Discover It
APR: 0% on purchases and balance transfers for first 14 months; 11% to 23% after
Annual Fee: $0
Rewards: 5% cash back in rotating categories on up to $1,500 spent per quarter; 1% on everything else
Why It’s a Winner: It offers revved-up rewards at hundreds of e-tailers. While Money set out to find a specific store card that paid dividends, we were impressed with the ShopDiscover portal, which offers cash-back bonuses from 5% to 20% at a wide range of online retailers, from Apple to Zales. That’s on top of the normal 1% or 5% you earn on what you buy. You can apply the cash as a statement credit to essentially discount your purchase.
Caveat: You’ll benefit the most if you shop a lot online.