3 Best Credit Cards for Black Friday

I love Black Friday.

It’s almost like waiting for Christmas, but instead, you wait for deals. As you get older and you need to buy gifts for your spouse, parents, kids, and friends, finding the best deals possible is critical.

But Black Friday deals will only take you so far.

If you’re not using the right credit card, you could be missing out on a ton of benefits and rewards. That’s why in this article, we’ll share the top credit cards for you to use during Black Friday.

Top Pick for Black Friday: The Platinum Card® from American Express

See Rates & Fees.

The Platinum Card® from American Express is an excellent card to use for Black Friday shopping this year. In fact, it’s officially our top pick after unseating its cousin from last year’s list, the Blue Cash Preferred Card from American Express, which is still a great card.

First, let’s start with some of the benefits of using an American Express card for shopping.

Benefits of Using American Express for Shopping

American Express offers Purchase Protection on its cards, and it’s an excellent feature for those who do a lot of shopping. Directly from American Express:

When an American Express Card Member charges a covered purchase with their Card account, Purchase Protection can help protect your purchases for up to 120 days* from the date of purchase if it is stolen or accidentally damaged. The coverage is limited up to $1,000 per occurrence, up to $50,000 per Card Member account per calendar year.

That means if you buy something on Black Friday and it gets accidentally damaged (which happens during the holidays between shipping and dropping things), Amex will have you covered.

American Express also provides an extended warranty on the items you purchase with it. Naturally, this will come in handy for Black Friday, as you’ll be buying things like electronics and other pricey items that tend to need a warranty in place to make you feel most comfortable in buying them.

But why pay extra for an extended warranty when Amex can cover it for you? According to their policies, When an American Express Card Member charges an eligible product with his or her Card account, an Extended Warranty can provide up to two (2) extra years added to the original U.S. manufacturer’s warranty.

Rewards and Other Perks

Aside from the purchase protection benefits, you’ll get from using American Express, The Platinum Card® from American Express has some of the best rewards and perks we’ve seen.

In fact, I dropped all of my other cards this year to sign up for this card. It’s a premium card (and the annual fee is high), but it’s so worth it. Here are the things we love most:

Excellent welcome offer. Earn 80,000 Membership Rewards® Points after you spend $6,000 on purchases on the Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership. Terms Apply.
Earn up to $200 in Uber rides each year. This perk is AMAZING. Each month, you’ll get credits deposited into your Uber account when you register this card. I use it for both Uber rides and Uber Eats.
Unmatched travel rewards. Earn 5X Membership Rewards(R) Points for flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel up to $500,000 on these purchases per calendar year and earn 5X Membership Rewards(R) Points on prepaid hotels booked with American Express Travel.
Instant Gold status with Hilton and Marriott. You have to manually enroll for each, but when you do, you’ll get instant perks through an upgraded status with both hotel chains.
Car rental program elite status. You can enroll in elite status programs for at least three different car rental services, including Avis Preferred, Hertz Gold Plus Rewards, and National Car Rental Emerald Club Executive status.

The Platinum Card® from American Express does come with a hefty $695 annual fee, but if you meet the minimum spend for the bonus points, it’s more than worth it. I don’t advocate for expensive rewards cards often, but this one is hands-down at the top of my list.

Best If You Also Plan To Travel For The Holidays: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Credit Card

Next to my personal obsession with The Platinum Card® from American Express, my second favorite overall card (and the best for travel on this list) is the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Credit Card.

The rewards off the bat are solid--you’ll earn 5x points on travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards®, 2x points per $1 spent on travel, 3x points on dining and online grocery purchases, and 1x point per $1 spent on all other purchases. When you book travel through Chase’s website, you can get a much higher rate of return (between 25% and 75% points boost).

Here are some of the other things we love about this card:

Sign up bonus. You’ll get 80,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $1,000 when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards®.
Purchase protection. Like American Express, Chase Sapphire gives you purchase protection for up to $500 per claim and $50,000 per account. According to Chase, this benefit can repair, replace or reimburse you for eligible items in the event of theft or damage when items are purchased with an eligible Chase card or with rewards earned on an eligible Chase card.
Extended warranty protection. Chase gives you an extra year of coverage on eligible purchases with a manufacturer’s warranty of three years or less. You just have to ensure the purchase is made (entirely) with your Chase Sapphire Preferred® credit card.
Primary rental car coverage. Where most cards offer secondary coverage (meaning you have to first go through your car insurer), with this card, you can submit the claim directly and avoid involving your standard car insurer completely.
Extra travel benefits. The travel benefits with this card are insane. You get up to $10,000 in trip cancellation insurance, up to $500 per ticket in trip delay insurance, up to $3,000 per person in lost luggage reimbursement, and up to a $100 per day coverage (for up to five days) in baggage delay insurance. Oh yeah, there’s also no foreign transaction fees.

See card details or read our full Chase Sapphire Preferred® credit card review.

Also Read: 8 Top Travel Rewards Credit Cards

Best For Shopping At Department Stores And Using Long-term: Chase Freedom Flex℠

The Chase Freedom Flex℠ is an excellent all-around credit card to have so you will end up finding yourself using it far beyond just Black Friday. But for Black Friday, it rocks.

Chase offers 5% cash back on specific categories at different times of the year. Typically in the 4th quarter of every year, that increased cash back rate is in the shopping vertical.

Department stores include both in-store and online purchases, too, so you don’t have to go to the mall if you don’t want to. Here’s a list of all the merchants Chase considers to be department stores for the sake of this card:

Aliexpress
Bealls of Florida
Belk
Bergdorf Goodman
Bergners
Bloomingdales
Boscovs Department Store
Boston Store
Dillards
Goodys
Gordmans
JC Penney
Kohls
Lord & Taylor
Macy’s
Neiman Marcus
Nordstrom & Nordstrom Rack
Peebles Dept Store
Saks Fifth Ave & Off Fifth
Sears
Stage Stores
Stein Mart
The Bon Ton
Von Maur
Younkers

Outside of the rotating categories, Chase Freedom Flex℠ offers 1% cash back on all purchases and 5% cash back on select purchases each quarter (up to $1,500 spent quarterly).

Earn a $200 Bonus after you spend $500 on purchases in your first 3 months from account opening. Finally, there is no annual fee, and you’ll even get a 0% introductory APR on both purchases and balance transfers for the first 15 months from account opening (after that the ongoing APR of 19.74% - 28.49% Variable applies).

Read More: Our Review of Chase Freedom Flex℠.

Also Read: Best Credit Cards for Big Purchases

Bottom Line

Shopping on Black Friday can be pure chaos. But that doesn’t mean you have to go broke or miss out on massive savings.

By using the right credit card, you can get all the things you need for the holidays in a single day, and either not worry about paying it off for a year and a half or get some hefty cash back for your troubles.

Either way, use one of these three cards, and you won’t be disappointed.