Having excellent credit (usually 750 or higher) is good for more than mortgage and car loan rates. An excellent credit score can also yield you a credit card that offers better benefits such as longer balance transfer periods, low introductory APR interest rates, cash back bonuses, better rewards, and better general benefits.
Below I’m going to highlight some of the best credit cards for excellent credit. If you are looking for a new credit card, and you have excellent credit, see if any of the following cards fit your spending needs.
To keep things simple, I’ve left out specialized cards like airline miles cards, travel rewards cards, small business cards, or hotel rewards cards.
Best credit cards for people with excellent credit:
Blue Cash Everyday(SM) Card from American Express
This American Express card starts off with a $100 cash back rewards bonus to new card members. Spend $1,000 in 3 months and you will get $100 in Reward Dollars to redeem. The Blue Cash Everyday also offers a 0% introductory APR for purchases for up to 12 months.
As the card has “Cash” in it’s name you can guess that this is a cash back card. You would be right. You get 3% cash back at supermarkets; 2% cash back at department stores and gas stations; and 1% cash back on all other purchases. There is no limit on the cash rewards you can earn. There’s also no spending minimum to get your rewards, no enrollment for the rewards, and no rotating rewards categories. This makes the Blue Cash Everyday an easy-to-understand cash back card!
You can also earn a referral bonus with the card. Refer as many friends and family as you like to the Blue Cash Everyday card and for each friend that signs up, you are eligible to receive a $25 referral bonus. And if you love the card, why not refer it to your friends?
We used a similar Blue card when planning our wedding to earn rewards. We had a 0% APR purchase period that we charged what we could on (we had the money in the bank) and then cashed in our rewards for gift certificates to get new bedroom furniture.
There is no annual fee for this card. (See our review of the Blue Cash Everyday Card)
Discover® More® Card – Balance Transfer Fee*
This Discover More card offers up a nice long duration on their balance transfers – 0% APR for 18 months. That’s over a year to pay off your transferred balance without any interest accumulating. This is great if you have some loan balances from other cards that you are looking to pay off. Make sure you pay off your balance transfer, after the 18 months the interest rate is a variable 11.99%-20.99% based on your credit-worthiness. [Note: there is a balance transfer fee of $10 or 5% of the balance transfer amount, whichever is greater.]
You also get 0% APR on purchases you make on the card for 6 months (then a variable rate of 11.99%-20.99%).
Besides the balance transfer and purchase rates, you are also getting Discover’s Cashback Bonus® plan. Throughout the year Discover will offer up specific categories that can earn 5% cashback such as: travel, gas, groceries, restaurants, home improvement stores, and others. All other purchases have up to 1% cash back, unlimited. [Note: after $3,000 in annual purchases you earn 1%. Before that you earn .25%. Wholesale club purchases earn .25% regardless of your yearly spending.] You can also save up to 20% on popular retailers when you shop online through Discover.
Your Discover More card will also have $0 Fraud Liability and you can get automatic mobile and email fraud alerts. You also get 24/7 access to a U.S.-based account manager within 60 seconds should you have to call them. Oh, and Discover has been ranked #1 in customer loyalty 15 years in a row by the 2011 Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index report.
This card also has no annual fee.
This card from PenFed boasts no fees: no annual fee, no foreign transaction fee, no balance transfer fee, no cash advance fee, no late fees, no over credit limit fees, no penalty APR. As if all of that wasn’t good enough, the PenFed Promise Visa starts you off with an introductory 7.49% APR for your first 36 months on purchases! After the intro. period your APR will vary with the Prime Rate (currently the regular APR is 9.99%). If you make a cash advance your APR will only be 17.99% (most other cards are much higher for cash advances).
How can they offer all of this? PenFed is the Pentagon Federal Credit Union and you have to be a member in order to qualify for the card. For the most part this means you need to be connected with the military in some way (though there are some ways to join the union, such as through the American Red Cross).
If you are a member of PenFed (or become one), this is a great overall card. You can definitely see the advantages of excellent credit with this offer.
American Express(R) Premier Rewards Gold Card
With this Gold Card from American Express you are actually getting a charge card, not a credit card. That means you will be paying your balance in full every month. No need to worry so much about your APR on purchases since you will be paying in full.
You can earn 25,000 Membership Rewards® bonus points when you spend $2,00 in the first three (3) months of having the card. That can already get you select gift cards valued at $250.
With Membership Rewards you earn points with your everyday purchases. You earn one (1) point for just about every dollar you purchase with your card. Earn 3x points when you use your card on airfare and 2x points when used for gas and groceries. You can earn extra points when shopping select retailers through American Express. Your points have no expiration date and you can earn unlimited points. Redeem points from everything like gift to shopping to dining to airline tickets (there are no blackout dates or restrictions for points used on travel and flying).
In addition you get American Express’ Global Assist® Hotline, should you have an emergency while traveling as well as Roadside Assistance 24/7 when you travel. If you rent a car you can be covered under Car Rental Loss and Damage Insurance.
You get all of that and more with the American Express (R) Preferred Rewards Gold Card. But there is a cost – the annual fee is $175 (which is waived for the first year).
If you use the benefits the card provides, then your excellent credit makes the annual fee worth it.
The Slate from Chase offers 0% introductory APR for up to 15 months on purchases and balance transfers.
If you transfer a balance in the first 30 days of opening the card there will be no balance transfer fee.
With the Slate card you also get Blueprint, which helps you manage your spending on your terms with their FullPay, Split, Finish It, and Track It features (see their site for more info. on Blueprint’s features).
There is no annual fee on this card.
You can see, with excellent credit, your credit card can carry more benefits and lowers rates. Of course you have to remain responsible with your spending in order for many of the benefits to remain and to keep your high credit rating. Otherwise, the benefits an excellent credit, credit card can give you are wasted on interest payments.
If you want to see more credit cards for excellent credit, take a look at my Credit Cards page.
*As you always should, make sure you read through the card details to make sure this card fits your needs and you understand the terms and conditions. Be aware that the terms may change after this article’s publication.
“Disclaimer: This content is not provided or commissioned by American Express. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of American Express, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by American Express. This site may be compensated through American Express Affiliate Program.”
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
What an original post! Everybody else is writing about credit cards for people with bad credit (I guess because that is what people are searching for at Google), but people with good credit probably want the advice, too.