Car rental protection offered by rental companies can cost $15 to $30 a day—in 10 days, that could be as much as whopping $300. Alternatively, a credit card with rental insurance will offer the same coverage at no extra cost—and even if it does, it's significantly cheaper than what rental companies offer. 

For example, The Platinum Card® from American Express charges a flat fee of $19.95 or $24.95 per rental period (not per day) for primary coverage.

There are many ways to earn travel miles and points, but none is as easy, quick, and cheap as opening up travel rewards cards. In particular, earning welcome bonuses on travel rewards cards is the number one way to rack up points and miles.

In this article, we’re covering the basics of travel rewards credit cards.

A note from Sarah Page: Scott originally wrote this post years ago, but it is still very much valid and important today. 

Once a month we update a list of what, are in our opinion, the best travel credit cards on the market. We also update a similar list, but for small business credit cards, monthly. How I rank them is largely defined by their sign up bonuses. So the next logical question would be, how do I value those sign up bonuses?

There are two equally valid ways to value a credit card sign up bonus.