Thread: Best Buy Credit Card? Know This Before You Apply!

Don’t fill out a Best Buy credit card application without seeing this review. No matter how good the Best Buy card looks on the service, take a closer look and you’ll see why they’re not such a good deal after all.

They actually offer two different credit cards… one is the Best Buy card that can only be used at their store and the other is offered through HSBC- the Reward Zone MasterCard. Unfortunately you don’t get to choose which Best Buy credit card you get – they make that decision based on your credit score.

Here’s the lowdown on both…

Best Buy Card (store card)
This is the version that doesn't appear to offer rewards, but it does attract atrociously high interest rates and fees.

Store-Use Only: This version can only be used at Best Buy stores and nowhere else.
Very Low Credit Limits: Upon looking at Bust Buy credit card reviews posted by customers on various sites, one of the most frequent complaints I saw was about extremely low credit limits. Reportedly there are tons of people complaining about limits as low as $300. A limit like that won’t do much good if you plan on buying a plasma TV or new computer with the card.

High Interest Rates: At the time of this review, the standard APR was 25.24% to 27.99% and the penalty APR was even higher.

Retroactive Interest: This Best Buy store card usually runs a promotion that offers 0% interest for X number of months on purchases above a certain dollar value. But if you don’t completely pay for that purchase in full before the X number of months or if you make just one late payment, you will be assessed interest charges from the first day of purchase!

Credit Card Bait ’n Switch: At the time of this review, I found this statement in fine print at the bottom of the Best Buy card application: “For your convenience, if we find that we cannot approve you for a Best Buy credit card at this time, we will automatically consider you for a Gold MasterCard® with Fee.”

Lack of Rewards: While researching the card and application on the Best Buy website, I was surprised to see absolutely no mention of any kind of rewards on spending.

Best Buy MasterCard
This one is affiliated with MasterCard so it can be used elsewhere, but unfortunately there are a lot of drawbacks. Is it difficult to obtain a Best Buy credit card Mastercard? Not necessarily, but here’s why you don’t want one even if you can get approval…

Annual Fee: The Best Buy website does not do a very good job talking about the annual fee upfront, but once you fill out the credit card application, you are taken to a page to review your terms and decide whether or not you accept them. One of those terms is the annual fee, and according to various online complaints, reportedly the amount of this fee can vary based on your credit. Some reportedly claim to get hit with a $59 annual fee, while others claim $79. The no annual fee version is only given to those with “qualifying credit.”

Low Rewards: The Best Buy credit card rewards program is as follows:

• 2 points for every $1 spent at Best Buy (in-store or online)
• 1 point for each $1 spent on grocery and dining
• 1 point for every $2 spent elsewhere

For every 250 points accumulated, the cardmember gets a $5 rewards certificate, which can be used towards a future purchase from Best Buy. While it is nice to see that this Best Buy card actually has a rewards program, the drawback is that it’s definitely not a very impressive one.

Rewards Forfeiture: In the fine print of the Best Buy MasterCard Reward Zone rules, there was a term titled “Program Annualization” that states at the start of the calendar year, accumulated points will be converted into Reward Certificates (in $5 increments) and any remaining points will be forfeited. I think this is extremely unfair.

High Interest Rates: The website says “Your specific interest rate will be determined upon review of your credit history and application” so I could find out what this Best Buy credit card’s interest rate was exactly. However I did come across plenty of customer complaints which also complain about very high APRs on this version, too.

Low Credit Limit: Reportedly there are many complaints of cardmembers getting low Best Buy credit card limits. Ironically, out of all places, I saw many complaints on the BestBuy.com community message boards about this issue. For example, one poster alleges “I recently applied and was approved for a Mastercard for a measly $300.00…” and “…When I applied online it never mentioned that I would be charged $60 odd dollars annually…”

Verdict?
Even after doing this Best Buy credit card review, I had difficulty finding any good reasons to apply for either of them. The vast amount of complaints about the Best Buy card are disturbing to say the least. You probably would be better off with just a regular credit card.

You can get 5% cash back at department store! (sponsored)
Want a real rewards card that gives you up to 5% cash back on various categories? Then check out our review of the no annual fee Discover More Card. It also comes with a special signup bonus!

My wife use to have one and she had problems more than once about them not processing her payments on time and then slapping her with a late fee. Go figure.

whats your advise?? I got the Best Buy rewardzone mastercard about 7 months ago.. Came with a limit of 300, i used it to buy an ipod then paid it off in a month or 2. They then increased my limit to 400.. Should i just pay off what i owe and cancell the card? or just tear up the card and dont use it and have them cancel it

Originally Posted by pokerdude069

whats your advise?? I got the Best Buy rewardzone mastercard about 7 months ago.. Came with a limit of 300, i used it to buy an ipod then paid it off in a month or 2. They then increased my limit to 400.. Should i just pay off what i owe and cancell the card? or just tear up the card and dont use it and have them cancel it

bump.......

Originally Posted by Cucumber

Pay off the card but keep it open b/c canceling cards can backfire. It's better to have accounts that have been open for years.

ok ill just do that then