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Written by
Nicole Dieker
Nicole Dieker has been a full-time freelance writer since 2012—and a personal finance enthusiast since 2004, when she graduated from college and, looking for financial guidance, found a battered copy of Your Money or Your Life at the public library. In addition to writing for Bankrate, her work has appeared on CreditCards.com, Vox, Lifehacker, Popular Science, The Penny Hoarder, The Simple Dollar and NBC News. Dieker spent five years as writer and editor for The Billfold, a personal finance blog where people had honest conversations about money. Dieker also teaches writing, freelancing and publishing classes and works one-on-one with authors as a developmental editor and copyeditor.
Edited by
Aja McClanahan
Aja McClanahan is an author, blogger and speaker on personal finance and entrepreneurship. Aja is the author of "How a Mother Should Talk About Money with Her Daughter."
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Liliana Hall
Liliana is an editor and journalist with a background in feature writing on the Bankrate Credit Cards team.
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Visa offers three levels of consumer credit cards: Visa Traditional, Visa Signature and Visa Infinite. Each level comes with an escalating series of perks and benefits, with Visa Infinite serving as both the most exclusive and the most rewarding tier.
Just be aware that you’ll have to pay for these perks. Visa Infinite cards usually charge hefty annual fees, sometimes as high as $550. Is the cost worth it? That depends on how you use your card and whether you take advantage of enough of the perks that come with it.
Each Visa credit card falls into one of three categories: Visa Traditional, Visa Signature and Visa Infinite. Of the three categories, Visa Infinite is the most exclusive and comes with the most valuable benefits. Because of this, cardholders need excellent credit to be eligible for a Visa Infinite card, and these cards generally come with hefty annual fees. As an example, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® comes with an annual fee of $550.
To justify the higher annual fees that come with Visa Infinite cards, you’ll have to take advantage of their money-saving features, including access to the Visa Infinite Luxury Hotel Collection and other travel perks. Unlike credit card rewards programs such as Chase Ultimate Rewards, you don’t need to collect points to earn or take advantage of Visa Infinite benefits. These benefits are included with every Visa Infinite card, though individual benefits may vary by card.
In fact, Visa Infinite credit cards often come with both Visa Infinite benefits and their own high-value rewards program. The Chase Sapphire Reserve card, for example, is a Visa Infinite card that also earns points that can be redeemed through the Chase Ultimate Rewards program.
While Visa Traditional credit cards only come with a basic suite of benefits, such as the ability to quickly receive a new credit card if yours is lost, stolen or damaged, both the Visa Signature and Visa Infinite tiers offer significant benefits to the cardholder.
Here’s a quick rundown of the benefits offered by each level of credit card:
It’s important to note that just because Visa doesn’t offer a specific benefit at the card level doesn’t mean the card itself doesn’t offer that benefit. The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, for example, is both a Visa Signature card and one of Bankrate’s top recommended introductory travel cards—and it comes with travel accident insurance and additional travel perks such as a credit of up to $100 for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck fees.
Visa Infinite credit cards also come with additional travel benefits that vary by card, including upgrades and VIP treatment through the Visa Infinite Luxury Hotel Collection, access to Visa Infinite Concierge Services, Priority Pass airport lounge access and more.
Visa Infinite credit cards come with a long list of hotel and travel benefits. The Chase Sapphire Reserve, for instance, offers a $300 annual travel credit, while the UBS Visa Infinite Credit Card offers a $500 dining and airport club credit. Check your Visa Infinite card to learn which benefits are available to you.
Visa Infinite cardholders can take advantage of several luxury preferred hotel benefits, including VIP status, upgrades when available, complimentary breakfast and additional special amenities that vary by hotel.
Visa Infinite cards entitle cardholders to VIP amenities and discounts with Avis, National, Hertz and Silvercar. For instance, cardholders can save 30 percent off base rates when renting from Avis and up to 25 percent with National.
There are numerous ways for Visa Infinite cardholders to save money on air travel, including statement credits for incidentals such as checked bags and in-flight meals and snacks, and a statement credit of up to $100 for Global Entry or TSA Precheck fees. Plus, Visa Infinite cardholders get VIP access to more than 1,200 Priority Pass airport lounges.
If you’d like assistance planning your next big trip or your next evening out, the Visa Infinite Concierge Services are ready to help cardholders plan itineraries, book tickets (for both travel and entertainment), make dinner reservations and more.
Three of the more well-known credit cards offering Visa Infinite benefits include the Chase Sapphire Reserve, the Ritz-Carlton Rewards® Credit Card and the UBS Visa Infinite card. Each of these cards is a high-level travel rewards card that offers premium benefits for frequent travelers with excellent credit willing to pay high annual fees in exchange for perks. Here’s a look at these cards, including a few others offering top-tier Visa benefits:
| Card name | Rewards | Welcome offer | Redemption bonus | Annual fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chase Sapphire Reserve | 3X points on eligible travel and restaurant purchases (after earning your $300 travel credit); 10X total points on Lyft purchases through March 31, 2025; 1X points everything else | 60,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 on purchases in your first three months from opening the account | Get 50% more value when you redeem for travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards | $550 |
| Crystal Visa Infinite Card from City National Bank | 3X points for airline, hotel, taxi (including Uber and Lyft), limousine, rental car, train, bus, restaurant, fast food and takeout food dining purchases; 1X points on all other purchases | None | N/A | $400 |
| UBS Visa Infinite Credit Card | 3X rewards points for commercial air travel; 2X points for gas and groceries; 1X points for all other purchases | None | N/A | $495 |
| U.S. Bank Altitude® Reserve Visa Infinite® Credit Card | 5X points on prepaid hotels and car rentals booked directly in Altitude Rewards Center; 3X points on eligible mobile wallet spending and travel purchases; 3X points on takeout, food delivery and dining purchases through June 30, 2021 | 50,000 bonus points (worth $750 when redeemed for travel) when you spend $4,500 in your first 90 days of account opening | Get reimbursed up to $325 in eligible travel purchases; through June 30, 2021, takeout, food delivery and dining purchases are also eligible for reimbursement | $400 |
| United Club℠ Infinite Card | 4X miles on United purchases; 2X miles on all other travel, restaurants and eligible delivery; 1X miles on everything else | Earn 80,000 bonus miles after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. | N/A | $525 |
The Visa Infinite program is still relatively new, so expect additional Visa Infinite credit cards in the future. Expect them to be similar to the current Visa Infinite cards: exclusive to people with excellent credit and designed for jet-setters with a large travel budget.
It’s important to note that Visa Infinite perks and benefits will vary by card issuer. Although we’ve made a comprehensive listing of the Visa Infinite features, it’s up to the card issuer to extend to cardholders for a particular card. Also, you should know that some of these card benefits come with plenty of terms and exclusions. Make sure you read the fine print to understand the circumstances under which you can take advantage of a benefit and when it may not apply.
If you’re looking for a credit card that helps you save money on in-air purchases, offers TSA PreCheck statement credits or helps you qualify for hotel upgrades, you don’t necessarily need a Visa Infinite card. Although the Visa Infinite program comes with a long list of perks, many of those perks are also available at the Visa Signature level or are offered by other card issuers, such as Mastercard.
Take a look at our list of top travel credit cards and find a card that comes with the perks you want, whether you’re looking for priority boarding, free checked bags, trip cancellation insurance or all of the above. You might not get access to the Visa Infinite Luxury Hotel Collection, but you can still use travel rewards to make your next trip a little more enjoyable—or a lot less expensive.
Be sure to check out our latest Bankrate guides for more research on other credit card rewards programs.
All information about the United Club Infinite Card, Crystal Visa Infinite Card from City National Bank, UBS Visa Infinite Credit Card, The Ritz-Carlton Rewards Credit Card, U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve Visa Infinite Credit Card has been collected independently by Bankrate and has not been reviewed or approved by the issuer.
Arrow Right Contributor, Personal Finance
Nicole Dieker has been a full-time freelance writer since 2012—and a personal finance enthusiast since 2004, when she graduated from college and, looking for financial guidance, found a battered copy of Your Money or Your Life at the public library. In addition to writing for Bankrate, her work has appeared on CreditCards.com, Vox, Lifehacker, Popular Science, The Penny Hoarder, The Simple Dollar and NBC News. Dieker spent five years as writer and editor for The Billfold, a personal finance blog where people had honest conversations about money. Dieker also teaches writing, freelancing and publishing classes and works one-on-one with authors as a developmental editor and copyeditor.
