Rakuten American Express

This is a shopper's card built around one ecosystem: 4% back on Rakuten.com purchases on up to $10,000 of spending per calendar year, a cap raised from $7,000 in July 2026, plus 5% on Rakuten Dining purchases. Outside that, 2% on groceries and 2% on dining are reasonable but not category-leading, and everything else drops to 1%. There's no annual fee and no foreign transaction fee, so the card costs nothing to keep around for Rakuten runs. Note that the signup bonus was cut in July 2026 from $200 to $100 after $1,000 in spending within three months, which takes a lot of the first-year shine off. The math only works if you genuinely shop through Rakuten; if you don't, the 1% base rate makes this an easy pass.