each card. A spending cap or a "US only" note can change the answer if you spend a lot here or shop abroad.
- Only then think about a new card, and weigh the whole year: a card that wins one category can lose on the rest of your spending.
Why dollars and not multipliers
A multiplier is not a number you can compare with a cash-back percentage until you know what a point is worth. Every rate here was converted using a published valuation before the cards were sorted, which is why the order sometimes differs from the one the advertised multipliers suggest.
Point values: published industry valuations, most recently read 2026-09. We track The Points Guy, Upgraded Points, NerdWallet, Frequent Miler and AwardWallet.
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Your wallet, not this list.
This ranks the whole catalogue. Cardful ranks the cards you actually carry, at the store you are actually on.