Wells Fargo Choice Privileges Select Mastercard

The Select's case rests on its anniversary bonus: 30,000 Choice Privileges points every year, which the card data puts at roughly three reward nights, against a $95 annual fee. If you redeem those points at all, the fee pays for itself before you spend a dollar. Earning is aggressive for a hotel card too, with 10x at participating Choice Hotels properties and 5x on gas, groceries, home improvement, and phone plans, plus 60,000 points after $3,000 in three months to start. Automatic Platinum Elite status, a Global Entry or TSA PreCheck credit of up to $120 once every four years, and up to $800 per claim in cell phone protection round it out, and there is no foreign transaction fee. The honest catch is that the 10x rate is good only at participating Choice properties and everything outside the bonus categories drops to 1x, so this is a card for people genuinely loyal to Choice, not a general travel card.