| Cash Back Rating: | 3.2 / 5 |
| Rewards Value: | 2.2 |
| Annual Percentage Rate: | 0.8 |
| Rewards Flexibility: | 3.8 |
| Features: | 4.0 |
| Customer Experience | 5.0 |
In a Nutshell:
The USAA Cashback Rewards Plus American Express is an ideal card for military families: It offers an industry-leading 5 percent cash back on gas and military base purchases, 2 percent cash back on groceries and a number of money-saving perks for active duty service members. This offer is no longer available on our site.
Information about this card has been collected independently by CreditCards.com. The issuer did not provide the content, nor is it responsible for its accuracy.
Rewards Rate
|  |
Sign-up Bonus |  |
Annual Bonus | |
Annual Fee |  |
Average Yearly Rewards Value ($1,325 monthly spend) |  |
APR |  |
Rewards Redemption
Cons
| |
Customer Experience
| |
Other Notable Features: No foreign transaction fee; military benefits including deployment rates, finance charge rebates for military campaigns and deployment assistance; identity theft services; trip cancellation and interruption insurance; baggage delay insurance; no penalty APR
| Low Interest Rating: | 1.6 / 5 |
| Rates, Fees, Penalties: | 1.2 |
| Rewards: | 2.9 |
| Features: | 3.0 |
| Customer Experience | 5.0 |
In a Nutshell:
Though the USAA Cashback Rewards Plus card offers a very reasonable APR, cardholders seeking to save on balance transfers and new purchases would be better served with a card that offers a 0-percent introductory APR. This offer is no longer available on our site.
Information about this card has been collected independently by CreditCards.com. The issuer did not provide the content, nor is it responsible for its accuracy.
Regular APR | |
Introductory Purchase APR | |
Introductory Balance Transfer APR | |
Fees
| |
Penalties
| |
Customer Experience
| |
Other Notable Features: No foreign transaction fee; military benefits including deployment rates, finance charge rebates for military campaigns and deployment assistance; identity theft services; trip cancellation and interruption insurance; baggage delay insurance; no penalty APR
 | Find card offers for you: This card is not currently available on CreditCards.com, but you can still find a great card offer for you! Our CardMatch tool can help match you with prequalified offers and cards that align with your credit history – with no harm to your credit score. Get personalized offers from our partners in seconds. |
For a card with no annual fee, the USAA Cashback Rewards Plus American Express card offers great benefits and a good cash back rate on select categories. You get 2 percent cash back on groceries and a whopping 5 percent cash back rate on gas and military-base purchases, capped at $3,000 of yearly spending per category.
The card is not available to the general public. It is only available to USAA members and other select individuals who use certain USAA products. In order to join USAA, you have to be a member of the U.S. armed forces, a veteran or a family member of a USAA member.
5 and 2 percent bonus categories
This card pays 5 percent cash back on gas and military base purchases, 2 percent on supermarket purchases and 1 percent on all other purchases. Few cash back cards offer a bonus rate as high as 5 percent, and those that do typically assign the 5 percent rate to less lucrative categories. Also, the USAA card requires less maintenance than other cards. You don’t have to sign up for bonus categories, and there are no rotating categories. Note, however, that the bonus cash back does include a strict cap of $3,000 of purchases per year in each category.
Flexible rewards redemption
The USAA cash back card makes it easy to redeem your cash rewards. While most cards require you to accumulate a significant amount of rewards before you can redeem for cash back, this card allows you to redeem any amount at any time, starting in $1 increments.
No penalty APR
The USAA Cashback Rewards Plus American Express card doesn’t impose a penalty APR, which is a rare benefit. Many card companies raise your APR as high as 30 percent for just one missed payment. The USAA card won’t raise your APR, no matter what happens to your account.
Identity-fraud-expense reimbursement
The card includes identity-fraud-expense reimbursement, a benefit that rarely comes with a card that has no annual fee. The reimbursement is limited to $1,000 per claim, and there is a limit of one claim per year.
Why get the USAA Cashback Rewards Plus card?
- You are a USAA member who can take advantage of the 5 percent bonus on military-base purchases.
- You want the simplicity of a no-annual-fee card that doesn’t make you register for quarterly bonus categories.
- You are interested in the suite of excellent travel benefits that comes with the card.
How to use the USAA Cashback Rewards Plus card:
- Use the card to pay for gas and military-base purchases until you reach the $3,000 cap in each category.
- Use this card interchangeably with other cash back cards that offer bonus cash on alternate categories of spending.
Our reviews and best card recommendations are based on an objective rating process and are not driven by advertising dollars. However, we do receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. Learn more about our advertising policy
All reviews are prepared by CreditCards.com staff. Opinions expressed therein are solely those of the reviewer and have not been reviewed or approved by any advertiser. The information, including card rates and fees, presented in the review is accurate as of the date of the review. Check the data at the top of this page and the bank’s website for the most current information.
Responses to comments in the discussion section below are not provided, reviewed, approved, endorsed or commissioned by our financial partners. It is not our partner’s responsibility to ensure all posts or questions are answered.