Whether cash back rewards or travel rewards are better for you depends entirely on your spending habits and your appetite for complexity. Cash back is the easiest kind of reward to manage — $1 is worth $1 no matter how you use it. So if you want the flexibility to use your rewards for anything without worrying about whether you're getting the "best deal," opt for cash back. With travel rewards, points sometimes have a fixed value (1 cent per point is common), but often the value you get from each point or mile often depends entirely on how you redeem it. You might get 1 cent worth of value per point, you might get a fraction of a cent, you might get multiple cents. Some people love the challenge of squeezing maximum value out of their rewards. See our points and miles valuation page for NerdWallet’s current assessment of how much these rewards should be worth. Learn more here: How to choose between cash back and travel rewards.