The best Mastercard credit cards of July 2026

Mastercard is a credit card network that facilitates transactions between merchants and card issuers, while providing extensive benefits to cardholders. Some of the best-known Mastercards are issued by Citi and Capital One, but dozens are issued by credit unions and smaller banks, too.

Cards are assigned to a specific tier — Standard, World or World Elite — and come with perks ranging from $0 liability protection to free two-day shipping. (The tier you receive depends on your issuer, but higher tiers typically come with higher annual fees.) Depending on which Mastercard you have, you may enjoy no annual fee, earn competitive rewards or even get a generous intro 0% APR offer.

To help you make the best choice, CNBC Select has named the best Mastercard credit cards in five categories. For details on how we made our picks, read our methodology.

Who's this for? The Citi Double Cash® Card is one of the best cash-back credit cards, and it has been since it launched in 2014. Cardholders earn 2% cash back on every purchase: unlimited 1% cash back when you buy, plus an additional 1% as you pay for those purchases.

Plus, the Citi Double Cash Card comes with a generous 18-month 0% intro APR on balance transfers (then 17.49% - 27.49% variable APR). There is an intro balance transfer fee of 3% of each transfer (minimum $5) completed within the first four months of account opening. After that, your fee will be 5% of each transfer (minimum $5).

This card also has no annual fee and you'll receive free access to Citi® Identity Theft Solutions, which can help you if you're a victim of identity theft.

Who's this for? Frequent travelers can benefit from the Citi Strata Premier^® Card with 10X points on hotels, car rentals and attractions booked through CitiTravel.com. And they'll earn 3X points on air travel, other hotels, restaurants, supermarkets, gas stations and EV charging stations.

Cardholders can qualify for $100 off a single hotel stay of $500 or more (excluding taxes and fees) once per calendar year on bookings made through CitiTravel.com.

The Citi Strata Premier Card has a $95 annual fee, but that's in line with other travel cards and cheaper than luxury cards, which can cost hundreds. This card has no foreign transaction fee and it also offers travel protections, including trip cancellation/interruption, trip delay, lost or damaged luggage and car rental coverage.

Who's this for? The Citi Rewards+® Card is one of the most unique no-annual-fee cards around. Cardholders who frequently make small purchases can benefit from this card's "round up" feature that automatically rounds up to the nearest 10 points on every purchase — with no cap. That means a $1 bag of chips earns 10 points, compared to only earning one point without this benefit.

The Citi Rewards+® Card also gives you 10% of your points back for the first 100,000 ThankYou® Points you redeem per year. For instance, if you redeem 25,000 points in a year, you get 2,500 of those points back, which is enough for a $25 gift card. Likewise, if you redeem 150,000 points in your first year, you'll get 10,000 points back, equating to $100.

Beyond unique perks, cardholders earn 2X ThankYou® Points at supermarkets and gas stations for the first $6,000 per year and then 1X points thereafter. Plus, you earn 1X points on all other purchases.

Who's this for? If you have bad credit or no credit at all, you should consider a secured card, especially one with a low deposit, like the Capital One Platinum Secured Credit Card. This card has no annual fee and minimum security deposits starting as low as $49, $99 or $200, based on your creditworthiness.

If you qualify for the low $49 or $99 deposits, you'll still receive at least a $200 credit limit. This is a great feature considering many secured cards require $200 deposits to receive an equivalent line of credit.

Even if you don't qualify for the lower deposits, you may receive access to a higher credit limit in as little as six months based on your payment history and creditworthiness with no additional deposit needed. This is a good incentive to maintain a timely payment history.

Who's this for? The Citi Simplicity® Card offers one of the longest balance transfer intro periods at 0% for the first 18 months from the date of account opening (after that, the variable APR will be 17.49% - 28.24%, based on your creditworthiness. Balance transfers must be completed within 4 months of account opening). This introductory period can give you over a year and a half to pay off a large balance.

This card has no annual fee and comes with an introductory balance transfer fee of either 3% of each transfer (minimum $5). After that, your fee will be 5% of each transfer (minimum $5). It can be worthwhile if you're paying high interest charges and need more than the usual 12- or 15-month interest-free periods.

New cardholders have four months to complete their balance transfer (longer than the typical 60 to 90 days), but the intro APR period starts at account opening — so aim to transfer your debt as soon as possible.

Beyond a balance transfer intro period, this card offers a 0% intro APR for the first 18 months on purchases (after, 17.74% - 28.49% variable APR) from date of account opening, and it has no annual fee. One thing this card is lacking, however, is a rewards program. But if your goal is to get out of debt, that shouldn't be an issue.

To determine which credit cards offer the best value, Select analyzed popular Mastercard credit cards available in the U.S. We compared each card on a range of features, including rewards, welcome bonus, introductory and standard APR, balance transfer fee and foreign transaction fees, as well as factors such as required credit and customer reviews when available. We also considered additional perks, the application process and how easy it is for the consumer to redeem points.

Select teamed up with location intelligence firm Esri. The company's data development team provided the most up-to-date and comprehensive consumer spending data based on the 2019 Consumer Expenditure Surveys from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. You can read more about their methodology here.

Esri's data team created a sample annual budget of approximately $22,126 in retail spending. The budget includes six main categories: groceries ($5,174), gas ($2,218), dining out ($3,675), travel ($2,244), utilities ($4,862) and general purchases ($3,953). General purchases include items such as housekeeping supplies, clothing, personal care products, prescription drugs and vitamins, and other vehicle expenses.

Select used this budget to estimate how much the average consumer would save over the course of a year, two years and five years, assuming they would attempt to maximize their rewards potential by earning all welcome bonuses offered and using the card for all applicable purchases. All rewards total estimations are net the annual fee.

While the five-year estimates we've included are derived from a budget similar to the average American's spending, you may earn a higher or lower return depending on your shopping habits.