One of the best ways to maximize your credit card rewards is to pick a card that offers bonus points in the categories that you spend the most in, whether that’s restaurants, gas stations, or non-bonused categories.
In this post I wanted to look at the best credit cards for grocery store & supermarket purchases. While everyone has to eat, people are split on this — some people primarily eat out, some people primarily cook, and some people do a combination of both. For those who like to cook, the bonus category of groceries and supermarkets can be very useful.
There are lots of great credit cards offering bonuses on grocery and supermarket purchases, whether you want to earn cash back, transferable points, airline miles, or hotel points. In all cases, I’ll only be looking at cards earning at least 2% back (or the equivalent of that based on my valuation of points).
In this post:
What qualifies as grocery & supermarket spending?
We all have different places that we buy our groceries, so to start it’s probably worth clarifying for the purposes of credit cards what qualifies as grocery store spending, and what doesn’t. Here are a few things to be aware of upfront:
- The grocery store category generally excludes warehouse stores, Walmart, Target, drugstores, convenience stores, etc.; so you should only expect to earn bonus points or bonus cash back when shopping at “traditional” grocery stores, whether that’s Publix, Albertsons, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, etc.
- For American Express cards offering bonuses on grocery store spending, this is limited to U.S. supermarket locations only; so foreign grocery store spending doesn’t earn you bonus points or bonus cash back, and neither will a mini-market or other non-supermarket location where you may purchase groceries
- This also all comes down to how a particular merchant chooses to categorize themselves; for example, while I imagine it’s not supposed to be the case, I’ve also found that liquor stores are sometimes categorized under the “grocery” category
- Generally, I’ve found that Instacart orders from supermarkets earn bonus points or cash back, but that’s also not consistently the case
Best credit cards for grocery purchases March 2023
There are several great credit cards offering bonus rewards for grocery store and supermarket spending, whether you’re looking to earn travel rewards or cash back. Below are what I consider to be the best credit cards for grocery store purchases.
American Express® Gold Card
Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express
Citi® Double Cash Card
American Airlines AAdvantage® MileUp®
1. American Express® Gold Card
Reward for U.S. supermarket spending: 4x Amex Membership Rewards points (which I value at 6.8%)
Card annual fee: $250 (Rates & Fees)
Other things to be aware of: You can earn 4x points on the first $25,000 spent every year at supermarkets (1x points after that), and this is only valid at U.S. supermarkets
Read a review of the Amex Gold, apply for the Amex Gold.
2. Amex EveryDay Preferred Credit Card
Reward for U.S. supermarket spending: Up to 4.5x Amex Membership Rewards points (which I value at 7.65%)
Card annual fee: $95
Other things to be aware of: You can earn 3x points on the first $6,000 spent every year at supermarkets (1x points after that), and this is only valid at U.S. supermarkets; however, if you have at least 30 transactions per billing cycle you earn a 50% points bonus, for a total of 4.5x points
Read a review of the Amex EveryDay Preferred, apply for the Amex EveryDay Preferred.
3. Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express
Reward for U.S. supermarket spending: 6% cash back
Card annual fee: $0 intro annual fee for the first year, then $95. (Rates & Fees)
Other things to be aware of: You can earn 6% cash back on the first $6,000 spent every year at supermarkets (1% cash back after that), and this is only valid at U.S. supermarkets
Read a review of the Blue Cash Preferred, apply for the Blue Cash Preferred.
4. Citi Premier® Card
Reward for supermarket spending: 3x Citi ThankYou points (which I value at 5.1%)
Card annual fee: $95
Other things to be aware of: You can earn 3x points at supermarkets globally, with no caps and no foreign transaction fees
Read a review of the Citi Premier, apply for the Citi Premier.
5. Aeroplan® Credit Card
Reward for supermarket spending: 3x Air Canada Aeroplan points (which I value at 4.2%)
Card annual fee: $95
Other things to be aware of: You can earn 3x points at supermarkets globally, with no caps and no foreign transaction fees
Read a review of the Aeroplan Card, apply for the Aeroplan Card.
6. Citi Rewards+® Card
Reward for supermarket spending: 2x ThankYou points (which I value at 3.4%)
Card annual fee: $0
Other things to be aware of: This is an excellent no annual fee card option, though you’re limited to this return on the first $6,000 spent per year (you’ll earn 1x points thereafter); in conjunction with other cards earning Citi ThankYou points, these rewards can be transferred to airline & hotel partners
Read a review of the Citi Rewards+, apply for the Citi Rewards+.
7. Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
Reward for supermarket spending: 2x Capital One Venture miles (which I value at 3.4%)
Card annual fee: $395
Other things to be aware of: While the card doesn’t have a specific bonus category for supermarkets, it just has an all-around great rewards structure; don’t be alarmed by the annual fee, as the card offers a $300 annual Capital One Travel credit plus 10,000 bonus anniversary miles
Read a review of the Capital One Venture X, apply for the Capital One Venture X.
8. Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card
Reward for supermarket spending: 3% cash back
Card annual fee: $0
Other things to be aware of: You can earn 3% cash back on grocery store purchases globally, all with no caps and no foreign transaction fees
Read a review of the Capital One SavorOne, apply for the Capital One SavorOne.
9. Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express
Reward for U.S. supermarket spending: 3% cash back
Card annual fee: $0 (Rates & Fees)
Other things to be aware of: You can earn 3% cash back on the first $6,000 spent every year at supermarkets (1% cash back after that), and this is only valid at U.S. supermarkets
Read a review of the Blue Cash Everyday, apply for the Blue Cash Everyday.
10. American Airlines AAdvantage® MileUp®
Reward for supermarket spending: 2x American AAdvantage miles (which I value at 3%)
Card annual fee: $0
Other things to be aware of: While you can earn 2x miles at supermarkets globally, I’d only recommend using the card in the United States, since it has foreign transaction fees
Read a review of the AAdvantage MileUp, apply for the AAdvantage MileUp.
11. Citi Custom Cash℠ Card
Reward for supermarket spending: Varies
Card annual fee: $0
Other things to be aware of: The card offers 5x points in the category in which you spend the most each billing cycle, for up to $500 of spending; supermarkets is one of those categories, meaning you could earn 5x points on supermarket purchases, and you can pool rewards with Citi ThankYou points earned on other cards
Read a review of the Citi Custom Cash, apply for the Citi Custom Cash.
12. Citi® Double Cash Card
Reward for supermarket spending: 1% + 1%
Card annual fee: $0
Other things to be aware of: While the card doesn’t have a specific bonus category for supermarkets, it just has an all-around great rewards structure, as you earn 1% cash back when you make a purchase, and 1% cash back when you pay for a purchase; best of all, rewards earned on the card can be converted into Citi ThankYou points
Read a review of the Citi Double Cash, apply for the Citi Double Cash.
Best credit card for online groceries March 2023
For those who order groceries online, it’s tough to beat the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (review). The card offers 3x Chase Ultimate Rewards points for online grocery stores.
The online grocery (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs) category includes purchases for grocery pickup and delivery that are placed online with grocery stores, specialty food stores, or delivery service merchants that classify as grocery store merchants (excluding membership and subscription fees). Meal kit delivery services are also included.
Bottom line
There are some really fantastic credit cards for grocery store and supermarket spending. If you’re looking to earn travel rewards, it’s tough to beat the value of using the American Express® Gold Card for grocery purchases within the U.S., or the Citi Premier® Card for grocery purchases abroad. Meanwhile if you’re looking to earn cash back, the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express is fantastic, or if you want a no annual fee card, the Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card is the way to go.
Just be sure to pay attention to the exact terms, as not everywhere you may purchase food codes as grocery/supermarket spend with all banks. When you make a purchase at local stores, I always recommend checking afterwards how they’re categorized. For example, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by bodegas, liquor stores, Instacart, etc., also sometimes coding as grocery stores or supermarkets. This often determines which cards I’ll use for those purchases going forward.
What cards do you use for grocery and supermarket spending?
The following links will direct you to the rates and fees for mentioned American Express Cards. These include: American Express® Gold Card (Rates & Fees), Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express (Rates & Fees), and Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express (Rates & Fees).
Interesting you mentioned Whole Foods is a supermarket. If you are an Prime Member and hold the Amazon Credit card then this is classified as equal to an Amazon purchase where you would get 5% back for using their credit card. If you are a prime member, your return can significantly outweigh the annual Prime membership fee if you routinely buy from Amazon online. For non-Prime members there is a basic version of this card.
If you shop at a Walmart neighborhood store with your gold Amex you WILL earn 4 membership reward points. Yes, does not apply to regular Walmart
If you shop at a Walmart neighborhood store you WILL earn 4 reward points. Yes, does not apply to regular Walmart
I'd say the lesser known Bank of the West Cashback World card is another good card (if it's available in your state) as it has 3% for groceries including some stores that are usually excluded from grocery purchases (Target) which is great if you shop a lot at both these stores.
The Chase Amazon Prime Visa 5% cash back for Whole Foods purchases
World of hyatt 5x for grocery through Sep 30! On first $1,500
I don't value Hilton points as high as you do. But per your valuation the surpass 6x at groceries that's 3% uncapped spend
The Amex Gold is the undisputed winner. I got the card earlier this year mainly for the sign-up bonus but it is growing on me. I found out the card basically pays for itself with the $10 monthly credit for Shake Shack and the Cheesecake Factory plus another $10 for Uber. The 4% on groceries is fantastic. I manage to get at least $0.02 out of each amex point so it works out an 8% discount every time I shop at Safeway.
Re the online grocery store, I’m surprised that you didn’t mention the new Instacart Mastercard from Chase! 5% cash back, I believe.
Amex Plat periodically has 5x $ spent on groceries for new cardholders.
You neglected to mention the Chase Amazon or Amex Amazon Business card for Whole Foods purchases (5% back for spend on Amazon).
Some cards offer 5% for a single quarter during the year. This year both my Discover and Chase freedom card did this in the first quarter.
US Bank has a flexperks card offering 2% on groceries if it is your most used expense group.