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Cash back credit cards can help consumers practice responsible spending while earning a little extra for their efforts when used properly. It wasn’t long ago that the best cash back credit cards were offering rewards as high as 5% for all purchases, but that is unfortunately no longer the case.

Today’s cash back credit cards are all similar in nature, generally offering 1% cash back on all purchases. However, if you look hard enough, you’ll find a number of credit cards with higher cash rebates than just 1%. This article lists the best cash back credit cards you can find today, and I update the article when there is new information to share. Along with a brief description of each of these best cards, I have included the cash back percentages and any tiers or restrictions, so there are no surprises if your cash back credit card isn’t earning as much as you first thought. Keep in mind that in order to make credit card with rewards program worthwhile, you must avoid interest charges and late fees by paying your bill on time and in full every single month.

Editor’s choice

Chase Freedom® Visa - $200 Bonus Cash BackChase Freedom® Visa – $200 Bonus Cash Back. The Chase Freedom Visa – $200 Bonus Cash Back offers a standard 1% cash back on all purchases, as well as the opportunity to earn 5% cash back on select purchases throughout the year, subject to a maximum. Every three months, the categories in which you can earn 5% cash back change, so for example January through March could be gas stations and Amazon.com, April through June might be grocery stores and movie theaters, July through September could be gas stations and restaurants while October through December could be hotels, airlines, Best Buy and Kohl’s. In order to qualify for the 5% cash back, you must have an account in good standing and follow the terms and conditions set forth by Chase. Categories will be announced to cardholders before they happen, so look out for updates from Chase.

The Chase Freedom® Visa – $200 Bonus Cash Back also offers up to an additional 10% cash back (up to 11% total cash back) on purchases made at select merchants when you shop online through the Chase website. The card also carries no annual fee. To qualify for the $200 cash back, you must spend only $500 during the first three months, making it the easy choice for best cash back credit card.

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The Best Credit Cards 2012

This article was written by in Credit, Reviews. 11 comments.

If you follow credit card offers like I do, you might have noticed that this past year was particularly exciting. Credit card issuers have been heavily marketing products in search of customers, spending more advertising dollars per customer than they have in recent years, and increasing rewards for the best customers. For individuals who have mastered their own financial situation, this has paid off with cash back incentives and free flights through travel rewards, while customers who have just begun the path to getting out of debt could use 0% APR balance transfer offers to save money.

Not everyone benefits from the best credit cards, however. It’s easy to fall into issuers’ traps. Don’t try to beat the credit card issuers at their games unless you’re prepared to lose.

2012 will be an interesting year. It’s impossible to predict specifically what will happen within the credit card industry, but you can be sure the issuers will continue to compete aggressively for new business and offer the best deals to customers with the best credit. If trends continue, here are the offers I expect to be the best credit cards of 2012.

The best cash back credit card of 2012

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I received an advance copy of Carl Richards’ book scheduled for wide release on January 3, The Behavior Gap: Simple Ways to Stop Doing Dumb Things with Money. Carl is a Certified Financial Planner who began writing articles — and sketching on napkins — at his own website, behaviorgap.com, and now does the same for the New York Times. His napkin sketches stemmed from his love and the effectiveness of using whiteboards to illustrate financial concepts for his clients.

Earlier this week, I spoke to Carl for an upcoming episode of the Consumerism Commentary Podcast, hosted by Bryan J Busch. Listen to this podcast when it airs a week from tomorrow to learn more about the new book — one of the few new personal finance books I was genuinely excited to read. In addition to concepts from the book, we also discussed Carl’s experience losing his house due to his choice to buy into a real estate market bubble that soon imploded.

Napkin SketchCarl has offered ten 8×10 prints of one of his most relevant sketches to Consumerism Commentary readers and listeners. The sketch explains who to determine what issues are the most important, whether in financial planning or in life. It is a Venn diagram emphasizing the intersection of things that matter and things you can control. The print is on high-quality, thick card stock.

Here’s how to get a free 8×10 print of the napkin sketch

In order to receive a free print, email book@behaviorgap.com with a subject line indicating you’re participating in the giveaway from Flexo or Consumerism Commentary, and include in the email a proof of purchase. The proof can be a copy of your order notice from Amazon, a picture of your receipt, or anything else that shows you’ve purchased the book. Carl’s team will contact the first ten people directly to ensure the prints find their way to the winners’ hands.

Continue reading for some of the best personal finance articles I discovered this week. Read the full article →

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From a branding perspective, each credit card issuer looks to group similar offers with a catchy name, helping consumers to immediately identify a type of credit card with the associated benefits. Chase offers quite a few slightly different cards under the Chase Freedom banner, and while the core features are the same, the offers differ in several details.

All Chase Freedom configurations include one percent cash back on all purchases, beginning immediately. This cash back is earned in the form of points. For example, if you spend one dollar, you earn one point. If you buy two CDs from Amazon.com for $10 each and return one, you earn ten points, not twenty, because the points are based on the net spending. You can cash in the points you earn to receive a check at the rate of one dollar per hundred points. With 2,000 points accrued in your account, a result of spending $2,000, you could request a check or statement credit for $20.

Chase FreedomIn addition to the guaranteed one percent cash back, there are several ways to earn more points.

  • 5% opportunity. If you enroll once a quarter in Chase’s five percent cash back program, you will earn an extra four points per dollar (five points total) in certain spending categories, like gas or restaurants on up to $1,500 spend each quarter. Keep in mind that each merchant must classify the retail establishment correctly in order for Chase to trigger the five percent bonus.
  • 10% opportunity. If you shop online through Chase’s portal, you can receive up to ten percent cash back in addition to the cash back above.

In its television commercials, Chase compares the Freedom card with “the largest cash back card,” a thinly-veiled reference to the Discover More card. One of the points for comparison in the commercial is the fact that the Discover More card offers the five percent cash back tier on up to only $300 in spending. The most you can earn in one year from this benefit is $15, although Discover is increasing this limit. Chase, on the other hand, allows you to earn five percent cash back on up to $1,500 in spending, resulting in a maximum benefit of $75. There was a time when the best cash back cards offered unlimited five percent back on all purchases, but that isn’t the case today.

The points you earn in the Chase Freedom program can be redeemed at Chase’s Ultimate Rewards center. You can trade points in for a check or statement credit as mentioned above and get the typical exchange rate ($1 for 100 points), or you can cash in your points for other benefits like gift cards, sometimes at a better exchange rate.

Chase Freedom comes with some important fees to consider: Read the full article →

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Your Relationship With Money

by Flexo

Have you ever had a boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, or wife you want to see again the moment he or she is out of your sight? Has love ever felt like a drug, something you need every minute, and you need more each time? Have you ever failed to understand why you constantly desire a lover ... Continue reading this article…

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Tame Your Achilles’ Heel for Financial Freedom

by Ginger
Achilles' Heel

This is a guest article by Ginger, owner and curator of Girls Just Wanna Have Funds. She works as a psychotherapist with clients with whom money is a frequent topic. When people think about financial freedom, most tend to think of it as this abstract state of being since it’s something that has yet to ... Continue reading this article…

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Saving $300,000 By Age Eighteen

by Flexo
Eighteen

CNN Money is featuring stories from six young Americans, all of whom have managed to save substantial amounts of money as kids. When I was a teenager, saving money was never a priority for me. I understood the concepts, but I was more concerned with other things in my life: my hobbies, activities, school, and ... Continue reading this article…

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How to Spend Money on Fun

by Flexo
Fun Snowboarding

The point of accumulating and saving money is not to die with the most money in the bank. Yes, it can be helpful to your heirs to leave a fortune for the next generation, but not at the expense of living a fulfilled life yourself. There are many opinions about what it means to live ... Continue reading this article…

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