During the past five years, cash back credit cards have changed for the worse. Back in 2006, some companies offered a straight 5% cash back on gas and groceries. Many other cards offered 2% across the board. Today, the Fidelity Investment Rewards American Express Card is one of the few credit cards that continues to offer a full, unrestricted 2% cash back on everything. And this may make it the best cash back credit card on the market.
One of the key reasons I like the Fidelity Investment Rewards Card is the fact that you earn 2% cash back on everything. Other credit cards do offer 2% and even 5% cash back on certain purchases. However, these cards rely on transaction codes to determine if your purchase qualifies for 2% or 5% cash back. In my experience, many errors occur, causing people to lose out on higher percentages of cash back.
For example, I often wonder if my Chase Freedom card is giving me the proper cash back on groceries. On my credit card statements, Shoprite doesn’t get listed as a grocery store, though most anyone on the East Coast would know that it is. I’ve called Chase customer service repeatedly to find out if specific transactions are getting bonus cash back. And I’ve gotten nowhere.
Problems like this won’t occur with the Fidelity Investment card, as you get a full 2% cash back on everything. This, in my opinion, makes this card the most straightforward, high yielding cash back card on the market.
A problem I have had in the past with cash back cards tied to investment accounts is that they deposited your rewards into retirement accounts. This is good if you don’t max out your yearly contributions, but potentially confusing if you need to factor in credit card rewards when making IRA or 401k contributions. The terms of the Fidelity Investment Credit Card state that, “eligible registrations include all non-retirement registrations” as well as IRAs. This puts the money someplace you can get to now (not to mention someplace that won’t cause confusion come tax time).
Apart from the cash back element, the Fidelity card offers a competitive APR in the mid-teens which is slightly below the national average rate. All things considered, the main drawback is that this is a horrible balance transfer credit card. In only offers a 0% APR on balance transfers for 7 months and charges a 4% balance transfer fee. This puts it at the bottom of the pack for balance transfer offers. But balance transfer issues aside, this card is as good, if not better, than any other cash back credit card currently on the market.
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