The best cash back welcome bonuses: $500 or more in cash back for new cardmembers

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You want a giant cash back bonus as an incentive for getting a new credit card. You’re okay with spending a fair amount on the card to earn the bonus, but you don’t want to mess with miles, points, or restrictive redemptions. Here’s our list of the best cash back welcome bonuses currently available.

What do we consider the best cash back bonuses?

We consider cards for this list if they earn cash back or points that can be readily redeemed for cash back with no restrictions, and earn $500 or more cash back after accounting for the annual fee. If you’re looking for smaller cash back bonuses that are easier to earn, take a peek at our easy cash back bonuses.

The best cash back rewards bonuses

Here are the best cash back rewards credit card welcome bonuses. This list is ordered by the amount of cash back you’ll get after the annual fee. Some cards offer rewards points that can you can use for additional value.

Card Name	Bonus Amount	Spending Requirement	Full Welcome Bonus Details
Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card Annual fee: $95	100,000 bonus points ($1,000) $905 after annual fee.	$8,000 within 3 months.	Earn 100,000 bonus points after you spend $8,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. Welcome bonus is earned as Ultimate Rewards points, which can be redeemed for one cent of cash back each, or used for 1.25 cents each toward travel booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards with this card.
Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card Annual fee: $0	$900	$6,000 within 3 months.	Earn $900 bonus cash back after you spend $6,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Ink Business Cash® Credit Card Annual fee: $0	$900	$6,000 within 3 months.	Earn $900 bonus cash back after you spend $6,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Ink Business Premier℠ Credit Card Annual fee: $195	$1,000 $805 after annual fee.	$10,000 within 3 months.	Earn $1,000 bonus cash back after you spend $10,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card Annual fee: $95	60,000 points ($600) $505 after annual fee	$4,000 within 3 months.	Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That’s $750 when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards®. Welcome bonus is earned as Ultimate Rewards points, which can be redeemed for one cent of cash back each, or used for 1.25 cents each toward travel booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards with this card.
Citi Premier® Card Annual fee: $95	60,000 points ($600) $505 after annual fee	$4,000 within 3 months.	Earn 60,000 bonus ThankYou® Points after you spend $4,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening. Plus, for a limited time, earn a total of 10 ThankYou® Points per $1 spent on hotel, car rentals, and attractions (excluding air travel) booked on the Citi Travel℠ portal through June 30, 2024. With the Citi Premier® Card, you can redeem your ThankYou Points for cash back at 1 cent each.
US Bank Altitude Connect Annual fee: $95 ($0 intro annual fee first year)	50,000 points ($500)	$2,000 within 120 days.	Earn 50,000 bonus points. Just spend $2,000 in the first 120 days. That’s a $500 value redeemable toward merchandise, gift cards, cash back, travel and more.

More on each of the cards with the best cash back welcome bonuses

Here’s a bit more detail on each of these bonuses. You can learn more and apply for each of these cards through the links in this section.

Chase Ink Business Preferred®: $1,000 cash back, $95 annual fee.

The points you earn with this card can be used for up to $1,250 toward travel booked with Chase Ultimate Rewards.

Chase Ink Business Unlimited®: $900 cash back

Chase Ink Business Cash: $900 cash back

Ink Business Premier℠ Credit Card: $1,000 cash back

Chase Sapphire Preferred®: 60,000 points (worth $600 cash back)

Citi Premier® Card: 60,000 ThankYou Points, worth $600 in cash

U.S. Bank Altitude® Connect Visa Signature® Card: $500 cash back. $0 intro annual fee in the first year.

How we think about this list

This list considers only cards that earn cash back rewards. Not hotel points. Not airline miles. Cash. And it doesn’t include elevated values of points based on theoretical point redemptions. Our list is sorted by the amount of net cash back you’ll earn in the first year. Net cash back includes the welcome bonus plus any cash back you earn from spending, minus the card’s annual fee.

More on each card

Here are some more details on each of the cards featured in this list.

In some cases, you might be able to do even better than the net cash back numbers above by taking advantage of a card’s bonus categories when earning a welcome bonus. And this section can give you an idea if the card is a good fit to keep for either its ongoing benefits or rewards.

Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card

Welcome offer: Earn 100,000 bonus points after you spend $8,000 on purchases in the first 3 months after account opening.

The Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card gives you 3 points per dollar spent on the first $150,000 in combined purchases on several business spending categories: Shipping, internet, cable and phone services, select advertising purchases, and travel. The card is the only business card that enables point transfers to travel partners and lets you redeem your points for 1.25 cents each toward travel. The Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card has a $95 annual fee.

Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card

The Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card from Chase offers small business owners simple 1.5% cash back rewards on all their spending, with no caps or bonus categories to worry about. The card carries no annual fee.

The strength of the Ink Business Unlimited® card’s rewards is simplicity. You get 1.5% cash back on all of your spending. Chase markets the card’s rewards as cash back, but the card earns Chase Ultimate Rewards® points behind the scenes, which can be transferred to a premium Ultimate Rewards® card and redeemed for greater value.

The card offers a limited, but useful set of perks including primary auto rental collision damage waiver insurance when renting for business, purchase protection and extended warranty protection.

Ink Business Cash® Credit Card

The Ink Business Cash® Credit Card is a cash back card for small business owners who want purchasing power combined with increased rewards on business purchases like office supplies, internet, cable, and phone services, gas, and restaurant purchases. The Ink Business Cash carries no annual fee.

The card’s biggest strength is its bonus cash back categories. The Ink Cash earns 5% cash back on the first $25,000 in combined purchases each account anniversary year at office supply stores and on internet, cable, and phone services. The card also earns 2% on $25,000 in combined purchases at gas stations and restaurants, plus 1% cash back on all other purchases. Although rewards are marketed as cash back, the card earns Chase Ultimate Rewards® points behind the scenes, which can be transferred to a premium Chase Ultimate Rewards® card and redeemed for greater value.

The Chase Ink Business Cash® credit card also offers a handful of benefits useful to small business owners, including primary auto rental collision damage waiver when renting for business, purchase protection and extended warranty protection.

See our card overview of the Ink Business Cash® Credit Card for more.

Ink Business Premier℠ Credit Card

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is one of Chase’s flagship rewards cards. It offers elevated rewards in useful categories like travel, online grocery, dining, and select streaming services and best-in-class travel insurance protections. The Chase Sapphire Preferred® carries an annual fee of $95.

The card offers rewards of three points per dollar in several categories, including online grocery, select streaming providers, and dining. When you purchase travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards, you’ll earn five points per dollar. All other travel earns two points per dollar. Finally, the card also offers increased rewards for Lyft rides (5x) and Peloton purchases.

The Sapphire Preferred features travel insurance benefits like primary rental car insurance, baggage delay insurance and trip delay reimbursement coverage, making it an excellent choice to use for booking travel. Most importantly, the card offers transfers to Chase’s useful suite of travel partners, plus 25% increased value for your rewards when you redeem them for travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards.

Citi Premier® Card

The Citi Premier® Card is a core card of the Ultimate Citi ThankYou Points Wallet. It offers generous rewards on travel spending, dining and grocery stores. While the Premier offers great rewards, it lacks many of the travel insurance protections common among travel credit cards. The Citi Premier card carries an annual fee of $95.

The Citi Premier® Card offers a long list of 3x bonus categories, including hotels purchases, air travel, restaurants, supermarkets and gas stations. Plus, until 6/30/2024, you can earn 10 total points per dollar spent on hotels, car rentals, and attractions, excluding air travel, booked through the Citi Travel^SM portal. The card earns 1 point per dollar spent on other purchases. Points are earned as ThankYou Points, which can be redeemed for cash back or transferred to travel partners for additional value.

The Citi Premier® Card is notably light on the travel benefits that you might expect from a premium travel credit card; it does not include essentials like trip delay protection, auto rental collision damage waiver, or extended warranty benefits. The card does include $100 off a single hotel stay of $500 or more when you book through thankyou.com.

U.S. Bank Altitude® Connect Visa Signature® Card

The U.S. Bank Altitude Connect Card offers some of the most generous point earning rates on travel, gas stations, and EV charging of any card. The card comes with a $0 introductory annual fee for the first year, then $95/year.

The card features 5x points on prepaid hotels and car rentals booked directly in the Altitude Rewards Center, plus 4x points on travel, gas stations, and EV charging stations. The Altitude Connect also offers 2x points at grocery stores, grocery delivery, dining, and streaming services, plus 1x points on all other purchases.

The U.S. Bank Altitude Connect also offers a fairly generous set of travel benefits for the price, and is one of the lowest-cost ways to access airport lounges if you travel occasionally. With the U.S. Bank Altitude Connect, you’ll get four free visits to airport lounges through the card’s included Priority Pass Select membership, a $100 credit toward PreCheck or Global Entry once every four years, cell phone protection, and trip delay reimbursement.

Additional pointers on applying for cards at each bank

Banks have various application rules, limits on the numbers of cards you can have. Here are some additional notes on applying for cards at the banks mentioned on this page.

A few notes on applying for Chase cards

• Chase generally won’t approve you if your credit report is showing 5 or more new credit card accounts opened in the last 24 months. This rule is knows as the 5/24 rule. If you’re unsure if you are “under 5/24” you should check your 5/24 status before applying for a Chase card. Note that recently this rule seems to have softened. See our coverage about Chase 5/24 for more.
• How often you can earn a welcome bonus on a Chase card varies by card family.
  • Most cards allow you to earn a welcome bonus if it has been at least 24 months since your last received a welcome bonus on the same card.
  • Chase Sapphire-branded cards, such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and Chase Sapphire Reserve®, you can only earn a welcome bonus once every 48 months.
• You can only hold one Chase Sapphire-branded card at a time.
• If you apply for a Chase card and the bank offers a higher bonus within 90 days, you can send Chase a secure message or call them to have your welcome offer matched.
• Chase business cards do not report to personal credit reports as long as they are current.

A few notes on applying for Citi credit cards

• Citi has limits on the number of applications you can submit. You can only apply for one personal card every eight days and no more than two cards every rolling 65 days. Business cards are subject to the same eight-day limitation, but you can apply for no more than one business card every 95 days.
• You can get a new customer welcome bonus on Citi cards multiple times, but Citi has rules on how often you can earn a welcome bonus.
  • ThankYou Point welcome offers are typically not available if you’ve received a new account bonus on the same card in the past 48 months.
  • Welcome bonuses on AAdvantage cards are only available if you have not received a welcome bonus for the same card within the past 48 months.
• There is no limit to the number of Citi cards you can hold.
• You can check your application status on the Citi website or by calling 1-866-606-2787.

Frequently asked questions

Advertiser disclosure: Cards and Points has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Cards and Points and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers. Compensation may affect how and where card products appear on the site. The site does not include all card companies or all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities. Terms apply to all credit card benefits.