FULL LIST OF EDITORIAL PICKS: BEST 5% CASH BACK CREDIT CARDS
Before applying, confirm details on issuer's website.
Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express
Our pick for: Families
If your household spends a lot on groceries, gas, transit and streaming, the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express is for you. The rewards it pays in those categories — particularly at U.S. supermarkets and on select U.S. streaming subscriptions — are among the richest of any card. There's a nice welcome offer for new cardholders and an introductory APR period, too. The generous benefits come at a cost, though: Unlike most cash-back cards, this one charges an annual fee. Read our review.
Chase Freedom Flex℠
Our pick for: Rotating categories + cash bonus
The Chase Freedom Flex℠ offers bonus cash back in quarterly categories that you activate, as well as on travel booked through Chase, at restaurants and at drugstores. Category activation can be a hassle, but if your spending matches the categories — and for a lot of people, it will — you can rack up hundreds of dollars a year. There's a fantastic bonus offer for new cardholders and an intro APR offer, too. Read our review.
Discover it® Cash Back
Our pick for: Rotating categories + cash-back match bonus
The Discover it® Cash Back earns bonus cash back in quarterly categories that you activate. In past years, those categories have included common spending areas like grocery stores, restaurants, gas stations and specific major retailers. Category activation can be a hassle, but if your spending aligns with those categories (and for most households, it probably will), you can rake in serious rewards. You also get the issuer's signature "cash-back match" bonus in your first year. Read our review.
Citi Custom Cash® Card
Our pick for: Targeted spending
The Citi Custom Cash® Card offers a lot of value for a $0 annual fee: 5% back automatically in your eligible top spending category on up to $500 spent per billing cycle (1% back on other spending). The list of eligible 5% categories is varied and includes biggies like restaurants, grocery stores and more. And unlike with its competitors, there's no activation schedule or bonus calendar to keep track of. Read our review.
U.S. Bank Shopper Cash Rewards™ Visa Signature® Card
Our pick for: Big-box store shopping
The U.S. Bank Shopper Cash Rewards™ Visa Signature® Card is tailor-made for consumers who spend a lot of money at retailers that don't fit into (or are specifically excluded from) the bonus categories offered by other credit cards. The card also offers a higher-than-usual rate on spending outside its bonus categories. The downside: There's an annual fee. Read our review.
U.S. Bank Cash+® Visa Signature® Card
Our pick for: Maximum customization
If you don't mind putting some work into your rewards, check out the U.S. Bank Cash+® Visa Signature® Card. It might be the most customizable cash back card available. You pick which categories earn the most cash back — you get two 5% categories and a 2% category — and you can change those options every quarter. There's a good bonus offer for new cardholders, too. Read our review.
Prime Visa
Our pick for: Amazon Prime members
If you drop a lot of money at Amazon and/or Whole Foods Market, this is the card for you, with 5% back on such purchases, plus bonus rewards at restaurants and gas stations, plus local transit and commuting (including rideshare). There's no annual fee, but you have to be a Prime member, and that does have a fee. Read our review.
Capital One® Walmart Rewards™ Mastercard®
Our pick for: Walmart orders
Walmart's branded credit card is unusual among store cards in that it gives you significantly better rewards for purchases through Walmart.com (and the Walmart app) than for those made in an actual brick-and-mortar Walmart. If you rely on Walmart pickup and delivery for groceries and other necessities, you can rack up rewards quickly. Read our review.
Ink Business Cash® Credit Card
Our pick for: Office expenses
If your business's spending matches the bonus categories on the Ink Business Cash® Credit Card, you can rack up some serious cash back. (If not, then look elsewhere.) There's an excellent sign-up bonus for a no-annual-fee cash-back card, plus an introductory APR period for purchases. Learn more and apply.
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OTHER RESOURCES
5% store cards
A number of store credit cards suggest that they give you 5% cash back, but in many cases, it might not really be cash back in the commonly accepted sense. It's one of two things:
A 5% discount on purchases. This is how cards like the MyLowe’s Rewards Credit Card and the Target REDcard™ Credit Card work. If you buy something for $100, you get a 5% discount automatically at checkout, so you pay only $95. You don't get any "cash back." It's just $5 that you never have to pay in the first place.
Store credit equal to 5% of your purchase. Credit cards issued by a retailer might give you 5 points per dollar spent or "5% rewards" on purchases, and those points are worth 1 cent apiece ... but you can only use points for more purchases at the store. You can't "cash out."
This leads to a more or less philosophical question: What exactly qualifies as cash back? There's no strict "legal" definition, but in general, cash back is money you get back from your purchases, which you can then use on other things. Discounts at checkout aren't money back, although in practice they do leave you with more cash in your pocket, so they could be considered a close cousin to cash back. Store credit, on the other hand, just creates an obligation to buy more stuff at the store.
If a card lets you literally convert your rewards to cash through a direct deposit to a bank account or even (if you're old-school) a check in the mail, then it's obviously a cash back card. But some cards allow you to use your rewards only for a credit on your statement. Those are essentially cash back cards, too, since they use rewards earned on earlier purchases to pay for other things — and unlike retail cards that require you to come back to the same store, true cash back cards can be used anywhere.
How to choose a 5% cash back card
This was mentioned above, but it bears repeating: No credit card will earn 5% cash back on every single purchase. The 5% rewards will be limited to specific categories, or will be subject to a spending cap, or will apply only at a specific place. Sometimes all three limitations will apply.
That said, choosing a 5% cash back card boils down to how you plan to use it, as well as your appetite for complexity.
Some people want just one card that they can use for everything. If that's you, look at 5% categories (and any potential spending caps) and choose the card that aligns the most with your day-to-day spending. Identify where you're spending the most money, and use that as a guide. If you rarely eat out, for example, then 5% on restaurants will mostly go unused. If you don't drive, you'd get no benefit from a card offering 5% cash back at gas stations for a three-month period.
Some people carry multiple cards and then pick the best one for each individual purpose. If that's you, look at the "holes" in the rewards you're currently earning, and then pick a card that plugs the biggest of those holes. "Electronics stores," for example, might not be a 5% category you need permanently on your everyday card, but if you make one big purchase a year at Best Buy, it may be worth getting a card that allows you to get 5% at electronics stores occasionally.
Some people have no interest in managing their bonus categories. Choosing and activating bonus categories can be a hassle. Forget to do it, and you don't earn 5% at all. If you'd rather not be bothered, stick with a card that doesn't require category activation and that has bonus categories that never change or that automatically adjust your 5% category based on your spending patterns.
Some people love putting in the work to maximize credit card rewards. Hardcore optimizers aren't going to mind selecting, activating and tracking rewards categories. Carrying a dozen or more cards — and knowing which one to use when — is all part of the game. Complexity might even be a benefit of a card's rewards structure, rather than a drawback.
Here's a look at popular 5% cards with these considerations in mind.
CARD NAME and ANNUAL FEE | 5% CASH BACK CATEGORIES | REWARDS ON OTHER SPENDING | COMPLEXITY |
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Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express ($0 intro annual fee for the first year, then $95.) |
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Chase Freedom Flex℠ ($0) |
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Discover it® Cash Back ($0) |
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Citi Custom Cash® Card ($0) |
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U.S. Bank Shopper Cash Rewards™ Visa Signature® Card ($0 intro for the first year, then $95) |
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U.S. Bank Cash+® Visa Signature® Card ($0) |
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Prime Visa ($0, but Prime membership required) |
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Ink Business Cash® Credit Card ($0) |
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Capital One® Walmart Rewards™ Mastercard® ($0) |
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To view rates and fees of the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express, see this page.
Information related to the Capital One® Walmart Rewards™ Mastercard® has been collected by NerdWallet and has not been reviewed or provided by the issuer or provider of this product or service.
Methodology
NerdWallet's Credit Cards team selects the best cash-back credit cards based on overall consumer value, as evidenced by star ratings, as well as their suitability for specific kinds of consumers. Factors in our evaluation include each card's cash-back earning rates, rewards structure (such as flat-rate or tiered categories), annual fee, redemption options (including minimum redemption amounts), promotional APR period for purchases, bonus offers for new cardholders, and noteworthy features such as loyalty bonuses or the ability to choose one's own rewards categories. Learn how NerdWallet rates credit cards.
