Sony Credit Card Review
The Sony credit card has been around a few years now and it is heavily marketing to gamers and gadget lovers. I recently received an email from a reader asking if it’s worth getting or just a scam. So let’s take a further look…
The Cons…
Like almost everything in life, there will undoubtedly be those who are not satisfied. The question is, are the complaints about Sony Card legitimate?
Upon doing further research it seems that people were either completely delighted by the credit card, or completely unsatisfied. Most of these negative reviews I read were about the shipping time it takes to order products with their points from Sony Rewards. Reportedly it would sometimes take up to weeks to receive the merchandise, but it sounds like this was due to a popular item being backordered. So if cardmembers are using the points from their Sony credit card to order the newest electronics, televisions, etc, I don’t feel you can blame the credit card if they are backordered. Because anytime a new Playstation or other hot item comes out that seems to be the case for everybody, not just those with the Sony card.
The Pros…
The Basics
The Sony credit card is a Platinum Visa which is issued by Chase. Unfortunately if you have bad credit you probably won’t qualify.
No Annual Fee
Fortunately, there is no annual fee. This is an absolute must with a rewards card. Because the whole concept of paying a fee to earn rewards rarely makes sense.
Interest Rate
Like any card, of course these are constantly changing, so I don’t want to say conclusively the APR is good, but for now at least it seems fair. At the time of this post, it is either 10.24%, 14.24%, or 18.24% and which one you get depends on your credit record.
It’s not a spectacular rate, but it’s not horrible either. However it is important to point out this is a variable rate which is tied to the prime rate… and that will undoubtedly go up in the future as the economy keeps improving. So if you plan on carrying a balance, I would advise against using the Sony Card for that purpose because the interest will far outweigh the reward points you will earn.
Promotions
At the time I’m writing this they are not offering any promos when you apply for a Sony credit card. However they are known to offer lucrative incentives occasionally in the form of a credit of $50 to $150 on your first purchase at Sony Style with a new card. But they are also known to give valuable incentives to existing cardmembers too in order to encourage you to spend.
Rewards
Let’s face it… the only reason most of us ever sign up for a new charge card is to get one with better rewards, and why shouldn’t we? It’s out money so we might as well earn as much cash back and points as possible when we spend it.
If you are a regular spender on their stuff, the Sony Rewards structure could really benefit you…
5 points per dollar for purchases at Sony Style stores or from their website
3 points per dollar for Sony purchases from Sony authorized retailer
1 point per dollar for everyday purchases
Conclusion
The Sony Card is a good credit card. If you buy a lot of electronics and games, then it is definitely worth considering. That being said, it’s always important to consider all your options before you choose a card. Sometimes, there are others which may earn you more depending on which categories they offer the highest cash back on.
Last updated October 2010
The redemption operations truly is a JOKE and the customer service is horrible possibly ruining my Christmas. I finally decided to redeem a lot of my points purchasing about 10 ipod/iphone dock speakers to give out as presents this year. I purchased 4 that were pretty much one of the top of the line sony docks and the rest were good too but not as good. I decided to purchase early which was around Dec 2nd.
They delivered the wrong items sending all 10 mediocre ones about 10 days later and I am still in the process of fighting to exchange the 4 for the correct ones. They didn’t even show any sympathy that they messed up on the order and even trying to make me pay for the shipping back. I have proof they messed up and they still wouldn’t fess up. The points for the better speakers now show higher rate and they want me to also pay for the difference if I still want the better speakers.
It’s now a few days until Christmas and they still have no resolved my issue. I now have to get new presents for the 4 I was expecting the good speakers for or give them these mediocre speakers that were heavily overcharged.. Ugh
$50 offer is bogus — said I would get it after my first purchase.
That was in September — it is almost the end of December; I called 4 times.
The Capital One people are fine; the Sony Rewards people are bogus –no customer service. I think this is fraud and should be reported to the FTC.
Has the worst customer service, without any warnings they will refuse to honor payments, I’ve just got screwed with a late fee because the wonderful capitol one Sony card declined to post the payment.
Closed all my credit card accounts with them, prefer to use cash than credit.
September 10, 2011.
I feel cheated. I redeemed my reward points for a $250 macy’s gift card. They said it has been mailed. I never received it. They said tough luck for you. We are not responsible for lost cards as mentioned in the disclaimer on the website somewhere.
Very fishy. I never lost mail. I felt like a fool. Very disappointed in Sony.
Not buying anything from them ever again.
I agree with “Disappointed Sony Rewards Member”
The Sony Reward website used to have a bunch of programs you can enter to receive free points. As mentioned above, you could theoretically get up to 10,000 an year if you entered all the daily and weekly programs. It was a fun website.
However, all that is gone now. Also, the forum was shut down. It was a very supportive community with tight knit communities. There were people offering prayers and well wishes for a member undergoing surgery. There were a few committed members that posted the answers to every program every chance and they were well respected and thanked. However, one day, the forum was shut down without warning on June 2. And it has been back since (as of July 2011). Way to just destroy a community.
Not happy with Sony Card, the reward program, and how the members where treated once Capital One took over.
I was able to redeem my points when they said they were switching to Cap One.
I am so glad I did.
Kinda messed up that you cant get points at all from JEOPARDY, And they cut out points oportunity for watching Wheel.
Bet theres not going to be many dedicated watchers any longer.
Chase is no longer the credit card connected to Sony Rewards. Capital One took over the evening of June 13, 2011. The credit card is just one of the point contributors. With Sony Rewards, you can accumulate points even without a purchase. You can redeem the points for Sony products from Sony Rewards Catalog or through Authorized Sony Dealers. One point is equivalent to a penny. Cardholders used to get $0.20 for Wheel of Fortune Bonus Round Puzzle, $0.20 for Flashback Moments, $0.20 Sony Pictures Television Question, and $0.40 for Jeopardy Category and Answer with a total of $1 on a good day. If you are not a cardholder, you get half of that which is $0.50 on a good day. At the beginning of the month, a cardholder can get $0.40 for updating the wish list while non-cardholder gets $0.20. For cardholders, there is no limit as to how many points to redeem. Non-cardholder with 10,000 points or over in the account can redeem 10,000 points or over. Non-cardholder with less than 10,000 points can only redeem 5,000 points maximum which is equivalent to $5. Even without a purchase, a member can accumulate a minimum of 10,000 in a year which is equivalent to $100.
Before the end of 2010, Capital One had an attractive credit card offer for new cardholders which was 20,000 which is equivalent to a $200 Gift Card on first purchase with no minimum amount of purchase. A lot of members posted this on the Community Forum. A lot of non-cardholders as well as Chase Cardholders signed up for it. Before the end of 2010, members who signed-up posted favorable comments as to how fast they got the 20,000 points. In March 2011, negative postings became overwhelming. A lot of members started to gripe as not getting the points promised.
Sony Rewards used to be a fun and the best rewards running. Not anymore. Since the hacking of PlayStation Network, Sony rewards and Sony Online Entertainment, Sony Rewards has been taking away points contributors like Jeopardy and Sony Pictures Television since May 30, 2011. These were cut down from 5x a week to 3x or 2x and 1x a week until Sony Rewards totally took them out. Total of 60 points per day gone and no news of what the rewards program is going to replace them with. Sony Pictures Television had a Forum, where members interact, voice out their complaints about the rewards program and help each other on how to navigate the rewards site. In May and up until June 2, people were unhappy with the program, confused on what was exactly happening. This was a friendly community where people vent their frustrations concerning points that were on hold for a long time for Cash Credit Mail-In Request. The Mail-In Request is for Cardholders who purchase Sony products from Sony Authorized Dealers. Members get reimbursed for the amount that is charged on their credit cards and get points as well. Since most of the postings were negative and unfavorable to Sony Rewards, this was taken out completely in the afternoon of June 2. The link to the Forum has a Notice saying “Our apologies, this page is unavailable”.
Sony Rewards is not reimbursing rewards members the cash that is due to them since May. Points are left on hold, for how long, nobody knows. They still accepting Sony Gift Card orders, although these are not being processed and points are placed on hold. E-mailing or calling Sony Rewards are not helping because the Customer Service Representatives has been telling members that it is taking a little longer because of the transition from Chase to Capital One. Capital One took over last Monday evening of June 13 and still nothing is being processed. If you are planning on signing up for the Sony Rewards, think twice before you do so.
Things to remember.
Prices for items on the site are such that every point you have is equal to 1 cent of the price of the item… So you spend 1000 dollars you end up with 1000 points which is worth $10 in sony equipment.
Prices that the items are listed at are often much higher than you can find the same item in your local Bestbuy… so if you spent the same amount of money on a discover card and took your year end cash back you could get the same product from bestbuy that you could have gotten on the sonyrewards site… only with discover card you would also have some money left over.
As some have said, items are often out of stock…. and this makes no sense as often a new item will be listed as out of stock the very day it is listed on the site…. If they never had the item to start with they should never bother to put it on the site it is a bit like false advertising.
Reverse auctions that they have are the biggest scams, they start at a price WAY above the street price for the item and it drops so slowly that it never becomes as cheap as the bestbuy… also a reverse auction item can’t be purchased with sony points only with your real money.
All said… you probably wonder why I have one… well because once in a great while they have something on the site called and “insider special”… and once in a great while they are very cheap and actual bargins… I used to travel a lot for business and generated lots of points using my sony card to buy plane tickets… so for me it works out as a reasonable deal (also Discover card isn’t accepted in a lot of foreign countries but my Sony Visa is so I didn’t have the option of Discover).
There is a major trick going between MBNA and Sony – I tried to redeem points and they are now saying that my points have expired after 5 years. No one indicated that they would expire when I signed up and there was no information given regarding the expiry of the points. The points are apparently worthless.
This feels like a scam is being pulled by Sony and MBNA – write to a national newspaper below and tell them your story.
I have not been able to logon to the sonyrewards.com website since October. Prior to that I had no trouble. I used to play the games on a daily basis to accumulate points and to see if I was a winner on Wheel of Fortune. Sony offers $50,000 to winners if they hold a Sony credit card. I got the card specifically for this reason. I had a computer technician examine my computer and he told me the site is blocked in this area by Sony. I called Sony support and was told it was my local cable company, since other areas are able to get it. I called Time Warner cable and was told it was Sony that was blocking it in this area. I am really getting frustrated with this “passing of the buck.” Is there anything I can do about this?
I have this card and they will give you the promotional time but they will accidently use your payment to another purchase that’s for a later time and then you will end up with an outrageous finance charge. I paid off all of my purchases except for one and they used some of the money I paid with to a future date and ended up with a $700 finance charge on a $64 purchase. I have documents to prove that I paid off my purchases in full and had everything updated on my account online. I spoked to a manager and she finally cleared it up but it’s still wrong! I don’t recommend this card, you have to stay on top of all the time frames and then make sure to have everything paid off in time but they will still find a way to get money out of you.
Would like to apply for a sony credit card but it keeps giving me other options. please comntact me re a card. thanks BJ Jones
You left out some of the huge benefits of this card, and the reason why so many people love it. First, you can get free points every day by playing the games on the Sony Rewards site. You’ll net $200-$300 in free points per year this way. Second, you can buy *any* Sony product from an authorized retailer (like, say, Amazon) and do a Purchase Order credit through Sony Rewards. After the Purchase Order is processed, Chase issues you a statement credit for what you paid and deducts the appropriate number of points. You’ll always get your desired item for cheaper than the points you would spend if you redeemed it on Sony’s website, and it deducts points just the same.
So go get a cash back card from Discover…
I also tried to redeem sony rewards points. However a large majority of items have been “temporarily out of stock” for months or are “no longer available.” I too wish now that I had a cash back card.
I just tried to redeem my points. I was told before a purchase that I could just call in if I purchase through Sony Style store. AFTER the purchase I called in and was told they are now moving to an all online system so I would have to print out forms and mail them in. Then it can take over 60 days to process. I now wish I had a cash back card instead of this. It sounded easy to redeem until I actually bought an item.
Be Warned. Not very convenient redemption.
Does that mean with no annual fee that there will only need to be a payment on the credit card, is if there a product bought on it?