5 Best Credit Cards For Holiday Shopping

Holiday shopping bills can rack up pretty quickly, and having the right credit card can help shoppers navigate gift buying. Thirty-three percent of Americans plan on spending more than $500 this holiday season, with 37 percent reporting they spent that much last year, according to a survey conducted by WalletHub.

When considering what credit cards to use for holiday shopping, it’s important to weigh what one plans to shop for and where the shopping will take place: Some credit cards have rewards that are specific to certain retailers. Another thing to keep in mind is interest rates and promotions. Sometimes cards have an introductory interest rate of zero but will eventually shoot up, and others have annual fees that only kick in after a year.

Discover it® Cashback Match

This card is considered the best holiday shopping credit card by Forbes. The benefits for this card are: it has no annual fee; it offers five percent cash back for purchases at Amazon and Target up to $1,500 through December 2017; and for the first year, there is no annual fee.

Chase Freedom Unlimited

This card is listed as one of the best cards for general shopping by NerdWallet. The card gives 1.5 percent cash back on all purchases and has no annual fee. The card also offers a $150 bonus if you spend $500 in the first three months of having the card. That bonus could be pretty easy to get after holiday gift-buying.

Citi® Double Cash Card

WalletHub called this the best holiday shopping card for ongoing rewards. The card gives holders 1 percent cash back on purchases and an additional 1 percent when payments are made towards card debt, thereby encouraging shoppers to pay off their holiday shopping. The card has no annual fee, and according to WalletHub, it has the largest rewards of any cash-back cards.

Chase Sapphire Preferred Card

If you plan on spending a lot for the holidays, this card may help offset some of those purchases. If you spend $4,000 within the first three months, the card has rewards that equal $625 in travel or a $500 statement credit. This was the best card for bonuses to offset holiday spending, according to WalletHub.

Blue Cash Preferred Card from American Express

One of the biggest thing people spend on during the holidays is food. This card offers six percent back on groceries up to $6,000. The card also has a three percent cash back reward for department stores but comes with a $95 annual fee.