If you’re the type of person that finds it difficult to control your spending, then you may be better of just using a debit card. However, if you’re good with paying off your credit card balance every single month, then you are in for some excellent rewards.

We recommend that you put as much of your spend as possible on a suitable cash back or travel rewards credit card. Otherwise, you may be missing out on earning money from things you were going to buy anyways!

Based on our research, you would be losing out on at least 2% of your spend if you do not use any sort of cash back or travel rewards credit card. If you spend $20,000 a year, then you would get at least $400 back. We would like to offer three examples to illustrate our point.

Citi Double Cash

Double Cash Credit Card
Citi Double Cash Credit Card

Our first example is the Citi Double Cash. This credit card has no annual fee, and gives you a straight up 2% cash back on all of your spend. How awesome is this!? You get 2% of your money back without having to pay any sort of fees.

American Express Blue Cash Preferred

Amex Blue Cash Preferred Review
American Express Blue Cash Preferred Review

The second example is the AMEX Blue Cash Preferred. This credit card has a whopping 6% cash back rate for supermarkets, 3% for gas, and 1% for all other purchases.

If you spend a lot of money at supermarkets, then this will give you much more than just 2% cash back. However, it does have an annual fee of $95.

You’ll have to do some quick math to see if you spend enough money at supermarkets and gas stations for the higher cash back rates to make up for the annual fee.

Chase Sapphire Reserve

Chase Sapphire Reserve Benefits
Chase Sapphire Reserve Visa Credit Card

The final example is the Chase Sapphire Reserve. This card gives you 3 rewards points per dollar spent on travel and dining purchases. Based on our point valuations, you’re getting 5.4% of your spend back in Ultimate Rewards points. This card does have an annual fee of $450, but also has great perks such as a $300 travel credit, $100 global entry credit, and airport lounge access.

As you can see from the rewards that these credit cards offer, you should be able to get at least 2% of your spend back through your credit card – and possibly much more depending on your spending patterns.

Here at Credit Carrots, we always put all of our business spending on cash back credit cards. Last year, we got a nice statement credit for over $2,000 by using the Citi Double Cash card whenever possible.