Can you get 5% Cash Back on EVERYTHING? No fees?

Within the past decade, the concept of cash back has become the norm with almost every new credit card offering some form of cash back. Most cash back cards, like the popular Capital One Quick Silver card, offer 1.5% on all purchases. The Citi Double Cash Card offers 2% cash back on all purchases. 1% when you buy and 1% when you pay your bills. Then there are the 5% quarterly bonus cards from Discover where the limited 5% cash-back categories change every 3 months. Finally, there are cards that offer 1% cash-back on all purchases, 3% cash-back from a small list of categories you choose, and 5% cash-back on an even smaller list of categories you can choose. There are lesser forms of this cash-back deal from Bank of America and other banks that offer 1%, 2%, and 3% in selectable categories.

Can you get more than 5%? Yes. American Express offers a 6% cash-back credit card. The catch is the high annual fee. You have to be a big spender to make back the annual fee in cash-back income. In my opinion, this card is not worth it unless you have a large family or spend more than $10,000 on groceries per year.

So how can you maximize your cash-back earnings without paying any annual fees? As you read on, note that I have no affiliation with any of these banks or credit cards.

The 5% Cash Back Credit Cards

For 5% cash-back on groceries, you can use the Chase Freedom credit cards. For the first 12 months, Chase Freedom credit cards offer 5% cash back on groceries, but that excludes Wal-Mart and Target. You have to buy from a dedicated grocery store like Weis, Aldi’s, Wegmans, Trader Joes, Giant, Path Mark, or Super Fresh to name a few. If you travel often, opt for the Chase Freedom Unlimited. With this card, you will get 5% cash back on travel purchased through Chase, 3% cash back on restaurants and drug stores, and 1.5% cash back on everything else. If you opt for the Chase Freedom Flex, you will have the additional 5% quarterly bonuses, but only 1% cash back on everything else. The maximum you can earn per quarter is $75. If you utilize the initial first year offer of 5% on groceries, you can earn $150 per quarter or up to $600 in the first year for just groceries.

The Discover It Credit Card offers rotating 5% quarterly bonuses on up to $1,500 of eligible purchases per quarter. As a Discover It holder, these are the categories I typically see year after year. They range from Costco to Amazon to Gas Stations to Wal-Mart to Restaurants to Groceries, but not in any specific order. You cannot select what bonus you get and you have to “Activate” the bonus every quarter to receive cash-back. You get 1% cash-back on other purchases. There is also a student version of this card with identical rewards. You can expect a maximum of $75 per quarter in rewards.

Fulton Bank’s Max Cash Preferred Card offers 5% cash back on two categories per quarter. You can choose from fast food, home utilities, cell phone providers, TV/Internet/Streaming services, and more. This card also offers 2% unlimited cash back on the category of your choice and 1% on everything else. The 2% categories include groceries, restaurants, gas stations and ground transportation. The maximum you can earn in 5% cash back is on $2,000 of combined eligible purchases per quarter. That is a maximum of $100 per quarter, but who spends $2,000 per quarter on fast food or utilities?

The Citi Cash Custom Card gives you 5% cash back on your highest eligible monthly expense (up to your first $500 spent) and 1% on everything else. The eligible categories for 5% cash back include Restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores, select travel, select transit, select streaming services, drugstores, home improvement stores, fitness clubs, and live entertainment. The Citi card chooses your 5% cash back category automatically based on your highest spend for that month. For most people, restaurants or groceries stores are where they spent the most money. If you spent $600 on groceries in March, you will get 5% cash-back on $500 worth of groceries. That is a maximum cash back of $25 per month or $75 per quarter. If your highest spend is $400 in gas, you will get 5% cash back ($20) on $400.

The table below shows what is currently published online as available 5% cash-back categories. The quarterly bonuses offered could change over time.

Conclusion

The original question of this post was if it was possible to get 5% cash back on everything. The answer is technically no. If you have these 4 credit cards, there is no guarantee that the quarterly bonus of each card will line up with each other. You may possibly have the same 5% cash back bonus on gas stations with two or three cards at once. If you want to simply your finances and go with one card, I think the best option of these four cards is the Citi Cash Custom card. It has all of the popular categories and it automatically chooses your highest category for you. There is no need to select or activate categories and nothing to review on a quarterly basis. If you don’t mind having more than one card, I would recommend getting the Discover It card combined with the automatic 5% cash back Citi Cash Custom, the 3% Bank of America Customizable Rewards card, and the Citi Double Cash card that offers 2% on everything else.

Enjoyed this post? Consider subscribing to our Monthly Newsletter.