Credit Cards that Offer Bonus Rewards on Less Common Categories (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.
Most people start with credit cards that earn bonus rewards for the most popular categories: Restaurants, Travel, Groceries, and Gas. To earn every possible bonus reward point, you should also consider adding cards that earn bonus rewards for less common categories.
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“Pick your own category” cards
- Several credit cards offer high bonus reward rates on your choice of one or two categories. Reward rates are usually very high (typically around 5%), but bonus rewards are capped to a certain amount of spending each quarter (usually around $2,000).
- You get to choose your bonus category from a set of available options. While many of these cards offer great rates on common categories like restaurants and gas, you can get somewhat similar rates from many other cards. For example, while the U.S. Bank Cash+ Card can earn 5% rewards on Fast Food and the Bank Of America Cash Rewards Card can earn up to 5.25% on "Dining", you can already earn 3x Ultimate Rewards points (5.1%) in the category with the Sapphire Reserve Card and 4x Membership Rewards points (6%) with the Amex Gold Card.
- You are usually better off choosing more unique categories like the Cash+ Card's "Clothing Stores" or "Fitness Centers" or the BOA Cash Card's "Online Shopping".
- You can change your bonus categories every quarter (or every month). This allows you to plan out your purchases to maximize the quarterly caps. For example, if you are planning to purchase some furniture, you can wait until the following quarter or month, switch your category to "Furniture Stores", and earn around 5% in rewards on your purchase.
- It is often possible to get more than one copy of these cards. This allows you to earn the higher reward rate on a broader set of categories or an increased amount of quarterly spending within the same category.
Available "Pick your category" cards
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The U.S. Bank Cash Plus Card is the "standard" pick your own category card. It has been around for the longest, is available throughout the whole country, and unlike the other cards, it allows you to choose two categories, instead of one. It earns 5% cash back, capped to $2,000 of bonus category spending each quarter. Inconveniently, U.S. Bank forces you to re-select your categories every quarter and you won't earn bonus rewards on those categories until you do so. No annual fee. | |
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The Citi Custom Cash Card has the highest potential reward rate of any pick your own category card. It earns 5x ThankYou points which normally would only be worth 5%. However, if you also have the Citi Premier or Prestige Card, you can convert the points to airline miles. In that case, we value the points at 1.5 cents each, which works out to 7.5%. And if you have the Citi Rewards+ Card, you'll get a 10% boost on your redemptions, making the points worth even more. Unlike most of the other cards, you don't need to choose a category each billing period. Instead, your top eligible category is chosen automatically. Bonus rewards are capped to $500 spending per statement period and it is hard to use less common categories to maximize your rewards. | |
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If you can keep $100,000 of investment or retirement money at Merrill Lynch, the Bank of America Cash Rewards Card is another good option. Normally, it earns 3% on your choice of categories. But, if you have a total of $100,000 or more in combined assets at Merrill Lynch and Bank of America, you'll receive "Platinum Honors" status in their Preferred Rewards program and get a 75% bonus on your credit card reward points. This increases the effective reward rate to 5.25%. The Cash Rewards Card has a higher quarterly limit ($2,500 of spending) and is the only "pick your own category card" that lets you change your category every month, instead of every quarter. But many people just keep it locked to "online shopping" to earn bonus points on everything they buy online. No annual fee. | |
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The Venmo Card earns 3% back on whichever of its categories you use the most each month. Unlike the other pick-your-own-category cards, you don't need to choose the category ahead of time. But since the earning rate is lower on your other categories, the ideal way to use the card is to only spend on a single category in any given statement period. Rewards are capped at $10,000 per year in spending in your top two categories each statement. | |
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The Vantage West Connect Card is available to people who live in certain parts of Arizona. It earns 5% in a single category of your choice but is capped at only $1,500 of spending each quarter. No annual fee. | |
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The Huntington Voice Cards are lower value options and require you to live near a branch. The personal version earns 3% in one category (up to $2,000 per quarter) and the business version earns 4% in one category (on up to $7,000 per quarter). But you can only apply in one of their branches located in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. No annual fee. | |
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The Synovus cards are similar to the Huntington Voice cards, but for people in the Southeast. Cards are only available in branches located in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Depending on the card, you'll earn 3x points or 3% cash back and rewards are capped at $3,000 per quarter. The cashback and point-based reward versions have no annual fees. The Synovus Travel version has a $50 annual fee, but gives you a 20% rebate on travel purchase with points (3.6% cash-back rate), and earns 5x points (6% cash-back rate) on travel purchases as well. No annual fee. |
Available categories
| U.S. Bank Cash+ (Choose Two) |
Citi Cash (Choose One) |
BOA Cash (Choose One) |
Venmo {Focus on One) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ground transportation
TV, Internet, and Streaming Sporting goods stores Select Clothing stores Gym / Fitness centers Department stores Cellphone service Home utilities Furniture stores Electronic stores Fast food Movie theaters |
Restaurants
Gas Stations Grocery Stores Select Travel Select Transit Select Streaming Services Drugstores Home Improvement Stores Fitness Clubs Live Entertainment |
Online shopping
Travel (includes rent!) Home improvements & Furnishings Drug stores Dining Gas |
Telecom, Streaming, Subscriptions & Utilities
Health & Beauty Transportation Travel Grocery Entertainment Dining & Nightlife Gas |
| Vantage West (Choose One) |
Huntington Voice (Choose One) |
Synovus (Choose One) |
|---|---|---|
| Travel
Restaurants Utilities In-store warehouse purchases Department stores Hardware & home improvement stores Charitable organizations Pharmacies & drug stores Amazon.com |
Gas
Travel & entertainment Restaurants Discount & warehouse stores Grocery stores Utilities & office supplies Electronics, computers & camera stores Department, apparel & sporting goods stores Auto parts & service Home improvement stores |
Business services
Entertainment Dining Gas Grocery Healthcare Maintenance Retail Travel Utilities |
The Chase Freedom, Discover It, Citi Dividend, and Nusenda Platinum Rewards card also earn 5-10% in rewards. However, these cards work with a set of rotating categories that are defined by the credit card company, rather on categories you choose. Each limits the bonus to the first $1,500 in spending per quarter. When coupled with the Sapphire or Ink card, the Chase Freedom card can earn 5 transferable Ultimate Rewards points, rather than 5% cash back, making it considerably more valuable than the other options. Earn 5-10% in Rewards with Rotating Category Cards.
Rent
If your landlord "doesn't take credit cards" or charges an extra credit card fee, it can be worthwile to pay your rent using Bilt. If you get the Bilt credit card, you can earn rewards when you pay your rent, even if your landlord doesn't normally accept credit card payments. Even better, you can convert your Bilt points into Hyatt points, or into AA, Air Canada, Emirates, Air France/KLM, Turkish, Virgin Atlantic or Hawaiian miles. You should be able to get values of over 1.5 cents per point and there is no annual fee.
If your landlord DOES take credit cards, you should be able to do better by paying your rent with a great general purpose reward card.
Even though the charge will show up on your credit card, Bilt will actually pay your landlord either by check or via a special relationship with some of the nation's largest corporate landlords.
The Bilt card also offers one of the most valuable reward rates on restaurant spending—3x points, valued at 5.1%.
When they launched, they had a confusing system where you needed to meet certain thresholds of non-rent spending in order to unlock different reward rates for your rent purchases. Fortunately, this system has been scrapped, but you still need to make at least 5 purchases per month and you are limited to rewards on $50,000 of rent payments per year. Meeting the minimum charge threshold.
As an alternative, you could leverage a service like Plastiq to use your rent payments to meet minimum spending requirements and earn extra credit card signup bonuses. Rather than earning 1x rewards with Bilt, you could pay your rent with a bill paying service. With Plastiq, you'll pay 2.85% on the rent amount (rather than earning 1.7%), but doing so will enable you to earn some extra, very-valuable signup bonuses every year. Pay Any Bill with a Credit Card (To Increase Your Credit Card Spending).
If your landlord takes debit cards, you may also be able to pay your rent through PayPal Key, which gives you a virtual debit card number that you can link to pretty much any Visa or Mastercard credit card. For what is likely a very low debit card fee, you can rewards on your choice of credit card. PayPal Key Info.
Entertainment
The Capital One SavorOne Card earns 3% on Entertainment and has no annual fee. The $95 annual fee (waived first year) Capital One Savor Rewards earns 4%. Points can be worth even more if you can transfer them to a card that earns Capital One "miles" and from there to one of Capital One's airline or hotel partners.
After the first year, you'd need to spend over $9,500 on entertainment per year for the extra rewards on the Savor Card to be worth more than its annual fee. If you don't have a better option for restaurant spending, such as the Sapphire Reserve, the $9,500 of spending can be spread across the dining and entertainment categories. Best Credit Cards for Restaurant Spending.
If you are interested in the Savor cards, your best option is usually to apply for the Savor Rewards card, collect the more generous signup bonus and the extra 1% for the first year, and then "downgrade" to the SavorOne version.
Telecommunications
There are several business cards that earn bonus rewards on telecommunication services, including cell phone, internet, regular phone service, and sometimes cable TV. The only personal cards with bonus category rates are some of the pick you own category cards listed above and the AT&T Access Card which only earns rewards with AT&T).
The Amex Hilton, Marriott, and Delta Business cards provide a monthly wireless credit of $10-20 every month in 2021 (personal cards receive dining credits instead). These need to be activated as Amex Offers for each card and don't apply to cards that were opened in 2021. This is easy free money off your bill, but may disqualify you from the free cell phone insurance that could be available from paying the entire bill with one of your other cards.
- The Ink Cash Card earns 5x Ultimate Rewards, valued at 7.5 cents per dollar, on internet, cable, and phone services (as well as office supply stores).
- The Ink Preferred Card offers 3x Ultimate Rewards, valued at 4.5 cents per dollar, on internet, cable, and phone services (as well as travel, shipping, and social media advertising).
- If you have Platinum Honors for Business Status and choose TV/telecom & wireless as your primary category, the BOA Business Cash Rewards Card earns 5.25%, but you probably want to choose a different primary category (Platinum Honors status on your personal accounts does not provide this boosted reward rate).
- A few other business cards offer bonus rewards in the 3 cents per dollar range. For example, the Wyndham Business Card earns 5x Wyndham points (valued at 4%) and the U.S. Bank Business Cash Reward Card earns 3%.
Home Improvement
The Farmers Visa card earns 3x points for home improvement (and for Farmers insurance products). The Lowes Card earns 5% cash back at Lowes (but can't be combined with discounts and coupons).
Insurance
The State Farm Premier Cash Rewards Card from U.S. Bank earns 3% on up to $4,000 in insurance premium payments per year (from any insurance company). This works out to a maximum benefit of $40 over just using a 2% cashback card (and less if you are using an even better general purpose card). The business version also provides a $100 credit for software services each year and a 3% rate on some potentially interesting extra categories like office supply stores. Neither card has an annual fee.
