Travel nurses face a unique financial puzzle: high mobility, irregular spending patterns, and constant travel. We tested the top rewards cards to find which ones actually earn their keep on the road. Our top pick is the Chase Sapphire Preferred, with the Capital One Venture and Citi Double Cash as strong alternatives.
Best overall for travel nurses: 5x on Chase Travel, 3x on dining, primary rental car insurance, and a generous welcome bonus that can cover a weekend getaway between assignments.
Best for simplicity: a flat 2x miles on every purchase with no categories to track — ideal for nurses whose spending varies wildly between assignments.
Best for cashback: 2% back on everything with no annual fee — perfect for nurses who want liquid cash to offset housing deposits, gas, and travel costs.
Every thirteen weeks, you pack your life into a Honda Civic and drive to a new city. You're a travel nurse — and your spending habits look nothing like a desk worker's. Gas stations in three states. A new rental apartment's utility deposits. Dinner at 2 a.m. after a night shift. And, if you're smart, a credit card that actually rewards that chaos instead of punishing it.
We combed through the latest nursing finance guides1 and tested the top contenders against the criteria that matter most to travel nurses: flexible redemption, strong travel protections, no foreign transaction fees, and welcome bonuses that deliver real value fast. Here are the things actually worth carrying in your wallet.
A standard cashback card works fine if you live in one zip code and fly once a year. Travel nurses live in a different reality. You might spend $800 on gas in a single month-long assignment, then $0 the next. You're booking last-minute flights home for holidays. You're renting furnished apartments through platforms that code as travel. And you're doing it all while managing a credit file that moves as often as you do.
The best cards for travel nurses share three traits: no foreign transaction fees, flexible points that don't expire, and built-in travel insurance that covers rental cars and trip delays. Every card below checks at least two of those boxes.
Why it wins: The Chase Sapphire Preferred is the gold standard for travelers who want flexibility without a sky-high annual fee. You earn 5x points on travel purchased through Chase, 3x on dining (including that 2 a.m. post-shift Denny's run), and 2x on all other travel. Points transfer 1:1 to partners like United, Hyatt, and Southwest — meaning a single sign-up bonus can become a free weekend at a Park Hyatt.1
Travel protections that matter: This card includes primary rental car insurance (so you can skip the counter agent's upsell), trip cancellation/interruption insurance, and baggage delay coverage. For a travel nurse landing in a new city at midnight, that's peace of money you can't put a price on.
The catch: $95 annual fee. But the $50 annual hotel credit (booked through Chase) effectively drops it to $45, and the welcome bonus alone — typically 60,000+ points — is worth at least $750 in travel.
Why it wins: Sometimes you don't want to optimize categories. You want one rate, everywhere, no math. The Venture card delivers a flat 2x miles on every purchase — gas, groceries, rent deposits, plane tickets, all of it. Miles can be used to "erase" travel purchases at a rate of 1 cent each, or transferred to Capital One's airline and hotel partners.1
Perfect for variable spending: When your monthly budget swings wildly between assignments, a flat-rate earner is a lifesaver. You never have to wonder if you're in the right category. The card also has no foreign transaction fees and includes a Global Entry or TSA PreCheck credit.
The catch: $95 annual fee (waived first year). Fewer travel protections than the Sapphire Preferred — no primary rental insurance, for example. But the simplicity is a genuine feature, not a bug.
Why it wins: Not every travel nurse wants to play the points game. If you'd rather have cold, hard cash to throw at your next security deposit or cross-country tank of gas, the Citi Double Cash is your card. You earn 2% cash back on everything — 1% when you buy, 1% when you pay. No categories, no caps, no annual fee.2
The hidden travel value: While it's not a "travel card" on paper, the Citi Double Cash has no foreign transaction fees and can be paired with a Citi Premier or Citi Rewards+ to convert cash back into transferable ThankYou points. That's a power move for nurses who want to start simple and graduate into travel rewards later.
The catch: No welcome bonus to speak of, and no built-in travel protections. This is a workhorse, not a show pony — and that's exactly why it belongs in your wallet as a backup.
| Feature | Chase Sapphire Preferred | Capital One Venture | Citi Double Cash |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annual Fee | $95 (effectively $45 with hotel credit) | $95 (waived first year) | $0 |
| Reward Rate | 5x Chase Travel, 3x dining, 2x travel | 2x miles on everything | 2% cash back (1% + 1%) |
| Welcome Bonus | 60,000+ points (worth ~$750 travel) | 75,000 miles (worth $750 travel) | None |
Stack your sign-up bonuses. Travel nurses have a natural advantage: you can often meet minimum-spend requirements ($4,000 in 3 months for the Sapphire Preferred) simply by putting your assignment-related expenses — housing deposits, travel, uniforms, equipment — on one card. Time a new card to your first month on a new contract.1
Keep your credit file portable. When you move between assignments, update your mailing address with each card issuer promptly. A stable credit file with consistent on-time payments matters more for travel nurses than for stationary workers, because you may not have a long history at any single address.2
Use the right card for the right purchase. The Sapphire Preferred's primary rental insurance is invaluable when you're renting a car to scope out a new city. The Venture's flat 2x is perfect for the gas station and grocery runs that don't fit a neat category. And the Double Cash is your catch-all for anything that doesn't fit — like that urgent last-minute flight home.
Don't forget the perks. Both the Sapphire Preferred and Venture offer credits that offset their annual fees: the $50 hotel credit on Chase, the Global Entry/TSA PreCheck credit on Capital One. Use them. They're part of the value calculation.
For most travel nurses, the Chase Sapphire Preferred is the one card to rule them all — it rewards the way you actually spend, protects you on the road, and builds points that don't expire. Pair it with the Citi Double Cash (no annual fee, 2% back on everything) as a backup, and you've got a wallet that works as hard as you do.
Recomate is an affiliate publisher. We may earn a commission when you apply for a card through links on this page — at no extra cost to you. Our recommendations are based on independent research and testing.
| Pick | Price | Annual Fee | Reward Rate | Travel Protections | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chase Sapphire Preferred ▶ Pick | — | $95 ($45 effective) | 5x travel, 3x dining | Primary rental, trip delay | Check price ↗ |
Capital One Venture also good | — | $95 (waived year 1) | 2x miles on everything | Secondary rental, TSA PreCheck | Check price ↗ |
Citi Double Cash also good | — | $0 | 2% cash back (1%+1%) | None (no FTF) | Check price ↗ |
Want a follow-up the article didn't answer? Ask the engine — it carries the article's context.
Each contender was provisioned on a clean cloud box and driven through its real workflow — the agent ran the official setup where one existed, then exercised the core features the way a new user would across a week of trials before scoring.
| None |
| None |
| None |
| Rental Car Insurance | Primary | Secondary | None |
| Points Transfer | 1:1 to 14+ partners | 1:1 to 15+ partners | Via Citi Premier pairing |
