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Best Credit Cards for Home Improvement

With the weather improving in many places throughout the United States, it’s common for many people to start looking at various home improvement projects. Whether you’re looking to do a major renovation or just looking at sprucing up your curb appeal, you may find yourself making repeated stops at home improvement stores. Here is a list of some of the credit cards that you can use to maximize the value of your miles and points while you do.

Best Credit Cards for Home Improvement

Most credit cards reward spending in one of two different ways — either they offer the same amount of rewards for all purchases, or they offer different rates in different categories. Some of the more popular bonus categories are things like groceries, dining, travel, or gas purchases. Home improvement stores are not a common bonus category, but there are still a few ways to maximize your rewards when shopping for home improvement.

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Bank of America Cash Rewards card

One card to keep in mind is the Bank of America Cash Rewards card. The Bank of America Cash Rewards card doesn’t bonus home improvement stores directly. Instead, you can get 3% cash back on a category of your choice, and home improvement stores are one of the available options. You are limited to getting 3% back on the first $2,500 in purchases each quarter, and you’re giving up the ability to earn 3% back on any other categories, but this still can be an attractive offer, especially if you can combine your purchases over multiple categories. The Bank of America Cash Rewards card has no annual fee.

U.S. Bank Cash+ Visa Signature® Card

Like the Bank of America Cash Rewards card, the U.S. Bank Cash+ card lets you choose your bonus categories from a list. You can get 5% cash back on two categories of your choice, up to a maximum of $2,000 in spending each quarter. Home Improvement stores are not currently an eligible category, but you can choose from things like furniture stores, electronics stores, and home utilities. That can cover a lot of home improvement spending. This card also has no annual fee.

A new credit card you’re meeting the minimum spend requirement on

Another option for the best credit card for home improvement purchases is a new credit card where you are trying to meet the welcome offer. The initial signup bonuses from opening new credit cards is one of the most lucrative ways that you can earn credit card rewards. Consider a card where you will earn 60,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 in the first three months of having the card. While you’re meeting that initial spending offer, you are earning FIFTEEN points per dollar on every dollar you spend. That is an outstanding return on investment.

Any card with good everyday earning rates

If you don’t have either of the two cards we mentioned previously and aren’t interested in signing up for a new credit card, you’ll want to use a card that offers good earning rates on all purchases. A few options to consider:

• Citi Double Cash – 2% cash back on all purchases
• American Express Blue for Business – 2 Membership Rewards points on all purchases up to $100,000 in purchases each year
• Chase Freedom Unlimited – 1.5 Chase Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent
• Capital One Venture – 2 Venture miles for each dollar spent on all purchases

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Consider using gift cards for your home improvement costs

Another option is to use gift cards for your home improvement spending. The reason that you might do this is because many grocery stores and office supply stores sell gift cards to places like Lowe’s or Home Depot. And it’s a lot easier to find a credit card that offers a bonus in one of those categories.

It’s true that doing this may require an extra trip to get a gift card first, and there’s a bit more to keep track of in trying to figure out exactly how many gift cards to buy. You’ll also lose any purchase protection you might get by paying for your home improvement purchases with a credit card. Still, for the right rewards, it may be worth it for you.

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Dan Miller (55 Posts)

Dan Miller is a freelance writer and founder of PointsWithACrew.com, a site that helps families to travel for free / cheap. His home base is in Cincinnati, but he tries to travel the world as much as possible with his wife and 6 kids.

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