The best credit cards for Uber split into two camps. The Amex Platinum and Amex Gold give you Uber Cash every month to spend on rides and Uber Eats, while the Apple Card and the Amex Blue Cash Preferred pay a higher rate back on what you charge. Which one wins depends on how much you spend with Uber and whether you pay with Apple Pay.

That last detail matters more than it sounds. Amex's Uber Cash terms and Apple Card's Uber rate pull in opposite directions on how your card is added to the Uber app, so a wallet with both needs a plan. Here's what each card's own page says today, with the caps and exclusions up front.

Amex Platinum: $200 Uber Cash Plus an Uber One Credit

The Platinum Card carries an $895 annual fee and two Uber benefits:

  • $200 Uber Cash. Amex deposits "$15 in Uber Cash each month, plus a bonus $20 in December," for rides and orders in the U.S. when you select an Amex card for the transaction.
  • $120 Uber One credit. Up to $120 in statement credits each calendar year on Uber One membership fees charged to the card. Amex's terms say it works on monthly and annual memberships.

Two lines in the Uber One terms trip people up. You need to toggle Uber Cash off for the membership fee so the card is charged directly, and Amex won't issue credits for a free trial or for any part of the fee paid with Uber Cash, Uber One credits or promotions.

Neither benefit carries an $895 card on its own. The Platinum makes sense when you'd use the lounge, hotel and other credits anyway, and the Uber money is a bonus that gets used every month.

Amex Gold: $10 a Month in Uber Cash

The Gold Card has a $325 annual fee and gives "$10 in Uber Cash each month" once you add it to your Uber account, which Amex lists as $120 Uber Cash. It works on "orders and rides with Uber in the U.S.," again when you select an Amex card for the transaction.

For a lot of people $10 a month is easier to use in full than $15, since one Uber Eats order or a short ride clears it. If you already hold the Gold for its restaurant and supermarket earning, the Uber Cash is a simple monthly credit to use up.

The Rules Both Amex Credits Share

Amex's terms for the Platinum and Gold Uber Cash read almost word for word the same, and a few of them cost people money:

The Uber Cash "expires at 11:59 PM Hawaii Standard Time on the last day of each calendar month," and unused balance "will not carry over to the following month."

A card can receive the benefit on one Uber account only. If you add the same card to two accounts, the first one gets it.

It can't be used with a family profile, and it may take up to 48 hours to show up after you add the card.

Here's the catch for Apple Pay users. Amex says cards "added to your Uber account through a third party or electronic wallet such as Apple Pay or PayPal will not be eligible." Add the Amex card directly in the Uber app.

Apple Card: 3% Daily Cash on Uber and Uber Eats

The Apple Card lists "No fees" and pays 3% Daily Cash on purchases "using Apple Card with Apple Pay in the Uber and Uber Eats apps, uber.com and ubereats.com." That covers both rides and food delivery at one rate, with no annual fee to earn back.

Apple Pay is required, and Apple lists where the 3% doesn't apply: purchases where Apple Pay isn't available (which it says may include Split Fares and Group Orders, plus Uber Teen, Uber Family, Uber Vouchers and Uber Transit), Uber gift cards bought on a web browser, alcohol in certain states, and purchases where Uber isn't the merchant.

Apple also offers Apple Card customers a six-month free trial of a monthly Uber One membership through its own link, for new or returning members. After the trial, Apple says it renews at $9.99 a month until you cancel.

Blue Cash Preferred: 3% on Rides

The Blue Cash Preferred has a $0 intro annual fee for the first year, then $95. It earns 3% cash back on transit, which Amex's terms say includes "trains, taxicabs, ride share services, ferries, tolls, parking, buses, and subways." Cash back comes as Reward Dollars you redeem as a statement credit.

Transit is the category Amex names here, so this is a rides card. It also earns 6% at U.S. supermarkets on up to $6,000 a year. Keep it home when you travel: Amex lists a 2.7% foreign transaction fee.

How to Pick

Say you spend $100 a month on Uber rides and Uber Eats. At 3%, that's $36 a year from the Apple Card, with no fee. The Gold's Uber Cash would cover $120 of that spending over the year if you use the full $10 every month, but only if the Gold earns its $325 fee elsewhere in your wallet.

So here's how it shakes out. If you already carry the Platinum or Gold, spend the monthly Uber Cash first, with the Amex card added directly in the Uber app, because it disappears at month end. If you have no Amex credit to burn, or you've used it up, the Apple Card's 3% through Apple Pay covers rides and Eats with no annual fee. And if Uber rides are one piece of a bigger commute with trains, parking and tolls, the Blue Cash Preferred's 3% transit category covers the whole trip.

For the loyalty side, see our separate guide to the Delta SkyMiles partnership.

Sources

  1. American Express: Platinum Card
  2. American Express: Platinum Card offer and benefit terms (Uber Cash, Uber One credit)
  3. American Express: Gold Card
  4. American Express: Gold Card offer and benefit terms (Uber Cash)
  5. American Express: Blue Cash Preferred Card
  6. American Express: Blue Cash Preferred offer terms (transit definition)
  7. Apple: Apple Card (Uber and Uber Eats 3% Daily Cash, Uber One trial)

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