Your cash back credit card of choice?
1I am thinking about getting a new credit card that has cash back rewards. I don’t know much about this stuff but I have been trying to do some research tonight and learned these are some criteria to list:
- I have excellent credit (according to the score Wells Fargo gives me every month)
- I pay my credit card bill off in full each month
- I don’t hold a balance (that’s the same thing as above, right? lol sorry)
- I don’t need balance transfers.
- I don’t travel or need miles
- I only have 2 credit cards currently
I just want a good cash back option but there are so many it’s hard to figure out a good one… I’d prefer one with no annual fee.
Anyone have any thoughts? Do you have a card with nice cash back rewards? Is the reward worth the hassle of opening up a new card and possibly taking a hit to my credit score?
TIA!
- 12 comments, 15 replies
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Nerdwallet.com also has card reviews.
My needs are similar to yours, where CB is king. Here’s my list. Max your initial spend and pay it off before you open a new card that has another spend requirement.
First on my list: Discover IT with double CB for your first year. This is a quarterly category card, paid on each statement. This means if you max the 5% categories in each quarter ($1500 spend in category), on the card 1yr anniversary, you’ll get a lump CB of your entire past year’s CB. $75/qtr is $300/yr so a $300 max bonus in the double.
Best for groceries: Amex Everyday has 3% all the time on groceries. Except when you get 5% CB in a category card, use this card at the grocery store.
If you’re a Costco shopper, the Citi Costco card executive membership doubles your non-costco CB to 2%. Costco CB is 2%, gas is 4%. You need to spend enough to pay for the membership, though. I do, so it’s a no-brainer for me.
Chase Freedom - a quarterly 5% CB card like Discover, but no initial year double CB. I think it had a signup spend bonus too for me.
As for Amazon Prime card, unless you shop all year alot on Amazon, the Freedom and Discover cards always run 5% CB on Amazon for this quarter to get a share of your holiday spend. if that’s when you spend on Amazon, you don’t need their card.
If you’re a Sam’s member, their card is OK, similar to the Costco card, but not quite as good a CB deal (with the Citi match). The Costco Executive membership is equivalent to the Sam’s Plus membership. Both are $100/yr.
They all run extra discount offers to use points to pay on Amazon. You can pay with 1 point and put the rest on the card to get 1% (5% in category, like now) CB to get the CB (you get no CB when you spend points).
Amex runs decent deals but you usually need to sign up early because it usually doesn’t stack with a good sale until later after the signup window has expired.
Pay every card off religiously to pay no interest or fees.
When categories like “internet bill” come up, you can try to max prepayments on your account to carry a credit balance in order to max the spend. e.g. bill is $60, make a payment of $300. Then make another payment of $300 before the previous one is applied to your account. Repeat until you hit the max credit or your budget spend limit. AT&T Uverse/Internet won’t let you carry more than a $600 credit.
Prepaid services - Netflix, prepaid phone (Cricket, Boost, etc) - look for discounts on prepaid cards. Netflix never goes on sale, so the only way to save is to pay $50 for a $60 Netflix GC. Same for prepaid cell service.
Good luck!
@mike808 I can second the Nerdwallet route. Good website.
https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/rewards-cards/buying-guide/index.htm
If you have Amazon Prime, they have a credit card that returns 5% for Prime and Whole Foods purchases, 2% for gas and grocery, and 1% for all else. They frequently have special promotions for items up to 20% cash-back.
@DVDBZN and it’s made of fancy metal, too.
@djslack
Eh… It’s half metal, half plastic. Stash and M1 have full metal ones.
@DVDBZN the 2% category doesn’t mention grocery, just restaurants, drugstores, and gas stations. Still, it has a better interest rate than most of my cards and much higher credit limit than any of the others. Also, you don’t have to have Amazon prime, but if you don’t, then you only get 3% back at Amazon and whole foods.
I always use the Citi double cash back card.
Mostly because it is easy. Don’t have to worry remembering what card to use where. Or getting stuck in a 3 month period where none of the rotating categories are of use to me.
I think I saw a review at one point that showed the average 5% rotating category card user received about 1.6-1.8% cash back over the course of the year. So it’s close, and if you truly want to capture the most cash back you probably could do slightly better than a flat 2% cash back.
Personally I like the simplicity of using one card, paying off one card a month, and applying a statement credit every so often with my cashback. 2% cash back for doing nothing is good enough for me.
If you haven’t already, sign up with Credit Karma. It’s free and is great for keeping tabs on and understanding your credit (their free tax filing has worked well for my very basic returns too.) They make their money by suggesting credit cards and loans, but they aren’t pushy about it. The recommendations are pretty solid, far from comprehensive, but a great place to start shopping for cards. It gives you an estimate on your chances of being approved too.
I also suggest browsing through r/personalfinance on reddit.
As for specific cards:
Chase Amazon Prime is solid. Chase has similar non-amazon cards that are common recommendations for great credit.
Discover It has a couple of options for cash back depending on how much you want to bother with/ can take advantage of rotating categories. Discover isn’t accepted everywhere though. I usually keep it in my wallet because it allows you to get cash at the register like a debit card for free. I don’t use it, but it’s nice to know I can get cash without paying the cash advance fees.
I like to keep things simple; I don’t want to bother with rotating categories so the Amex Cash card works well for me, getting the Amex perks and 1.5% cash back on all purchases.
Citi Double Cash gets recommended a lot. I don’t have one, but if I wanted another credit card (I really don’t need one) I’d consider it. It’s 2% back on all purchases, but doesn’t have any sign-up offers like many other cards.
Fidelity Credit Card is my choice right now. It is straight 2% cash back on everything. It is simple and no gimmicks or categories or sign ups.
Plus, once or twice a year they have sent offers for premier viewing of movies for free (in Houston for me but other places too). Missed the last one due to tropical depression and as an apology for not making a free movie premiere with free popcorn and drink they sent me a $40 visa card.
Oh, technically I have the cash back put into my Roth IRA, but you can get it as credit back to you as well.
Guess the only negative is the ugly green card if that is a thing that matters to you.
another vote for citi double cash back card. i could never remember what card to use where, so i switched over.
2% back on everything. i’d say i typically get around $800-1000 back every year. (obviously i pay off the card balance in full every month)
@carl669
Indeed. That is very crucial.
Otherwise all the rewards are for naught. The forking banks lovelovelove people that don’t pay off their cards.
@carl669 I would have a hard time spending 40-50K a year on my credit card. I generally manage to run about 25K thru my AmEx (Delta Platinum) which gets me a total of over 50K miles, but that isn’t the type card OP is looking for. Will be re-evaluating that though since next year the bump for 25K spending will go away and the fee will increase.
Generally keep a Chase Freedom card and a Sam’s branded MasterCard for those places that don’t take AmEx (especially overseas)
@chienfou i put absolutely everything i can on my card, so i hit 40-50k pretty easily. i figure, since i do pay it off, why not get that 2% back?
fidelity and citi are my go-to cards. 2% everywhere, 3% on gas and restaurants with citi.
@Yoda_Daenerys Yay for another vote for Fidelity. I try to get others to look into it some but they never do.
I actually got my first major credit card a month ago (first being a Target card 2 months ago).
Since I have an account with them, I got the Bank of America Cash Rewards card. 3% back on the category of your choice (gas, online shopping, dining, travel, drug stores, or home improvement/furnishings), 2% back at grocery stores, and 1% on everything else. They have a special signup offer as well: Spend $1000 in 3 months and receive $200 cash back. Both my store card and major credit card have no annual fees.
Once my paycheck is deposited tomorrow, I’m making my first payment on a full month’s cycle. So far it’s been an easy process since all I have to do is make a transfer from my check account to pay for this one.
I’m curious to see what others recommend, but I heard the Citibank Double Cash card is good because it’s 2% back on everything. This also has no annual fee.
Chase Freedom
something people haven’t mentioned is there are also regular cash back bonuses specific to various places but you have to reselect them, which i often forget, but it’s a bit of extra tidbit
plays are doing the bonus on using paypal right now too, which for me is an easy max my special bonus
some of the others, not so much.
@Cerridwyn actually, yeah. It was mentioned above. And while I like the quarterly bump to 5% I think a 2% on everything would work better for me in the long run since there are spend limits on the quarterly catagories. I will be revisiting this issue next year when AmEx drops the hammer on me with their new programs.
@chienfou That’s not the 5% that something else that you see little tidbit of here and there such as a couple extra cash for sent back at Mimi’s for this 10 days or or at law caesars or at I can’t remember old places it does
@Cerridwyn Sorry, I am having trouble following what you were trying to say (autocorrect did a bad job with your comment!)
What I was talking about was the Chase Freedom (referenced by @mike808 several comments back) which has quarterly categories such as gas stations, streaming services, grocery stores, dept stores etc. that they change in 3 month intervals.
Each quarter there is a $1500 limit to the amount you can earn the bonus on. In other words, $1500 spent means $75 cash back MAX … IF you can top out the category – which is very hard for me do to most times… that’s a lot of gas or Netflix or groceries (locally only one grocery store since the Wal-Mart doesn’t count as such…). So it’s a hard-to-reach max of $300 per year.
of course… YMMV. That’s why nerdwallet is a good resource.
@chienfou @mike808 That is correct. But they also have some additional bonuses that you have to add to your card on the site. These are store specific not category specific and vary from week to week month to month a how long they’re good for each time you select them is only for one use
@Cerridwyn That’s good to know. My AmEx does that but never have seen that for my Chase Freedom card, only the quarter ones. Ill have to look at that some more!
@chienfou
i always forget to check them, lol
Citi double cash back card. All of the other ones have deals where it’s 3%-5% on certain purchases or certain times, but this one is 2% on every purchase. No annual fee. The others are good for certain periods. I use them for the 3 months of gas or the 3 months of grocery stores, but the Citi Double Cash is the most used.
@jrwofuga I have a Costco Citi card, which works OK, but I hate, hate, hate using Citi’s website. Worst banking site I’ve ever encountered, and they seem to change it a couple times a year so something that works one time won’t work the same another. And IME, their phone customer service sucks too.
Another vote for the Amazon Prime card that I use the most. I also have a Discover card and a Chase Freedom card.
I used to read bankrate.com a lot but I’ve drifted away from them–I don’t know how they are now but I hear good things about nerdwallet nowadays as well.
I was a heavy user of credit karma like some have mentioned. They really helped when I was getting my financial house in order.