Best Credit Cards for Families
These cards make it easy to earn and redeem points across categories where families spend the most, including food and travel.
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For parents juggling the costs of kids’ activities, grocery store visits, gas and countless other monthly expenses, a credit card that helps stretch your budget with cash back or rewards can be an essential tool. And since parents generally don’t have a lot of free time on their hands, it also helps if the rewards are easy to earn and redeem.
With those factors in mind, we picked the best credit cards for families, organized by common spending categories such as groceries, dining out, travel and shopping.
Top credit cards for families
For groceries and gas: Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express
The Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express earns a whopping 6% cash back at U.S. supermarkets on up to $6,000 a year in spending (then 1%). It also earns 3% cash back at U.S. gas stations and transit, another category where families tend to drop a lot of dough each month. It also offers 6% cash back on select U.S. streaming subscriptions. Non-bonus-category spending earns 1% back.* Terms apply (see rates and fees).
The card has an annual fee: $0 intro annual fee for the first year, then $95. If you spend more than $31 at the grocery store each week — an easy threshold for most families — then the rewards you'll earn will outweigh the annual fee.
New cardholders will be eligible for a welcome offer: Earn a $250 statement credit after you spend $3,000 in purchases on your new Card within the first 6 months. Terms Apply. The card also offers an intro 0% intro APR for 12 months on purchases and balance transfers, and then the ongoing APR of 20.24%-29.24% Variable APR.
American Express excludes wholesale clubs and superstores from its definition of supermarkets, so if you tend to shop at those locations, you might want to consider a different card.
For family-friendly fun: Wells Fargo Attune℠ Card
The Wells Fargo Attune℠ Card is marketed as a card that promotes self-care and eco-friendly living, and that’s true — but it’s also a great fit for families thanks to the card’s broad and varied rewards categories.
For example, the following purchases earn an unlimited 4% cash back: barbershops, secondhand stores, toy shops, amusement parks, dance studios, sport camps, sporting goods stores, bookstores, bowling alleys and movie theaters.
For the full list of 4% categories, check out the list below. (Purchases outside of the bonus categories earn 1%.)
For dining/grocery/entertainment rewards, no annual fee: Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card
Families who frequently enjoy restaurant meals along with a night out might want to consider the Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card, which earns a well-rounded 3% back on dining, eligible streaming services, grocery stores and entertainment (and 1% back on other purchases).
That's an impressive (and hard-to-find) rewards combination — especially for an annual fee of $0. It can cover a wide swath of popular family spending categories.
The card comes with a sign-up bonus, too: Earn a one-time $200 cash bonus once you spend $500 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening.
For everyday spending: Citi Double Cash® Card
The Citi Double Cash® Card earns 1% back when you make a purchase and an additional 1% back when you pay it off, earning an effective rewards rate of 2% on all eligible purchases.
That rate is hard to beat, especially when you consider the annual fee is $0, and you don’t have to add to your to-do list by opting in to rotating categories every month or quarter. For busy families, that kind of simplicity can be appealing.
While the rewards structure of the Chase Freedom Flex® is more complicated than what you'd find with a flat-rate cash-back card, the earnings potential might make it worthwhile.
The card earns 5% cash back on up to $1,500 in combined quarterly spending on bonus categories that rotate every three months (activation required); 5% on travel purchased through Chase; 3% on dining at restaurants and purchases at drugstores; and 1% on all other purchases. Those rotating bonus categories tend to be popular with families and in the past have included things like gas stations and wholesale clubs. (Here's the list of current bonus categories.)
While you have to opt in to the bonus categories each quarter, parents organized enough to remember to do so will reap rich rewards.
The card's annual fee is $0, and it comes with an introductory APR: 0% intro APR on purchases and Balance Transfers for 15 months, and then the ongoing APR of 18.99%-28.49% Variable APR. There's also a sign-up bonus: Earn a $200 Bonus after you spend $500 on purchases in your first 3 months from account opening.
For general travel: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
If you’re looking for a general travel card that allows you to earn and redeem rewards across multiple airlines and hotel chains, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is a solid choice. It earns:
5 points per $1 spent on all travel booked through Chase.
3 points per $1 spent on dining (including eligible delivery services and takeout).
3 points per $1 spent on select streaming services.
3 points per $1 spent on online grocery purchases (not including Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs).
2 points per $1 spent on travel not booked through Chase .
1 point per $1 spent on other purchases.
There's also a rich sign-up bonus: Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. The annual fee is $95.
If you’re a bigger spender with a bigger family travel budget, then you might want to consider the Chase Sapphire Reserve® instead, which has a higher annual fee but also larger rewards.
For families that love staying at Hiltons, the Hilton Honors American Express Card can help stretch their travel budgets: Cardholders earn 7 Hilton Honors bonus points for purchases at Hilton hotels or resorts; 5 points for purchases at U.S. restaurants, U.S. supermarkets, and U.S. gas stations; and 3 points for all other eligible purchases (see rates and fees). There is also a welcome offer: Earn 80,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points after you spend $2,000 in purchases on the Hilton Honors American Express Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership. Terms Apply.
Families who are bigger spenders might want to consider the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card. It has a $150 annual fee, but it also offers more generous rewards, as well as automatic Hilton Honors™ Gold elite status that grants perks like daily food and beverage credit.
For Amazon and Whole Foods devotees: Prime Visa
Maybe your family already enjoys the convenience of Amazon Prime, with its two-day free shipping and access to Prime Video — which contains plenty of kids’ programming, among other benefits. If so, then applying for the Prime Visa can be a relatively easy decision. Cardholders enjoy:
5% cash back on Amazon and Whole Foods purchases.
2% back at restaurants and gas stations.
2% back on local transit and commuting (including rideshare).
1% back on all other purchases.
The card's annual fee is $0, although you must be an Amazon Prime member, and standard membership costs $139 a year.
For Target loyalists: Target Circle™ Credit Card
If Target is your go-to store, the Target Circle™ Credit Card can help you save.
Cardholders get 5% off nearly all of their Target and Target.com purchases (some exclusions apply), along with free shipping. It also offers you extra time to make returns. The card's annual fee is $0.
For Costco customers: Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi
If you rely on wholesale clubs for your family’s household purchases, getting a card specific to your club of choice could pay off. The Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi offers 5% back on gas purchases at Costco and 4% back on other eligible gas and EV charging purchases (on up to $7,000 of spending a year, then 1% back); 3% back on travel and dining; 2% back on Costco purchases; and 1% back on everything else.
The annual fee is $0, but you must be a Costco member, and membership starts at $65 per year.
For rent payments: Bilt World Elite Mastercard® Credit Card
Families who want to earn rewards on rent can’t do much better than the Bilt World Elite Mastercard® Credit Card. The card lets you pay rent, often a family’s biggest monthly expense, with a credit card without incurring any processing fees.
Rent payments earn 1 Bilt Point per $1 up to 100,000 points per calendar year. The card also earns 5x points on Lyft, 3x points on dining, 2x points on travel, and 1x points on everything else, making the Bilt card a solid choice for non-rent expenses, too. (Bonus: On the first of the month, which Bilt calls “Rent Day,” point values are doubled for all categories except rent.)
Of note: There's no traditional upfront sign-up bonus on the card, and it must be used at least five times per billing cycle to qualify for meaningful rewards.
Bilt Points may be redeemed for a variety of unconventional things such as future rent payments, a home down payment or home decor. You can also transfer them to one of Bilt’s travel partners.
For mortgage and day care payments: Mesa Homeowners Card
Image courtesy of Mesa
The Mesa Homeowners Card could be the go-to payment option for homeowners with children, as it’s one of the only cards today that earns rewards on mortgage and day care payments. Cardholders will get 1 Mesa Point per $1 for mortgage payments up to 100,000 points in a calendar year. (You'll need to make at least $1,000 in eligible purchases each month to earn rewards on your mortgage payments.)
Another boon to families, the Mesa card earns 3 points per $1 on day care expenses. Say your monthly mortgage and day care bill are both $1,000. Every month, you’d earn 4,000 Mesa Points from just those two expenses.
The Mesa card also earns 3x points on home-related spending, including home decor; home improvement and maintenance; cable and streaming; and utilities. Grocery stores and gas/EV stations earn 2x points; all other purchases earn 1x point per $1.
Those solid rewards rates on popular spending categories are slightly offset by the value of Mesa Points, which are generally worth less than 1 cent per point. The card does, however, feature a handful of travel partners to which you can transfer your points for, potentially, outsize value.
To view rates and fees of the Hilton Honors American Express Card, see this page.
To view rates and fees of the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express, see this page.
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