One of the most ingenious, insidious, and powerful inventions of modern capitalism has been the rewards system for credit cards. It is easy to convince ourselves that we are getting a good deal by buying certain things for extra points or cash back when we are really just spending more money and being given crumbs in return.

One person wanted to know how they could maximize their cash-back potential. They were aware of the most famous and popular cards, but wanted to learn about any less well-known cards that they could sign up for. They took their questions to the people in the r/CreditCards subreddit. Here is what they said.

The Question

The post author said that they have heard of the Citi Custom Cash card, the Chase Freedom Flex card, the US Bank Cash+ card, and the Discover cash back card options. However, they wanted to know if there were any other cards that offered 5% cash back, and which one was ‘best’ overall. They did not provide any criteria by which they wanted to measure the quality of the features or how to judge which one was best, instead leaving it up to the commenters to interpret the author’s question in their own way.

Please remember that all the advice in the original thread, and this article, are opinions. You should not take it as legal financial advice.

The Community Response

As common sense would lead us to conclude, many of the responders pointed out that there is no objectively “best” cash back card, as the rewards you earn and the amount of cash back you can earn depend heavily on what you spend your money on.

For example, the American Express Blue Cash Preferred card offers 6% cash back on groceries; the U.S. Bank Shopper Cash card offers 6% on two retail stores you can choose; the Chase Ink Business Cash card offers 5% at office supply stores and internet services; the handful of Amazon cash back cards offer up to 5% cash back on all Amazon purchases and at Whole Foods, and there are many store-specific credit cards that offer cash back at those stores, and many others offer high levels of cash back at gas stations, airlines, and more.

However, some of these cards require a monthly membership fee, or a certain level of purchases to be made, or have some other limits or offer lower cash back at other locations that the other cards.

As an example, the Chase Amazon Visa card doesn’t have a monthly fee, but if you have an Amazon Prime account, then you earn higher levels of cashback (5%) than if you have a free account (3%). So, essentially, it is a hidden monthly fee. Also, the cashback is capped after a certain point. These are things you might miss at first glance, so it certainly pays (in more ways than one) to look at the fine print behind the high rates.

If you are tempted by the offer of high cash-back rewards, you should compare the monthly fee and the additional benefits of the card you are interested in with similar cards. You might discover that based on your monthly spending in particular categories, a card that offers less cash back with no monthly fee is better for you.

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