USAA Cashback Rewards Plus American Express Card

Rewards by category

Our take

Start with the gate, because it decides whether the rest of this page matters to you. The USAA Cashback Rewards Plus American Express requires USAA membership, and that is a genuine military gate: active service members, veterans, and their eligible family members. There is no donation to make and no association to join. Unlike PenFed, which the general public can get into, USAA has no back door. If none of those categories describe you or a close family member, this card is simply not available.

For those who qualify, it is a $0-annual-fee gas-and-groceries card with a firm ceiling. Gas earns 5% on the first $3,000 of spending a year and 1% after that; groceries earn 3% under the same $3,000-a-year cap structure and likewise fall to 1%. Do the arithmetic before you get attached to the 5%: $3,000 of gas at 5% is $150 a year, at the absolute most, and $3,000 of groceries at 3% comes to $90. Roughly $240 if you exhaust both buckets, which most households will not.

Past the caps you are holding a 1% card with no annual fee and no foreign transaction fee. That is a perfectly useful thing to own and a poor centerpiece for a wallet. Carry it if you are USAA-eligible, drive enough to fill the gas bucket, and are content to move the rest of your spending to a flat-rate card once the bonus rates step down. If you want uncapped 3% on gas and groceries and you happen to qualify for Navy Federal instead, the More Rewards Amex does that job with no ceiling at all.

The math

Run $200 a month of gas through this card and you're earning about $120 a year at our conservative valuations. There's no annual fee to earn back — everything above the 1% base rate is pure upside.

Where it lands in our rankings: #4 for gas

Key benefits

• No annual fee
• No foreign transaction fees

Common questions

Does USAA Cashback Rewards Plus American Express Card have an annual fee?

No — USAA Cashback Rewards Plus American Express Card has no annual fee.

What does USAA Cashback Rewards Plus American Express Card earn on gas?

5% on gas (up to $3,000/yr).

What rewards does USAA Cashback Rewards Plus American Express Card earn on everything else?

1% on all other purchases, in Cash Back.

Who is actually eligible for the USAA Cashback Rewards Plus?

Only USAA members, and USAA membership is a real military gate: active service members, veterans, and their eligible family members. There is no association to join and no donation that buys your way in, which is the sharp difference from PenFed, whose membership is open to the general public. If nobody in your immediate family has served, this card is out of reach no matter how well the categories fit your spending.

How much is the 5% gas rate really worth over a year?

At most $150. The 5% applies only to the first $3,000 of gas purchases each year, and every dollar after that earns the 1% base rate, so the bonus is capped by design rather than by your driving habits. Groceries follow the same $3,000-a-year structure at 3%, worth up to $90. Together the bonus categories top out near $240, which makes this a dependable small add-on rather than a wallet-changing card.