Over the past year the credit card industry has undergone many changes, as it recovers from the recession and adapts to the new reform laws. Among those changes are cash back credit cards – many of them have changed their rewards programs, usually for the worse. With the new year 2011 quickly approaching, it’s a good time to re-evaluate your credit cards to see if they’re still the best. Here are my recommendations for the top cash back credit cards in 2011:
#1 – Chase Freedom
This cash back credit card offers 5% in rotating categories that change every quarter, as well as 1% on just about everything else. The card has no annual fee.
The only drawback on the Freedom card is that the amount of 5% cash back you can earn is capped. At the time of writing, the cap was $1,500 for the current quarter… this means you will only earn 5% for the first $1,500 spent in the reward categories. Even taking that into account, this is still a great choice for sure.
#2 – Citi Forward Card
Citi used to have several attractive reward cards on the market, but over the years they have scaled back the amount of rewards they give. However just take a look at any Citi Forward card review and you will see it still offers a very enticing rewards program.
They give you 5 Citi ThankYou points for every dollar spent on restaurants, fast food, bookstores, movies, and music stores, plus 1 ThankYou point for every dollar spent elsewhere. You can earn up to 75,000 points in a calendar year. For a full explanation of their program check out my Citi Forward card review.
#3 – Costco Credit Card
If you are a Costco member, then the Costco credit card from American Express is definitely something you should consider. It has no annual fee and gives lucrative rewards. You get 3% at restaurants, 3% on gas (on gas purchases of up to $3,000 per year), 2% on travel, and 1% on everything else.
In addition to the generous rewards offered on the Costco credit card, they also give you quite a few benefits which are unique to American Express – i.e. purchase protection, travel accident insurance, and extended warranty service. Another reason the Costco credit card is a good idea is because Costco only accepts American Express cards for payment.
Conclusion?
Over the past 12 months we have seen cash back credit cards get watered down quite a bit. Fortunately, there are still several attractive options out there.
This entry was posted on Saturday, October 30th, 2010 at 5:50 pm and is filed under Cash Back Credit Cards, Credit Card. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.