U.S. Bank Altitude® Go Visa Signature® Card Review

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While U.S. Bank is often overlooked as a credit card issuer, there are some U.S. Bank cards out there that offer stellar rewards in specific bonus categories. In particular, the U.S. Bank Altitude® Go Visa Signature® Card is one of the best cards on the market for people who spend a large portion of their budget on dining and who don’t want to pay an annual fee. This card offers 4X Altitude Rewards points on dining, takeout and delivery, which are among the best rewards rates on dining that you’ll find with any no-annual-fee card out there. 

On top of that, the Altitude® Go card boasts 2X points at grocery stores, grocery delivery, streaming services, gas stations and EV charging stations and 1X points on all other purchases. However, this card is really all about its dining rewards. The Altitude® Go is probably the best no-annual-fee card for dining out there. By comparison, the Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card and the American Express® Gold Card offer superior dining rewards. But, both of these cards also have an annual fee. 

Some no-annual-fee cards with quarterly rotating bonus categories offer 5X points on dining as an option. However, these rewards are only available for three months out of the year and there are often caps on those rewards. With the Altitude® Go card, you’ll earn unlimited 4X points all year round. 

So, if you don’t currently have a card for dining rewards, you’ll want to strongly consider adding the Altitude® Go to your wallet for no annual cost. In this article, we’re going to cover all of the advantages and disadvantages of the Altitude® Go card so that you can make an informed decision about whether or not you want to sign up for this card. 

Pros	Cons
No annual fee	Requires excellent credit
No foreign transaction fee	No transfer partners
$15 annual statement credit toward eligible streaming services
Good spending bonuses
Valuable welcome bonus

U.S. Bank Altitude® Go Visa Signature® Card Spending Bonuses 

The main attraction of the U.S. Bank Altitude® Go card is the high rewards rate on dining. However, this card also offers impressive spending bonuses in several other categories as well. Here are the bonus categories offered by the Altitude® Go card: 

• 4X points on dining, takeout and restaurant delivery
• 2X points at grocery stores (including grocery delivery) 
• 2X points on eligible streaming services
• 2X points at gas stations and EV charging stations
• 1X points on all other eligible purchases

As far as no-annual-fee cards go, these are some pretty fantastic awards. This card is geared toward those who spend a large portion of their expenses on dining. However, the ability to earn 2X points on groceries, on select streaming services and at gas stations and EV charging stations adds a lot of value to this card. 

For comparison, the Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card (which is widely considered to be one of the best no-annual-fee cards for dining) earns 3% cash back at restaurants, grocery stores, on entertainment purchases and select streaming services. This card’s rewards are very similar to those offered by the Altitude® Go card. However, the rewards of the Altitude® Go are more narrowly focused on dining whereas the rewards of the SavorOne card are spread more widely across several categories. 

So, if dining is your main expense category by a significant margin, then the Altitude® Go card may be the best option for your wallet. However, if your expenses are spread more broadly across several categories, then you may want to go with a different card, such as the SavorOne card. 

U.S. Bank Altitude® Go Visa Signature® Card Benefits

In addition to the great spending bonuses offered by the Altitude® Go card, this card also comes with several other benefits that are worth noting. Being that this is a no-annual-fee card, these benefits aren’t all that impressive. However, it’s worth learning about these benefits so that you can take full advantage of them if you sign up for the Altitude® Go card. 

No Annual Fee

The U.S. Bank Altitude® Go Visa Signature® card doesn’t charge an annual fee. However, unlike some no-annual-fee cards, the Altitude® Go card offers some great rewards in the form of Altitude Rewards points. And, since you don’t have to worry about offsetting an annual fee with your rewards earnings, any points that you earn will be no-strings-attached savings. 

No Foreign Transaction Fees

One important benefit for people who travel abroad often is the fact that the Altitude® Go card doesn’t charge any foreign transaction fees. That means that you can use your card anywhere in the world without incurring any additional charges. U.S. Bank markets the Altitude family of credit cards to people who like to travel, so all three U.S. Bank Altitude cards come without any foreign transaction fees. 

While this may not sound like a very big deal, there are some cards out there that charge foreign transaction fees as high as 3%, which could be very costly if you’re spending money abroad often. 

$15 Annual Streaming Credit

Another benefit that comes with the Altitude® Go card is a $15 annual statement credit toward purchases from select streaming services. This statement credit will automatically be applied to your card’s account within two billing cycles after you make qualifying purchases of up to $15 from eligible streaming services, such as Netflix, Hulu, Spotify or Apple Music. If you’re wondering which streaming services qualify for this statement credit, here’s a full list.

While $15 in statement credits per year isn’t all that impressive, it’s still a nice additional perk for a card that has no annual fee.

Welcome Bonus

Another great perk offered by the U.S. Bank Altitude® Go card is the ability to earn a valuable welcome bonus for spending a certain amount of money in a certain amount of time after opening your account. Many no-annual-fee cards don’t come with a welcome bonus at all, much less a welcome bonus as valuable as the one offered by the Altitude® Go card. So, this benefit helps give this card another leg up on the competition. 

U.S. Bank Altitude® Go Visa Signature® Card Drawbacks

While the Altitude® Go card from U.S. Bank is definitely one of the best dining credit cards out there, especially for those who prefer not to pay an annual fee, this card is not without drawbacks. In particular, the biggest drawback that plagues all U.S. Bank cards is the fact that U.S. Bank doesn’t have any transfer partners. 

Can’t Transfer Points to Other Travel Programs

Unlike many other major credit card issuers, U.S. Bank doesn’t have any travel partners, meaning you can’t use the points you earn with your Altitude® Go card with any other travel loyalty programs. For instance, whereas Chase allows you to transfer Ultimate Rewards points (usually at a 1:1 ratio) to one of its 14 travel partners and spend them on partner awards, if you want to redeem your U.S. Bank Altitude points for travel, the only way to do so is through the Altitude Rewards Center. 

This is a major disadvantage when you compare U.S. Bank to other credit card issuers with transferable points such as Chase, Capital One, American Express, CitiBank and others. By transferring your points to other travel loyalty programs, you can often find redemptions with outsized value far exceeding 1 cent per point. However, with the Altitude® Go card, your points will always be worth 1 cent apiece when redeeming them through the Altitude Rewards Center. There are other ways to redeem your U.S. Bank Altitude points as well. However, these other redemption methods will all yield a value of 1 cent or less per point. 

So, while it’s true that the Altitude® Go card makes it easy to quickly rack up Altitude points through its welcome bonus and spending bonuses, the points that you earn are far less flexible and therefore less valuable than most other credit card rewards currencies (such as Capital One miles or American Express Membership Rewards points). 

Other Cards to Consider

The Altitude® Go card is definitely one of the best cards out there for people looking for dining rewards and no annual fee. However, before you sign up for the Altitude® Go card, it’s worth looking into some of the other options out there. You might find that there’s an even better card for your particular needs and spending habits. 

Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card

If you’re in search of dining rewards, you may want to consider the Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card, which offers unlimited 4% cash back on dining, entertainment and popular streaming services. Additionally, the Savor card offers 3% cash back at grocery stores and 1% cash back on everything else. You’ll also earn 5% cash back on hotel and rental car purchases through Capital One Travel, 8% cash back on Capital One Entertainment purchases and 10% cash back on Uber and Uber Eats (through Nov. 14, 2024). 

Where the Capital One Savor card outcompetes the U.S. Bank Altitude® Go card is in its ability to earn great rewards on entertainment. You can earn 8% cash back for any entertainment experiences booked through Capital One Entertainment and 4% cash back on any other entertainment purchases. However, the Capital One Savor card has an annual fee of $95 whereas the Altitude® Go card has no annual fee. 

But, with the high rewards rates offered by the Savor Cash Rewards card, you can easily offset that $95 annual fee, particularly if you’re willing to book hotels and rental cars through Capital One Travel and experiences through Capital One Entertainment. 

And, although many people prefer to earn rewards points instead of cash back, since U.S. Bank Altitude points have a maximum redemption value of 1 cent apiece, earning Altitude points is effectively like earning cash back that can only be spent through the Altitude Rewards Center. For most people, earning cash back (which can be spent anywhere) is the better option. 

U.S. Bank Cash+® Visa Signature® Card

Another great offering from U.S. Bank is the U.S. Bank Cash+® Visa Signature® Card, which also doesn’t charge an annual fee and comes with some stellar cashback rewards that you can customize to fit your spending habits. This card allows you to earn 5% cash back on your first $2,000 in combined eligible purchases each quarter on two categories of your choosing. Most cards with cashback rewards only allow you to choose one category to earn 5% cash back in and they often don’t even let you choose the category, so the U.S. Bank Cash+ card is ahead of the competition in that regard. 

On top of that, you’ll also earn unlimited 5% cash back on prepaid flights, hotels and rental cars booked through the U.S. Bank Rewards Travel Center, 2% cash back on one everyday category of your choice (including gas stations and EV charging stations, grocery stores or restaurants) and unlimited 1% cash back on all other purchases. These cashback rewards are pretty amazing for a card that doesn’t charge an annual fee. 

If you’re trying to choose between the Altitude® Go card and the Cash+ card, the Cash+ card is probably the better option. The ability to earn 5% cash back in two categories of your choice with the Cash+ card is a very unique and valuable offer. Plus, considering that any points earned with the Altitude® Go card have a maximum redemption value of 1 cent apiece, you’re better off earning cash back, which is far more flexible. 

The only reason that the Altitude® Go card might be a better option for you is if you spend considerably more than $2,000 per quarter on dining (since the 5% cash back rewards with the Cash+ card have a limit of $2,000 per quarter). However, for most people, earning cash back with the U.S. Bank Cash+ is going to be the better option. 

The Bottom Line

All in all, the U.S. Bank Altitude® Go card is a solid option for those who want to earn rewards on dining but don’t want to pay an annual fee. This card offers an impressive 4X points on dining in, takeout and delivery. It also offers 2X points on select streaming services, grocery stores (including grocery delivery) and gas stations and EV charging stations. Plus, you’ll earn a baseline of 1X points on everything else. To sweeten the deal, the Altitude® Go card also comes with a $15 annual streaming statement credit. 

All of these rewards are pretty impressive and it’s hard to find better dining rewards on a card with no annual fee. However, the Altitude® Go card (and every other card in the Altitude family) is held back by one major disadvantage: U.S. Bank doesn’t have any transfer partners. Whereas other credit card rewards currencies (such as Capital One miles or Citi ThankYou points) can be transferred to partner loyalty programs where you can find redemptions with outsized value, points earned with the Altitude® Go card have a maximum redemption value of 1 cent apiece. 

For this reason, you’d be better off earning cash back than U.S. Bank Altitude points, considering cash back can be spent anywhere and Altitude points can only be used for a handful of redemption options. 

Luckily, U.S. Bank also offers one of the best no-annual-fee cashback cards on the market: the U.S. Bank Cash+ card. This card allows you to earn a whopping 5% cash back in two categories of your choice on up to $2,000 in combined purchases per quarter. Plus, you’ll also earn 5% cash back on purchases made through the U.S. Bank Rewards Travel Center and 2% cash back in one everyday category of your choice. The ability to earn such high cashback rewards and to customize where you earn those rewards makes this one of the best options out there. 

So, while the U.S. Bank Altitude® Go card offers some solid rewards on dining and in several other categories, this card is outcompeted by some of the other no-annual-fee cards on the market. This is largely because U.S. Bank Altitude points can’t be transferred to any travel partners and have a maximum redemption value of 1 cent apiece.