A good summary from WSJ on top flat-rate cashback card offerings. I still prefer my Fidelity Investment Rewards card which rewards me with 1.5% no-hassle cashback.

Capital One Financial Corp. is offering a new card that will hand out a flat 1% cash refund on card spending, plus another 0.25% annual bonus each November. It's significant because, while other cards offer more generous cash-back terms, those cards often come with restrictions or additional requirements.

The Capital One card aims to simplify the terms and requirements to win consumers. For instance, two Fidelity Investments-branded credit cards pay back a higher flat 1.5%; Emigrant Savings Bank's EmigrantDirect.com offers plastic that can yield 1.4%.

Some cards from issuers like American Express Co., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley's Discover credit-card unit offer higher refunds at certain merchants than others; used in the right combination, a consumer could clear 1.25% with those cards.

The Fidelity and EmigrantDirect cards, however, require users to have accounts at their institutions. AmEx and Discover often require consumers to hit certain spending tiers before the best deals kick in. Caps on the amount one can earn each year are mainstays of the industry, too. Capital One's new card has no annual fee for customers with decent credit and no limits on annual earnings or other common restrictions.