You know what they say, the best things in life are free! Well, maybe that’s not always true,
but I think you and I can both agree that it’s better to not pay annual fees for credit cards
if you don’t have to, especially if you can find a great no annual fee credit card with tons of
good benefits. And guess what, these cards do exist and I’ve combed through just about every
readily available credit card out there to show you the best no annual fee credit cards in 2022.
Alright, so we’re gonna kick off this list with a card that’s been one of the best cash back credit
cards for years now, and that’s the Chase Freedom Flex. This card gives you 5% cash back on rotating
categories as well as 3% back on dining purchases including meal delivery services and 1% cash
back everywhere else. If you aren’t familiar with rotating categories, it basically means that every
3 months, there’s a new category of purchases that you’ll get 5% cash back on. You usually don’t know
ahead of time what those categories are going to be, but it’s almost always something useful that
almost anyone can use, such as grocery store purchases, gas stations, phone bills, internet
bills, wholesale clubs, stuff like that. The Chase Freedom Flex also comes with a nice $200 sign
up bonus after spending $500 on the card in the first 3 months, and for your first year of having
the card, you’ll also get 5% back on grocery store purchases up to the first $12,000 spent.
Now before I talk about the next best credit card, I want to know, are you familiar with
the KISS principle? KISS is an acronym for keep it simple stupid, and it’s basically this idea
that the simplest solution is also usually the best solution. I’m a huge believer of
this principle and there’s really nothing more simple than a card that gives you a fixed amount
of cash back on all your purchases. This is where the Wells Fargo Active Cash card shines with it’s
unlimited 2% cash back on all purchases and $200 sign up bonus which is not something you see very
often on flat cash back credit cards. There’s no category restrictions on what you can spend your
money on to get the 2% cash back and compared to most other cash back credit cards, you don’t have to jump
through a whole bunch of hoops just to get the card. So if you’re looking for a simple card that
gives you cash back on all your purchases, this is a great option to consider. Speaking
of options, U.S. Bank’s Cash+ credit card gives you two of them as you get to choose a category
of purchases that’ll give you 5% cash back plus another category that’ll give you 2% cash back,
and of course 1% cash back on everything else. Now, I will say that the categories are somewhat
specific so you may have to do a little bit of planning to really get the most out of this card,
but you do get to change your categories once every quarter to whatever fits your needs. Like
the previous cards I've mentioned, this card also comes with a $200 sign up bonus which
you’ll get after spending $1,000 on the card within the first 120 days of having the card.
If picking categories isn’t your cup of tea, U.S. Bank also has another great no annual fee
credit card called the Altitude Go. This card gives you 4% cash back on restaurants, takeout
and food delivery services which easily makes this one of the best no annual fee credit cards
for dining. But, there’s more! The card also gives you 2% cash back on grocery stores, gas stations,
and streaming services, plus an additional 1% cash back on everything else. To round
out these bonuses, this card also comes with a $200 sign up bonus, no foreign transaction fees,
and if you use this card to pay for a streaming service like Netflix or Hulu or Spotify,
after 11 months of paying for that service, you’ll get a $15 statement credit, which is kind of like
getting the 12th month for free after paying for 11 months. Moving on, I want to give an honorable
mention to my personal favorite credit card on this list, which is Bank of America’s Customized
Cash Rewards credit card. Now this card gives you 3% cash back on a category of your choice,
and 2% cash back on grocery stores and wholesale clubs such as Costco and Sam's Club, and lastly 1%
cash back on everything else. The categories you can choose from are very broad and easy to use,
such as travel, online shopping, and dining. That alone makes this a pretty respectable card,
but what really makes this card great is if you’re part of Bank of America’s Preferred
Rewards program which increases the card’s reward rate based on what tier of the program you’re in
and your tier is determined by how much assets you keep with Bank of America.
At the highest tier, this card gives you 5.25% cash back on the category of your choice,
plus 3.5% back on grocery stores and wholesale clubs, and 1.75% cash back on everything else
which easily makes this one of the best cash back cards out there. Lastly, this card does also come
with a $200 sign up bonus as long as you spend at least $1,000 on the card within the first 90 days.
Now, what if you’re a student and maybe you’re not sure if you have the credit history to get one of
the credit cards that I’ve mentioned so far? Well, many of the cards that I’ve already mentioned do
have ‘student’ versions of the card that are easier to get as long as you’re a student,
but when it comes to student cards, I really like Capital One’s SavorOne Student Card. The SavorOne
gives you 3% cash back on dining, entertainment, streaming services, and grocery stores which, at
least when I was a student, were some of my most common spending categories. Honestly, even after
you’re done being a student, these categories are incredibly useful so you know this card is one
that’ll last you for a long time which is extra important if this is one of your first credit
cards because they have a greater impact on your credit score. But what if you’re not a student and
you don’t have a great credit history? Does that mean you’re stuck with some terrible card with
no benefits? Well no, it probably just means that you’re going to have to get a secured credit card,
which is essentially a normal credit card except that you have to put down a refundable security
deposit. From my research, Discover seems to have the best secured credit card with their Discover
It Secured card. This card offers 2% cash back at gas stations and restaurants and 1% cash back
everywhere else. Plus, for your first year of having this card, they’ll double that cash back,
so you’re essentially getting 4% cash back on gas stations and restaurants,
and 2% cash back everywhere else, which is absolutely great for a secured credit card.
After 7 months of using the card, Discover will automatically start reviewing your account every
month to see if you are ready to graduate to an unsecured credit card, which basically means that
you’ll get your security deposit back while still being able to use the credit card. All
of this along with Discover generally being a great company to get a credit card from makes
this one of the best secured credit cards out there. Moving on to the last no annual
fee credit card I’ll be discussing in this video is Citi’s Custom Cash card. The Custom
Cash card uses a unique approach to cash back by automatically giving you 5% cash back on the first
$500 that you spend every month on whatever category you spent the most on that month,
plus 1% cash back everywhere else. In other words, whether you spent a lot on restaurants,
groceries, gas stations, home improvement, or something else, this card will automatically
determine which category you spent the most on and give you 5% cash back on it. With its $200
sign up bonus as well, this card is a great, low effort card that you just can’t go wrong with.
And there you have it! Those are the best no annual fee credit cards out there in 2022.
If you found this video helpful, why don’t you leave a comment below about which card you think
is the best for you, and if you’re new to this channel, subscribe for more Five Minute Finance.