Best cards for utilities

How to choose

Two cards separate themselves here: the Max Cash Preferred Card and the U.S. Bank Cash+ Visa Signature Card both pay 5% on utilities with no annual fee, while the pack below them runs 3% down to 2% — and the IHG One Rewards Traveler's bigger-looking 3x is worth only about 1.5% at IHG point values. That 3-point gap is the whole story of this ranking — on recurring bills like electric, gas, and water, the difference adds up month after month without any change in how you pay.

The catch sits in the caveats, and both leaders have one. Neither pays 5% automatically: you have to choose utilities as one of your selectable categories, so the rate takes a small amount of upkeep. The Max Cash Preferred Card lets you pick two categories from a list of nine and pays 5% only on the first $2,000 of combined quarterly spend across both picks, then 1% — and it is distributed only through partner banks and credit unions, with no national application, so getting it depends on where you bank. Both American Express business cards — the Blue Business Cash Card and The Blue Business Plus Credit Card — cap their 2% at $50,000 per year, and the Apple Card only pays 2% when you pay through the mobile wallet.

Every card in this ranking has a $0 annual fee. Spark Cash Plus runs $150 per year, Venture Business $95, and the two Venture X cards $395 each — none of them out-earns the no-fee Blue Business Cash Card on a utility bill. Unless you already hold one of those cards for other spending, the boring no-fee options cover this category completely.

The math

On $250 a month of utilities, Max Cash Preferred Card returns about $150 a year at our valuations — a flat 2% card returns $60. Mind the ceiling: Max Cash Preferred Card's top rate applies only up to $2,000/qtr (combined); past that, purchases drop to its lower rate.