The best Barclays credit cards
Every open Barclays card in our database, ranked by the real value of its strongest printed earn rate — the headline rate times our conservative value for the points or cash it pays. A big multiplier in a weak currency doesn't get to win.
There is no clear winner among Barclays cards. Frontier Airlines World Mastercard and Wyndham Rewards Earner Business Card both land on exactly 3.0¢ back per dollar, which is inside the error bar on any point valuation — so calling either one the best would be inventing a result the data doesn't support. Decide on the annual fee, the caps and where the rest of your spending actually goes.
Reviewed: Data verified 2026-09-15 · Credit Upside editorial · Updated 2026-09-16 · How we rank
Featured cards
All 13 cards in this ranking, with what each one is actually best at. Tap any card to jump to its row.
- 1 Frontier Airlines World Mastercard — Best overall for Barclays cardholders: 3x on dining, $99 a year — 3.0¢ back per dollar
- 2 Wyndham Rewards Earner Business Card — Best for business spending: 5x on gas, $149 a year — 3.0¢ back per dollar
- 3 Hawaiian Airlines Bank of Hawaii World Elite Mastercard — 2x on gas, $99 a year — 2.8¢ back per dollar
- 4 JetBlue Card — Best with no annual fee: 2x on dining, no annual fee — 2.6¢ back per dollar
- 5 JetBlue Business Card — 2x on dining, $99 a year — 2.6¢ back per dollar
- 6 JetBlue Plus Card — 2x on dining, $99 a year — 2.6¢ back per dollar
- 7 JetBlue Premier Card — 2x on dining, $499 a year — 2.6¢ back per dollar
- 8 Wyndham Rewards Earner Plus Card — 4x on gas, $95 a year — 2.4¢ back per dollar
- 9 Emirates Skywards Rewards World Elite Mastercard — 2x on travel, $99 a year — 2.4¢ back per dollar
- 10 Wyndham Rewards Earner Premier Card — 4x on dining, $395 a year — 2.4¢ back per dollar
- 11 Emirates Skywards Premium World Elite Mastercard — 2x on travel, $499 a year — 2.4¢ back per dollar
- 12 Samsung Galaxy Card — Best for straight cash back: 2% on streaming, no annual fee — 2.0¢ back per dollar
- 13 Wyndham Rewards Earner Card — 3x on dining, no annual fee — 1.8¢ back per dollar
The ranking
| # | Card | Top value | Top earn | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Frontier Airlines World Mastercard Barclays |
3.0¢/$ | 3x dining 5x at Frontier (flyfrontier.com) only — not ranked |
$99 |
| 2 | Wyndham Rewards Earner Business Card Barclays |
3.0¢/$ | 5x gas 8x at Wyndham only — not ranked |
$149 |
| 3 | Hawaiian Airlines Bank of Hawaii World Elite Mastercard Barclays |
2.8¢/$ | 2x gas 3x at Hawaiian Airlines only — not ranked |
$99 |
| 4 | JetBlue Card Barclays |
2.6¢/$ | 2x dining 3x at JetBlue only — not ranked |
$0 |
| 5 | JetBlue Business Card Barclays |
2.6¢/$ | 2x dining 6x at JetBlue only — not ranked |
$99 |
| 6 | JetBlue Plus Card Barclays |
2.6¢/$ | 2x dining 6x at JetBlue only — not ranked |
$99 |
| 7 | JetBlue Premier Card Barclays |
2.6¢/$ | 2x dining 6x at JetBlue only — not ranked |
$499 |
| 8 | Wyndham Rewards Earner Plus Card Barclays |
2.4¢/$ | 4x gas 6x at Wyndham only — not ranked |
$95 |
| 9 | Emirates Skywards Rewards World Elite Mastercard Barclays |
2.4¢/$ | 2x travel 3x at Emirates only — not ranked |
$99 |
| 10 | Wyndham Rewards Earner Premier Card Barclays |
2.4¢/$ | 4x dining 8x at Wyndham only — not ranked |
$395 |
| 11 | Emirates Skywards Premium World Elite Mastercard Barclays |
2.4¢/$ | 2x travel 3x at Emirates only — not ranked |
$499 |
| 12 | Samsung Galaxy Card Barclays |
2.0¢/$ | 2% streaming 5% at Samsung only — not ranked |
$0 |
| 13 | Wyndham Rewards Earner Card Barclays |
1.8¢/$ | 3x dining 5x at Wyndham only — not ranked |
$0 |
What these actually pay on a year of dining
A rate is a promise about one dollar. This is the same ranking run over 145 real dining charges totalling $4,789 — our sample year — scored one charge at a time by the same engine the app uses on your own statement. Caps, category rules and point values all apply; nothing is annualised or rounded up.
| Card | Earned on $4,789 | Effective rate |
|---|---|---|
| Frontier Airlines World Mastercard | $144 | 3.00% |
| JetBlue Card | $125 | 2.60% |
| JetBlue Business Card | $125 | 2.60% |
| JetBlue Plus Card | $125 | 2.60% |
| JetBlue Premier Card | $125 | 2.60% |
On this spending the gap between top and bottom is $19 a year — the effective rate, after caps and point values, runs from 2.60% to 3.00%. Your own charges are what matter, and the app scores those rather than a sample.
How we rank
One arithmetic rule, applied by code to our maintained card database. There is no editorial pick, no hand-ordering and no sponsored slot.
- Printed earn rate. Each card's strongest printed earn rate — the highest flat rate it actually publishes, base rate included — taken from our maintained database. That is what places a card here, so a card leads on the category it is genuinely built for.
- Conservative point value. That rate is multiplied by our conservative mid-range value for the currency it pays, which is why a hotel card printing a large multiplier can finish below a plain cash-back card. Every point value we use, published →
- Annual fee. Printed against every card and used to break ties. The best fee-free card in this pool is JetBlue Card at 2.6¢ per dollar. We never net the fee out of the rate for you — whether it is worth paying depends on how much you spend.
- Caps and limits. Where a card's headline rate stops after a spending cap, that cap is on the card's own page and in the relevant category guide. This ranking uses the printed rate, so a heavily capped bonus should be checked against the cap before you act on it.
- Pool and cutoff. 221 open US cards are in our database; 13 of them are Barclays cards and qualify. All 13 are ranked above — that is under the 24-card cutoff, so nothing was left off.
- Rotating and pick-your-own categories. Kept out of the headline ranking, because they only pay in the right quarter or with the right election. Issuer-travel-portal-only rates are excluded for the same reason: they pay only if you book through the portal.
- Commission. The ranking code has no access to which cards pay us a commission — the ordering function never reads the affiliate file. Any apply link is attached after the order is already fixed, so it cannot move a card up or down. How that works.
Full methodology, including how each point value is set: how we value points and rank cards →
The honest caveat
The best Barclays card for you depends on where you actually spend — a card's top rate only counts if your money lands in that category, caps bite, and premium cards carry annual fees a lighter spender won't earn out. The optimizer settles it by re-scoring your real charges against every card here.
Common questions
What's the best Barclays credit card?
Nothing clearly leads. Frontier Airlines World Mastercard and Wyndham Rewards Earner Business Card both land on exactly 3.0¢ per dollar, which is inside the error bar on any point valuation — so pick on the annual fee and on which card's bonus categories match your spending.
How do you rank them?
We rank each Barclays card by the real value of its strongest printed earn rate — the rate multiplied by our conservative mid-range value for the points or cash it pays — never by whether a card pays us a commission.
How many Barclays cards are ranked here?
13. 10 of them charge an annual fee and 3 do not. Card data was last verified 2026-09-15.
Is there a no-annual-fee option?
Yes — JetBlue Card charges no annual fee and pays 2.6¢ back per dollar at 2x on dining, ranking #4 here. A free card that matches your spending beats a fee card that doesn't.
Does a card paying you a commission rank higher?
It can't. The function that produces this order reads printed earn rates, point values, annual fees and caps from our card database and nothing else — it has no access to which cards pay us. Apply links are attached after the order is fixed.
Which card should this spending actually be on? The demo re-scores a year of realistic spending against every card in a wallet — free, no signup. See it on sample data →
More guides
Every guide on this site is built by the same code from the same card database, so the numbers on one page mean exactly what they mean on another. Jump sideways:
All 70 best-card guides → · Best card for a specific store or bill →