Navy Federal cashRewards

A flat 1.5% cash back on everything with no annual fee and no foreign transaction fee is a straightforward, low-maintenance setup, and the $250 bonus after $2,500 in purchases within 3 months pays for a lot of that first year. The strongest feature is arguably not the rewards at all: 12 months at 1.99% on balance transfers with no balance transfer fee, which is unusual, since most issuers take 3% to 5% of the transferred amount off the top. The ongoing APR of 14.15% to 18% is also low for a rewards card. Worth knowing before you apply: approved credit limits of $5,000 or more are issued as cashRewards Plus instead, which earns 2%, so the version you end up with depends on your approval. At 1.5% this is a fine default card but not a category winner, and a rental car collision damage waiver is the only perk of note.