5% cash back credit card without annual fee, are almost the highest rebate to get in the market. They are also my favorites. To build a robust cash flow from everyday spending, I believe these cards are worthy to hold for a long time.
It comes with $200 Cash back, the first year 5% back on gas for up to $6000 purchase, and 5% quarterly categories (up to $1500 spending, so max cashback would be $75, after that you can only earn 1%). Below is the 2022 calendar so far:
Jan-Mar: Grocery Stores (excluding Target® and Walmart®)
Apr-Jun: Amazon.com | Select Streaming Services
Jul-Sep: Gas Stations | Car Rental Agencies | Movie Theaters | Select Live Entertainment
It has very similar benefits as Chase Freedom. It has no sign-up bonus (having a refer bonus range from $50-$100), but offer double cashback for the first year, which means, you will get 10% cashback on the 5% categories. Below is the 2022 calendar: up to $1500 spending, so max cashback would be $75, after that you can only earn 1%
This card also has $200 sign-up bonus. Its earning structures are divided into 2 parts:
5% categories: you can choose 2 different categories every quarter. Different from Chase and Discover, 5% categories are fixed, which include:
You can choose 2 categories from this list every 3 months, for the spending up to $2000. After that it will be 1%.
2% categories: including Grocery stores and grocery delivery, Restaurants, Gas stations and EV charging stations. You can only choose 1 from them every quarter. There will be no limit for cash back in 2% categories.
It also has $200 sign up bonus. This card has these 5% categories: Restaurants, Gas Stations, Grocery Stores, Select Travel, Select Transit, Select Streaming Services, Drugstores, Home Improvement Stores, Fitness Clubs and Live Entertainment.
Different from other cards in this post, you don’t need to choose what you want, the system will give 5% to the category you spend most every month for up to $500.
My View
All of them have no annual fees. But for the 5% categories, I value more on the grocery shopping, gas or restaurants. Chase and Discover’s categories are rotating, so you won’t get one category for every quarter. Although US bank has fixed categories, but the quality of its 5% categories is not very useful, as you can see, actually grocery shopping, gas or restaurants are all in 2% area. Therefore, I like Citi Custom cash, because you can use the card in your favorited category every month. For me, I am using one custom cash card for grocery shopping, one for restaurants. $300 per year from each card would be very easy to achieve.