Best Credit Cards for Retail Purchases (2021)
Easily Earn Points for Free Travel, Best Cards for Each Bonus Category
Make sure to read the tips and general advice in our Optimize Rewards by Using Different Cards for Different Purchases guide.
Not many credit cards offer bonus rewards on the stuff that you buy from stores—clothing, electronics, household goods, etc., as compared to cards that earn bonus rewards on travel, restaurants, groceries, and gas.
Because each of these cards works with a somewhat different set of stores, ambitious readers can take advantage of multiple cards. A good place to start is the U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve card for mobile wallet purchases and possibly the Bank of America Cash Rewards card for online purchases.
If you like to shop at Target, don’t forget about their DEBIT card. It earns 5% cashback and because it is a debit card, it isn’t competing with other credit cards for a spot on your credit report.
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Cards that work with many different stores
Only a few credit cards earn bonus rewards on purchases from a wide variety of stores.
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The Altitude Reserve Card earns a high reward rate at any store where you can use a mobile wallet. It earns 3x Altitude Reserve points, worth 4.5 cents per dollar, with any business that takes mobile wallet payments—in store, in app, or online. You can use it with a variety of online and brick & mortar retailers. And if you have Samsung Pay and one of many Samsung phones or watches, you can use it any store that has a swipe machine. The Altitude Reserve also gives you 12 Gogo inflight internet passes per year, limited access to airport lounges, a good reward rate on travel purchases, and several other benefits. $400 annual fee, but an automatic $325 travel and dining credit brings the effective cost down to $75/year. | |
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The Bank of America Cash Rewards Card can earn 3-5.25% back on online shopping. This card is a "pick your own category" card, where one of the best options is "Online Shopping". The regular rate is 3%, but if you are status in BOA's Preferred Rewards program, you can boost the rate as high as 5.25%. Unfortunately, it is capped at $2,500 in bonus category spending each quarter and the online shopping category competes with the card's other available categories. No annual fee. | |
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The Rakuten Card earns 3x Membership Rewards points on many online purchases. The way this works is a little complicated. Rakuten (eBates) is an online shopping portal. If you use the site and click on the store you want to visit (rather than going directly to the store's website), you'll earn extra rewards on your purchases. If you then use the Rakuten card to finish the purchase, you'll earn an extra 3x Membership Rewards points on your purchase. For example, if the shopping portal provided 4x points on the purchase, you'd receive a total of 7x points. But if you use another portal or shop at the store directly, you'll only earn 1 point from the card. In addition, it is one of the few cards that still provides price and return protection. Automatic Protection for the Things You Buy with Your Credit Card. | |
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The Chase Freedom Unlimited and Chase Freedom Flex cards earn 3x Ultimate Rewards points at drugstores. However, to transfer your points to Hyatt or frequent flyer programs or cash them out at more than 1 cent each, you'll need to also have a Sapphire Reserve, Sapphire Preferred, or Ink Preferred card. With the ability to transfer to partners, we value Ultimate Rewards points at 1.7 cents per point, which works out to 5.1 cents per dollar. | |
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If you can get it, the Morgan Stanley Amex Card earns good rewards at select department stores. It earns 2x Membership Rewards points, valued at 3 cents per dollar, for purchases made at about a dozen of the largest department stores. It is also a decent card for airfare and restaurants rewards. Comes with return protection, but not price protection. No annual fee, but you need to have a Morgan Stanley account to get this card. On the other hand, if you are willing and able to get business cards, you can get the same 2x Membership Rewards point with the Blue for Business Card. | |
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The U.S. Bank Cash+ Card can provide bonus rewards for different categories of stores. It earns 5% back on up to $2,000 of purchases per quarter on two categories of your choice. Some of the good “shopping” options include: “select” clothing stores (about a dozen big chains), electronic stores, sporting goods stores, department stores (not including discount stores), and furniture stores. You can switch every quarter, so you could get back 5% on furniture purchases in a quarter that you are planning to buy a sofa, then 5% on electronics purchases in a quarter where you are buying an iPad. The maximum benefit from this card works out to $100/quarter. No annual fee. | |
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The Vantage West Connect Card can expand your “select a category” bonus rewards. This card works like the U.S. Bank Cash+ Card (above), except that you only choose one category and the quarterly cap is $1,500. Shopping options include department stores, hardware and home improvement stores, pharmacies and drug stores, or wholesale stores. If you get both cards, you can choose a total of three categories every quarter. No annual fee. | |
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The Huntington Voice Card is another option that works like the Cash+ and Vantage Connect cards. With this card, you can choose a single category to get 3% (not 5%) back on up to $2,000 of purchases per quarter. Comes with price protection, but not return protection. No annual fee. The business version is even better, as it earns 4% back on up to $7,000 of purchases per quarter. | |
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The Synovus Travel and Cashback cards are other cards that works like the Cash+ card. Each card lets you choose one category per quarter where you'll earn 3x points on up to $3,000 of purchases per quarter. The Cashback Card has no annual fee. The Travel Card has a $50 annual fee but gives you a 20% rebate when you use your points for travel purchases, increasing the cash-back rate to 3.6% and gives you a 6% reward rate on your first $5,000 of travel purchases each year. You need to have an account at one of Synovus’ Banks in the Southeast US to get these cards. |
Rewards at Amazon.com
For many people, an ever-increasing amount of their spending occurs at Amazon.com. You can earn a lot of extra reward points with a card that earns good bonus rewards on your Amazon purchases.
Since Amazon gift cards are so widely available and can be immediately added to your Amazon account balance, they are another option for earning rewards on your Amazon purchases. Purchase Amazon gift cards at stores where you are earning good bonus reward rates from other cards, such as grocery stores or office supply stores. Then use them, instead of a credit card, for your Amazon purchases.
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There are several flavors of Amazon Cards that offer 5% back, at least for Amazon Prime customers. Of these, we usually recommend the Prime Store Card, because it doesn't take up one of your Chase or Amex slots and participates in most of Amazon's cardholder promotions. However, unlike the other cards, it can't be used at Whole Foods. It also doesn't have a signup offer and tends to come with fairly low credit limits. The Chase Amazon Prime Rewards Card comes with a $70 Amazon gift card as the standard signup bonus, earns 5% at Whole Foods, and also participates in most Amazon promotions. Amex's Amazon Prime Business Card usually provides a slightly higher signup bonus and credit limits, earns 5% at Whole Foods, but often doesn't participate in cardholder promotions. | |
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The Affinity Federal Credit Union Card gives 5% back on bookstore purchases, including Amazon. "Bookstore" bonus rewards are capped to the first $3,500 in spending each month. The card also provides bonus rewards on a rotating set of other categories. Along with the fact that it doesn't take up one of your Chase or Amex Slots, this makes it a great alternative to the "official" Amazon Cards. Anyone can become a member for $5, but it can sometimes be hard to get approved for this card. No annual fee. | |
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You can use the Vantage West Connect Card to get 5% back at Amazon, but it is better to use it for one of its other categories. Amazon is one of this card's category choices for 5% cash back, However, if you want to optimize your rewards, you are better off choosing one of this card’s other categories and getting a different card for Amazon spending. In addition, the amount you can earn on this card is capped every quarter. |
Rewards at Walmart
The Capital One Walmart Card offers 5% back on everything you buy from Walmart Online, through the app, and via grocery pickup or delivery.
When you buy stuff in the store, you'll only receive 2% back, but you'll get 5% back on in-store purchases during the first year (instead of a more traditional signup bonus).
Drugstores
The Freedom Unlimited Card and Freedom Flex Card earn 3x Ultimate Rewards points (valued at 5.1%) on drugstore purchases. Drugstores are also a possible 3-5.25% category on the BOA Cash Rewards Card and as a 3% category on the Barclays AARP Essential Rewards Card.
Adding rotating category cards to the mix
You can increase your reward earning even further by taking advantage of “rotating category” cards. Every quarter, these cards offer a different set of bonus categories. Unlike the US Bank Cash+, Vantage West Connect, Huntington Voice, and Synovus cards described above, you don’t get to pick the category that matches your plans. Instead, the credit card company announces the bonus categories for each quarter, and you need to plan around their schedule.
Given the caps on earnings for each of these cards, the good reward earning rates you may already have for some of the categories, the likelihood that you won’t be able to take full advantage of the available categories every quarter, and the added hassle of tracking all of this, we generally don’t recommend that many people bother with these cards.
However, you can’t beat the 5 - 10% cash back rate. So, if you are willing to spend the extra effort and you love the feeling of earning a fantastic reward rate, you should get one or more of these cards. Most of us have at least one. For more information about how to maximize these cards, see Earn 5-10% in Rewards with Rotating Category Cards
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The Chase Freedom Card earns 5x Ultimate Rewards points on up to $1,500 per quarter on a set of changing categories. Assuming you have a Chase Sapphire (or Ink Preferred) card, you can transfer the points to airline and hotel partners to get a value of 8.5 cents per dollar. No annual fee. | |
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The Discover It Card earns 5% cash back on up to $1,500 per quarter. New cardholders get double the rewards for the first year, giving you a 10% reward rate. No annual fee. | |
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Citibank Dividend Card. Earns 5% cashback on a rotating set of categories. Bonus rewards are capped at $300 per year—it doesn't have separate caps for each quarter. You can no longer sign up for this card. No annual fee. | |
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The Nusenda Credit Union Platinum Rewards Card earns 5 points on up to $1,500 per quarter, just like the Discover It Card, but doesn’t have a first-year bonus. No annual fee. |
Rewards at office supply stores with small business credit cards
Several small business credit cards earn bonus rewards at office supply stores, and on telecommunication services. If you have even the smallest business, you can get one of these cards. Unlock Extra Reward Points with Business Credit Cards.
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The Chase Ink Cash Card earns 5x Ultimate Rewards points, valued at 7.5 cents per dollar, on your first $25,000 in office supply store or telecom service spending. It is the current king of office supply store cards. You’ll also earn 2x Ultimate Rewards points on gas and restaurants, making it the only card (personal or business) that earns bonus Ultimate Rewards points on gas. No annual fee. | |
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The Altitude Reserve Card is a personal credit card that earn 4.5%, whenever you can pay with a mobile wallet, like Apple Pay (and on any travel purchase). Office Depot, Office Max, and Staples all accept mobile wallet payments. And if you have Samsung Pay, you should be able to use it at any credit card swipe machine. The card also comes with 12 Gogo inflight Wi-Fi passes, 4 free visits to an airport lounge, and some other benefits. $400 annual fee but comes with an automatic $325 travel credit that reduces the effective cost to $75. |
If you have Platinum Honors for Business Status and choose Office Supplies as your primary category, the BOA Business Cash Rewards Card earns 5.25% (Platinum Honors status on your personal accounts does not provide this boosted reward rate).
Store-specific cards
Some of the largest stores have their own “merchant cards”. These aren’t Visa, Mastercard, or American Express cards that you can use at any of millions of businesses, but rather a credit card that you can only use at the affiliated store(s).
- In general, we don’t recommend getting any of these cards. They require a credit pull just like any other credit card. If you are going to apply for a new card, you are usually better off getting a card that has a great signup bonus, a valuable perk, or a great rewards rate for an entire category of spending, rather than a card that just has benefits at a single merchant.
- However, if you spend a lot with a particular merchant, it might be worthwhile. This is just a sampling of the many merchant cards that are available, but it includes many of the more attractive candidates.
- Target Cards. 5% off plus better free shipping benefits and extended return privileges. The interesting thing with Target, is that you can get the same benefits from either their debit or credit card. So, if you get the debit card version, there is no impact to your credit report and you’ll still get all the same benefits. Card website.
- Lowe’s card. 5% off. Can be a good option for gift cards or if you have a major renovation project. However, you won't earn rewards when you use any discounts or coupons, so this is less attractive than it first seems. Card website.
- Macy’s Card. Assuming you are spending $1,200 per year or more, you’ll get 12 “Star Pass Mailings” per year, which usually include four coupons, such as $10 off a $30 purchase or 20%-off clothes and regularly-priced items. Plus, if you pay a one-time fee of $25, you’ll get 10% cashback on some, but not all, purchases. Card website.
- Gap Card. 5% back at Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, and Athleta, and 10% back at Gap on Tuesdays. This one really is a Visa, not a merchant card. If you earn 5,000 points in a year ($1,000 in purchases or less), you’ll get a 20% points bonus, free online shipping with no minimum, free basic alterations at Banana Republic, and a “choose your own sale day” during the following year. Card website.
- TJX Mastercard. 5% back at T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, Home Goods, and Sierra Trading Post, plus 10% off your first online purchase. This is a Mastercard, not a merchant card, but you would still only use it at the associated stores. Card website.
