Editorial only: we are not paid by any issuer and we link to none of them. How this site works

Ranking

Every card we track, sorted and filtered your way.

23 products in this list. Filter by category, fee or the credit profile issuers usually approve, then open any row for the full terms. Offers last reviewed 2026-08-01.

Choose a card type
CategoryScore
23 / 23

Chase Sapphire Preferred

Chase · Best Overall

4.9
Welcome bonus
60,000 points
Rewards rate
Up to 5x points
Annual fee
$95
Regular APR
20.24% - 28.24% Variable

Chase Freedom Unlimited

Chase · Cashback & Daily

4.8
Welcome bonus
+1.5% first year
Rewards rate
1.5% - 5% back
Annual fee
$0
Regular APR
0% intro APR for 15 months, then 19.99% - 28.74% Variable

Capital One Venture X

Capital One · Travel Rewards

4.7
Welcome bonus
75,000 miles
Rewards rate
2x flat, up to 10x
Annual fee
$395
Regular APR
19.99% - 29.24% Variable

American Express Gold Card

American Express · Best Overall

4.7
Welcome bonus
60,000 points
Rewards rate
Up to 4x points
Annual fee
$325
Regular APR
See Pay Over Time APR. Rates and fees apply.

Citi Double Cash

Citi · Cashback & Daily

4.7
Welcome bonus
$200 cash
Rewards rate
2% on everything
Annual fee
$0
Regular APR
18.24% - 28.24% Variable

Wells Fargo Active Cash

Wells Fargo · Cashback & Daily

4.7
Welcome bonus
$200 cash
Rewards rate
2% on everything
Annual fee
$0
Regular APR
0% intro APR for 12 months, then 19.24% - 29.24% Variable

Chase Sapphire Reserve

Chase · Travel Rewards

4.6
Welcome bonus
Up to 175,000 pts
Rewards rate
Up to 8x points
Annual fee
$795
Regular APR
21.24% - 28.24% Variable

Capital One Venture Rewards

Capital One · Travel Rewards

4.6
Welcome bonus
75,000 miles
Rewards rate
2x miles flat
Annual fee
$95
Regular APR
19.99% - 29.24% Variable

Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards

Capital One · Cashback & Daily

4.6
Welcome bonus
$200 cash
Rewards rate
1% - 8% back
Annual fee
$0
Regular APR
0% intro APR for 15 months, then 19.24% - 29.24% Variable

Discover it Cash Back

Discover · Cashback & Daily

4.6
Welcome bonus
Cashback Match
Rewards rate
1% - 5% back
Annual fee
$0
Regular APR
0% intro APR for 15 months, then 18.24% - 27.24% Variable

Capital One Platinum Secured

Capital One · Build Credit

4.6
Welcome bonus
None
Rewards rate
No rewards
Annual fee
$0
Regular APR
29.99% Variable

Chase Freedom Flex

Chase · Cashback & Daily

4.5
Welcome bonus
$200 cash
Rewards rate
1% - 5% back
Annual fee
$0
Regular APR
0% intro APR for 15 months, then 19.99% - 28.74% Variable

Blue Cash Preferred from American Express

American Express · Cashback & Daily

4.5
Welcome bonus
Cash back offer
Rewards rate
Up to 6% back
Annual fee
$95
Regular APR
See Rates and Fees. Intro APR offer may apply.

Discover it Student Cash Back

Discover · Student

4.5
Welcome bonus
Cashback Match
Rewards rate
1% - 5% back
Annual fee
$0
Regular APR
0% intro APR for 6 months on purchases, then 18.24% - 27.24% Variable

The Platinum Card from American Express

American Express · Travel Rewards

4.4
Welcome bonus
Up to 175,000 pts
Rewards rate
5x travel
Annual fee
$895
Regular APR
See Pay Over Time APR. Rates and fees apply.

Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards

Capital One · Cashback & Daily

4.4
Welcome bonus
$200 cash
Rewards rate
1.5% - 5% back
Annual fee
$0
Regular APR
0% intro APR for 15 months, then 19.24% - 29.24% Variable

Wells Fargo Reflect

Wells Fargo · 0% APR & Balance Transfer

4.4
Welcome bonus
None
Rewards rate
No rewards
Annual fee
$0
Regular APR
0% intro APR for 21 months on purchases and qualifying balance transfers, then 17.24% - 28.99% Variable

Chime Credit Builder Visa

Stride Bank, N.A. · Build Credit

4.4
Welcome bonus
None
Rewards rate
No rewards
Annual fee
$0
Regular APR
0%, no interest is charged

Capital One SavorOne Student

Capital One · Student

4.4
Welcome bonus
$50 cash
Rewards rate
1% - 8% back
Annual fee
$0
Regular APR
19.24% - 29.24% Variable

Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards

Bank of America · Cashback & Daily

4.3
Welcome bonus
$200 cash
Rewards rate
1% - 3% back
Annual fee
$0
Regular APR
0% intro APR for 15 billing cycles, then 18.24% - 28.24% Variable

Citi Simplicity

Citi · 0% APR & Balance Transfer

4.3
Welcome bonus
None
Rewards rate
No rewards
Annual fee
$0
Regular APR
0% intro APR for 21 months on balance transfers and 12 months on purchases, then 18.24% - 28.99% Variable

OpenSky Secured Visa

Capital Bank, N.A. · Build Credit

4.2
Welcome bonus
None
Rewards rate
No rewards
Annual fee
$35
Regular APR
24.64% Variable

BankAmericard

Bank of America · 0% APR & Balance Transfer

4.1
Welcome bonus
None
Rewards rate
No rewards
Annual fee
$0
Regular APR
0% intro APR for 18 billing cycles on purchases and balance transfers, then 16.24% - 26.24% Variable

Rates, fees, bonuses and approval criteria are set by the issuer and can change at any time. Always confirm the current terms on the issuer’s application page before you apply. Prefer a side-by-side view? Use the comparator.

Categories

Shortlists by what the card is for.

Best Overall

credit

The strongest all-round picks for someone who pays the balance in full each month.

Travel Rewards

credit

Lounge access, transfer partners and large welcome offers, behind larger annual fees.

Cashback & Daily

credit

Cash back on what you already buy, mostly with no annual fee.

0% APR & Balance Transfer

credit

No rewards, no annual fee, just the longest interest-free windows available.

Build Credit

credit

Secured and credit-builder products for a thin file or no file at all.

Student

credit

Written for applicants with no credit history and a part-time income.

Cash Back Debit

debit

Debit cards that pay you back on everyday spending, which almost none of them do.

High-Yield Checking

debit

Accounts that pay real interest on the money sitting in them.

Travel & ATM Fees

debit

For people who withdraw cash abroad and refuse to pay for it.

Online Checking

debit

No monthly fee, no minimum balance, and overdraft cover without the usual penalties.

Questions

The things people actually ask before applying.

General information about how U.S. card products work. None of it is personalized financial, tax or legal advice, and only the issuer can tell you whether you qualify.

Issuers do not publish score cutoffs, and no site can tell you whether you will be approved. As a general pattern, premium travel cards such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred are marketed to applicants in the good-to-excellent range, roughly 690 and above, while flat-rate cash back cards tend to be marketed from about 670. Secured products such as the OpenSky Secured Visa are designed for people with limited or no credit history. Score is only one input: issuers also weigh income, existing debt, how many accounts you have opened recently and your history with that specific bank.

Generally, a welcome bonus you earn by meeting a spending requirement is treated by the IRS as a rebate on your purchases rather than income, so it is normally not taxable and you will not receive a tax form for it. Rewards given without any spending requirement, such as a bonus for simply opening a deposit account, are more likely to be treated as income and reported on a Form 1099. This is general information, not tax advice. Check with a qualified tax professional about your own situation.

A card application normally triggers a hard inquiry, which typically lowers a FICO score by a small amount, often less than five points. Hard inquiries stay on your report for two years but generally stop affecting FICO scores after twelve months. Opening the account also lowers your average age of accounts, while the new credit line can lower your utilization ratio, which usually helps. Applying for several cards in a short window has a larger combined effect than a single application.

A debit card spends money already in your checking account and is not reported to the credit bureaus, so it does not build a credit file. A secured credit card is a real credit account backed by a refundable deposit, and the issuer reports your payment history to Equifax, Experian and TransUnion each month, which is what builds credit. Products like the Chime Credit Builder Visa sit in between: you move money in advance so there is no interest and no minimum deposit, but the account still reports as credit.

Yes. Two common routes are a secured card, where a refundable deposit backs the credit line, and a credit-builder product tied to a checking account. Both are designed to be accessible without an established file, and the OpenSky Secured Visa in particular does not involve a credit check to apply. Student cards and becoming an authorized user on someone else’s account are two other common starting points.

It depends entirely on your own spending. The arithmetic is straightforward: add up the credits and rewards you would realistically use in a year, then subtract the fee. A $95 fee is covered by roughly $2,000 of annual dining spend on a card earning 3x if you value the points at one cent each, but only if you actually redeem them. Statement credits only count if you would have made that purchase anyway. If you carry a balance from month to month, the interest cost usually outweighs any rewards, and a low-APR card matters more than an earn rate.

A 0% intro APR means no interest is charged on qualifying balances for a set number of months from account opening, commonly twelve to twenty-one months. When the window closes, the regular variable APR applies to whatever balance remains, and it is not retroactive to the intro period on purchases. Balance transfers usually carry a separate transfer fee, often three to five percent of the amount moved. Paying late can end the promotional rate early under the terms of most agreements.

There is no legal limit, but issuers set their own rules. Chase is widely reported to decline applicants who have opened five or more personal credit cards from any issuer in the previous twenty-four months, a policy commonly called 5/24. Other issuers limit how many of their own cards you can hold, or how often you can receive a welcome bonus on the same product. Spacing applications out reduces the combined effect of multiple hard inquiries.

Many online applications return a decision within about sixty seconds. Some are referred for manual review, which commonly takes seven to ten business days, and the issuer may request identity or income documentation. Once approved, a physical card typically arrives within seven to ten business days, though some issuers now provide a virtual card number you can use immediately.

We rank on the value the product returns to a typical U.S. customer: the size and attainability of the welcome offer, the earn rate or yield on everyday activity, the fee relative to what you get back, and how broadly useful it is rather than how well it suits one narrow case. We have no advertising or affiliate relationship with any issuer and receive no compensation for these listings, so nothing here is placed or ordered in exchange for payment. No issuer reviews our content before publication.

How this site works

The part most sites bury.

Editorial only. This site currently earns nothing. There are no affiliate links, no sponsored placements and no compensation from any issuer. Every product below is listed because we think it belongs there.

01

We are not paid for any of this

US Card Index has no advertising, affiliate or referral relationship with any issuer or bank. Nothing on this site is a tracked link, no product is placed in exchange for payment, and no one pays us to move a product up the list. If that changes, a full disclosure will appear here and in the header before any paid link goes live.

02

Editorial independence

Ratings and ordering are produced by us alone. No issuer reviews, approves or sees our content before it is published, and none has ever asked to.

03

Where the numbers come from

Figures are compiled from issuer product pages and public comparison sources, then dated. Welcome bonuses, earn rates, APRs, fees and APYs are set by the issuer and can be changed, reduced or withdrawn at any time without notice to us. The terms shown on the issuer’s own application page always control.

04

Not all products are shown

We do not track every card or account available in the U.S. market, and this is not a complete list of everything you may qualify for. Some categories, such as business and co-branded airline cards, are deliberately out of scope for now.

05

This is not financial advice

Nothing here is personalized financial, tax, legal or credit advice, and we are not a licensed financial advisor. Your own situation decides whether a product makes sense. Consider speaking to a qualified professional before applying.

06

Your data stays on your device

Filters, sorting and card selection all run in your browser. We do not collect, transmit or store what you click, and we never ask for a Social Security number, an account number or any other application data.

Issuer & product notes

  • American Express: rates and fees for Amex products are published on the issuer’s own application pages. Terms apply and enrollment may be required for certain benefits.
  • OpenSky Secured Visa is issued by Capital Bank, N.A., Member FDIC, pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. A refundable security deposit is required.
  • Chime is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services are provided by The Bancorp Bank, N.A. and Stride Bank, N.A., Members FDIC. A qualifying direct deposit is required for some features.
  • Discover it Secured is excluded from this list: Discover stopped accepting new applications for it in June 2026.
  • All trademarks, product names and issuer marks are the property of their respective owners. Their use here is nominative and does not imply any endorsement of, or affiliation with, US Card Index.