If you’re on a quest to optimize the financial tools at your disposal, a cash back debit card could be a financial product you’ve overlooked.
Unlike traditional debit cards, debit cards with cash back offer a unique opportunity to earn rewards for purchases you can’t or don’t want to put on a credit card. Whether that’s because you want to avoid a pesky credit card surcharge or because you’re working on making only purchases you can immediately afford, we’ve put together a list of the best options.
In this article, we’ll explore the world of debit card rewards, their benefits, those best options, and shed light on how they compare to secured credit cards.
It’s essential to note that none of the debit cards we’re discussing here kick back any benefits to Tiller. Tiller is exclusively supported by customer subscriptions.
However, all the cards are on Tiller’s list of supported institutions. Learn how Tiller helps you track expenses, budget, and save money, all in your own private spreadsheets: About Tiller
Best Cash Back Debit Cards
What’s the difference between a secured credit card and a debit card with rewards?
A secured credit card helps build credit but requires a deposit, while a debit card with rewards allows earning points on purchases you can immediately afford. The main advantage of the secured card is building credit history.
The differences between a secured credit card and a debit card with rewards are:
- Secured credit card requires a deposit that acts as your credit limit. Debit cards do not require a deposit.
- Secured credit cards build your credit history and score. Debit cards do not affect your credit.
- Credit cards allow you to borrow money up to the credit limit. Debit cards only allow spending the money you have.
- Credit cards report to credit bureaus and can help build credit. Debit cards do not get reported to credit bureaus.
- Credit cards offer protections for fraudulent charges. Debit cards have fewer protections and your bank funds can be frozen during disputes.
- Rewards debit cards earn points, miles or cash back on purchases. Secured credit cards also often have rewards programs.
- Debit card rewards are usually lower compared to credit card rewards programs.
Note that the Chime Secured Credit Card below does report usage to credit bureaus.
Debit Cards With Cash Back
Discover Cashback Debit
With the Discover Cashback Debit card, you earn 1% cashback on up to $3,000 in debit card purchases every month and it’s connected to a no-fee checking account (and there’s no balance or activity requirement). You’ll also have access to 60,000+ no-fee ATMs around the country.
This card is great for those looking for a straightforward cash back rewards debit card with no strings attached.
If you set up a direct deposit of your paycheck, you can get paid up to two days early.
You can also pair your Discover Cashback Debit card with Apple Pay so you can earn rewards on qualifying purchases.
Serve American Express Prepaid Debit
With the Serve Cash Back prepaid debit card, you earn 1% Cash Back on unlimited purchases. The unique part about this card is that your cash back rewards are added to your account promptly after each qualifying purchase. That means they are ready to redeem toward your next purchase (or save for later) if you choose.
This card is ideal for those who want instant access to their rewards.
A prepaid debit card does not require a bank account. It’s an alternative to a traditional debit card with a linked checking account. With a prepaid debit card, you can only spend the money you load onto the card.
You’ll also get no-fee withdrawals at 37,000 MoneyPass ATM locations nationwide.
Visit Serve
Ando Visa Debit Card
Ando’s mission is to provide customers with an easy way to combat climate change without ever sacrificing the features and security they expect from a modern bank. With a focus on sustainability, this rewards debit card is great for eco-conscious consumers.
With the Ando Visa Debit Card, you earn unlimited 1.5% cash back rewards when you enroll in Ando’s Change that Counts program. Change that Counts rounds up every purchase and uses that change to plant trees. You can even track your personal impact and the number of trees planted in the app.
Visit Ando
Debit Cards that Automate Investing
Robinhood Cash Card
With the Robinhood Cash Card you can round up purchases to automatically invest and get cash back when you spend on offers from participating brands.This debit card helps automate investing for hands-off investors.
The Robinhood Cash card also allows you to automatically invest part of every paycheck into your choice of stocks and crypto.
Like many of the other cards profiled here, there are no monthly fees and you get no-fee access to a network of 90,000 ATMs.
Visit Robinhood Cashcard
Acorns Visa Debit Card
With the Acorns Visa Debit Card, you can round up every purchase to automatically invest your spare change. You can also automatically invest part of every paycheck into any of your Acorns accounts. This card takes the effort out of investing small amounts over time.
It also has a premium feel– it’s a laser-engraved, metal debit card with features to match. No minimum balance fees and no overdraft fees.
Visit Acorns
Debit Cards that Round Up Savings
Some of the cards above have a rounding savings feature, but these debit cards are 100% focused on rounding up your purchases to increase your savings contributions.
Bank of America Keep the Change
You don’t need a special debit card to take advantage of Bank of America’s savings round up feature. All you need is a Bank of America checking account with a debit card and a savings account. This option is great for those who already bank with Bank of America.
If you enroll your Bank of America debit card in the Keep the Change program, they will round up your purchase to the nearest dollar amount and transfer the change from your checking account to your savings account, or even to a child’s savings account.
Visit Bank of America
Chime Card
With the Chime Card, each purchase is rounded up to the nearest dollar and transferred from your Checking Account to your Savings Account. When you automate your savings, it makes it easy to reach your goals faster. The simplicity of this automatic savings feature makes it appealing.
You will first sign up for a free Chime checking account to be eligible for a savings account and the automated round up savings feature.
Visit Chime
Debit Cards that Build Credit
Chime Credit Builder
Technically, the Chime Credit Builder card is a secured credit card. It’s worth mentioning here because it has some unique benefits that most secured credit cards don’t offer. This secured credit card (that acts somewhat like a debit card) allows those with no/poor credit to start building a positive history.
With the Chime Credit Builder card, you can use the deposit you make when opening the card to pay for monthly charges. This is different from most secure credit cards– usually the security deposit you pay to open the card is unavailable to you until you close the account.
The Credit Builder card reports to the major credit bureaus to help you build your credit history over time, but it does not report credit utilization. That’s important because with traditional credit cards, using too high a percentage of your available credit limit negatively impacts your credit score. With the Chime Credit Builder card, credit utilization of the card won’t be a negative factor as you work to improve your credit score.
Visit Chime Credit Builder
Cash Back Debit Cards Summary
When it comes to debit cards with savings features, options are abundant.
Whatever you choose, we hope you are empowered to make decisions that will keep you on the path toward achieving your financial goals. So, explore the options and choose the debit card rewards option that best fits wherever you are on your financial journey.
Your wallet (and even your credit score) will thank you.
