According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest consumer price index, food prices overall rose 5.3% in 2007, while prices for basic staples such as milk, bread and eggs soared by double-digit percentages. And it’s expected that similar increase will continue this year. Yes, we can’t control the prices of the food, but we can earn mximum rewards if we can smartly enough to choose a good credit card. Supermarkets are playing all kinds of tricks to luring you to buy somehting expensive although there are other cheap alternatives. Sometimes you can mistakenly pick up a wrong merchandise which will get more money out of your pocket. However, one thing we won’t do wrong is to put a right grocery rewards card in your wallet. Here are 5 grocery rewards cards worth swiping:

1. Blue Cash from American Express

If you use this card as you primary card, it offers the best grocery rewards around. The bottom line is you have to spend more than $6,500 per year. Once you have spent more than $6,500 on the card, you can earn 5% cash back on “everyday purchases” at gas stations, supermarkets, and drugstores. You can earn 1.5% cash back on everything else. The only drawback of this card is you can only get 1.5% cash back (0.5% on everything else) before you reach that threshold. Another feature is there is no monthly or yearly cap on this card. You can earn as much as you can!

2. Chase Freedom Card

This card offers “dynamic rewards” program. You can get 3% cash back on 3 most spending categories from 15 preset rewards categories. If you charge all the grocery purchases on this card, then you can get 3% cash back! The most exciting part is if you accumulate $200 in your account, you can request a $250 check! This makes the rewards percentage of this card increase to 3.75%! Chase Freedom Card is the most popular card from J. P. Morgan Chase with more than 1.5 million cardholders. This card is offering $50 sign-up bonus now.

3. Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards Card

This card offers 5 thankyou points for every $1 spent at grocery stores, gas stations and drug store. Not like Blue Cash from American Express which requires you to spend more than $6,500 to enjoy the 5% cash back, there is no minimum spending requirement to earn 5 thankyou points for every $1 spent. However, you can only get 5 thankyou points offer for 12 months. After that, you can only get 1 thnkyou point for every $1 spent everywhere.

4. Citi Dividend Platinum Select Card

You can get 5% on supermarkets, drugstores and gas station purchases and utilities for 6 months. After that, you can only get 2% cash back. You can also get 1% cash back on everything else. This card is not so good as Citi Diamond Prefferd Rewards Card which offers 5% cash back for 12 months. But, this card has college student version which enable college students to build their credit history and earn cash back rewards.

5. Household/Orchard Bank Platinum Card with 2% Cash Back

This card has been mentioned in my “7 Great Credit Cards You Should Know” post. You earn 2% cash back on everything including grocery! If you can’t get a rewards card which enables you to get more than 2% cash back, you should consider this card. Usually this card is by invitation only. The invitations from Household Bank and Orchard Bank (owned by HSBC) are “real invitations”. Not like CapitalOne Bank, once you receive an invitation from them, you are guaranteed to have their cards. (CapitalOne Bank sends out a lot of invitations to you but you can still get rejected because their pre-approved invitation is a joke!) The only drawback of this card is you can’t expect high credit limit from HSBC. The typical credit limit is around $300~$2000. If you request to increase your credit limit, you can either get rejected or only a small amount ($300) will be granted.