Methodology
To identify the best contactless credit cards, WalletHub’s editors routinely compare the latest rewards, interest rates, fees, approval requirements, and contactless features offered by 1,500+ credit cards, including cards from WalletHub’s partners and notable new offers. We then select the best contactless credit cards for each credit rating, as well as for each major credit card category, using two-year cost and other WalletHub Rating components. WalletHub’s Key Rating Components
Two-Year Cost: 38% - We analyze the net cost or savings a cardholder may experience over a two-year span, taking into account fees, interest charges, rewards, and everyday spending. Negative values indicate net savings.
Rewards: 29% - We examine how effectively each card earns rewards on purchases to calculate the overall potential.
Editor’s Rating: 12% - WalletHub editors assign scores based on a holistic review of each card’s terms, contactless functionality, added benefits, and overall competitiveness in the market.
Fees: 11% - We review all costs that a cardholder has to bear to own a credit card, including annual, monthly, and foreign fees, to determine the card's overall cost.
User Reviews: 7% - We take cardholder feedback into account to highlight the ease of use with contactless payments, customer service, and overall satisfaction.
Other Features: 3% - We consider additional features beyond tap-to-pay capability, including free memberships, statement credits, and other perks that may add value.
Some of the card picks address different needs and use slight variations in the score distribution to suit their core requirement. Examples include cards chosen for their long introductory APRs, for students, and for people with average or below-average credit scores.
How Two-Year Cost Is CalculatedTwo-year cost is used to approximate the monetary value of cards for better comparison and is calculated by combining annual and monthly membership fees over two years, adding any one-time fees or other fees (like balance transfer fees), adding any interest costs, and subtracting rewards. Negative amounts indicate savings. When fees or other terms are presented as a range, we use the midpoint for scoring purposes.
Rewards bonuses and credits have been taken into account for two-year cost calculations. However, bonuses applicable to only a very small portion of cardholders are not considered. For example, credits and bonuses awarded for spending or redeeming rewards through a company portal with non-co-branded cards have not been taken into account. Similarly, bonuses and credits related to spending with specific merchants using a non-co-branded card have not been taken into account (for example, if Card A offers credits with DoorDash, this feature would not be factored into calculations because it is hard to assess how many cardholders would use the benefit or exactly how much value they'd get from it).
Cardholder Spending Profiles
Given that different users have different goals and are likely to use their credit cards differently, we identified spending profiles that are representative of different users’ financial priorities and behaviors. For each cardholder type, we have assumed a specific amount of monthly spending by purchase type (e.g., groceries, gas, etc.), as well as an average balance, balance transfer amount, amount spent on large purchases and average monthly payment. Spending assumptions are based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
