Which 2% cash-back card should you get?
Any of them — that's the honest answer. All 5 cards here earn a flat 2% with no annual fee, and the empty-ledger ones score an identical 9.0/10 on our engine — one member dips slightly for bolting a monthly promo onto the flat rate. The real differences are the fine print below, not the rate.
A flat-rate card is the one product where the marketing and the math agree: no categories to remember, and on most of these, no enrollment portals or expiring credits either. Our score reflects that — a card here with nothing to babysit lands at 9.0/10 because the fee is zero, the upkeep is zero, and the effective rate on our reference basket is exactly the sticker rate. Where a member carries a promo clock, its effort pillar pays for it and its score says so.
So this page does what a score can't: it lists the tiebreakers. Who can actually get each card, what currency the rewards arrive in, and the one or two perks that don't show up in any rate table.
Data: MoneyRoom card catalog (pending verification noted) · scores recompute daily · how we score cards
The field
How do they score?
| Card | Score | Annual fee | Effective rate | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bread Cashback Amex | 9.0 / 10 | None | 2% | Run in calculator |
| cashRewards Plus | 9.0 / 10 | None | 2% | Run in calculator |
| Synchrony Premier World Mastercard | 9.0 / 10 | None | 2% | Run in calculator |
| TD Double Up | 9.0 / 10 | None | 2% | Run in calculator |
| SoFi Unlimited 2% | 8.2 / 10 | None | 2% | Run in calculator |
Card by card
What actually separates them?
Bread Cashback Amex
The wide-open option: 2% on everything with no banking relationship required, issued on the American Express network, and it carries Amex Offers — the merchant-deal program you'd normally need a fee card to browse.
cashRewards Plus
The credit-union ceiling: 2% flat, but membership is the gate — Navy Federal serves the military community, so eligibility, not the rate, decides whether this card is on your list.
Synchrony Premier World Mastercard
The quiet one: 2% flat on a World Mastercard, with Mastercard's identity-theft protection riding along. No relationship requirements, no gimmicks, and almost no marketing — which is partly why nobody's heard of it.
TD Double Up
TD's answer to the category: 2% flat with redemption through a TD deposit account. Best fit if you already bank at TD; the rate is the same everywhere else.
SoFi Unlimited 2%
Rewards post as SoFi points pegged at face value, and the pitch is consolidation: if your checking, investing, and loans already live at SoFi, the 2% card completes the set without adding a second app. One footnote — a small monthly Lyft credit rides along behind a ride-count condition, the roundup's one piece of upkeep, and its 8.2/10 dips below the pack for it.
The tiebreakers
How should you choose?
Start with eligibility: the credit-union option is closed to most people, and two of these want a banking relationship to redeem smoothly. Then check the network — one of these is an American Express, which trades a sliver of acceptance abroad for Amex Offers. If none of that moves you, pick the issuer you already have a login for. At an identical 2% with no fee, convenience is the only remaining variable.
And check the two flat-rate cards that DIDN'T make this list because they earned their own pages: our top-scoring no-fee pick and the card that invented the category — both linked below.
Your numbers, not the model
Which one wins on your spending?
The free Annual Fee Calculator loads any of these cards and weighs it against your own usage — no account needed. For flat-rate cards the answer is mostly about your volume, and only you know that number.