Make your spending count! Here are some of the best cash back credit cards for your consideration.
If you’re able to manage your credit well, then cards can be a superb financial tool that can actually save you money on your purchases through their rewards programs.
Here is my own philosophy on how to use cash back credit cards to maximize their value:
- Pay off all your credit cards in full every month as much as possible.
- Manage your credit card debt well.
- Consider credit cards with low annual fees or better yet, no fees at all!
- Apply for cash back credit cards or those that offer rewards. These rewards soften the effect of your spending.
Suffice it to say, I’m a big fan of rewards cards. So if you have good credit and are looking for money rewards or rebates to soften the blow of your spending, then here are a few cards that have some good features:
Best Cash Back Credit Cards
Chase Freedom(SM) Credit Card
 |
|
Blue Cash from American Express
 |
|
Discover More Card
 |
|
Discover Student Card
|
|
Discover Motiva
 |
|
True Earnings Card from Costco and American Express
 |
|
IberiaBank Visa Gold Cash Back Rewards Card
 |
The following offer applies to customers with the best credit rating profile.
|
For other rewards cards that are based on a general point rewards system, there are these great options:
- Chase Sapphire Credit Card
- Citi Forward Card (check our coverage of Citi Forward credit card rewards)
- Citi Forward Card for College Students
- Citi® mtvU™ Platinum Select® Visa® Card
I’d be happy to keep any one (or two) of these cards in my pocket.
- Stock trades: Free stock trades from Zecco, Cheap stock trades from TradeKing, Stock news and Investment info at INO TV Free, No cost Trend Analysis for stocks
- Earn top returns: FNBO Direct [1.90%], HSBC Direct [1.65%], WTDirect [1.76%], E*Trade Bank [0.95%], ING Direct [.25% to 1.65%]
- Cash bonus: Discover More [$50], American Express [$25], Lending Club [$25]
If you enjoyed this post, you can get free regular updates through our RSS Feed, or you can have our latest posts delivered to your email inbox by supplying your address here. Your address will only be used for this purpose, and you can unsubscribe anytime.
{ 13 trackbacks }
{ 33 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the list. I didn’t realize Discover had such a generous cash back offer. Much better than my current card.
I’m a creature of habit and have been using my same old credit cards for sometime, but these cards put the ones I have to shame. I particularly like the one that doesn’t have ANY fees at all whatsoever.
As someone still reluctant to put my credit card bill pay on autopilot (though this may very well change for me in the future!), I’ve been subjected to a few blunders, such as late payments. That NO FEEs card would address that totally!
I have a Countrywide card that is great if you also have a Countrywide mortgage or savings account. The standards rewards are a 1% rebate for all purchases (with no caps), but if you get your reward as either a payment to your C-Wide mortgage or C-Wide savings account, it doubles to 2% (again with no caps).
Obviously Countrywide is having their troubles, so I don’t know how long this will last, but it has worked well for me over the last year. There is no annual fee, but I don’t know the interest rate since I never carry a balance.
Thanks for the tips about credit card use. But, I think it is not as easy as you say. People cannot control themselves and they may spend more to receive the bonus.
I’d love to hear about other cards that offer great rewards. If you own one or know of any, please share…
I actually heard of one with a weird reward: it entered you in some lottery for points. Not sure how well a lottery and credit card debt would work in combination though…
The ones I would also be excited to hear about are those that offer rewards or savings towards mortgage interest. There are a few such cards out there, but I’m yet to explore this type of card and what features it provides.
Citi Dividend Platinum Select Credit Card — This is a card for anyone who wants cash back rewards, but who plans on paying the card off every month.
I use the Chase Freedom card and have been very satisfied with it. One thing that did frustrate me about it was that I kept having a reoccurring charge every month ($0.89 for every $100 on the balance) for something called PAYMENT PROTECTOR. Apparently, they auto enrolled me into this program and it took me a few months to get off my lazy butt and fix it. I probably lost $10-$20 worth of rewards because of it.
By the way, here is the link to the Countrywide card that doubles rebates if applied to your mortgage, so it is still available, at least for now. I wasn’t sure if they had killed this offer yet, but apparently not.
http://www.firstusa.com/cgi-bin/webcgi/webserve.cgi?partner_dir_name=countrywide_rewardslow&page=cont
Probably not worth getting a mortgage from them just to use this, but if you already have a mortgage with them, it’s worth getting this card.
householdbank.com has a card that offers 2% back on everything. Max is $400 in rewards a year, which is plenty for me. For my spending, I use this card and a Chase Freedom card that gets me 3% back on groceries.
The motiva card doesn’t seem to fit in with the list. It is worth noting that the More categories rotate in the year, so it isn’t all the popular categories listed (I know because I switched to a gas card from a more card)
Also, discover card has a zillion cute designs. I know no one else who has a pink monogrammed credit card.
Not that that is a deciding factor…
Thanks for providing that list.. I may go with chase
@Steward,
Sorry to hear that about the Payment Protector. It goes to show we need to be vigilant about what the card companies sign us up for. Some are these automatic services we don’t really need and I’ve often found myself in your shoes — paying for stuff I had no idea I was using… aargh!
@Finance Nerd,
Great tip! Thanks for the lead on that. My mortgage isn’t with them, but for anyone else who does have a loan with them, it could be worth checking out!
@akb,
Gotta check out that 2% rewards card you mentioned. I appreciate the info.
@SP,
The additional Discover Motiva awards are described as follows: Each time you pay at least the Minimum Payment Due by the Payment Due Date for six consecutive billing periods, you will earn a Pay-On-Time Bonus equal to the Periodic Finance Charges shown on your next statement.
The Motiva may not seem to provide rewards as “juicy” as the others, but believe it or not, it looks better than some of the cards we carry. I’m looking to “upgrade” my cards after seeing these offerings.
True, the Discover More has some really cute designs. I even wrote about the effect of credit card designs on customers in this post: “How credit card companies try to hook our kids into signing up for credit cards“.
I love my rewards card as much as you, but remember that the rewards aren’t free. The credit card companies get 2% of every transaction in interchange fees and are simply giving you 1% or so in kickbacks to get your business.
It’s nice to get the occasional ‘rewards’ check, but every merchant you buy from has to increase their prices to cover the money going to credit card companies so the cash back really just reduces the amount going to banks rather than actually saving money.
Deamiter – if you’re spending the money anyway the rewards are “free” to us. The products cost the same, so paying with cash/check/debit gets you nothing, but paying with a rewards card gets you the bonus. I understand your logic from a macroeconomic standpoint, but merchants don’t generally lower prices when you whip out cash – except if they are looking to avoid paying taxes.
Personally, my wife and I charge nearly everything on our Chase Freedom Visa Signature. We generally spend about $1,500 to $2,000 a month on it and have earned about $400 so far this year. It also has a feature where if you let the rewards build up to $200, they’ll send you a $250 check – we’ve done this once already in 2008 and will get our second one in October most likely.
This is great information I was looking to transfer a balance over to save a few dollars.I doubt that I will pay this in one month but it will be paid before 3/09 and I do not plan to use it during this time- thanks for the leads.
Hey, I love my rewards card also and its great information I was looking to transfer a balance over to save a few dollars.
I would add the Pentagon FCU Visa to this:
5% reward on gas;
2% on groceries;
1.25% on everything else.
Reward credited to your account monthly. No annual fee.
I couldn’t agree with you more. Not only are credit cards a great way to earn rewards on money you are already going to spend, it is also more secure than using a debit card (I wouldn’t want to wait while $7000 of stolen cash is replaced in my checking account–an ordeal my husband went through as a victim of identity theft).
I noticed other comments asking about other rewards cards. I happen to work for CardOffers.com, an online credit card directory. You can “shop” for credit cards. The cards are categorized and details are listed for each card. Consumers also rate the cards. It’s a very useful, free tool and I suggest everyone find a credit card that fits their lifestyle.
After years of learning about credit cards the hard way (and working myself out of debit) I’m about ready to get my ‘first’ grown-up credit card. Thanks for the overview. I’ll make sure to check these ones out.
Very good article. Thanks for this recommended list of cash back credit cards.
Very good information, thanks. There’s so many different credit options my head is spinning.
I’m tired about hearing people say that credit-card users will spend more than people who use cash or that they will do so to “get the bonus.” I just don’t see it and to insinuate that someone will risk their whole financial state to “get the bonus” is ridiculous.
I never really learned about interest and credit cards until I ended up $5,000 in debt. Now, I’m trying to pay everything off slowly.
Thanks for the information on Discover. Do you use any of the airline miles cards? I have used Chase/United for some time but it was a bit of a hassle last time I tried to book a vacation for me and my family.
thanks
thank you for the list — there are some really good offers.
Great bunch of cards here. I’m thinking of getting new rewards cards pretty soon and these are great suggestions.
nice website , very organized, I also am a fan of these type of websites. I think its a great way to show people the offers that are out there. visit me one day and post a note.
Yes, nice card listing. Right now, Discover and American Express offers one of the best cash backs in the credit market.
We like one that’s 5% cash back, up to a limit, on all groceries, drug stores, & cash. We have another one that benefits the Audubon Society with each purchase, and also has a nice rewards program – always good for exchanging points for a gift certificate when gift-giving time rolls around.
Don’t forget about getting cash back from your realtor when buying a home!
Great credit card list. Thanks!
Credit cards are only a tool to be used in your financial arsenal. It depends on how you decide to use them.
Just go with the black AMX! haha