5% Cash Back Calculator
Calculate cash back using the 5% cash back calculator, get the results, and compare side by side airline, hotel, and cash back rewards cards.
What Is 5% Cash Back?
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 want to know how much cash back you'll earn spending $1,000, it would be $1,000 x 0.05 which equals $50. There's not any cards that earn 5% cash back on all purchases, but there are several cards that feature rotating 5% quarterly categories as well as cards that feature 5% cash back in certain categories.
Should I Get A 5% Rotating Category Card?
There's a small handful of credit cards that feature 5% rotating categories:
- Chase Freedom Flex Card
- Discover IT Card
- U.S. Bank Cash+
- Citi Dividend Card (Unavailable To New Applicants)
All of these cards have no annual fee and typically offer great 5% categories. If you have the chance to pick up one or more of these cards, I recommend doing so as there's not much to lose and much cash back to gain.
and Card Value Calculator
You can use this rewards calculator to calculate how many points, miles, or cash back you can earn based on your spend per category. This calculator will also give you the dollar value of the card based on rewards earned and how much each benefit is worth to you minus the fees. You can click the Compare A Card button to compare this card against another card in the same calculator.
All category spend entered in the primary card's column will carry over to all credit card pages on the site so you don't have to re-enter the same information over again.
If you want to find the best credit card based on your spend, I highly recommend you use the Search For Cards By Spend Calculator. You'll be able to enter your monthly and yearly spend across different categories and get a list of the best credit cards based on that spend. You'll also be able to toggle annual fees, banks, card types, networks, and much more.
There's also a bunch of other helpful credit card calculators on the site that can use such as credit card comparison calculators, hotel elite status calculators, rewards points and miles cash value calculators and much more. You can get the full list of calculators off the home page.
5% Cash Back FAQ
Is there a 5% cash back credit card that earns 5% back on all purchases?
No, but there are credit cards that have 5% cash back quarterly rotating categories and credit cards that earn 5% in certain categories.
Are 5% credit cards with rotating categories worth it?
In my opinion, yes they are. They offer a great return and the cards have no annual fee.
How much cash back can I earn at 5% cash back?
It depends on how much you spend. You can use the 5% Cash Back Calculator on this page to calculate total cash back based on your spend.
How do I know what's the best credit card for my spend?
You can use the Search For Credit Cards By Spend calculator to get a list of the best credit cards based on your spend across categories.
