Most credit cards come with incentives. Naturally, it is a sales strategy designed to entice you into buying them. You would have heard all about how you earn substantial rewards on purchases you make off your card. Rarely, though, does one have an actual idea of what these rewards are or in what form you read them.

Valuing these reward points can get complicated. They involve two factors one of which is the card’s earning rate and the other, its redemption rate.

Reward credit cards have an earn rate which is the amount of cashback, points or miles you receive every time you spend a dollar on purchases using your credit card. Earn rates differ from card to card. Some cards offer more for a particular kind of purchase. Earn rates include annual fees that are applicable and annual benefits that can be quantified. The redemption rate is otherwise known as the burn rate. It is the value if cashback, points or miles that can redeem for a reward. The burn rate differs from card to card through the industry standard is considered to be one cent for every point or mile.

The average value of your reward points is the earn-burn rate and you can get this by multiplying the rewards and the redemption rate.
Let’s see a few reward credit cards that are considered the best for the year 2017.

• Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card with its easy flat rate travel rewards at the rate of 2 miles and no annual fee for the first year.
• BankAmeriCard Travel Rewards Credit Card with a reward rate of 1.5 points per dollar.
• Chase Sapphire Preferred Card with a rewards rate of one point per dollar.
• Discover It with a 1.00% reward rate.
• Citi Double Cash Card with a rewards rate of 1.00%.
• Blue Cash Preferred Card with a rewards rate of 1.00%.
• Chase Freedom with a rewards rate of 1.00%.
• Ink Business Cash Credit Card with a rewards rate of 1.00%.
• Ink Business Preferred Credit Card with a rewards rate of one point per dollar, and
• Capital One Spark Cash for Business with a rewards rate of 2.00%.

Other top reward credit cards for the year have been listed below.

Chase Sapphire Preferred Card where you earn one dollar for every point spent, 2 times the points for travel-related purchases, double points in restaurants all over the globe, and 50,000 in bonus points if you spend $4,000 in purchases within the first three months of buying the card. If you redeem these points through Chase Ultimate Rewards, the 50,000 bonus points convert to $625.

Chase Freedom where you get a 5% cash back, with no annual fee, for purchases up to $1,500 which are on rotating bonus categories. These categories relate to everyday spending avenues like department stores and gas stations. Also, you get a bonus of $150 if you purchase for $500 in the first three months of activating the account.

Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card which is considered the best for travel. It offers unlimited 2X miles on every purchase you make, no matter how many a day. It also gives you a sign-up bonus of 40,000 miles if you spend $3000 in purchases within three months of opening an account. This translates to $400 in travel. You can travel when you want as there are no blackout days on any airline and stay at any hotel. There is no limit to how much you can earn as the miles will not expire.

Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite MasterCard where you can earn 2X on all your purchases, get 5% miles back to use on your next redemption every time you redeem, and get 50,000 points as a sign up bonus if you spend $3,000 in the first three months of signing up for it. This translates to $500 in travel statement credit. Redemption values vary on the card and you can redeem for travel, cashback, gift cards and merchandise.

Discover it Miles offer a no annual fee, unlimited 1.5x miles on every dollar spent on every purchase, every day. It also matches every mile you earn by a mile. If you earn 20,000 miles a year, you get 40,000 miles in total. You do not have blackout dates for travel. So you can fly any airline at any time and stay in any hotel. The best part is that you can redeem your miles as statement credits towards purchases you make that are travel related.

BankAmericard Travel rewards credit card where you earn an unlimited 1.5 points on every dollar you spend on every purchase. You also get a sign up bonus of 20,000 points online if you purchase for $1,000 within the first three months of opening an account. You can redeem points for travel statement credit.