Best Credit Cards for Grocery Stores and Supermarkets

If you’re like me, groceries are one of your biggest monthly expenses. The average American family spends over $6,000 per year at the grocery store. With groceries making up a big chunk of my budget, I want to be sure that I’m getting the most points with credit card every time I step through the automatic sliding doors of my local grocery store.

Grocery stores have been popping up as a benefit on credit cards like crazy. With more and more cards offering bonus points at grocery stores, we wanted to help you pick the best credit card for your grocery purchases.

You might be looking for a card that earns transferable points or airline miles. Alternatively, you might want to earn a little extra cashback.

Best Credit Cards for Grocery Stores and Supermarkets

Let’s take a look at the credit cards that offer the most bang for your buck. I’ve broken them down by category to make the decision just a bit easier for you.

Best Overall Card: American Express Gold Card

The American Express® Gold Card comes in as our best card for grocery stores. The American Express Gold Card earns 4X points per dollar at restaurants and at U.S. supermarkets  up to the first $25,000 spent every year, 1x thereafter.

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It does have a moderately high annual fee at $250, but don’t let that dissuade you. The card comes with some premium credits that help ease the annual fee. You won’t find another card that earns this many travel rewards points at grocery stores with no extra hoops to jump through.

With the ability to earn 100,000 American Express Membership Rewards points every year at grocery stores, you can’t go wrong with the American Express Gold Card.

Honorable Mention: Citi Premier – 3X ThankYou Points

Best Cash Back Credit Card: Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express

Considering how much money the average family spends at U.S. Supermarkets, it comes as no surprise that some people may be wanting to get the most cash back possible from their grocery trips.

For those of you seeking the best cashback card for grocery stores, take a look at the Blue Cash Preferred Card from American Express. You’ll earn 6% cashback in the form of statement credits on the first $6,000 spent at U.S. supermarkets each year, and 1% after that. Considering the average family spends just a little over $6,000 per year, you should be able to get a lot of value from this card.

Cashback is rewarded as “Reward Dollars” that you can redeem for a statement credit at any time.

If you max out the benefit, that’s $360 cashback every year just from grocery store shopping. Once you factor in the $95 annual fee, you’ll get a net benefit of $265 every year if you spend $6,000 at the grocery store.

I’m about to do some quick math here, but don’t worry! Once you take into account the annual fee, you’re getting  4.5% cashback throughout the year. You won’t find any card that earns more cash back at the grocery store than the Blue Cash Preferred Card.

Best No Annual Fee Credit Card: Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express

If you’re looking for a long term card for grocery stores with a $0 annual fee (rates and fees), the Blue Cash Everyday Card should be your choice. The Blue Cash EveryDay card is similar to its big brother the Blue Cash Preferred Card, but with a slightly lower cashback rate in exchange for no annual fee.

Even paying no annual fee, you’ll earn 3% cashback at supermarkets on the first $6,000 every year, 1% thereafter. That’s $180 in your pocket every year if you can spend the entire $6,000.

It isn’t the most cash back available, but you won’t have another annual fee to pay to keep this card in your wallet year after year.

Honorable Mention: Capital One® SavorOne® Cash Rewards Credit Card, 2% cashback with no annual fee

Best Airline Credit Card: American Airlines AAdvantage MileUp℠ Card

We’re getting a bit more niche now, but if you’re looking to earn some hard to earn airline miles with your grocery store spending, look at the American Airlines AAdvantage MileUpSM Mastercard.

The only transfer partner to American Airlines is Marriott, as no major bank programs transfer to this lucrative program. You can use American AAdvantage miles to fly to Europe on a web special for only 20,000 miles or 115,000 miles to fly first class to the Middle East.

With the American Airlines AAdvantage MileUpSM Mastercard, you’ll earn 2 points for every dollar spent at the grocery store with no annual fee. With no transfer partners, it can be difficult to earn a lot of AAdvantage miles, so the MileUpSM card is a great way to earn a few more every time you step inside the grocery store.

Best Grocery Welcome Bonus: Wells Fargo Visa Signature Card

If you’re looking to move between welcome bonuses over time, rather than one card for the rest of the time, then the Wells Fargo Visa Signature Card is the card for you.

The Wells Fargo Visa Signature Card offers 5 rewards points for every dollar spent at grocery stores, gas stations, and drug stores on the first $12,500 in the first 6 months of opening the card. This is a great option for anyone who spends more than the average family at grocery stores.

If you can afford to spend the entire $12,500, you’ll earn 62,500 points. You can redeem them for cashback at 1 cent per point, but if you choose to redeem them for airfare instead, you’ll get an extra 50% value. When used for airfare, that makes this welcome bonus worth $937.50.

Once you’re outside of the welcome bonus time frame, you’ll only earn 1 point per dollar. This isn’t a great card for long term use, but the welcome bonus is very enticing if you can meet the entire spend.

The Wells Fargo Visa Signature Card has no annual fee, making this bonus even more welcoming.

Best Credit Card for Whole Foods: Prime Visa

If you do the majority of your grocery shopping at Whole Foods and you’re looking to earn cashback, you shouldn’t pass on the Prime Visa from Chase.

Although it is branded as an Amazon Prime card, since Amazon owns Whole Foods, the benefits extend to Whole Foods as well. Although there is no annual fee, you will need an Amazon Prime account.

With the Prime Visa, you’ll earn unlimited 5% back every time you shop at Whole Foods with no cap on the amount of cashback you can earn with an eligible prime membership. You can redeem your rewards for purchases at Amazon with no minimum on the amount you can redeem per order.

Keep in mind, this card is issued by Chase so you’ll need to be under 5/24 to open it.

Best Credit Card for Costco: Costco Anywhere Visa Card by Citi

While there’s a lot of great credit cards for grocery stores here, wholesale clubs like Costco don’t code as grocery stores. That means your typical “grocery store” bonuses won’t earn points at Costco.

The Costco Anywhere Visa Card by Citi earns 2% cashback at Costco. This means Gold Star members will earn a total of 2% back while Gold Star Executive members can stack to earn a total of 4% back.

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Cashback is rewarded as a credit card certificate once per year after your February billing statement that you can redeem at Costco stores for cash or merchandise.

Honorable Mention: Chase Freedom sometimes offers 5X points at Costco

Best Credit Card While Abroad: Citi Premier Card

If you’re living overseas or simply traveling you may find yourself at grocery stores abroad. Just because you’re outside of the U.S. doesn’t mean you should miss out on earning the most points at grocery stores.

Many credit cards limit their bonus spend to U.S. grocery stores, and some have foreign transaction fees. That’s why it is imperative to use the right card when shopping at grocery stores abroad.

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The Citi Premier Card is the best card to use at grocery stores when you’re outside of the US. Starting August 23rd, 2020 the Citi Premier will earn 3X ThankYou points at supermarkets with no foreign transaction fees.

Banks assign codes to stores to make sure the purchase earns the right amount of points. When shopping abroad, you’re more likely to encounter incorrect merchant codes than you would in the US. If you want to be sure, you can use a merchant code lookup tool to verify.

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Final Thoughts

There’s a lot of great options out there that will provide you some great rewards when shopping at grocery stores. Whether you’re looking for the most travel rewards points, or trying to build your credit, there’s an option for you. Be sure to pick up one of these cards before your next trip to the grocery store so you can put those large grocery bills to work for you.