Best 4 Credit Cards for the Average Consumer

There are lots of great annual fee credit cards out there with big spend bonuses and perks but for the average consumer who either doesn’t have the time or expertise to take advantage, there are enough great free cards that should cover all bases.

For someone who mostly spends on Restaurants or Travel (taxi, flights, hotels), and Amazon for just about everything else, my spending habits can be captured with the following 4 cards:

Uber Visa, Citi DoubleCash, Amazon Store Card, Chase Freedom

These 4 cards will allow you to average 2-5% cash back all of your purchases, and best of all – no annual fees!

Uber Visa: 4% on restaurants, 3% on hotels/airfare, 2% on online purchases (Uber included), 1% on everything else. No foreign transaction fees!

Chase Freedom 5% on categories (up to $75 back) - only use during the quarter that is relevant (Q1 gas stations and commuter transportation, Q2 grocery and drugstores, Q3 restaurants and movie theaters, Q4 Walmart and department Stores), otherwise 1% on all purchases. Just check on the Chase portal as you have to opt in each quarter anyways.

Amazon Store Card 5% on all Amazon.com purchases (must be prime member) regardless of prime shipping or not. This does not work for Whole Foods, defer to Q2 Chase Freedom for 5% otherwise use Citi DoubleCash.

Citi DoubleCash 2% on everything. This is your go-to card when you don’t have any special ways of earning points on the type of purchase. You get 1% off the purchase itself, then 1% again when you pay off the purchase (full or over time).

From my usage of this of this 4 card arsenal, it would be Uber card for food, travel, and transportation. Q3 food will be spent on Chase Freedom, and all other essentials from toilet paper to electronics would be Amazon. Finally, for the things that fall through the cracks that you are probably transacting in person, be sure to have the DoubleCash handy.

This is a very simple system to begin earning cashback rewards. There are as effortless to earn as they are to redeem. For the simple credit card user just looking for some solid rewards without annual fees, these 4 are some of the best options out there.