Our favorite type of reward card is one that gives you a rebate in cold, hard cash. Sure, it’s nice to get travel rewards or gift cards, but in our book the best option is to get cash back you can use any way you want. Below we list the best cash back credit cards currently on the market, all offering at least 1% cash back, but usually more. (NOTE: Unlike other credit card comparison sites, Credit Card Catalog does NOT receive compensation for any card on this page, so we have no incentive to rank certain cards above others; these rankings are based purely on the numbers.)
Citi Double Cash Card – Offers the chance to get 2% cash back on your purchases — you get a 1% cash rebate on all purchases, then a 1% rebate on the payments you make on those purchases, for a 2% total overall if you pay off your card each month. (Note that you don’t get any rebate on interest charges or late fees when you pay those off.).
Citizens Bank CashBack Plus MasterCard – Offers 1.5% cash back on all purchases, plus the opportunity to raise that rate to 1.65% or even 1.8% based on how often you use the card and/or your willingness to deposit your cash back into a Citizens Bank deposit account.
TD Ameritrade Client Rewards – Earn 1.5 points per dollar, which translates to 1.5% cash back when redeemed. Earn an extra 10% (for a total cash back percentage of 1.65%) when redeemed into a TD Ameritrade account.
Capital One Quicksilver – Get a straight 1.5% cash rebate on all purchases made with this card. No limit to amount of cash back you can receive and no special purchase categories to remember make this a nice, simple cash back solution.
Chase Freedom Unlimited – Offers a flat 1.5% cash back on every purchase you make, with no special spending categories to consider. If you spend at least $500 with the card in the first 3 months, you’ll get a $150 bonus on top of the other cash back you’ve earned.
Barclaycard CashForward MasterCard – Get 1.5% cash back on all card purchases. In addition, each time you actually redeem your cash back, you’ll get 5% of the amount you redeem as a bonus in your account toward your next rebate redemption, which pushes the cash back percentage a bit above the 1.5% level. Note, however, that you can only get your cash back once you’ve actually accrued at least $50 in rebates.
US Bank Cash 365 American Express Card – Offers 1.5% cash back on all card purchases. The rebate comes in the form of either a statement credit, deposit into a US Bank account, or a rewards card.
Wells Fargo Cash Wise Visa – Offers a straight 1.5% cash back on all purchases. For the first year, you can get 1.8% on purchases that are made through Apple Pay or Android Pay mobile “wallets.”
First National Bank of Omaha American Express Card – Earn a straight 1.5% cash back on all purchases. You’ll receive your cash back automatically as a $25 statement credit every time you reach that $25 threshold.
Discover It Miles – While this is not marketed as a cash back credit card that’s exactly what it is. You get 1.5 “miles” per dollar charged to the card, and these points can be converted to cash at 1 cent per mile. Cash in your miles and you get the equivalent of 1.5% cash back. (You can also use these “miles” to offset travel purchases made with the card.)
M&T Visa Signature – Offers a straight 1.5% cash back on all purchases. You also have the option to take your reward points and convert them to travel rewards, “experiential’ rewards, merchandise, etc.
PNC CashBuilder Visa – Offers 1.25% cash back on all purchases. You can raise that cash back percentage to 1.5% or even 1.75% based on card spending of at least $2000 in the previous month or through usage of other PNC accounts.
US Bank Cash+ Visa – In addition to offering 1% cash back on all purchases, this card lets you choose two bonus shopping categories each quarter that qualify for 5% cash back and 1 “everyday” category (like gas or groceries) that gives 2% cash back. Note that you must choose your bonus categories each quarter, even if you want to choose the exact same ones as the previous quarter.
Blue Cash Everyday from American Express – Get a 3% cash rebate at U.S. supermarkets, a 2% rebate at gas stations and most major department stores, and a 1% rebate on everything else. Rebates come in the form of statement credit, meaning that the rebate is used to pay part of your card balance or, if you have no balance, you can use the card to buy something up to the amount of the rebate.
BankAmericard Cash Rewards Visa – Get a 3% rebate on gas purchases, a 2% rebate on grocery store purchases, and 1% back on everything else. Note that if you spend more than $2500 on gas and groceries in a quarter, the purchases beyond $2500 only qualify for a 1% rebate.
AARP Rewards Visa – Offers a 3% rebate on gas and restaurant purchases, and a 1% rebate on all other purchases. It’s unclear whether you actually have to be a member of AARP to qualify.
Chase Freedom Credit Card – Get a 1% cash rebate on all purchases, plus get a 5% rebate in certain “bonus” purchasing categories. (These bonus categories change each quarter.)
Discover It – Get a 1% cash rebate on all purchases, and earn 5% on purchases in certain categories. (5% purchase categories change each calendar quarter.)
Fifth Third Bank Trio MasterCard – Get 3% cash back on purchases at restaurants, 2% cash back on gas and grocery purchases, and 1% cash back on everything else. The 3% cash back and 2% cash back categories are good toward the first $1500 in restaurant/gas/grocery purchases within a calendar quarter; you’ll get 1% cash back on those purchases after hitting the $1500 mark.
SunTrust Cash Rewards MasterCard – Get a 5% cash rebate on gas and grocery purchases (on up to $6000 in such purchases annually) for the first year (this becomes a 2% rebate after the first year) and a 1% rebate on all other purchases. Get a 10% hike in your rebates when you redeem them into a SunTrust checking, savings, or money market account.
TD Bank Cash Visa – Offers 2% cash back on restaurant purchases of all types and 1% cash back on all other purchases.
Upromise MasterCard – Earn cash back that can be used toward college education expenses or anything else that you choose — 5% rebates on purchases through the Upromise.com shopping portal (on top of the 5% you get as a Upromise member for a total of 10% on those purchases), 2% back at in-store department store purchases and certain movie theaters, and 1% back on anything else you charge to the card.
BankAmericard Better Balance Rewards – This card doesn’t offer its cash so much for your purchases as it does for your payments. You get a $25 statement credit each quarter if you pay on time and pay more than your minimum payment for each of the months within that quarter. Note, however, that you only get the money if you were carrying a balance to pay off — if you make no purchases to pay off, you don’t get rewarded. Consider this card if you tend to make less than $1000 in card purchases per month.
Walmart MasterCard – Get 3% cash back on Walmart.com purchases, 2% cash back on Walmart or Murphy USA gas purchases, and 1% cash back on all other purchases. Your cash back is given monthly as a statement credit.
See also: Instant Approval Credit Cards, Which is the best credit card?, Average Credit Card Rates