- Best Marriott credit cards compared
- Methodology
- Sources
- About the author
- User questions & answers
Best Marriott Credit Cards Compared
Credit Card | Best For | Annual Fee | Initial Bonus Offer |
Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card | Overall | $95 | 3 Free Night Awards |
Marriott Bonvoy Bold® Credit Card | No Annual Fee | $0 | 1 Free Night Award |
Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card | Business | $125 | Three Bonus Free Night Awards |
Marriott Bonvoy Bevy™ American Express® Card | Free Nights | $250 | 155,000 points |
Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card | Luxury Travel | $650 | 185,000 points |
United Quest℠ Card | Rewards Partner | $250 | 60,000 miles |
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card | Any Hotel | $95 | 60,000 points |
If you want to see more offers capable of saving you a ton of money on Marriott stays, check out WalletHub’s picks for the year’s best overall rewards credit cards. That’s an especially good idea if you don’t have the good or excellent credit needed to get a Marriott rewards card.
Methodology for Selecting the Best Marriott Credit Cards
WalletHub’s editors regularly update and review our comprehensive database of 1,500+ credit cards, including all available Marriott credit cards, offers from Marriott’s alliance partners, and other cards with general travel rewards.
We compare the latest rewards, rates, fees, approval requirements, initial bonuses (main WalletHub Rating components) and secondary benefits such as free nights, anniversary bonuses and hotel credits to select the best options. Ultimately, we calculate the two-year cost of owning each card and rank the cards based on expected savings for the target user. We consider a two-year time frame to highlight both initial and ongoing perks.
How Two-Year Cost Is Calculated
Two-year cost is used to approximate the monetary value of cards for better comparison and is calculated by combining annual and monthly membership fees over two years, adding any one-time fees or other fees (like balance transfer fees), adding any interest costs, and subtracting rewards. Negative amounts indicate savings. When fees or other terms are presented as a range, we use the midpoint for scoring purposes.
Rewards bonuses and credits have been taken into account for two-year cost calculations. However, bonuses applicable to only a very small portion of cardholders are not considered. For example, credits and bonuses awarded for spending or redeeming rewards through a company portal with non-co-branded cards have not been taken into account. Similarly, bonuses and credits related to spending with specific merchants using a non-co-branded card have not been taken into account (for example, if Card A offers credits with DoorDash, this feature would not be factored into calculations because it is hard to assess how many cardholders would use the benefit or exactly how much value they'd get from it).
Cardholder Spending Profiles
Given that different users have different goals and are likely to use their credit cards differently, we identified spending profiles that are representative of different users’ financial priorities and behaviors. For each cardholder type, we have assumed a specific amount of monthly spending by purchase type (e.g., groceries, gas, etc.), as well as an average balance, balance transfer amount, amount spent on large purchases and average monthly payment. Spending assumptions are based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for consumers and PEX data for businesses.
Sources
WalletHub actively maintains a database of 1,500+ credit card offers, from which we select the best Marriott credit cards for different applicants as well as derive market-wide takeaways and trends. The underlying data is compiled from credit card company websites or provided directly by the credit card issuers. We also leverage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to develop cardholder profiles, used to estimate cards’ potential savings.