Why a bigger multiplier can earn less
On car rental, the Hilton Honors Aspire advertises 7x and the Classic Green Card advertises 3x. The second one earns more: $6.00 against $3.50 per $100 spent.
A multiplier is denominated in whatever that card pays out in, and those things are not worth the same. Comparing two of them as written is comparing a price in dollars to a price in pesos. Every pair below was found by ranking the whole catalogue for a category and looking for the cards that swap places once the conversion is done — they are discovered, not picked.
| On | Louder rate | Earns | Quieter rate | Earns |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Car Rental | 7x
Hilton Honors Aspire
Hilton Honors at 0.50¢ |
$3.50 | 3x
Classic Green Card
Amex Membership Rewards at 2.00¢ |
$6.00 |
| Gas Stations | 6x
Hilton Honors Surpass
Hilton Honors at 0.50¢ |
$3.00 | 3x
Sapphire Preferred
Chase Ultimate Rewards at 2.05¢ |
$6.15 |
| Streaming | 6%
Blue Cash Preferred
Cash Back at 1.00¢ |
$6.00 | 3x
Sapphire Preferred
Chase Ultimate Rewards at 2.05¢ |
$6.15 |
| Grocery Delivery | 3%
Robinhood Gold Card
Cash Back at 1.00¢ |
$3.00 | 2x
Blue Business Plus
Amex Membership Rewards at 2.00¢ |
$4.00 |
| EV Charging | 4%
Attune
Cash Back at 1.00¢ |
$4.00 | 3x
Sapphire Preferred
Chase Ultimate Rewards at 2.05¢ |
$6.15 |
| Vacation Rentals | 5x
IHG One Rewards Premier
IHG One Rewards at 0.50¢ |
$2.50 | 4x
Sapphire Reserve
Chase Ultimate Rewards at 2.05¢ |
$8.20 |
The conversion, in one line
Multiply the rate by what one unit of that currency is worth, and you have cents earned per dollar spent. That is the only number two cards can be compared on, and it is the number every ranking on this site and in the extension is sorted by. Cash back is the easy case: a cent is a cent, so 1% really does mean what it says.
The reason this is not obvious is that issuers have no reason to make it obvious. A program whose points are worth less has to advertise a larger number to stay comparable on a billboard, and the billboard is where most people meet the card.
What the table deliberately leaves out
Rotating bonus categories, which only pay in quarters the issuer picked and only after you have switched them on; travel-portal rates, which need the booking rerouted through the issuer's own site; and merchant-specific rules, which pay at one store. A ranking that credited a card with a rate its holder has to do something else to get is a ranking that recommends the wrong card.
Point values: published industry valuations, most recently read 2026-08. We track The Points Guy, Upgraded Points, NerdWallet and AwardWallet. Every figure on this page is recomputed from that data when the site is built, so it cannot quietly disagree with what Cardful tells you at a checkout.
One number, at the checkout.
Cardful does this conversion for the cards you carry, on the page you are standing on, before you type a card number.