Best Credit Cards for Black Friday and Cyber Monday Shopping of 2019

Who’s this for? Holiday shoppers who like do most of their buying at department stores will want to check out the Chase Freedom®. The card offers 5% cash back on up to $1,500 in combined purchases in bonus categories each quarter you activate (then 1%) and 1% cash back on all other purchases.

Chase releases a cash-back calendar with new categories each quarter. The bonus categories for the remainder of 2019 include department stores and purchases made using PayPal and Chase Pay. Eligible department stores include Bloomingdales, Nordstrom and Macys. You can view the full list of participating stores.

The Chase Freedom® has no annual fee and offers a competitive 0% APR for the first 15 months on purchases and balance transfers (then 16.74% to 25.49% variable APR). This allows you to pay for gifts over time without incurring interest.

Who’s this for? If you do most of your shopping online at retailers like Amazon, Target and Walmart, you’ll want to consider the Discover it® Cash Back. Cardholders earn 5% cash back at different places each quarter after you activate bonus categories (on up to $1,500 in purchases, then 1%). Plus, unlimited 1% cash back on all other purchases.

The Discover cash-back calendar for the rest of 2019 includes Amazon.com, Target and Walmart.com as bonus categories.

This card has no annual fee and a unique welcome bonus where Discover automatically matches all the cash back you earned at the end of your first year. It also offers a competitive 0% APR for the first 14 months on purchases and balance transfers (then 13.49% to 24.49% variable APR)

Who’s this for? Loyal fans of Costco may want to open a Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi to use when holiday shopping this year. Cardholders enjoy many perks, such as a robust rewards program and no fees charged on purchases made abroad.

You can earn 4% cash back on eligible purchases at Costco gas stations for the first $7,000 per year, then 1% (ideal for those road-tripping it this holiday season); 3% cash back on restaurants and eligible travel purchases; 2% cash back on all purchases from Costco and Costco.com; 1% cash back on all other purchases.

There is no annual fee, but a Costco membership is required, which starts at $60 for Gold Star and Business levels, then doubles in price to $120 for Gold Star Executive and Business Executive members.

Who’s this for? If you plan on shopping at a variety of stores this holiday season, a flat-rate cash-back card can be a simple way to earn competitive cash-back rewards on everything you buy. The Citi® Double Cash Card is a straightforward card that continues to offer one of the best flat-rate cash-back programs since it launched in 2014. Cardholders earn 2% cash back on all purchases — 1% when you make a purchase and an additional 1% when you pay your credit card bill.

There is no limit to the amount of cash back you can earn and you don’t have to worry about activating bonus categories. Cash back can be redeemed for a statement credit or direct deposit.

This card is also a good choice for debt consolidation. There’s a 0% APR for the first 18 months on balance transfers (then 15.49% to 25.49% variable APR). Just make sure you transfer balances within four months from account opening. There is a 3% balance transfer fee (minimum $5), which can be outweighed by the amount you save on interest. (See more on how to make the most of a balance transfer.)

Who’s this for? If you want to take advantage of travel deals, now is a good time to sign up for a travel credit card. The Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card offers the best rewards rate on select hotel purchases: Earn 10X miles per $1 spent on thousands of hotel bookings on hotels.com/venture through January 2020 (so if you spend $500 on the site, you earn 5,000 miles). If you’re looking to take a trip before the end of the year, this is a great way to maximize the amount of miles you can earn.

This card also earns 5X miles on hotel and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel℠ and 2X miles per dollar spent on all other spending, which is a great flat rate. While Venture does come with a $95 annual fee, it’s waived during the first year. And $95 is low compared to some other rewards cards, with some annual fees up to $550.

In addition to rewards, every four years cardholders receive a credit for a Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application, up to $100. If you travel often, this is a great perk that can save you time and money.

This card charges no foreign transaction fees and comes with a bunch of additional travel perks, such as travel accident insurance, 24-hour travel assistance services and an auto rental collision damage waiver.

Who’s this for? If you prefer to give the gift of experiences, an entertainment rewards card can provide valuable rewards in this category. Sports fans, movie buffs and adventure seekers will all find a common reason to like the Capital One® Savor® Cash Rewards Credit Card: unlimited 4% cash back on entertainment purchases. Compared to other rewards cards, this is the highest unlimited rewards rate on entertainment spending, whether you’re buying movie tickets, taking a family trip to the zoo or spending the evening bowling with friends.

Through May 31, 2020, cardholders who buy tickets through Vivid Seats, a ticket resale site, can take advantage of 8% cash back.

Cardholders can also benefit from exclusive access to entertainment events, such as the iHeartRadio Music Festival and the Capital One JamFest.

Beyond entertainment perks, there’s also 4% cash back on dining, 2% at grocery stores and 1% on all other purchases. And you can benefit from a free Postmates Unlimited membership through December 2019, which gets you free delivery on orders over $15.

This card does come with a $95 annual fee, but it’s waived during the first year from account opening and can be offset by the cash back you earn.

Who’s this for? The TD Cash Credit Card has the best welcome bonus of all the cards we reviewed: Earn $200 cash back when you spend $500 within 90 days after account opening. This is worth an effective 40% cash back. The spending requirement is significantly lower than other cards that may require you to spend up to $5,000 to earn the same bonus. If you’re looking to spend more than usual during the holiday season, this can be a good time to take advantage of a generous welcome bonus (though it’s still important to pay your cards on time and in full).

This card’s cash-back program is geared toward foodies, with 3% cash back on dining, 2% on groceries and 1% on everything else.

Beyond rewards, the TD Cash Credit Card is pretty basic. You won’t receive any noteworthy additional perks like some of the other cards on this list, but you can benefit from no annual fee and no foreign transaction fees.

Rewards can be redeemed for a statement credit or direct deposit into a checking or savings account once you accumulate at least $25.

Who’s this for? If you want to maximize savings with an interest-free financing period, consider a card that has no interest for over a year, such as the Amex EveryDay® Credit Card. You can benefit from no interest for the first 15 months on purchases and balance transfers (then 14.49% to 25.49% variable APR). This is a longer-than-average intro period, providing extra time for you to pay off gifts and other new purchases when you make sizeable, monthly payments toward your balance.

And unlike many balance transfer cards that charge a 3% to 5% fee per transfer, this card has no fee. If you transfer $5,000 to this card, you’d avoid a $150 fee that you’d pay if you had a card with a 3% balance transfer fee. All balance transfers must take place within the first 60 days from account opening to qualify for the introductory period.

This card also has no annual fee and a strong rewards program: Earn 2X Membership Rewards® points at U.S. supermarkets on up to $6,000 per year in purchases (then 1X) and 1X Membership Rewards® points per dollar spent on all other purchases. And when you make 20 or more purchases in a billing period you receive 20% extra points.

Cardholders can also take advantage of premium Amex perks, including discounts at select merchants via Amex Offers, car rental loss and damage insurance, free two-day shipping at select online retailers with ShopRunner and cell phone protection.

To determine which cards offer the best value for shoppers during Black Friday or Cyber Monday, CNBC Select analyzed 234 of the most popular credit cards available in the U.S. We compared each card on a range of features, including rewards, welcome bonus, introductory and standard APR, balance transfer fee and foreign transaction fees, as well as factors such as required credit and customer reviews when available. We also considered additional perks, the application process and how easy it is for the consumer to redeem points.

We also estimated how much the average consumer would save over the course of a year, two years and five years, assuming they would attempt to maximize their rewards potential by earning all welcome bonuses offered and using the card for all applicable purchases. All rewards total estimations are net the annual fee. Our final picks are weighted heavily toward the highest five-year returns, since it’s generally wise to hold onto a credit card for years. This method also avoids giving an unfair advantage to cards with large welcome bonuses.

CNBC Select teamed up with location intelligence firm Esri. The company’s data development team provided the most up-to-date and comprehensive consumer spending data based on the 2018 Consumer Expenditure Surveys from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. You can read more about their methodology here.

Esri’s data team created a sample annual budget of approximately $21,852 in retail spending. This budget is comprised of the most common spending categories, including groceries ($5,019), gas ($2,394), dining out ($3,365), travel ($2,154), utilities ($4,959) and general purchases ($3,961). General purchases include items such as housekeeping supplies, clothing, personal care products, prescription drugs and vitamins, and other vehicle expenses.

CNBC Select used this budget to estimate how much the average consumer would save over the course of a year, two years and five years, assuming they would attempt to maximize their rewards potential by earning all welcome bonuses offered and using the card for all applicable purchases. All rewards total estimations are net the annual fee.

It’s important to note the value of a point or mile varies from card to card and based on how you redeem them. When we calculated the estimated returns, we assumed that cardholders are redeeming points/miles for a typical maximum value of 1 cent per point or mile. (Extreme optimizers might be able to achieve more value.)