The reason to have and use credit cards is to get a 2+ percent discount on almost every purchase, as well as other benefits. The reason credit card companies provide this incentive to use credit cards is because they want you to get into credit card debt and pay them high interest rates on it. As long as you do not get into debt, using them saves you money.
Most annual fee credit cards have a fee of around $100. This means that in order to benefit from the card you have to first cover the annual fee. If you get 2.5% cash back on all purchases, like the Alliant Visa Signature Card offers for a $99 annual fee you have to spend $3,960 on the card before it starts saving you money. To match the savings of a card like the Citi Double Cash Card, which has no annual fee and 2% cash back, you need to spend $19,800 on that card.
The Alliant card does not charge the annual fee the first year and frequently cards with an annual fee have other benefits, but you have to be spending a lot for them to be worthwhile. When your expenses can vary and you want to use multiple cards to maximise savings $0 annual fee cards are a good, stress free option.
Travel cards should offer the highest possible rewards on travel expenses, airfare, lodging, dining, ridesharing. They should also have no foreign transaction fees, so you can use them in foreign countries without it costing you more.
3% savings on travel, dining, ridesharing, lodging (including airbnb), gas and streaming services
No foreign transaction fees
Transfer points from the Wells Fargo Propel and they are worth 1.5x if you redeem them for airfare through the Wells Fargo Portal turning the 3% on the Propel into 4.5% when redeemed for travel. This is on par with the Chase Sapphire Reserve, a card that has $550 annual fee.
This card should have the highest possible rewards on all purchases.
2% savings on every purchase
When travelling internationally it is good to have 2 cards you can use without a foreign transaction fee in case there is an issue with one of them. The Wells Fargo Propel is also an American Express card, which is not as widely accepted as Visa, or Mastervard. Airlines will all accept American Express, but restaurants may not, so an ideal backup will have high rewards at restaurants and no foreign transaction fees.
3% savings on dining
No foreign transaction fees