Key takeaways
- Should you’re hitting your grocery bank card rewards cap, think about including a second card to maximise your spending.
- {Couples} can apply for a similar bank card to extend their incomes potential and get round spending caps.
- Maximizing your bank card rewards is just attainable in the event you don’t overspend and pay your stability in full.
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Excluding bills that aren’t often sensible to placed on a bank card — like mortgage or lease funds, automobile funds and taxes — there’s a great probability that groceries are your high bank card spending class, particularly when you’ve got children at house.
In 2023, the typical family spent a median of $6,053 on “meals at house” (primarily, groceries), in accordance with the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ newest report. However the larger your loved ones, the extra you’re more likely to spend. As an illustration, I’ve two school-aged daughters, and my household of 4 spends greater than double the nationwide common on groceries in a typical yr.
My favourite grocery rewards card
I take advantage of the Blue Money Most well-likedⓇ Card from American Categorical to get 6 % money again on U.S. supermarkets purchases. The catch, sadly, is that there’s a $6,000 annual cap on the 6 % payout. The return drops to 1 % after that. I nonetheless love this card and discover the continued $95 annual charge properly value it, however I want the cap have been greater. I are likely to hit it by the center of the yr.
I earn $360 by maxing out the $6,000 grocery class, plus the cardboard has different advantages corresponding to 6 % money again on choose streaming subscriptions and three % money again on public transit and U.S. gasoline stations purchases. However my largest pet peeve within the bank card world is that almost all rewards caps haven’t been adjusted for inflation in a few years, if ever.
The Blue Money Most well-liked, for instance, has had the identical $6,000 cap because the card debuted in 2012. Adjusted for inflation, $6,000 in 2012 equates to about $8,465 as we speak, utilizing the BLS’s inflation calculator. Alas, rewards caps have been stagnant throughout the business, so as an alternative of ready for the restrict to be raised, a greater possibility (in the event you spend greater than $6,000 on groceries every year, like I do) could also be to take issues into your individual palms by signing up for a second grocery rewards bank card.
Easy methods to determine which grocery rewards card so as to add
There are two alternative ways so as to add a brand new grocery rewards card to your pockets. Essentially the most profitable, particularly in the event you’d max out a second $6,000 cap (or come shut), is to enroll in a second Blue Money Most well-liked in your partner’s identify. It is a completely legit technique that leads some individuals within the factors and miles world to joke that the very best half about being married is having a “participant two” to rack up extra rewards. (You don’t even have to be married to take benefit — the technique applies in the event you break up your funds with a companion, roommate, and many others.)
Cash tip
One other concept is to enroll in a unique bank card that offers stable grocery rewards. I’m not conscious of any that high the Blue Money Most well-liked’s 6 % payout, however there are some that come shut.
Further grocery rewards playing cards to think about
The Citi Customized MoneyⓇ Card* offers 5 % money again on every cardholder’s high eligible spending class every month-to-month billing cycle (as much as $500 in purchases, which not coincidentally provides as much as $6,000 yearly). Groceries are one of many choices. Different purchases, together with these past the $500 month-to-month restrict, earn 1 % money again. A pleasant factor about this card is that the class can change each month, and it’s calculated routinely, so that you don’t must decide in or preselect something.
I’m additionally intrigued by the TD Money Credit score Card*. It is a “select your individual journey” card that requires you to select a 3 % and a couple of % money again class every quarter (different purchases earn 1 % again).
Whereas that clearly isn’t as excessive because the aforementioned 6 % or 5 % again, there are two issues I particularly like about this card. One is that the cardboard doesn’t have a spending cap on any of these rewards classes. The opposite is that new cardholders get an extra 3 % again on groceries of their first six months with the cardboard (that supply has a spending cap of — you guessed it — $6,000).
Should you’re a brand new cardholder who selects groceries as your 3 % rewards class, that can enhance to six % again on as much as $6,000 in eligible spending throughout these first six months. Should you set groceries as your 2 % class, you’ll get 5 % again for six months (as much as the $6,000 cap). And in the event you choose one thing else for the three % and a couple of % classes, leaving groceries as a part of the usual 1 % again on “every thing else,” you’ll nonetheless get 4 % money again on as much as $6,000 in grocery spending inside these first six months.
Even when these playing cards aren’t a match, there are many different choices on our checklist of the very best bank cards for groceries.
The underside line
Even the very best rewards bank card gained’t be profitable in the event you don’t maximize your high spending classes. If a rewards cap is getting in the way in which, work round it by including a second card that emphasizes that sort of spending — groceries, in my case. So long as you pay in full and keep away from overspending, bank card rewards symbolize free cash.
Have a query about bank cards? E-mail me at ted.rossman@bankrate.com and I’d be comfortable to assist.
Details about the TD Money Credit score Card and Citi Customized Money Card has been collected independently by Bankrate. Card particulars haven’t been reviewed or authorized by the issuer.
