Best Rewards Credit Cards for May 2023

The Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express offers particularly high cash-back rates across several major spending categories, particularly for a card with no annual fee. For groceries at U.S. supermarkets, clothes shopping at U.S. online retailers and gas at U.S. gas stations, the 3% cash-back rate is one of the best you’ll find regardless of annual fees (note that you’ll have a $6,000 spending cap per year for each of these rewards categories -- after which you’ll earn only 1% cash back.) Cash back is received in the form of Reward Dollars that can be redeemed as a statement credit.

Besides the rewards, this card also offers a very competitive welcome offer and an introductory APR on purchases and balance transfers that can help spare you from interest charges.

For more details, see our full review of the Blue Cash Everyday card.

Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.

The Citi Premier Card is a points-earning card that encompasses boosted rewards for several popular spending categories for a $95 annual fee. You earn 3x points at gas stations, restaurants, supermarkets, air travel and other hotels, and 1x points on all other purchases. Plus, for a limited time, earn a total of 10 ThankYou® points per $1 spent on hotel, car rentals and attractions (excluding air travel) booked on the Citi Travel℠ portal through June 30, 2024. When redeemed through the ThankYou Rewards portal for a statement credit, points are worth $0.01 each, netting you 3% back at gas stations if redeemed properly.

But you need to be careful in redeeming these rewards, as there are other ways to redeem your rewards that may net a lesser value. Check out the details in our full review of the Citi Premier Card.

With the Wells Fargo Active Cash Card, you don’t need to worry about activating rewards categories, rotating categories or which card gives you the most back. Things are kept simple via a 2% cash rewards rate on purchases -- and no annual fee. Most credit cards offer only a 1% blanket cash rewards rate if at all, so you’re in good shape with this card.

If you spend at least $500 in purchases on the card within the first three months of account opening, you earn a $200 cash rewards introductory bonus. Yet another perk is 0% introductory APR for the first 15 months from account opening on purchases and qualifying balance transfers (19.99%, 24.99%, or 29.99% variable APR thereafter).

Check out our full review of the Wells Fargo Active Cash Card for more details.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card offers the best rewards program of travel credit cards at the $95 price point, particularly if you’re willing to redeem your rewards for travel booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards. Chase Ultimate Rewards is Chase’s online platform where you can book hotels, flights, car rentals, experiences and more. When you redeem your points for travel through this portal, you’ll get a 25% redemption boost. This means your points would be worth 1.25 cents each, versus 1 cent each if redeemed for a statement credit instead.

Effectively, you can net 6.25% on travel booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards (5x points on travel booked through Chase), 3.75% for dining (3x points on dining), and at least 1.25% for other purchases (at least 1x points on other purchases) when redeeming for travel through the platform. You’ll also get other perks you can use for your travel like the welcome bonus, lack of foreign transaction fees and some travel insurance coverage.

For more details, see our full review of the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card.

The Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card* boasts a headline rate of 4% cash back on dining and entertainment, which includes bars and restaurants, as well as tickets to movies, plays, concerts, sporting events, tourist attractions, theme parks, aquariums, zoos, dance clubs, pool halls and bowling alleys. But the rewards don’t end with dining and entertainment: You can pick up another 3% cash back on your grocery store purchases (excluding superstores like Walmart and Target), and 1% on everything else. And as long as you spend $3,000 in the first three months after opening your account, Capital One will give you a $300 welcome bonus.

Read more: Best Restaurant Credit Cards

The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card* offers travelers the opportunity to earn a solid 2x miles per dollar for their purchases, in exchange for a $95 annual fee.

You can redeem your miles for past travel expenses or use them to fund airfare with Capital One’s travel partners. However, the credit card issuer isn’t partnered with many US airlines.

Along with its solid rewards rate and welcome bonus, the card features a number of good travel perks including an application fee credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck, primary auto rental insurance** and travel accident insurance**. If you’re looking for a travel credit card to add to your wallet, the Venture Rewards is a great option.

**Terms, conditions, and exclusions apply. Please refer to your Guide to Benefits for more details.

If you dine out often but don’t want to pay the Savor’s annual fee, consider the Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card*. Cardholders earn 3% cash back for dining, entertainment, popular streaming services and grocery stores (excluding superstores like Target and Walmart) -- making it a strong rewards card for people who like both going out and staying in.

It also features an introductory 0% APR offer for purchases and balance transfers for 15 months before the standard APR of 19.74% to 29.74% (variable) applies. That means you can earn rewards for your purchases and then pay off the balance while it accrues no interest, or use a balance transfer to get rid of some existing credit card debt.

Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.

The Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express is one of the best cards to choose if you’re looking to earn a good return on your necessary spending. It provides one of the highest cash back rates at U.S. supermarkets and for select U.S. streaming subscriptions, while still offering strong rewards at U.S. gas stations and on transit. Cash back is received in the form of Reward Dollars that can be redeemed as a statement credit.

It does carry an annual fee of $95 ($0 intro annual fee for the first year), but if you use the card for all of your grocery spending, it shouldn’t be hard at all to cover it. Just $1,600 in U.S. supermarket spending annually would net you $96 in rewards. If you take the card’s other bonus categories into account, you’ll earn even more than that.

In addition to its lucrative rewards program, it has a solid welcome offer as well as an intro APR period.

Get all the details in our Blue Cash Preferred review.

There are few cards on the market that offer the level of versatility of the Chase Freedom Flex*. Its rewards cover plenty of ground, featuring both bonus categories that rotate quarterly and static reward categories.

Its earning potential is hard to match by other credit cards with no annual fee. Some past rotating categories include purchases at grocery stores, Amazon and streaming services. The static categories include restaurants, drug stores and travel booked directly through Chase Ultimate Rewards. It even has an introductory APR offer to help you avoid interest charges.

It’s hard not to see the potential value in the Freedom Flex, especially for a card without an annual fee. You can learn more about it in our Chase Freedom Flex review.

The Discover it® Cash Back* has the potential to be highly rewarding, especially during your first year with the card. It offers 5% cash back (on up to $1,500 in purchases when you activate, then 1%) for categories that rotate quarterly, but Discover will essentially double the cash back you earn for your first year at the end of your first year with the card.

There’s an introductory APR offer and no foreign transaction fees to worry about. Combined with its strong 5% cash back rate and no annual fee, it’s easy to see why this is a good card to pick.

You can learn more in our Discover it Cash Back review.

If you’re looking for a general rewards cards with a $0 annual fee, consider the Wells Fargo Autograph℠ Card. It offers rewards for an impressive spread of purchases, including restaurants, travel, popular streaming services, gas stations and phone plans.

3x points per dollar is a hard rate to beat for a no annual fee card. It doesn’t offer the flexibility of a flat-rate credit card that earns rewards for every purchase, but if you spend a lot within its categories you’ll rake in the rewards. Cardholders can avoid interest charges thanks to its introductory APR offer on purchases, and there’s a few additional perks like auto rental collision damage waiver and cell phone protection.

Read more about it in our Wells Fargo Autograph review.

The Citi Custom Cash card offers more rewards flexibility than most credit cards, combined with one of the best cash-back rates for a credit card with no annual fee.

Cardholders can earn 5% cash back on up to the first $500 spent (then 1%) each billing cycle in your top eligible spend category. Eligible categories include restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores, select travel, select transit, select streaming services, drugstores, home improvement stores, fitness clubs and live entertainment. That means if your spending changes from month to month, you’ll still earn the most rewards.

Because of the spending cap, you can only earn $25 each month before the rewards rate drops to 1%. Consider combining it with another rewards card, like the Wells Fargo Active Cash, which earns 2% cash rewards for your purchases.

You can learn more in our Citi Custom Cash Card review.

The Amex Gold Card is best for cooks and restaurant aficionados who love to travel. It does have a high $250 annual fee, however, so it should only be considered by people who can get everything out of the card.

That said, the Gold Card does offer a sizable welcome offer and a few annual statement credits to help partially offset that annual fee. And while it does offer a good rewards rate, Amex Membership Rewards points will be more or less valuable depending on how they’re redeemed. For example, redeeming points for statement credits will net you 0.6 cents per point while using them to book flights through American Express Travel will net 1 cent per point.

You can learn more in our American Express Gold Card review.

Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.

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The Bank of America® Premium Rewards credit card offers more amenities than most travel cards at its $95 annual fee level.

You get up to a $100 annual credit for qualifying incidental airline fees -- like baggage fees or change fees -- and an application fee credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck. However, its rewards rate isn’t too impressive compared to other travel cards.

The Quicksilver Cash Rewards* card offers mediocre rewards compared to its top competitors but a combination of other benefits make it stand out.

There’s no annual fee, an introductory APR offer and a welcome bonus that shouldn’t be difficult to qualify for. You could even use it as a travel card thanks to its lack of foreign transaction fees.

You can read all the details in our Quicksilver Cash Rewards card review.

As the cheapest of premium travel cards at a $395 annual fee, the Venture X offers cardholders a suite of rewards, annual travel credits and airport lounge access.

If you’re willing to book your travel through the Capital One Travel booking platform, you’ll best be able to capitalize on the card features. You can earn an annual $300 travel statement credit for bookings through Capital One Travel, as well as flagship rewards rates on travel booked through Capital One Travel. The Venture X* also provides access to over 1,300 airport lounges and an application fee statement credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck. All in all, there is plenty of value to be had here for travelers who can use everything the card has to offer.

You can learn more about it in our Capital One Venture X card review.

Another high-end travel credit card, the Chase Sapphire Reserve offers versatile rewards redemption options and annual statement credits in exchange for a $550 annual fee.

Two of its best features are its 1:1 point transfer rate (1 point:1 partner mile/point) to Chase’s airline and hotel partners and its 50% redemption bonus for redeeming your rewards points for travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards. Both paths could yield more than your average rewards redemption rate.

The Sapphire Reserve also includes access to over 1,300 airport lounges across the country, up to $300 in statement credits each account anniversary year for travel purchases and an application fee statement credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck. But because of the high cost, this card should only be considered by travelers who can use everything it has to offer.

Learn more in our Chase Sapphire Reserve review.

The VentureOne Rewards* card suits the infrequent traveler as one of the best travel cards without an annual fee. It provides good rewards and even a handful of perks.

When you use your card, you’ll be covered by travel accident insurance** and auto rental collision damage waiver**. The lack of foreign transaction fees will save you money while abroad, but you’ll earn rewards whether you’re at home or away.

You can find out more information in our Capital One VentureOne Rewards review.

**Terms, conditions, and exclusions apply. Please refer to your Guide to Benefits for more details.

The Chase Freedom Unlimited offers a variety of reward categories plus no annual fee, a lucrative welcome bonus and an introductory APR offer.

With a handful of rewards categories, this card can net you a good yield across your spending. Its welcome bonus has one of the highest payouts compared to its spending requirement, too.

You can read more about it in our Chase Freedom Unlimited review.

The Citi Double Cash offers one of the best rewards rates for a credit card without an annual fee, but it doesn’t offer a welcome bonus like many of its closest competitors.

What it does offer is a good amount of time to pay down a transferred balance from another credit card. A balance transfer is a good way to pay down credit card debt if you’re struggling under high interest charges.

Learn more in our Citi Double Cash Card review.

Best suited to Delta flyers who travel at least a few times a year, the Delta SkyMiles Gold offers dining rewards and flight amenities.

It includes an annual $100 Delta flight statement credit every year you spend $10,000 or more with the card, a free checked bag and a 20% in-flight savings, but its strongest features are its competitive rewards rate and lucrative welcome offer. However, the value of your miles will vary depending on how they’re redeemed. Their primary use is to book airfare, so other forms of redemption may not provide the best return.

See if it’s the right card for you by reading our Delta SkyMiles Gold review.

Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.