How Do Cash Back Credit Cards Work?

Cash back refers to the money you stand to earn when you use your credit card. A cash back credit card offers a fixed percentage of the amount you spend on purchases as cash back. While you may earn a flat cash back rate across all purchases, it might vary depending on category-based spending. The best way to use cash back requires narrowing down on a cash back credit card that might work well for you.

• What Is Cash Back?
• How Does Cash Back Work in Credit Cards?
• What Is the Best Way to Use Cash Back?

Cash back is a credit card benefit through which cardholders stand to earn some money when they use their cards to make purchases. Most prominent credit card companies provide cash back reward programs.

How cash back works is simple. When you use any cash back card to make a purchase, your card provider pays you a small percentage. The money you get is referred to as cash back. This is a fixed-percentage value and varies from one card to the next.

If you get a credit card that offers 2% cash back on all purchases, you’ll get $2 as cash back for every $100 you spend. For example, if you make a $950 purchase, you get $19 as cash back. You receive all the accumulated cash back you earn at the end of each billing cycle. So, if you’ve spent a total of $5,000 in a billing cycle with the same 2% cash back card, you’ll get $100 as cash back.

There are many cash back credit cards out there, but not all would work equally well for you. Sure, they offer cash back and work like regular credit cards, but the cash back you stand to earn varies depending on the card you get. For instance, you may earn higher cash back when you spend across specific categories such as dining and gas.

In almost all cases, cards that offer higher cash back rates on specific categories do so until a predetermined spend limit, after which the card’s regular cash back rate applies. For instance, Citi Custom Cash℠ Card’s 5% cash back rate on the top eligible spend category applies to the first $500 you spend every billing cycle. Spending over this limit comes with 1% cash back. And the Chase Freedom Flex℠ Card’s 5% cash back on bonus categories applies to combined purchases of up to $1,500 each quarter.

Yes, cash back credit cards actually reward you with money. Depending on the card you have, you may get a check from your card provider or transfer it to a bank account in your name. Some credit cards let you use the cash back rewards to make purchases through popular online platforms such as Amazon and PayPal. Others allow you to book travel through the card provider’s own travel portal. Other alternatives to redeem your cash back might include getting vouchers and gift certificates or making charitable donations.

Some cards let you set up automatic redemption of your cash back to a designated bank account. However, this might require reaching specific thresholds. For example, you may set up auto redemption of the cash back you earn through the Capital One Savor Rewards Card when you reach thresholds that start at $25.

Unlike some rewards cards that limit your ability to redeem points to a particular rewards program, cash back cards are known to offer much more freedom around what you may do with your cash back.

You may use your cash back to pay your credit card bill. This is because several cash back cards let you use the cash back you earn as a statement credit. If you’ve accumulated $100 worth of cash back and need to pay a $500 credit card bill, using your cash back would bring down the amount you currently owe to $400.

However, you might need to earn a minimum amount of cash back before you may use it as statement credit. For instance, you may use the cash back you earn through American Express’s Blue Cash Preferred Card or Blue Cash Everyday Card as a statement credit only when your available reward dollars balance is $25 or more.

You may apply your cash back as statement credit only on the credit card from which you earned it in the first place. To pay the bill of another credit card, you’ll need to withdraw your cash back into a bank account first.

The best way to use cash back depends on individual preferences. For instance, if you’re running low on funds to pay your next credit card bill, you may consider using your cash back as a statement credit. Transferring your cash back into a bank account is also usually an option. On the other hand, if you’ve been meaning to do your bit toward furthering any particular cause, you may choose to donate your cash back to a charitable organization.

If you hope to make the most of a cash back credit card, you need to start by paying off your bill in full each month. Otherwise, you would end up paying interest charges, which, in all likelihood, would exceed the amount you earn as cash back.

Since cash back cards work differently in the way they offer cash back, you might benefit by using more than one card to maximize your cash back earning potential. Here’s what you need to do to make the best possible use of your cash back credit cards.

1. Use a bonus or rotating category card each time you’re making a purchase from any of the applicable categories.
2. Use a flat-rate cash back card when you’re making purchases that don’t fall under any bonus categories.

Using a flat-rate card for purchases that don’t earn bonus cash back is a good idea because cards that offer higher cash back rates on particular categories tend to limit their cash back for regular purchases to 1%. With flat-rate cash back cards, you may earn up to 2% on all such purchases.

When considering a cash back card, it may be helpful to learn the answers to commonly asked questions about how cash back credit cards work.

Now that you know how credit card cash back works, determine if you might benefit from getting a cash back card after accounting for your spending habits. If you decide to move forward, compare your alternatives across parameters such as cash back rates, annual fees, APRs and added perks.

MoneyGeek experts regularly review and analyze the spending trends of American consumers by using data provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). They’ve also compared over 1,600 credit cards across all important parameters so our readers can select ones that suit their requirements with ease.

The MoneyGeek editorial team ensures that it answers all your credit card-related questions in a quick and efficient manner. It does this by staying on top of the latest changes surrounding credit card offers and regulations. Whether you wish to look for student credit cards that offer cash back or credit cards for fair credit, you may trust them to guide you in the right direction.