Rakuten American Express

If you shop Rakuten.com regularly, the 4% back on Rakuten purchases is the reason to carry this card, and the cap on that rate was recently raised from $7,000 to $10,000 of spend per calendar year before it drops to 1%. Rakuten Dining purchases earn 5%, and the rest of the lineup is reasonable for a no-annual-fee card: 2% at grocery stores, 2% on dining, 1% on everything else, and no foreign transaction fees. The catch is that the headline rate is tied to one retailer's ecosystem, so the card is worth exactly as much as the share of your spending that actually runs through Rakuten. Amex also halved the welcome offer in July 2026, from $200 to $100 after $1,000 of spend in the first three months, so the upfront incentive is weaker than it was. Worth a slot if Rakuten is already part of your routine, easy to skip if it isn't.