Many of the Barclays credit cards are geared toward travel. With AirTran, Priceline and Best Western credit cards available, Barclays offers a variety of travel rewards programs designed to reward loyal hotel guests and frequent flyers. Unfortunately, none of those programs are very good.

Narrow selections: Iceland or China?

Barclays has a long list of travel credit cards, ranging from China Airlines to Princess Cruises. While many them are tailored for customers with specific needs, you will be better off choosing a more versatile card with better rewards. Take Barclays’ Icelandair credit card for example. Let’s say you’re favorite cousin lives in Iceland, and you visit him several times a year. A credit card specific to Icelandic travel is just what you need, right?  Well, not really.

The Icelandair World Mastercard offers 2 points for every $1 spent on Icelandair travel, and $1 spent anywhere else. It has the paltry rewards program of a no-fee credit card, but comes with a $39 annual fee. The signup bonus is a mere 10,000 points, plus 1 point per dollar of transferred balance, up to 10k points. Compare that to the Capital One Venture. The Venture has a slightly higher annual fee of $59 (waived the first year), but its rewards are astronomically better. You receive 2 points for every $1 spent anywhere at all, including flights to and from Iceland. If you decide you want to get crazy and visit your other cousin in Nova Scotia, you’ll earn double points there as well. Even at home, every purchase will get you 2 points to the dollar.

The Barclays travel credit cards only give double rewards with a single company, which makes them very limiting. If you want bonus points on Aer Lingus or Best Western or Virgin America purchases, you have to pick one and only one. Why not choose a more flexible credit card that’ll earn you 2x rewards on all purchases, or if you’re not feeling the CapOne Venture, even one that gives 2x rewards on all airfare rather than just one carrier?

A (small) step up: travel site cards

A slightly better Barclays option is the Priceline card. The Priceline Rewards Visa Card will get you rewards on Priceline.com, which means you’re not limited to earning at a particular airline or hotel chain. You’ll get high reward rates on flights, hotels, car rentals, vacation packages and more, as long as you book them through the website. Priceline offers 4 points to the dollar on Priceline Name Your Own Price purchases, 3 points on other eligible Priceline purchases, 2 points on home improvement or groceries (you choose which), and 1 point on everything else. Again, this is an okay rewards program, but only truly worth it if you use Priceline for every single travel decision you ever make.

The better options

Though the Priceline card is the best Barclays has to offer, it still can’t hold a candle to some of the more versatile travel credit cards out there.

Another stellar travel card is the Chase Sapphire Preferred. It gives you 2 points for every $1 spent on dining and general travel (that’s airfare, hotels, rental insurance and so on) and 1 point for everything else. The annual fee is a bit steep at $95, but you do get the first year free and a 50,000-point signup bonus. Like the Venture, the Sapphire is a Visa Signature card, which means you get some pretty astounding additional benefits, including special access and preferred seating at events, shopping discounts, 24-hour roadside assistance, auto rental insurance, and complimentary upgrades at hotels and resorts.

In short, we wouldn’t recommend a Barclays credit card. The rewards are limiting and pretty mediocre. If you qualify for something a little better, pay the higher annual fee. You’ll be glad you did.

Capital One® Venture℠ Rewards Credit Card	Chase Sapphire Preferred℠ Card
Signing Promo
10,000 Capital One No Hassle Miles Bonus after spending $1,000 - in the first 90 days	40,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards Bonus after spending $3,000 - in the first 3 months.
Intro APR Promo
Purchase: None Bal Trans: None	Purchase: None Bal Trans: None
Annual fee
$0 intro for first year; $59 after that	$0 the first year, then $95
Details
Money(R) Magazine's "Most Rewarding Card if you crave free airline flights" 2 miles per dollar on every purchase, every day Earn 10,000 bonus miles, equal to $100 in travel Redeem your miles for any travel expense No limit on the miles you can earn and miles won't expire Fly free on any airline, any time with no blackout dates No foreign transaction fees $0 intro annual fee for the first year; $59 after that	Earn 40,000 bonus points after you spend $3,000 in the first 3 months - that's $500 toward travel rewards! 2 points per dollar spent on travel and and at restaurants & 1 point per dollar spent on all other purchases. Get 20% off airfare, hotels, car rentals and cruises when you book through Ultimate Rewards(SM) No foreign transaction fees Receive a 7% annual dividend on all new poinst earned - even on points already redeemed 1:1 point transfer to participating frequent travel programs Direct access to expert service advisors anytime No Annual Fee for your first year - A $95 value

The Choice Privileges Visa credit card has re-launched in the US, as of July 1, 2010. This card is very similar to the version that was discontinued in 2009, but this time around Choice Hotels has decided to co-brand the card with BarclayCard rather than Bank of America.

What brands does Choice Hotels International encompass?

Choice Hotels are better known to weary travelers by the following brands:

• Economy: Econo Lodge®, Rodeway Inn®
• Extended Stay: MainStay Suites®, Suburban Extended Stay Hotel®
• Midscale: Comfort Inn®, Comfort Suites®, Quality®, Clarion®, Sleep Inn®
• Upper End: Cambria Suites®, Ascend Collection®

Choice hotels caters to mostly medium end and economy oriented travelers, so the hotel chain’s average room rate of $71.06 per night in 2009 was a bit below the national average of $97.51, according to the company’s regulatory filings.

How much is a Choice Privilege Point worth?

We estimate a point is worth about 0.8 cents. We arrived at this conclusion by comparing dozens of room rates to their corresponding point requirements. Roughly speaking, point values range from 0.6 cents to 1.0 cents, so we believe that if you find an opportunity to redeem points at the higher end of this range, you should feel comfortable using points. Otherwise, you may be better off redeeming points on a future trip.

How does it compare to other Hotel Credit Cards?

This is the best hotel credit card, in terms of the real rewards rate to you, unless you stay in Starwood Hotels such as Four Points, Sheraton, W, Westin, and Le Meredien. We come to this conclusion by evaluating the value of a point, and multiplying this number by the number of points you earn per $1 spent. In the case of the Choice Privileges Visa, a point is worth about 0.8 cents, and you usually earn 2 points per $1 spent. In the case of the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express, a point is worth about 2.3 cents, and you earn 1 point per $1 spent.

There may be cases in which Hilton HHonors credit cards could earn you a higher rate, because they pay double points for gas, groceries, drug stores, and wireless bills, so we’d recommend that you compare hotel credit cards using our tool before you decide what’s best for you.

Pros

• Hotel Reach

  In terms of options, the biggest plus is that Choice Hotels are everywhere. Choice Hotels International has an extensive reach. As of the end of 2009, the company had 6,021 hotels open in 36 countries, as well as another 843 under construction. Only Wyndham has more hotels, and you can no longer get a Wyndham credit card.

• No Annual Fee

  It’s good for your credit to leave cards open even when they are no longer being used, so it’s not a bad idea to sacrifice some rewards for a card with no annual fee. At the time of this writing, the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express credit card, Hilton Honors Surpass, Marriott Rewards Premiere, and InterContinental’s Priority Club Signature Rewards credit card all have annual fees.

• Visa Acceptance

  Visa is more widely accepted than American Express, which slightly diminishes the value of 2 Hilton HHonors cards and the Starwood Preferred Guest cards. Though we’d argue that if you’re paying up for Hilton and Starwood hotel rooms, most places you go will probably accept your Amex.

Cons

• Dinky Sign Up Bonus

  There isn’t much bad to say about this card, except that you get a mediocre sign up bonus. You get 8,000 points for signing up, and 8,000 points after you charge your first stay on the card. If you assume points are worth 0.8 cents each, this calculates to a total of $128 in sign up rewards, which places the card way behind front runners Marriott with $300 (30,000 points at 1 cent per point) and Starwood with $230 (10,000 points at 2.3 cents per point).

As summer kicks into high gear, start earning right away with this great credit card. You can compare reward cards and see that this card holds its own against other heavyweights. It’s second to none in terms of economy and mid end hotel credit cards, as you can see from our hotel credit card comparison tool.

In our continuing quest to index and categorize every credit card available in the United States, we have added cards from Barclays, Simmons First, PenFed, First National Bank of Omaha, Amalgamated Bank of Chicago, First Command Bank, and Heartland Bank. We hope your card selection process benefits from the breadth of our card offerings.

Out of the 84 new cards we added, a few winners and losers stand out.

Winners

Losers