5 The Best Credit Cards You Need in 2025 To Save Money -

The best credit cards you need in 2025 will be the subject matter of this article. There are only five credit cards that most credit card users need in their setup to maximize their rewards, travel for free, and keep more money in their pockets. However, it might not be true that only one set of 5 credit cards works for everybody since some people can use another credit card that can work well with them. Therefore, in this article, I will be reviewing the five types of credit cards that everybody needs to ensure that you can build a strong core credit card setup that will serve you well for years to come. That setup will include a workhorse card, a cleanup card, a power card, a specialist card, and a wild card.

The best credit card you need in 2025 depends on your pattern of behavior and lifestyle. Let us start with the first part that you will want in your lineup of the respective credit cards.

Table of Contents

1.0 The workhorse card

This card is perfect for your daily expenses and things you will often sweep for, like dining, groceries, and gas. In my experience, only two cards in my setup get most of the use, and the workforce card is number 1. The Chase Sapphire Reserve is my choice for this card type. That is not one that I would recommend for the majority of people, and there are going to be several different options that are good for each one of these card types but to keep this article a manageable length, I will discuss a couple of the top options for both team travel, and cash back respectively. The Capital One Silver Cash and Amex Gold card are unbeatable for team travel in this workhorse category.

The Capital One Saber 1, the silver cash rewards, is a top credit card for everyday earning categories, giving you 3% back on dining, groceries, entertainment, and popular streaming services. You get all that with no annual fee, while the silver card technically earns cash back.

If you have a Capital One Venture card alongside it, you can convert that cash back to miles, transfer those miles out to Capital One transfer partners, and get much more value for your points. The silver cash generally has a base welcome offer of $200 or 20,000 points for spending $500 on the card. It has an elevated offer of $250 for the same $500 worth of spend. Now, naturally, while we are in this workforce category, of course, I had to bring up the Amex Gold Card, considering it gives you 4X back on all of your dining purchases up to $50,000 per year and US supermarkets up to $25,000 per year, as well as 3x on all flights. Another advantage of this card is that it gives you $424 worth of dining, Uber, and resident credits.

As for cashback cards in this workhorse category, you have the Amex preferred, or US bank accounts you connect with the AmEx for cash preferred. You get 6% back on US supermarkets up to $6000 annually, 6% on US shooting services, and 3% on transit and US gas stations. It also has $264 worth of Disney bundle and home chef credits to help offset its $95. Homes have credits to help offset its nonprofit. If you do not want to pay for that and your spin does not work out mathematically, should I probably make sense? You could always get the free version of this card again. Another US bank in this category is the US bank that gives you 4 back on dining instead of the travel and gas purposes of the connective, but it has other minor differences.

2.0 Cleanup card

The best credit cards you need in 2025 is the cleanup card, which gives you solid rewards. The category includes credit cards with a base of 2% or 2 times back on every purchase. Many parts in this category can be used for travel or a cashback setup. They are perfect hybrid cards. You have much more flexibility regarding redemption over a car than your capital on the trucks. However, regarding travel, the City Double Cash is a straightforward card that gives you 2X back purchases. If you swipe the card and then 1X back, you pay off your bills. Venture X is more than just a cleanup card; it gives you 2X back for altering miscellaneous items at a $395 annual fee.

If capital and venture X are too premium for you, you can opt for the lower tier $95 venture card, which also gets you 2X back on your purchases with its benefits to help offset its annual fee. The Bank of America limited casual awards are both simple and no fuss. 1.5% to 4% earners on all of your spending. This is a brand-new card from a US bank that offers a flat 2% back on all of your spending, and you can earn up to 4% back if you hold $100,000 or more in assets with Lisbon. All the cleanup card types have the most options out of all of the card types.

3.0 Power card

Then we have the 3rd card as the best credit cards you need in 2025 in our setup power card, a card that easily offsets its annual fee with the credits and benefits for travelers. Power cards include cards with premium transferable currency credit cards, premium hotel or airline cards, and others. These cards include the Amex Platinum, Chase Sapphire Reserve, or Capital Inventory X, which allows customers to earn points that can be used with different hotel Blind chains that are associated with the brand in order to get more value from your points. Also, you can use their travel portal or get a cashback. Amex Platinum has a $695 annual fee, and you can earn over $1500 worth of credits on this card every year to cover that annual fee.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve has a $550 annual fee and is better for domestic travelers because of the 50% boost you get on their portal points. Venture X is going a mid-tier premium card that makes it easy to earn back the annual fee but does not have a high ceiling. If you instead pledge loyalty to 1 hotel or airline, you could get that company’s premium credit card. For example, we have the Hilton Aspire and City Advantage executive World Fleet Mastercard. You can get more value from these cards if you use that specific hotel chain or airline multiple times yearly.

The Bank of America premium rewards elite is one of the best options for a power card. It has a 500 $50 annual fee but has some easy-to-use credits on it, like the $300 airline incidental statement credits and $150 worth of lifestyle communions credits. $100 for either global entry or TSA pre check, up to four priority passes like memberships, and more. US Bank Preserve is the best one-card setup. It is the best cashback power card.

Differences Between Credit Cards and Debit Cards — Master card

4.0 Wild card

The wild card is among the best credit card cards you need in 2025 as it is a credit card that fits the the individual consumer’s specific lifestyle and overall goals. I am considering two main card archetypes for this section. Those are either rotating category cards or welcome bonuses for the person who likes earning 5% back on rotating categories every quarter, and cards such as Chase Freedom Flex or Discover Cash Back are the best in this category. These credit cards are excellent additions and cover categories.

Currently, Chase Freedom is giving 5% back on PayPal purchases. Online shopping can be done through Paypal, meaning that you use that 5% category frequently. Chase ink cards, the free chase ink cache, and ink unlimited generally offer an elevated welcome offer of 90,000 points for $6000 worth of spend in three months. The most important thing in your setup is getting a card that fits your lifestyle and spending habits.

5.0 Specialist card

Bill Mastercard is one of the best credit cards you need in 2025 because it provides welcome offers. You will add more than five cards and might use a rent purpose to help you meet minimum spending requirements. The specialty card is a tactical, high-earning card for just one or two perky earning categories. This card will help you fill in the holes in your setup. If you are a traveler, Mastercard and city custom cash cards are the best in this category.

The bill card is the only card that allows you to earn any rent reports, at least without any. It also gives you 3x back on dining and 2X back on travel. In addition to its earning categories, this card has access to some of the best transfer partners, such as Hyatt, without any annual fee, which is a massive plus. Moreover, their team is alluding to adding mortgages to this card shortly. The city custom cache is unique in that it offers you 5% back in your top eligible spend category every month, up to $500 spent. Moreover, that flexibility makes it perfect for the specialty card category.

You effectively have a flex card in which you can choose what category you earn 5%: restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores, select travel, select transit, select streaming services, drug stores, home improvement stores, fitness clubs, or live entertainment every month. In combination with these cities, charter premiere, just like the city double cash, you can use the city thank you points you earn on it with city transfer partners to get much more value for your points and their list of transfer partners that often are very competitive. On the other hand, you have some strong options in this category, precisely the US bank Cash Plus and Bank of America customized cash rewards part.

Cash Plus is similar to the city custom cache in the sense that you can choose what 5% categories you want to earn in, but you get 5% back on two of your chosen categories up to $2000 spent per quarter and 2% on one category of your choice every month. The eligible categories include fast food, home utilities, TV, Internet and streaming department stores, cell phone, electronics stores, sports goods stores, movie theaters, gyms, fitness centers, furniture stores, ground transportation, and select clothing stores.

The customized cash rewards are similarly versatile, offering 3% off your chosen category from the list of gas and EV charging stations, online Internet cable phone plans streaming, dining, travel, drug stores and pharmacies, or home improvement and furnishings. Plus, you get 2% back on grocery stores and wholesale clubs, and the 3 and 2% categories are up to $2500 worth of spend in a quarter. For a preferred rewards member at the Platinum Honors tier, at least that 3% category gets boosted to 5.25%, and a 2% category goes to 3.5%. Another set of cards that would do well in this category would be store cards like the Amazon Prime or Target Red card.