My Best Cash Rewards Cards Right Now
Watch the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves.
My friends and family all know how much of a geek I am for rewards cards. I guess I’m just overall one scrappy dude — I win Monopoly with the Light Blues and Railroads. Saving thousands of dollars in just the last couple years by simply being aware of which card I’m using isn’t playing around, though!
I finally decided to put everything in one spot, along with my referral codes to get you additional benefits.
I’ve never been one for points or travel cards (my brother is the guy on getting free plane tickets). A while back I did the math on the best airline reward card at the time, and it wasn’t better than my best cashback card — I’d rather have the cash and not mess with points, so I haven’t looked back.
Please let me know if there are better offers out there that I don’t know about!
The Craziest Deals at Select Places Isn’t a Credit Card
Square’s Cash App Card “Boost” provides the best savings at a select group of merchants. They also happen to be some of my most-frequented establishments, so I’m a huge fan!
10% off many restaurants including Shake Shack, Chipotle, Chic-Fil-A, and even Whole Foods Market. $1 off every coffee shop visit. Insane deals, and it’s not actually cash back, the discount is applied directly in the app before debiting. You do not need credit history to sign up for this card, and in fact direct deposit options and the ability to withdraw from ATM or Cashback at grocery stores means this free and super simple service could be a huge help to folks who are unbanked.
Note: you have to make sure to “Boost” the place you are making a the purchase at through the app, so my guess is a big goal of Square’s with this promotion to increase use of the app. I hope the deals stay and keep coming.
Not only is it easy and free to sign up, my legacy referral code gets us both $10 the first time you send money with the app. Be sure to enter GWNMQWK in Settings>Referral Code when setting up.
The Grocery Card
The American Express Blue Cash Preferred Card Scores an Amazing 6% Cash Back at Grocery Stores.
3% Cash Back at gas stations is solid, as well. However with our Bank of America Cash Rewards, when we redeem to a BoA account they add 10%, effectively making gas on that card 3.3%.
Also worth noting is this is my only card with an annual fee. The nice statement credit for being a new member more than covered the first year, but I’ll assess my options before paying $95 for the card next year.
If you love statement credit offers, my referral also gets you $250 for spending $1000 in the first 3 months!
Cell Phone & Restaurants (or Another Category of Your Choice)
The American Express SimplyCash Plus Business card gets you 5% back on your cell phone and office stores, and 3% in a category of your choice.
This was both my first business card and first American Express card. From the outset I was impressed with their customer service and well-designed online banking. It initially was just paying our wireless bill, but after a couple other offers I had expired, choosing 3% on restaurants earned this a spot in my wallet.
With this referral, you can earn a $250 statement credit after your first $5000 in spending in the first 6 months, then another $250 if you spend $10000 in the first year.
5% in a Select Category, and Double Rewards Your First Year!
The Discover It Card has a different category each quarter to get a whopping 5%.
This was the card that got me stoked about getting rewards. It worked out perfectly that when we bought our home, it was on Home Improvement Stores, and Restaurants when we were paying our wedding caterer (a favorite restaurant). After your first year, getting all the bonuses again is pretty sweet. As of this writing, you’ll get 5% back on Amazon and Wholesale Clubs.
Discover’s excellent 100% U.S.-based customer service, and the fact that I’ve been able to accomplish anything I’ve needed to through secure online messaging (no phone calls!), encouraged me to open both an Online Checking (with rewards!) and Savings (with actual interest!) with them.
Be sure to use my referral link for your Discover It Card, thanks!
The Gas & Restaurant for the First Year
The Discover It chrome Card gets you 2% back at Gas Stations and Restaurants.
On its own, this is not a chart-topping card. However, since Discover gives you that same sweet double rewards deal after your first year as the last card, this is effectively 4% in those categories, a winner for that first year.
Also mentioning is every rewards card I’ve seen gives you 1% for “everything else” (in fact, that Discover Cashback Debit gets you 1%). The Discover Credit Cards double back means all those random purchases that don’t fall in a category still effectively gets you 2%. So both the Discover It and Discover It chrome cards were the multipurpose card.
If you drive a lot and go out to eat quite a bit, this one could be the one to sign up for. Or, you could do like me and wait until your Discover It first year was up and then get this to keep a 2% card around.
If It Ever Happens…Zero Is My Most Anticipated Card
You’ll need to get on the waiting list, and share with your friends to level up to 3% cash back on everything, and wait…
In fact, I believe I’ve been waiting more than two years now. There may be a stirring happening, though. The animations on their website have recently updated to show “MasterCard” instead of “Visa”, and they are more specific about the checking account interest rate. Unfortunately, it also looks like they removed any description of the card being metal…I was really looking forward to that.
This card is a very interesting San Francisco fintech startup. A cool concept: integrate a checking account and a credit card seamlessly within an app, to essentially get the user higher rewards without the risk of overspending. I think the potential is awesome. Since this is basically a secured credit card, I’m hoping it could be easier for folks with bad credit to be approved, and be able to build credit and gain rewards.
Might as well get on the list, it doesn’t hurt. If it’s everything they say it’s going to be, it will replace at least two cards in my wallet. If there’s anything I like more than adding a killer new card to my arsenal, it’s having less stuff in my pocket.
A Note About Credit Cards
I got my first two crappy cards when I was the fresh age of 18, and proceeded to max them out shortly thereafter when I was broke. Some other poor decisions ensued, and I was unable to drive for a bit at 19. I sold my truck and paid off my credit cards before doing anything dumb with the money, and didn’t go back for almost 10 years. It’s a very good thing I wasn’t using credit in my early 20's…
I burned through all the mistakes of my 20’s and survived, and had my eyes set on purchasing a home. So, to build credit, at 28 I signed up for my first credit card in nearly a decade. I actually laughed out loud when the banker said, “Congratulations, Mr Kiefer, you’ve been doing some great things with your credit!” — to my knowledge, I hadn’t used credit for several years.
The first thing I do when I activate a card is I set them up for autopay, and I don’t make purchases I cannot afford. I like to think I am not buying anything I wouldn’t if there were no incentives. I just do my regular spending, but I’m conscious of what card to use.
If you are more like me in my late teens, I would recommend sticking to the Square Cash App Card Boost, and getting on the list for the Zero Card. The Discover Debit rewards are nice, but I’m pretty certain you’ll need to get a Discover Credit card before you can open a bank account with them.
More than anything, scoring deals is a fun game for me. If it is for you, too, I hope you enjoyed this post and found some helpful information. If you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear from you.
