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If you want to keep things simple, a good cashback card can be a compelling alternative to cards that earn Ultimate or Membership Rewards points. You can avoid the complexities of trying to book frequent flyer tickets or the need to build up large numbers of points to make redemptions.

Everyone can get a card that earns at least 2% back on all their purchases, without needing to pay an annual fee. And, depending on your circumstances, you could get a card that earns as much as 3% cash back.

Jump to

The best cash-back card
No-annual-fee options
The Discover It Miles card
The Amex business card combination

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None of the cards with the highest cashback rates offer “price protection” (which reimburses the difference, if you find a cheaper price in the first few months after making a purchase) or “return protection” (which refunds your purchase, if a store won’t accept a return). If you feel that these benefits are valuable, you’ll want to stick with a card that has these features, or switch to one for specific purchases where you feel you are more likely to wind up taking advantage of these benefits. Automatic Protection for the Things You Buy with Your Credit Card.

Altitude Reserve Guide

The US Bank Altitude Reserve earns 4.5% back, but only on some of your purchases. The Altitude Reserve earns 3x points on all purchases made with a mobile wallet, such as Apple Pay. Each point is worth 1.5 cents, for a cashback rate of 4.5%. An increasing number of physical and online businesses will accept Mobile Wallet purchases, and if you have one of a number of Samsung devices, you can use your Wallet with any credit card terminal that accepts a card swipe. For purchases you make elsewhere, you’ll need to settle for just 1.5%, or use another card.

The other issue with this card is that it has a $400 annual fee. However, it comes with a $325 credit that is automatically applied to any travel purchase, making the effective cost $75 per year. Plus you get 12 Gogo inflight Wi-Fi passes, 4 free airport lounge visits, and a variety of other benefits.

If you expect you can use your mobile wallet for at least $5,000 worth of non-bonus-category purchases each year, this card can be a great option.

Amtrak Credit Card Guide

If you frequently travel on Amtrak, you will get the most value with one of their credit cards. The base reward rate is only 1 point per dollar, but you can redeem these points for 2.9 cents each on Amtrak travel.

To maximize the rewards from the Amtrak card, you need to spend enough at Amtrak to be able to redeem all the points you'll earn. For example, if you spend $10,000 per year, you’ll need to spend at least $290 per year on Amtrak tickets to use up all the points you’ll earn. The card comes with price protection, but not return protection.

Along with the no-annual-fee version, there is a $79 per year version that is usually the better option. It comes with some extra benefits, and a 2x reward rate on any travel purchase.

BOA Travel Rewards Guide

If you have more than $100,000 in retirement and investment accounts that you don’t mind transferring to Merrill Lynch, you can earn 2.625% with the BankAmericard Travel Rewards or Premium Awards credit card. Your relationship with Bank of America / Merrill Lynch gives you a bonus on the normal 1.5% cashback you would earn from these cards. With the bonus, the reward rate maxes out at 2.625% for people who have $100,000 in combined assets. With $50-100,000 in assets, the bonused rate is 2.25%. Plus, there is no annual or foreign transaction fees.

There is also a premium version of this card, with a $95 annual fee, a $100 credit that can be used for airline incidental purchases, and bonus rewards on travel and dining purchases.

If you have assets at another broker, you can usually transfer them to a Merrill Edge account, and manage them there (at little or no additional costs), to qualify for the higher reward rate.

Alliant Cashback Card Guide

The Alliant Cashback Visa provides the highest cashback rate that is available to anyone, and without any additional hassles. It earns 2.5%, with no foreign transaction fees. You don’t have to be a eligible for the USAA, have over $100,000 in assets at Merrill Lynch, travel frequently on Amtrak, make sure you spend exactly $25,000 on the card, or limit yourself to mobile wallet purchases—everyone can get this rate (as long as they are approved for the card).

If you don’t work for a business that is already associated with the Alliant Credit Union, you can join by making a $10 donation to Foster Care to Success. $99 annual fee. Template:Best Cash Back Credit Cards/List

No-annual-fee options

If you don’t spend enough money each year to justify a credit card that has an annual fee; and you don’t have enough with Bank of America to qualify for their higher bonuses and don’t frequently travel on Amtrak, your best option is a no-annual-fee card that offers a 2% cashback rate.

PayPal Cashback Card Guide

The PayPal Cashback card is our favorite no-annual-fee cashback card (that works for everyone). You'll get 2% cashback, without foreign transaction or annual fees. To sweeten the deal, the PayPal card comes with a full suite of purchase protections, including price and return protection. You can use your cashback for PayPal purchases, or transfer it out to your bank account. Automatic Protection for the Things You Buy with Your Credit Card.

State Department CashBack+ Webpage

The State Department Premium CashBack+ card is our other recommendation. Like the PayPal card, you'll get 2% cashback without annual or foreign transaction fees. You won't get the price and return protection, but you'll get a $200 signup bonus ($3,000 initial spend) and free cell phone insurance. You'll need to jump through some hoops (described here) to get the card.

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The Blue Business Cash Card also offers 2% cash back, with no annual fee and no foreign transaction fee. However, it is a business card and because it is an Amex it can't be used at as many merchants as the PayPal and State Department cards.

The other no-annual-fee 2% cashback options are the Fidelity Rewards Credit Card and the Citi Double Cash Card. The reason we don't recommend these more popular cards is that they have foreign transaction fees.

Getting started with the Discover It Miles card

The Discover It Miles card earns 3% cash-back during the initial year. The regular rewards rate from the Discover It Miles card is 1.5%, which isn’t as good as the other options listed above. However, you’ll earn double points for the first year you have the card.

Discover it Miles Card Guide

Most people are going to be better off postponing this opportunity, until they are no longer focusing their spending on meeting the initial spending requirements of new cards.

Discover cards aren’t accepted everywhere, so you’ll need to use another card, such as a travel rewards credit card, at some merchants. Discover cards also don't offer any purchase protections, even extended warranty coverage.
It is possible to string together multiple years of 3% rewards. The simplest approach is to cancel the card after the first year, and then re-apply a few months later. If you share finances with someone, you can alternate getting the card, and remove any gaps where you'd be earning a lower reward rate.

The Citibank Double Cash combo

The Citibank Double Cash combo is a bit complicated, but earns a higher "cashback rate" than most of the other options. For every dollar you spend, you'll earn 2.8% back when you use your points to purchase airfare on the Citibank website.

The Double Cash card earns 2x points on every purchase. It has no annual fee. As a standalone card it earns 2% cashback, which is good, but not great.
The Citi Premier card lets you redeem your points at 1.25 cents each, when you purchase airfare through the Citibank website. For every dollar you spend, you earn 2.5% you can spend on airfare. It has a $95 annual fee, similar to the annual fee on the Alliant card.
The Citi Rewards+ card gives you a 10% rebate on your Citibank redemptions. This boosts the reward rate to 2.8%. You only get a rebate on the first 100,000 of points you redeem. Like the Double Cash card, it doesn't have an annual fee.

The Amex business card combination

The Amex Business Card combo can provide the highest cash-like rate of any card, but with an extremely high annual fee.

If you operate any type of small business, you can sign up for small business credit cards, and have access to the most powerful cashback combination available. Business credit cards are available to even the smallest businesses—you don’t have to be incorporated, it doesn't have to be your full-time job, and you don’t even have to have made (much) money yet. To get approved for Amex business cards, you'll need a minimum of $1,000 in annual business revenue, but many people believe that this is a projection of your future year's revenue, rather than a summary of your previous year's revenue. Unlock Extra Reward Points with Business Credit Cards.
The Amex Blue for Business Plus card earns 2x Membership Rewards for each dollar you spend. Normally, you can only get 1 cent per point when you use your points to purchase travel through Amex—making this card work like a 2% cashback card (if you don't want to mess with frequent flyer tickets).

Blue Business Plus Guide

If you have the Business Platinum card, you can get 1.54 cents per point on certain airfare purchases. You'll get a 35% refund on points used to purchase tickets with your “favorite” airline, or business and first-class tickets on any airline. In effect, you get 1.54 cents per point on these purchases, without having to hassle with frequent flyer tickets.

Amex Platinum Card Guide

By using the cards together, you can get 3.08 cents per dollar spent, without having to worry about finding award space. And you can still try to get additional value, by using these points for frequent flyer tickets instead.
For this to work, you need to purchase enough airfare each year, on a single selected airline, or on premium-cabin tickets, to be able to use up all your points. And unlike the Chase Freedom Unlimited, PayPal and Citi Double Cash cards, the Blue Business Plus card doesn’t come with purchase price protection or return protection.
The Blue Business Plus card doesn’t have an annual fee, but the Business Platinum cards fee is $595. The Platinum card comes with a $200 credit that you can use to pay for incidental charges (like food and drink) on a single airline of your choice, and $200 worth of credits at Dell, which can help offset some of that annual fee. Just keep in mind that you'll need to choose a preferred airline that you frequently fly, not one on which it is easiest to use the credit.
The Business Platinum card does come with a number of other valuable benefits, such as the best airport lounge access of any card and automatic Hilton Gold status (which is good enough for free breakfast). However, you can usually obtain these benefits, at no additional expense, by gradually signing up for multiple versions of the Amex Platinum card, in order to collect their lucrative signup bonuses. You will also need to avoid using the Blue Business card when you are travelling overseas, as it has a 2.7% foreign transaction fee.