I Ranked The BEST Credit Cards You’ve Never Heard Of

I know we're all tired of hearing about the same popular credit cards over and over, like the Built Palladium, Amex Platinum, and Chase Sapphire Preferred. So today, we're doing something different. I'll be ranking 15 credit cards that almost nobody talks about on YouTube, many of which you've probably never even heard of before, from S-Tier to D-Tier. Normally, I would rank cards based on my own experience, but with how niche these are, I actually don't have any first-hand experience with any of them. So a lot of my research came from different Reddit reviews and articles that I found online, meaning there's a good chance that I miss a detail that maybe you wanted to see in here, or you just see a card completely differently than I do. So let me know your take in the comments too. And while you're down there, let me know if you like this one, because I've got close to 60 cards on my research list that I only pulled 15 from for this video, so a part two would be super easy to make. With all that said, let's start with card number one, the Samsung Galaxy Card. This card launched in July of 2026, issued by Barclays on the Visa Network, with no annual fee and a $200 welcome bonus after you spend $2,000 in the first 90 days. It gives you 5% back on Samsung purchases and 2% on eligible streaming purchases, but the big earning category is 3% back on anything you pay for with Samsung Wallet, and there's no cap on that, so that could technically be used for 3% back on anything at all. However, the catch here is that you have to have a Samsung phone, so for all of us iPhone folks, this is basically just a 1% card. Obviously, switching your phone and sacrificing those blue text messages is not worth getting that 3% rate, at least in my opinion, but if you already have a Samsung phone, then this is the highest flat earning rate that you're going to get in the cashback space alongside that Robinhood Gold card, but because of that one big restriction, I can't put this one any higher than A tier. Next is one of the most highly requested cards that I've never covered before, the Nibbles Credit Card. Yes, this is a real credit card built for pet owners, and it launched back in December of 2024. It's issued by Lead Bank, has no annual fee, and earns 3% back on pet spending like food, grooming, boarding, and even vet bills. The wild part is that it comes with built-in pet insurance for one pet of yours at no extra cost, and they'll even start the claim for you automatically when you just use the card at the vet. I don't know about you, but to me, this sounds a bit too good to be true, so I had to ask, like, what's the catch here? And as of right now, the only main downsides that I've found are that it's only for dogs and cats, and most pre-existing conditions are excluded, but in the past, it did have a $250 annual fee, so there is a big risk that they're going to bring that back, nerfing this card essentially into the ground. To be fair though, if it did, it wouldn't be the end of the world. We could always shop for other pet insurance plans like we always do, which by the way, I actually have a link below for you if you want to really quickly do that, something I should probably mention more than I do, but yeah, go ahead and check that out. But in this card's current form, which is all I can really rank it based off of, I see it as at least an A-tier card and one that I should probably consider with how expensive insurance is for Odin who weighs over 90 pounds. Sticking on the insurance side of things, the State Farm Premier Cash Rewards Visa Signature is next, what a name. This one is issued by U.S. Bank, has no annual fee, and it's one of the rare cards that pays you back for your insurance premiums. More specifically, you get 3% back on premiums up to $4,000 spent per year, which maxes out at $120 back. Or if you apply it through an agent, in year one, you'll actually get 5% back, which would end up being $200 in the first year, so that's not bad. It also earns 2% on gas, drugstores, groceries, and dining, and there's a $200 auto insurance deductible reimbursement if you made at least 8 purchases the previous month on the card. However, I don't think most people are going to be using it that much, so I'm not sure how useful this is in practice. While this card sounds pretty great, Forbes rated it a 3.2 out of 5 and called it unimpressive, and honestly, I can see why. I guess if you're an existing State Farm customer, it could be solid, but I wouldn't personally ever switch to them for this card, because not only do I have other catch-all cards that I could just use for those premiums if I wanted to, or I could just continue doing what I already do and use those premiums to hit my welcome offer spending requirements. And that's before the biggest point being that I don't even use State Farm because I found cheaper rates elsewhere, which by the way, I have another link below for you to use to shop rates between the different providers, and that's something you should honestly be doing like once a year at a minimum. But yeah, with all that in mind, I don't see this card as being super competitive, so I'm going to put it in D tier. You know what is competitive though? There is a completely new kind of rewards program that I recently started using, today's sponsor, Silo. Silo is the first and only investing platform that pays you credit card-style points on your brokerage account, kind of like what Bilt did for housing, but on your investments. The way it works is that every month, they pay you points based on your account value at a rate of half a point per dollar over the course of a year. So for example, if you had a $200,000 portfolio, then you would earn 100,000 points a year paid out monthly. They have two main tiers of membership, the gold and platinum plans at $240 and $960 a year, and they earn you up to 100,000 points and 500,000 points per year, respectively. They also have an entry-level Bilt Blue plan that costs $95 a year and gives you points on up to a $50,000 portfolio, so that's up to 25,000 points per year. And when it comes to actually using the points, no matter what plan you have, Silo lets you cash them out at one cent each, or you can use their new travel portal for that same value. But what I'm most excited about is that they are rolling out transfer partners, like very, very soon. And of course, if you know how to use those points, then you can get a much higher return than that. It's also really important to note that your assets are covered by $5 million in FDIC insurance and $500,000 in SIPC insurance, so you can feel confident on the safety side. And with all of that said, if you want to join me in earning points on your investments like you've never been able to before, and through the end of the month, get up to a 300,000-point welcome offer when you sign up, check out Silo using my link below, silomarkets.com slash spencer. And thank you again to Silo for sponsoring this video. Let's jump back into it. Speaking of bills you already pay, next up is the Verizon Visa. This one is issued by Synchrony. It's a Visa signature with no annual fee, and it earns 4% back on groceries, gas and EV charging, dining and takeout, and non-bill Verizon purchases. But while your actual Verizon bill only earns 1% back from the card, their loyalty program does add another 3% in Verizon dollars, so you're technically getting up to 4% there. Plus, the card gives you up to a $10 per month auto-pay discount per line, and Reddit commenters called this card hugely underrated and tough to beat if you want something simple. But of course, the catch is that you have to actually be a Verizon wireless account owner or manager, and Verizon is generally known as one, if not the most expensive phone service providers out there. Not to mention, Synchrony's customer service doesn't have the best reputation, so if you have issues with the card, you may be SOL. Regardless though, I think if you're already a Verizon customer, which apparently 44% of the US is, the earning rates and benefits make this card an S-tier card in my eyes. Just remember that once again, you need to be shopping other phone plans before just overvaluing this card, since you might actually save much more than 4% by switching to another phone provider instead. Card number five is a really unique one, the B&H Payboo card. This one is issued by Cominity, and it's a store card which only works at B&H, and for those unaware, that's a camera and related tech store. But weirdly, this card actually doesn't earn any points at all. Instead, you get a credit equal to the sales tax on your purchases, which as you see here, is as high as 9.75% in LAX, and on as expensive of products as you're buying from them, that is a massive amount of savings. It also gives you special financing of six months interest-free on purchases of $199 or more, and 12 months on $599 or more, so that's pretty powerful. That said, with it being a store card, obviously if you never shop at B&H, then it would be like a D-tier card for you, but if you're in the creative industry and are always buying new camera gear, that sales tax credit could be an absolute game-changer. For the sake of this video, I'm just going to split the difference and put it in C-tier, but I do find that, I guess like earning rate, very interesting. Rather than being stuck with one store, the Rakuten card covers you at over 3,500 of them and stuff. I know this one is more known, but I rarely talk about it on my channel, so I wanted to include it. It's issued by First Electronics Bank on the Amex network with no annual fee, and you get 4% back on all Rakuten purchases, which stacks on top of Rakuten's own crazy high offers, like the 98% back one I used for NordVPN the other day, plus it gives you 10% back on Rakuten Dining. While that would be great even if it was just in cashback, what makes it even more powerful is that you can set your Rakuten account to earn Amex membership rewards or built points instead of cashback, as long as you have another Amex rewards card or built status. That takes that 4 to 10% back and makes it look more like 20 plus percent back, and again, stack that with Rakuten offers like, I don't know, 10% back at Bass Pro Shops right now, and you're absolutely killing it. Really, the only catch is that the 4% back category is capped at $10,000 in purchases per year, and it does exclude any buy now, pay later, most travel, and coupon-only merchants, but even still, that's up to 40,000 points a year on that 4% category, plus an uncapped amount on the 10% Dining category, so I think it's an S-tier credit card for the right person. I would just warn, though, that I could easily see people getting this card and then starting to scroll through Rakuten's site to find deals, which will actually cause them to spend much more money than they would have without the card, which negates all of the earnings, so definitely be careful with that. And this is the last time that I'll do this today, I swear, but even if you just want to try out Rakuten's platform before considering the card, you can earn $50 or 5,000 Builder Amex points after completing qualifying transactions through the link in my description. I know that's a lot of CTAs in the first few minutes, but all of them can save you some serious money while giving me some kickback, so I can't not mention them. Let's switch gears to the business side for a second with the brand new Intuit Business Card. This one launched in July of 2026, issued by WebBank on the MasterCard network with no annual fee and a decent welcome offer of $300 after you spend $3,000 in the first three months. Being an Intuit-branded card, its main value prop is 5% back on Intuit products like QuickBooks and MailChimp, plus it has automatic syncing, receipt capture, and employee cards that each have their own limits. It's pretty cool. Outside of that, it also gives you 2% back on everything else, making it a solid catch-all card, but to me, this card just really isn't that interesting. Maybe if you're running thousands of dollars through those services every year, it'd be a bit more enticing, but for the most part, it's just a simple 2% card with some perks for QuickBooks users, so I'm going to put it in B tier, which is where I put most catch-all cards. I will say though, it does look like it has a really cool card design, so I bet some of y'all would put it into S tier just for that. Back to the personal cards and staying in that travel lane, we have the Booking.com Genius Rewards Visa Signature. This one has no annual fee and earns 6% back on stays booked in the Booking.com app, 5% back on flights, stays, car rentals, attractions, cruises, and airport taxis on Booking.com, 3% on dining, gas, and groceries, and a strong 2% on everything else. But the most unique category that I really like a lot is the 3% back category on all spend within 50 miles of your destination while you're at a Booking.com property, and that is up to $10,000 a year. I don't know, I think that's super creative, and maybe it's a little bit reminiscent of the City Strata Elite City Nights earning rate, but still, I like to see them trying something, and I hope more brands implement stuff like it. The only unfortunate thing that I found with this card is that the rewards are given as travel credits that you can only use on Booking.com, so if you already booked through them, that's no problem and this could be a great card for you, but if not, it's less competitive, so I don't know. For the creativity and boosted rates, I'm going to at least put it in B tier. Next up are a couple of hotel cards, the MGM Rewards World Elite Mastercard and its bigger sibling, the MGM Rewards Iconic, both issued by FNBO. The base card has no annual fee and earns 3x at MGM Rewards destinations, 2x at gas stations and grocery stores, and 1x on everything else, and its main perks are free self-parking at participating MGM properties, priority hotel check-in, and automatic Pearl status. The Iconic, on the other hand, costs $249 a year and steps the earning rate up to 6x back at MGM, plus a $200 resort credit, as well as a priority pass digital lounge membership, and a bunch of benefits if you spend over $25,000 per year on the card. But don't forget that the free parking and the Pearl status is also accessible on the free card, so the Iconic is really just you paying $249 for a $200 credit that you can only spend at MGM, as well as a couple of cheap travel perks that you probably have elsewhere, so I don't really find this card necessary, really either of them, to be honest, and since I don't condone gambling of any kind, I'm going to have to put these down in D tier. Now let's move to a different mode of transportation, with the Amtrak Guest Rewards Premier card. This one is now issued by FNBO as well, after moving over from Bank of America, and the annual fee recently went up from $79 to $99. It also has a sister card with no annual fee, but that one is a lot less interesting, so I'm just leaving it out today. But the Preferred earns 3 points per dollar on Amtrak, 2x on dining, travel, transit, and ride share, and 1x on everything else, which is pretty good. But the perks are the real draw, the main ones being a round-trip companion coupon every year, a one-class upgrade, a station lounge pass, and a 20% statement credit on onboard food and drinks. And although the rewards that you earn are Amtrak points, surprisingly, those are worth an average of about 2.67 cents per point when redeemed, of course it varies by fare, but that boosts the earning rates to roughly a 2.67% catch-all card, and 5.33% on dining, travel, transit, and ride share, with 8% back on Amtrak. Of course, those rewards can only be redeemed with Amtrak, but if you travel with them often, that shouldn't be an issue at all, kinda like that booking.com card. But for the right person, I could easily see this one slotting into the S tier category, but I don't think I can personally put it any higher than A tier for the average user. These two cards following are going to be covered as a package deal, since you can only have one of the two at a time, and that is the AAA Daily Advantage, and the AAA Travel Advantage. These are both classic cashback cards issued by Cominity, with no annual fee, and neither one actually requires a AAA membership, which surprises a lot of people. Of the two, the Daily Advantage earns 5% back on groceries, and 3% on gas, EV charging, wholesale clubs, streaming, and pharmacy, while the Travel Advantage gets you 5% on gas and EV charging, and 3% on travel, restaurants, groceries, and AAA purchases. But both of these cards have their own respective caps. The Daily Advantage has a $500 a year cashback cap shared across groceries, wholesale clubs, and gas, and the Travel Advantage caps the 5% on gas at $350 in cashback per year, which is about $7,000 worth of spend. I don't think that I would necessarily call either of these cards unknown, like some of the others that we've covered, but they are still extremely underrated and deserve a mention. Since they're basically only competitive for their 5% category though, I kind of think of both of them as being similar to the Citi Custom Cash, albeit I guess a little bit worse, and that's a card that I've historically ranked in A tier, so that's where I'm going to put these two as well. Sadly though, there are rumors floating around about a potential nerf to the Daily Advantage soon, so I guess both of these cards might be looking at being demoted in the near future. Hopefully not, but that's kind of what Alright, this next one is one that I've seen garner a decent bit of attention online, I even think my buddy Luke applied for it, and that is the Fairwinds Visa Signature. Fairwinds is a credit union local to Florida, so technically it's only supposed to be available for people in that region, but from what I understand, anybody can actually get into the credit union with only a $5 deposit, so it's a lot more accessible than you'd think. The card itself has a $95 annual fee and earns 5x back on travel and theme park tickets, 3x on dining, and 2x on everything else, and it also has a great welcome offer of 60,000 points after $5,000 spent in 3 months, which is actually worth about $900 in travel since those points are worth 1.5 cents per point through the Fairwinds Travel Portal, which is just like the old Sapphire Reserve and Altitude Reserve that I loved. The card also has no foreign transaction fees and free authorized users, and to me the most interesting part about it, aside from the boost in the travel portal, is that it has a theme park category, but I can definitely see why they added that being headquartered in Orlando, Florida. That said though, the card has no credits associated, so that $95 a year is pretty hard to justify unless you're just all in on their ecosystem, taking advantage of the savings rate boost that it offers, or running a ton of spend through this card and redeeming at that boosted rate. Even then though, I think you'd just be better off with the countless other travel cards out there, so this one is likely redundant for most of us, and I'm going to put it in C tier. One of the most frequently asked questions that I get is what card to use for cruises, so let's see if the Carnival Rewards Mastercard is the answer. This one's also brand new, got a lot of new cards in this video, and it launched on September 1st of 2026, with a welcome offer of 50,000 points after $1,000 spent in the first 90 days. It's issued by Barclays, it has no annual fee, and it earns up to 6x back on carnival purchases, along with 2x on restaurants and groceries, plus you can earn 2,500 anniversary points every year you spend $2,000 on the card, and there's a 0% promotional APR for 6 months on carnival cruise bookings. To me, this card is actually a great example of why I don't usually recommend cruise credit cards at all. While it sounds nice to have that elevated 6x rate with carnival, the card only actually adds 3x on top of the 3x base that you would earn regardless of what card you use as a carnival rewards member, so just like why I don't tell y'all to put a ton of spend through airline or hotel cards unless you're chasing status for a very specific benefit, I would rather just have that spend go towards a transferable currency that I can transfer to any partner I want instead. I'm gonna go ahead and put this one down in D tier because I just don't think it's one that almost any of us should prioritize, but since it does have no fee, it's definitely not the worst card in the world, and it could make sense to go get for a welcome offer, so don't completely write it off, but yeah, definitely not a consistent use kind of card. Speaking of hotel cards, let's move to the Wyndham Rewards Earner Premier. This card costs a whopping $395 per year, and it's the newest card in the Wyndham lineup, which launched with a welcome offer of 120,000 points if you meet the two spending requirements. It earns 8x back on Wyndham stays and 4x on dining, groceries, and travel, but small tip, you can buy Wyndham points for really cheap, so I would probably opt to do that rather than just funnel the spend through it. The card also gives you 30,000 points every year after you pay the fee, a free night after five stays, Wyndham Diamond status, and around $385 a year in credits to offset the fee, but the weird thing about this one is that those credits are split across a bunch of different things like Wyndham stays, meal delivery, streaming, and wholesale club memberships, and honestly, it's just kind of like a head-scratcher. I don't really know who their target demographic was for this card. Wyndham is known as being a more budget brand, and with them removing that Caesar status match that you used to be able to do with their cards, I guess, what was that, last year? I just don't know who would want to go all in on them with an expensive card like this, especially when some of the best benefits of it, like the Wyndham Diamond status, can be had on the cheaper Wyndham business card instead. My gut tells me that this is a C-tier credit card that could be great for the right person, I just don't know who that person is, but I absolutely do know who this next card is for, and that is the U.S. Bank Altitude Connect. This is one of the most underrated credit cards out there, even though it does get a decent amount of face time in videos these days, its earning rates are very competitive, with 5x on prepaid hotels and car rentals booked through the U.S. Bank Travel Center, 4x on other travel, and gas and EV charging for the first $1,000 spent per quarter, 2x on dining, groceries, and streaming, and 1x elsewhere. But beyond that, you also get a Priority Pass Select Membership with 4 visits a year, including restaurants, a TSA PreCheck or Global Entry Credit, a 20,000 point bonus after $1,000 spent in 90 days, no foreign transaction fees, and more. Don't just listen to me though, Reddit commenters call this one super underrated and talk about how those 4 Priority Pass visits per year is really unusual for a no annual fee card, and that's 100% true. Honestly, I don't think that most Americans need more than 4 Priority Pass visits a year to begin with, so I think this one fits a really nice sweet spot. To me, the only big downside is the $1,000 quarterly cap on the 4x gas earning, plus the lack of transfer partner access, since U.S. Bank kept that door shut really to adjust the U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve, but for a card with no annual fee, this one is really hard to beat, and to me, it's an easy S tier. With that said, we'll catch you guys next time.