The Best Credit Cards for Groceries
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If you're like most families, one of your biggest monthly expenses is groceries. One of the best ways to save on groceries is to use a credit card that offers rewards for your supermarket purchases. These are the best cards that offer the best rewards for your supermarket trips. (See also: Best Cash Back Credit Cards)
Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards credit card
The Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards credit card offers 2% back at grocery stores and wholesale clubs, 3% back in the category of your choice: gas, online shopping, dining, travel, drug stores, or home improvement /furnishings, and 1% on other purchases. (Grocery store, wholesale club, and choice category bonus rewards apply to the first $2,500 in combined purchases in these categories each quarter. After that purchases receive 1% cash back.) There is no annual fee.
Bonus offer: $200 online cash rewards bonus after you spend $1,000 in purchases in the first 90 days of account opening.
Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express
The Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express offers a whopping 6% cash back at U.S. supermarkets (up to $6,000 per year in purchases, 1% after that), and 6% cash back on select U.S. streaming subscriptions. You can also earn 3% from purchases at U.S. gas stations and transit including taxis/rideshare, parking, tolls, and more, and 1% on other purchases. The annual fee is $0 the first year, then $95. (See Rates & Fees.) If you have a big grocery budget, the rewards would be more than enough to cover this yearly cost.
Welcome offer: Earn a $250 statement credit after you spend $3,000 in purchases on your new Card within the first 6 months. Terms apply.
Click here to learn more and apply for the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express today!
Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express
If the idea of paying an annual fee for a credit card is unappealing, try the Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express. This card allows you to earn 3% cash back at U.S. supermarkets, on U.S. online retail purchases, at U.S. gas stations (up to $6,000 per year in purchases, 1% after that) and 1% on other purchases. There is no annual fee. See Rates & Fees.
Welcome offer: Earn a $200 statement credit after you spend $2,000 in purchases on your new Card within the first 6 months. Terms Apply.
Click here to learn more and apply for the Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express today!
For rates and fees of the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express, please click here.
For rates and fees of the Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express, please click here.
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Tagged: Credit Cards, Food and Drink, Shopping, best credit cards, cash back, credit card rewards, groceries, supermarkets
Disclaimer: The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Also be sure to check for sign-up bonuses. I had the same complaint about the Chase card changes, but I figured that the $200 sign-up bonus from a similar rotating rewards program from Citi-Bank would be more "rewarding" in the short term (2-3 years) than the other programs available.
I'm not sure, but I think the higher cash back would apply at WF and Trader Joe's.
However, I think it does NOT apply to grocery shopping at WalMart and Target. Ask,
before you go on a grocery buying buying spree at WalMart with the expectation
of the higher rewards. I'm not a member at a club store, so I don't know about
those....
TJ's shows up as a supermarket on my rewards card. I never shop at WF.
The cash registers closest to the grocery section at Walmart ring up as groceries.
The Blue Cash from AMEX is a good card to have. Although I don't condone credit cards since I help peolple get out of debt for a living, if you had to use one for groceries the first one would be the ideal card.
I love shopping at Target generally but I don't see them as a viable grocery alternative. You can pick up basics like eggs, milk, peanut butter etc, but their selection isn't big enough I still have to make a second trip.
But our local Target is a big supporter of our local schools. It wouldn't hurt to do more shopping there.
My Target Redcard is a VISA as well. They also offer it as a debit card.
I have Visa Signature Card From Bank of America but don't find the discounted value in my monthly bill.
The discount only applies if you have your cash deposited directly into a Bank of America account. You won't see the extra cash until you deposited your cash back into a account. Also, there are tiers that will give you up to a 75% increase on your cash back, depending on how much money you have combined in your accounts. Your tier is based on your qualifying combined balances in your Bank of America banking and/or Merrill Edge and Merrill Lynch investment accounts. I believe the numbers are 25% cash back increase if you have $20,000 to $50,000 in your combined accounts, 50% on $50,000 to $100,000, and 75% if you have over $100,000 in your accounts. There is a link that shows the increase on the credit card webpage if you have online banking with Bank of America.
Discover did the same thing, played the game of luring you to their card, then changing the rules. All of them are doing that these days because their customers were making good on those initial offers. Had to do something about that! So, I'm looking for a credit card that offers consistent rewards on groceries. Any ideas besides Target?
Consider also gasoline money, $0.25 per mile on my car, and time spent checking out if it is worth for an extra dollar. I find Capital One only redeems $0.50 per $1.00 earned.
On the topic of credit card rewards, I use a free app called Wallaby that keeps track of my rewards and bonuses for me (including rotating quarterly categories). Just wanted to share it because I find it useful.
Best-kept credit card secret - Sallie Mae - 5% cash back on groceries - gas - and booksellers - And Amazon.com is considered a bookseller - No annual fee - Yes - there is cap of $250 per billing cycle for groceries and gas - $750 on bookseller - But for many that is more than enough - and combine this card with the AMEX - no fee card - then you have a great deal - - Harlem Spirit!
Grocery purchases at Wal-Mart do not qualify for AmEx's 3% cash back on a Blue Cash Everyday / Preferred as they are considered a "superstore" for which groceries are not their primary business. Instead, grocery purchases at Wal-Mart receive only the normal 1% cash back.
This post seems very informative. Nowadays, most of people preferred to shop grocery online and also use credit cards for bills or payments to get more benefits. I also prefer to use credit cards to get various cash back offers benefits.
THINGS NOT MENTIONED: is that cash back or other rewards will get totally wiped out if you do not pay your credit card bills in full each month. Cards without cash back may have lower interest rates if you don't pay in full. But if you pay in full each month, it doesn't matter what the interest rate is. And if you are a compulsive shopper, having cash back cards might lure you into buying things you don't need.
I'm not a compulsive shopper ---I hate to shop. So I put everything I can on my cash-back cards, including utilities & groceries. I pay my cc bills in full with autopay and reap the rewards.
The above information will help me to decide which of my current cards I want to keep or cancel and which new ones I'd like to acquire.
I have a Discover card which pays 5% back on whatever is featured that quarter. I use it only for those items & buy most everything else on other cards. I have a Costco AMEX which I use for 3% on gasoline when it's not 5% on Discover. (Note that Costco will pay only 1% on gasoline if you buy it at another grocery store's gas station which is in direct competition with Costco.) Fidelity AMEX which pays 2% back on everything is my go-to card when other higher % aren't available from other cards. On that one, the rewards go periodically into my Fidelity Brokerage account (but there are other options.) I also have a Fidelity VISA which pays only 1.5% but it's my backup for when AMEX isn't accepted. I put travel charges on an air miles card which gives air miles that are worth the same as 1% back, so I'm better off using other cards for most purchases, but it pays 2% in air miles for travel purchases (flights, car rentals, hotels, etc.) but monetarily it's the same as 2% cash on other cards. The problem is that there is a fee, so although I love being about to get discounts on flights, if I save my cash back on other cards to use for travel, I don't need the air miles.
When we travel, we make sure we have our Discover, at least one AMEX, a Visa and a MC. some places won't take certain cards, especially abroad. And abroad, make sure your cards don't have a foreign exchange fee.
As for having to carry all of these around, I understand a new device is soon to be on the market. You can scan all your credit cards into one credit-card-sized device. You just have to click on the card you want to use. I would be interested in seeing how secure the device is before buying one, but it would be convenient to have everything on one card. It would also depend on the initial cost and if there is a monthly service fee.
I just got a Sallie Mae MC (plus one for my husband). It gives 5% on groceries and gas up to $250/mo and 5% at Amazon and bookstores up to $750/mo. Many Walmarts are classified as grocery stores by Sallie Mae. That means 5% at everything at Walmart. My husband and I both got a card to double our maximums in each category. No fee, either. Takes a bit of juggling... dh buys most of the gas and I buy the groceries, so we'll switch cards mid month.
Amex not accepted in some supermarkets, so sad.
I think credit cards should require notification of rewards adjustments as if their terms and conditions on the card are changing (you know when they send you a special piece of mail highlighting what adjusts)... unfortunately if they do provide notice it's probably a line of tiny text tucked into your billing statement most people never read. I reevaluated our cards and was surprised to find my wife's 2% cash back card is now 1.5% cash back, my all time favorite cash back card used to provide 5% cash back on gas, 3% groceries, 1% other, etc... all except the gas category started getting reductions in rewards (I did catch that notice years ago), however I was very surprised to find out my card no ONLY has the 5% cash back on gas - the other categories all went POOF (did not see a notice on that...) I generally only use it for gas anyway so it wasn't something I caught until recently it's probably been like this for a while now. It just amazes me how easy it is for them to adjust this type of stuff and not make any or much effort to notify existing customers.
I believe this article is missing an important one, the Citi Double cash back, 1‰ when you purchase plus 1‰ when you pay, unlimited, no fee. So if you are fortunate enough to be able to pay the balance every month then you are getting 2% cash back, which is better than the Quicksilver at 1.5%. These cards are both phenomenal in that there are no categories, you get the cash back for every purchase anywhere.
thank you so much for this info, we just signed up with American Express what a great deal
Walmart Grocery- the second largest grocery store chain in my region- is NOT considered a grocery store by American Express. If you shop at Walmart as many of us do, you'll get 1% only.
We were told by account rep that Walmart is not an approved 6% cash back merchant for the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express. Only grocery stores like Publix, Save A Lot, Winn Dixie, etc.
The American Express preferred (and I believe Everyday) cards do NOT pay the 6% at a "superstore" like Wal-mart. So when they say "supermarket" don't be fooled into thinking that includes Wal-Mart, even though Wal-mart accepts American Express. It also excludes Sam's, to no surprise as Sam's only accepts Discover (at least that was the case when I dropped my membership).
Not a credit card, but still a good option for savings at Target: Prepaid REDcard. It offers all the credit REDcard benefits (5% shopping at Target & Target.com, free sheeping from Target.com, extended returns) but it is issued by American Express. As such it can be used at stores or online anywhere Amex cards are accepted and it provides up to $50K/year purchase protection. Also it doubles as a free checking account (free bill pay & deposit, no min deposit or monthly fees) and it offers budgeting tools with its sub-accounts feature. The Prepaid REDcard requires no credit or ChexSystems approval.