Credit Cards with Big Bonuses, June 2012

FYI, I have updated and expanded this list in my post on the best credit card promotions, offers, and deals.

I'm going to change the way I highlight big-money credit card bonuses from here on out. In the past, I've notified you all of credit cards that have big bonuses on a one-by-one basis as they came up. But this leads to a lot of posts on bonus credit cards which junks up the site IMO. In addition, when the card goes off bonus I need to track down the post and change it, which is a hassle. So from now on I'm simply writing this post and will update it as needed. One place, one post, regularly updated (when there's new news or a card is about to expire) to handle these sorts of things.

That said, here's a list of current big-bonus credit cards (which I define as a card having a bonus worth at least $250). I'm going to simply list the name with a link and a summary of the card. If you want details, you can check out the corresponding link. Here's what we have currently:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred^SM Card - Earn 40,000 bonus points after you spend $3,000 in the first 3 months - that's $500 toward travel rewards! No annual fee for the first year.

• Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card– FREE FLIGHT - Earn a FREE FLIGHT after your first purchase!

I usually don't go for a card just because of the rewards, but I recently made an exception (the Chase Sapphire card above). I have my own credit card strategy and if you'd like to develop yours, you can check out my list of the best cash back credit cards.