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Credit Card Cash Back Calculator: Calculate 5% Cash Back
Cash back calculator for calculating 5% cash back earned with rewards credit cards based on your spend. Compare top cash back cards side by side.
When a rewards program or credit card is offering 5% cash back, it means that for every $1 you spend you will earn 5 cents ($0.05) in the form of cash back. You can calculate 5% cash back multiplying 0.05 by the amount you plan on spending. So if you spend $1,000, it would be $1,000 x 0.05 which equals $50. There are not any cards that earn 5% cash back on all purchases, but there are several cards that feature quarterly rotating 5% cash back categories. There are also some cards that earn 5% cash back or more in certain categories.
5% Cash Back Calculator
Enter the total cost of the purchase.
$
Cost
Total Cash Back:
$50.00
5% Quarterly Rotating Category Cards
There are three available credit cards that feature 5% cash back categories that rotate on a quarterly basis. Those cards are the Chase Freedom Flex℠, Discover it® Cash Back, and U.S. Bank Cash+™ Visa Signature® Card.
Personally, I recommend having at least two of these if not three if you can obtain them all. Cash back earned on these cards are capped at $1,500 or $2,000 in combined spend between rotating categories each quarter and once that cap is hit, you'll earn 1% back for the remainder of the quarter. Having more of than one of these cards gives you the ability to maximize your rewards when a meaningful 5% cash back category is presented to you. The best part is that all of these cards have no annual fee, so there's no real downside to having all of them.
No minimum to redeem for cash back. Cash Back rewards do not expire as long as your account is open.
0% Intro APR for 15 months from account opening on purchases, then a variable APR of 14.99 - 23.74%.
No annual fee.
Cards like the Discover IT (Cash) Card has rotating categories in which you can earn 5% cash back across different categories every quarter.
Categories With 5%+ Cash Back
There are a good handful of credit cards that offer 5% cash back or more in specific categories. Which cards are best will depend on how much you spend. You can check out our Best Credit Cards page to search for the best cards based on category such as gas, grocery, and more to find out which cards give you the best return.
Some of the most popular cash back credit cards with high earning rates are listed below.
Earn 20% back on Amazon.com purchases on the Card within the first 6 months of Card Membership, up to $200 back. Plus, earn $150 back after you spend $3,000 in purchases on the Card within the first 6 months of Card Membership. You will receive cash back in the form of statement credits.
Earn 20% back on Amazon.com purchases on the Card within the first 6 months of Card Membership, up to $200 back.
Plus, earn $150 back after you spend $3,000 in purchases on the Card within the first 6 months of Card Membership. You will receive cash back in the form of statement credits.
$0 intro annual fee for the first year, then $95.
6% Cash Back at U.S. supermarkets on up to $6,000 per year in purchases (then 1%).
6% Cash Back on select U.S. streaming subscriptions.
3% Cash Back at U.S. gas stations and on transit (including taxis/rideshare, parking, tolls, trains, buses and more).
1% Cash Back on other purchases.
Low intro APR: 0% for 12 months on purchases from the date of account opening, then a variable rate, 13.99% to 23.99%
Plan It® gives the option to select purchases of $100 or more to split up into monthly payments with a fixed fee.
Cash Back is received in the form of Reward Dollars that can be redeemed as a statement credit.
Plus members earn 3% back on eligible purchases when shopping in-club or digitally through Sam’s Club when they use their Sam’s Club® Mastercard® and another 2% back from their Plus membership, for a total of up to 5% rewards on eligible purchases.
Sam’s Club cardholders can easily make purchases, track spending, check and pay balances, and securely manage and freeze accounts via the Sam’s Club mobile app enabled by the Synchrony plug-in (‘SyPi’).
Rewards are automatically loaded onto membership cards and can be used for future purchases made both online and in-club, or exchanged for cash back.
Contact-free technology, including the integration of payments capabilities into Sam’s Scan & Go patented solution, both in-club and at the pump.
Plus members earn 3% back on eligible purchases when shopping in-club or digitally through Sam’s Club when they use their Sam’s Club® Mastercard® and another 2% back from their Plus membership, for a total of up to 5% rewards on eligible purchases.
Best Cards By Spend Calculator
If you're on the hunt for a cash back credit card, you can use the Best Cards By Spend Calculator to get a list of the best cash back credit cards based on the spend you enter. Results will be sorted by net return which is the average value of the rewards earned, plus annual credits, and minus annual fees.
Results will consist of top-rated cash back credit cards. Due to how quarterly rotating category credit cards work, they will not appear in the results (I recommend picking up one or two of those anyway). Business credit cards will also not appear in this list. If you're looking for business cards, you can jump to our Business Credit Card Hub.
Search for categories and click 'Add Category' to add it to the calculator. If you want to be more specific, you can specify domestic or international spend.
Loading Categories...
Currently Selected:
Category Added
Category Spend
Enter your spend per month, year, or quarter for the listed categories. You can then click Get The Best Cards to get the list of results.
You can set the duration of the spend for the categories listed above. If you're looking for the best card for only n-months worth of spend, this is where you change the option. If you want to calculate based on a full year of spending, you can leave it set to a duration of '1 Year'.
Adjust Transferable Points
Some rewards programs allow you to transfer your earned points to airline, hotel, and other loyalty programs. These programs will generally have higher point values when doing such. Since these matter so much when choosing a credit card, you can enter your own point value for these programs to include in the calculations. You can set any of the currencies listed below to 0 to calculate based on the non-transfer value (in which most are 1 cent per point with the exception of Chase's 1.25/1.5 cent redemptions). The values I have listed are what I think is the easiest value to get out of your points when transferring to partners. You can click on the to learn more about the value of the currency (opens in a new tab/window).
Depending on what you're calculating, all programs listed below may not be featured in the results.
Note: Results may take a few seconds to generate after doing a search. The results and values listed are estimates to help guide you towards making the best decision. They are for illustrative purposes only.
The results below are estimates on how much you can earn with each of the listed credit cards based on the spend you entered in the fields above. Do note that these estimates are to help guide you towards making the best decision when it comes to picking up a rewards credit card and that they should be used for illustrative purposes only.
Credit cards featured in the article above may not appear in the results below based on the spend you entered. This is because what's considered the "top cards" or "best cards" may not be the same for you. You can click on 'Rewards Calculator' to get more details on the earning rates and benefits of each card listed as well as calculate rewards on a deeper level which includes:
Comparing results against any credit card featured on the site
Factoring in memberships and hotel elite status (if applicable)
Viewing rewards as if you transferred them to partners
Entering credit card bonuses and current sign up bonuses
Toggling/editing annual fees and authorized user fees
Any spend that you entered into the fields above will roll over to all the credit card calculators on the website, so it's no need to re-enter information.
Results will show up to the top 10 best credit cards. Depending on the spend or the cards available, it may show less.
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