REI Co-op Mastercard

If you shop at REI with any regularity, this is a straightforward way to add 5% back at REI retail locations and REI.com on top of whatever the co-op already gives you, and it costs nothing to hold. Outside the co-op, the flat 1.5% back is fine but unremarkable, so this is a supplement to a stronger everyday card rather than a replacement for one. The signup offer is modest and oddly shaped: a $100 REI gift card after a single purchase made outside REI within 60 days, so the reward comes back to you as store credit, not cash. No foreign transaction fee is a real plus if you buy gear while traveling. With a regular APR of 17.49% to 28.49% and no intro rate, treat it as a spending card you pay off in full, not a financing tool.