Travelsmart
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AUSTIN, TEXAS – Thirty-five percent of rewards cardholders say they earn the most rewards on grocery purchases, according to a new CreditCards.com report. Another 27% say travel is their top earning category, followed by gas (23%) and dining (14%). Interestingly, there are regional differences in how Americans earn credit card rewards.
For example, Midwesterners are more likely to single out grocery purchases, while those in the West point to travel more than anywhere else. Gas stations are more popular in the South, and rewards cardholders in the Northeast earn more of their rewards from dining than residents of other regions.
“It’s important that consumers evaluate their spending habits to find a credit card that matches their lifestyle,” said CreditCards.com analyst Ted Rossman. “Whether you’re planning a family vacation, stocking up at the grocery store, enjoying a dinner out with friends, or refueling your car on the way home, credit cards can reward you for things you’re planning to purchase anyway.”
For instance, if a consumer were to have the most lucrative no annual fee card in each of these four spending categories, they would earn $377 back annually (if their spending matched the national averages). The one caveat, warns Rossman: “You must pay your bill in full every time, otherwise any rewards you earn will end up costing you.”
Rewards differ by income bracket, too. Higher earners – those making $50K or more annually – are more than twice as likely to say they earn the most rewards from travel than those who make less than that. The lowest earners (under $30K per year) are more likely to say dining purchases get them the bulk of their rewards, and lower-middle income households ($30K-$49.9K) more regularly single out gas spending.
Methodology
The study was conducted online in Ipsos’ Omnibus using the web-enabled “KnowledgePanel,” a probability-based panel designed to be representative of the US general population, not just the online population. The sample consists of 1,055 nationally representative interviews, conducted between November 20-25, 2018 among adults aged 18+. The margin of error for the full sample is +/-3 percentage points.
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