Is the US Bank Cash+ worth it?

MoneyRoom Card Score

8.0/ 10

Usable value10.0

Effort10.0

Earning3.3

If you really re-pick your categories every quarter, it's worth far more than this score; for everyone else, it's the 1.0% minimum we print.

How the 0–10 Card Score works

Data: MoneyRoom card catalog (details pending verification are flagged) · scores update daily · catalog data as of 2026-04-30 · How we verify

The Cash+ is choose-your-categories at full strength: famously high rates on categories you pick each quarter from a long list. It's also the clearest test of our rule that conditions never count — your choices expire every quarter, must be picked again, and have a cap, three conditions stacked together — so we score what's left with no conditions: about 1.0% back, and an overall score of 8.0 that comes from having no fee and no credits.

To be clear about that number: it's the minimum, for the cardholder who forgets. Someone who re-picks every quarter and points the big rates at real spending earns far more than this page shows. Our score will never average those two people, because the average describes neither.

Credits vs. fee

No annual fee to cover.

Typical value applies our published discounts for what makes credits easy to miss: deadlines, limits on where you can use them, enrollment (switching a credit on once), and waiting to be paid back.

This card has no recurring statement credits. There's nothing to enroll in, track, or lose — the list is empty by design.

The fine print that matters

Why is typical value less than face value?

Three rules together make people miss value, and the design counts on it: your choices lapse if you don't re-pick them each quarter (lapsed categories earn the base rate), the top rates have quarterly caps, and the biggest rates apply to narrower categories than the ads suggest. The fix is a calendar reminder and choosing categories you really spend in; the catch is that many cardholders do neither, which is exactly the gap between the ads and this page.

Earning

What does everyday spending actually earn?

Rewards come as cash back, worth exactly what it says. On our published mix of everyday spending, that works out to 1.0% back.

Category	Rate	After spending caps	Note
Dining	1%	1.00%	Has conditions — counted at the base rate
Groceries	1%	1.00%	Has conditions — counted at the base rate
Gas	1%	1.00%	Has conditions — counted at the base rate
Flights booked direct	1%	1.00%	Base rate
Hotels booked direct	1%	1.00%	Base rate
Everything else	1%	1.00%

Not in the score

What does the score leave out?

The quarterly categories you choose. Big rates with conditions — real money if you keep up, but invisible to a score that only counts what's guaranteed.
The long category list. Utilities and other less common categories — the list is the card's big draw, and all of it is by choice.
The welcome offer. One-time, left out on principle.

Your own numbers

See if it pays for itself for you.

The score assumes a typical cardholder. The free Annual Fee Calculator loads this card's real credits and fee and lets you enter what you'd actually use — no account needed.

Run this card in the calculator Track your own cards free

Keep comparing

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Questions

Common questions before you apply.

How can a famous rewards card score only its base rate?
Every one of its top rates needs re-picking every quarter and has a cap — conditions on top of conditions. Our rule is the same for every card: we score what's guaranteed, 1.0%.
What's it worth if I keep up every quarter?
Far more than this page shows — pointed at real spending, the categories you pick earn well above the minimum we print. That depends on how well you keep up, which no honest score can assume.
What does it score as printed?
8.0 out of 10: perfect value and effort, and earning 3.3. The minimum, published without apology, with the upside explained next to it.