Best cards for phone & internet

How to choose

The headline here is straightforward: the Ink Business Cash Credit Card pays 5x on phone, internet, and cable with no annual fee, worth a full 5% in cash terms. Read the second row carefully, though — the Choice Privileges Select Mastercard also advertises 5x, but its points are worth about 3% in cash and the card costs $95 a year. The rest of the field runs from 3% down to 2%.

The fine print here is mostly caps. The Ink Business Cash's 5x applies to your first $25,000 per year in combined spend; the Ink Business Preferred Credit Card runs 3x up to $150,000 per anniversary year; both American Express Blue Business cards stop at $50,000 per year. The Bank of America Business Advantage Customized Cash Rewards adds a second chore: you have to choose this category, and the 3% drops to a lower rate after a combined cap.

If you would rather not track any of that, two no-annual-fee cards on the list carry no listed caveats: the Wells Fargo Autograph Card at 3x and the U.S. Bank Business Triple Cash Rewards Visa at 3%. Phone and internet are steady autopay bills, so this is a set-it-once decision — pick the card whose cap and fee you can live with, update the autopay, and move on.

The math

On $150 a month of phone & internet, Ink Business Cash Credit Card returns about $90 a year at our valuations — a flat 2% card returns $36. Mind the ceiling: Ink Business Cash Credit Card's top rate applies only up to $25,000/anniversary yr (combined); past that, purchases drop to its lower rate.