One of the easiest ways to save money is to to simply pay for purchases using these credit cards. You can get up to a full 5% cash back plus a bonus of $200 or higher!- Honest Reviews: Unlike the generic credit card feeds you will find on other websites, these reviews expose the bad along with the good, so you can know the truth about each card.
- Most Generous Offers: When available, these reviews will include links to the best signup promotions out there for a given card.
This sponsored list is updated on a weekly basis with reviews of the absolute best offers you can get. Both editorial and consumer feedback gathered through this site is used to bring you the most accurate ranking possible.
Chase Freedom® Visa – $100 Bonus + 0% For 15 Months
A couple years ago Chase re-vamped the rewards program on this card, increasing the cash back from 3% all the way up to 5%. Now you earn 5% on up to $6,000 in category spending per year ($1,500 per quarter when you enroll). This is a high rewards ceiling compared to similar programs. Beyond that amount you still earn a full 1% cash back. Those benefits combined with no annual fee makes this one of the best cashback cards on the market.- Here are the 5% cash back categories for 2013:
Q1 (Jan 1 – March 31): Gas stations, Drug stores and Starbucks stores
Q2 (April 1 – June 30): Restaurants, Movie Theaters and Lowe's®
Q3 (July 1 – Sept 30): Gas stations, Theme Parks and Kohl’s
Q4 (Oct 1 – Dec 31): Amazon.com and select department stores - You earn an unlimited 1% on all other purchases, without any tiers or caps.
- 3-in-1 promotion! With this offer you are getting 3 incentives at once: (#1) $100 bonus simply for making $500 in purchases during the first 3 months, (#2) get 0% for 15 months on balance transfers, and (#3) get 0% for 15 months on purchases.
NEW FOR 2013! Discover it®
This card was just launched for 2013 and it’s their best one yet. Why? Because their older More card comes with tiered rewards on non-category spending; it only gives 1/4% on the first $3k spent annually. However the new Discover it gives a full 1% on all other purchases, all the time. Even if you have the other cash back credit cards mentioned above, this is a must have due to its unique rewards program. - 5% cash back on categories which change throughout the year. From now thru June 30th you earn 5% on up to $1,500 in purchases at home improvement stores (very helpful for the spring season).
- Full 1% cash back on all other purchases.
- 5% to 20% cash back from nearly 200 popular online retailers. Examples include 5% at Walmart, 5% at Apple, 10% at Foot Locker, 15% at TurboTax, 5% at Target, and many others. This cash back is unlimited and on top of your regular rewards. Without a doubt this is the best credit card for online shopping.
- No annual fee, no foreign transaction fees, no pay-by-phone fee, no late fee on 1st late payment & no APR hikes for paying late.
- 0% intro APR* on purchases and balance transfer for 14 months. Then the variable purchase APR applies, currently 10.99%-22.99%. *Click apply for Terms & Conditions.
Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express
The best choice for high cash back in the same categories year 'round! The cards with quarterly categories are useful, but for some types of spending you want higher rewards all year long. The Blue Cash Everyday does exactly that, consistently rewarding you on three practical categories of spending. There is no annual fee.- 3% at US supermarkets – The first $6,000 of purchases per year within this category qualifies for the 3%, after that it's 1%. If you spend an average of $500/month, you will earn $180 per year on just this category alone!
- 2% on gas at US gas stations – That's like saving 8 cents per gallon on $4 gas.
- 2% at select department stores in the US – Earn that on clothes, appliances, or whatever else you buy at dept. stores.
- 1% on your other purchases.
- Cash back is received in the form of Reward Dollars that can be redeemed as a statement credit.
- Bonus of 100 Reward Dollars for spending $1k within the first 3 months.
- Terms and restrictions apply.
Want even higher cash rewards? The Blue Cash Preferred® offers higher rewards for a $75 annual fee. You get 6% on the first $6,000 spent per year at US supermarkets (1% thereafter). 3% at US gas stations and select US dept. stores. 1% on other purchases.
Use this link to get Blue Cash Preferred with a $150.00 bonus! (when you spend $1k in first 3 months).
Capital One® Cash Rewards
Just like the commercials say, with this card you get 50% more cash. It gives you a straight up 1% cash back on all your purchases. Then every year, you get a 50% bonus on all the cash you earned during the preceding 12 months. That means you’re earning a total of a 1.5% rebate! Most of the top cash back cards only give you 1.0% (or less) on non-category spending, so this the perfect choice for all those purchases.- 1% cash back on purchases.
- 50% bonus on the cash back earned every year.
- There’s no annual fee and no limit to how much you can earn.
- 0% intro APR on purchases and balance transfers until June 2014.
- $100 bonus after you spend $500 on purchases within the first 3 months.
American Express® Premier Rewards Gold Card
Although this technically is not a cash rewards credit card, you can redeem the points for anything including statement credits and AmEx cash gift cards. However the best option is to convert you points to frequent flyer miles. Only Membership Reward Points can be converted to miles on over 15 major airlines, usually on a 1:1 basis. Most people don’t realize how valuable this benefit is – because many airline FF programs give award tickets at set intervals (i.e. domestic roundtrip for 25k miles, 37.5k miles and so forth) the points you earn with this card have the potential to be worth a heck of a lot more than the usual penny per point you get with other cash back credit cards.- 3x points for flights booked with airlines, 2x points at US gas stations, 2x points at US supermarkets, 1x on other purchases. There are no reward caps!
- Comes packed with a ton of premium benefits like roadside assistance (up to 4x per year), automatic extended warranty, purchase protection, travel accident insurance, luggage insurance, car rental loss & damage insurance, plus tons more.
- You get a bonus of 15,000 points every calendar year you spend at least $30k.
- Using the offer below, you get a signup bonus of 25,000 points simply for making $2k in purchases within the first 3 months.
- Normally the membership fee is $175 but using the offer below, you can get the annual fee waived for the first year. Given the generous bonus, I recommend everyone at least give it a try since you can get your first year free.
- Terms and restrictions apply.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® – 40,000 Bonus Points
This is actually a travel card, however it can serve as a cash rewards card too. Your points can be converted to cash back at a favorable conversion of 1 point = 1 cent. With this promotion you earn a whopping 40,000 bonus points (after spending $3,000 in the first 3 months) and that's good for a $400.00 cash rebate! This uber-generous incentive won't be around forever, so if you're going to get this card, now would definitely be the time to do it.- 2x points on travel, 2x points on dining, and 1x all other purchases.
- 25% more point value when redeemed for travel through Ultimate Rewards (i.e. 10,000 points = $125.00 towards air/hotel).
- Every year you get a points "dividend" equal to 7% of points earned during the preceding 12 months.
- No foreign transaction fees and numerous travel benefits
- Intro annual fee of $0 the first year, then $95
TrueEarnings® Card from Costco and American Express
I have a number of family members whom are diehard Costco shoppers and swear by this card. One of them earns more than $1,000 per year in cash back! As long as you have a paid-up Costco membership, there is no annual fee for this credit card. Being an American Express, you also get the bells and whistles like purchase protection, extended warranty, etc. Here’s a review of the rewards program:- 3% at US gas stations, including gas at Costco, on up to $4,000 per year in purchases (1% thereafter).
- 2% at restaurants in the US. There is no cap on how much you can earn in this category.
- 2% on eligible travel purchases, including at Costco. There is no rewards cap for this category either.
- All other purchases earn an unlimited 1% cash back. You even get this at Costco, which is unique because some other AmEx cards only earn you 0.25% at their stores.
- You will receive your cash back annually in the form of a reward coupon. Terms and restrictions apply.
Citi ThankYou® Preferred Rewards Card
This is a newer card from Citi. In order to drum up some attention for it, they are offering a very generous signup offer. The points are for the Citi “ThankYou” network which can be redeemed for just about anything, including various gift cards at a full one cent per point value. The embedded chip feature is useful when traveling overseas. Its drawback is that there are no categories for higher rewards.- Earn 1 ThankYou Point for every $1 spent on purchases.
- Your points never expire and there are no caps on the amount you can earn.
- No annual fee*
- Using the link below, you get a special bonus of 15,000 points for spending just $1k or more during the first 3 months.
Citi® Dividend Platinum Select® Visa® Card
I’ve had this for many years, going back to around ’04. It had the best cash back credit card program but 2 or 3 years after getting it, they reduced the rebate from 5% to 2% so I stopped using it. Fortunately, a couple years ago they brought back the 5% and are doing the rotating categories (similar to the Chase Freedom and Discover It) so I have since started using it again. If you’ve ignored this credit card in the past, it’s worth another look now.- Earn 5% cash back on categories that change each quarter. Right now you can earn 5% cash back from Citi at Home Depot, home furnishing stores and home and garden stores between 4/1/13 and 6/30/13 when you enroll.
- 1% cash back on all other purchases.
- What’s nice about this structure is that you have the ability to earn cash back even on huge purchases. For example in theory, you could spend $5,000 at Home Depot in one purchase (during the “home improvement” quarter) and still earn 5% ($250.00!) assuming that purchase, along with any other spending, didn’t exceed the $300 annual rewards threshold.
- No annual fee*
The bottom line is when you use a debit card or run-of-the-mill credit card, it’s like throwing away money because you’re missing out on the higher rewards you can get with the cards mentioned above. Even the average consumer can easily save several hundred dollars per year by simply using one of these. For those with above-average spending, the annual cash back can easily run into the thousands. Apply for a credit card today and start raking up your cash rebate!
Reviewed and rated by Michael Dolen
