Hey, I'm Adam Jusko from ProblemMoney.com and in this video we are going to do an updated review of the Best Buy credit card. Before we do, I'm going to ask you to please subscribe to this YouTube channel if you have not already and if you have already, I thank you for doing so. So it's been a couple of years since we have taken a deep dive on the Best Buy credit card. It is issued in partnership with Citibank.
There actually are three Best Buy credit cards and we'll talk about how that all works out. So you have a rewards program we're going to talk about, you have special financing you might choose instead of the rewards program. We are going to talk about your approval odds on the card, what kind of credit score you're going to need for each of the Best Buy credit cards potentially, all of that good stuff.
Now before we talk about the Best Buy credit cards, we need to talk about the My Best Buy Rewards program that you can be part of even if you don't have one of the Best Buy credit cards. The way that program works is for every dollar you spend at Best Buy, you get a half point. Each point that you earn, however, is worth...
So essentially what that means is you are getting a 1% reward on the purchases that you make at Best Buy through the My Best Buy program. Every time you have reached 250 points, which is equal to $5, you would get an automatic rewards certificate from Best Buy that you could use toward a future Best Buy purchase. So you can't use your points in any other way, you can only use them at Best Buy.
You can also set your thresholds little bit higher if you want to get your reward less often but your reward to be higher because the reward certificates that you get are only good for 60 days in most cases so you only have a couple of months to use them so for some people you might want to set those thresholds higher now there are some set thresholds if you do not have a Best Buy credit card however if you do have a Best Buy credit card you have what is known as points banking which means you can set your thresholds even higher than you could if you do not have a Best Buy credit card. Now like I said that one percent reward is for the base My Best Buy program even if you don't have a Best Buy credit card. However, if you get a Best Buy credit card you are going to get more in rewards so it is going to be worth it to do it if you are someone that shops at Best Buy regularly. Specifically, you are going to get five percent in rewards on Best Buy purchases with a Best Buy credit card. And if you qualify for one of the Best Buy Visa cards, you can use the card outside of Best Buy and you would get 3% on gas purchases, 2% on grocery purchases, 2% on dining purchases, and then 1% everywhere else.
And that also means, like I just said, each one of the points is worth two cents. So when I say 5%, for example, you're actually getting 2.5 points. That equals 5% in the Best Buy program. Hopefully that makes sense.
Now, like I said, there are actually three Best Buy credit cards, and when you apply, you are going to be considered for them in a certain order based on your credit history, your credit score. What's going to happen is you apply, and they are first going to consider you for the My Best Buy Visa Platinum card that has no annual fee. You can use it at Best Buy. You can also use it anywhere else that Visa credit cards are accepted.
So if you have the credit score, the credit history to be approved there, great. You have the card. You are good to go.
Now, if you do not get approved there, you would then drop down a level, or they would drop you down a level and consider you for the Best Buy credit card, or what we often call the Best Buy store card, because you can only use it at Best Buy. So you still get the same rewards at Best Buy, but you cannot use it outside of Best Buy. If you are not approved for that card, well then you would then be considered for the Best Buy Visa Gold. And this is a card that you can use at Best Buy and you can use it anywhere else that Visa is accepted, but it has a $59 annual fee. So it's sort of interesting the way they structure it.
They actually, their lowest level is a card that is a Visa, but you have an annual fee attached. Normally, I would say if you got approved at that level where you have to pay the $59 annual fee, well, then you should reject the card and not take it. However, if you have a very, very low credit score and you got approved at that level and you feel like, This is as good as any other credit card you're going to get. The annual fee is not that bad and it is a visa that you can use, you know, anywhere that visa is accepted.
Well then maybe it would make sense, but it's certainly not the ideal. The Best Buy credit cards offer you the chance for instant approval and instant use of the card, meaning that if you are approved, you could use it on that same day. And not only could you use it on that same day, but you are actually incentivized to use it on that same day because you would actually get 10% back in rewards on your Best Buy purchases. So in that case, if you spent just $50 at Best Buy on the day you were approved, you would already have earned a $5 reward certificate.
Now, if you make a larger purchase at Best Buy with your Best Buy credit card, you can forego the rewards. I don't want those rewards. Instead, I want to choose special 0% financing. As I make this video, you can get a 0% interest rate on purchases of $299 or more from Best Buy, but the offers do change, so make sure you check on that. Sometimes that offer is going to be 0% for 6 months, sometimes it might be 0% for 12 months, it might even be more if the purchase is a higher ticket item.
Now, what you should know is if you decide to take the special financing, you will get that six months or that 12 months or whatever to pay off the purchase. But this is what is known as deferred financing. And deferred financing means that you have that period to pay off the purchase, but you must pay off every penny of that purchase during that period.
Or what is going to happen is you're going to get charged all of the interest from the date of purchase as if that 0% offer. had never happened so if you bought something for you know 750 dollars and you paid 742 dollars during that six month or 12 month period and you had just eight bucks left that you had to pay and you didn't do it in time you would end up getting charged the interest from the date of purchase at the card's regular interest rate which is going to be in the high 20s in terms of the percentage so you want to make sure you get your purchase paid off in full by that time. That can be a very dangerous thing when people don't understand it.
If they don't pay it off in time, they think they'll only get charged the interest on what they didn't pay when in reality they're getting charged the interest on the full purchase price and all the way back from the beginning. It's all going to get dumped on your card at one time. Now let's talk about approval odds, what credit score you might need. Always on this channel, when I talk about credit scores, I am using FICO as My standard, that is the credit score that's more often going to be used by lenders.
You might know your Vantage score credit score, but I am using FICO. So if you have that, that would help you probably a little bit more in gauging your chances of approval. That said, if you have a 650 credit score or above, you probably would be approved for the My Best Buy Visa Platinum.
However, if you're right around the 650 mark. you probably are going to get a lower credit limit. It might be around 500 bucks or so.
So, if you were getting the card with the idea that you were going to make a purchase soon and it was beyond that amount, well then you might not get approved for enough to actually buy whatever it is that you want from Best Buy. If your credit score is higher, if you're up at 700, 750 or whatever, well then you probably would get a higher credit limit. Now, if you are below 650, I would say between 600 and 650, you probably are going to get approved for the Best Buy store card that you can only use at Best Buy.
And that might be okay with you if you only want the card to make purchases at Best Buy. Again, what credit limit you get, hard to say with the Best Buy store card. But if I'm thinking that you might get a lower credit limit with the Visa card, even at $650, well then you can guess that you might still be sitting at the same place with the store only card.
Now below $600, you probably would only have a chance at getting approved. for the Best Buy Gold Visa, which has the $59 annual fee, I would say you could probably drop down to about $580, maybe even a little bit lower, and still get approved for that card, but probably not that much lower before Citibank would just say, we don't want to deal with you at all. And again, you would have to decide whether you really wanted to pay a $59 annual fee for a Best Buy credit card in that instance.
All right, all that said, is the Best Buy credit card worth getting? Well, if you are someone that shops at Best Buy often, or if you're someone making a big purchase at Best Buy, well, then it definitely could make sense. If you're making that big purchase, you might want the special financing, or you might want the rewards on a big purchase. Or if you shop often at Best Buy, even if you're making smaller purchases, well, then it's going to make sense to get that 5% reward on your Best Buy purchases and that 5% reward at Best Buy.
pretty much in line with other retail reward programs out there. You get that 5%, but you can only use it toward future Best Buy purchases. But if you're there often, well, then that is probably fine with you. If you're not there very often, well, then it wouldn't make as much sense. In terms of the Visa cards that give you percentages back or higher percentages back on purchases outside of Best Buy, like the 3% on gas, 2% dining, 2% on groceries, those are decent percentages versus...
If you don't have other credit cards where you're getting at least 2 or 3% in those categories, because remember the rewards you're getting are only going to be good toward those reward certificates to be used at Best Buy. So if you qualify for other credit cards where you could get 2 or 3% in those categories and you could use the cash back anywhere you want to or get travel rewards or whatever, well then it wouldn't make sense to use this card so much outside of Best Buy. However... Again, if your credit score is at a place where maybe you wouldn't qualify for some of the better cash back or travel credit cards on the market, well then maybe you'd qualify for this card and it would still be nice to get 2% or 3% on those purchases even if they are only good at Best Buy. So it is all up to you where you are now in terms of the credit cards you have and what your credit score is, all of that stuff, and how you decide whether the card is...
worth it. Questions, comments, I'd love to hear those in that comment section below. Otherwise, I thank you for watching. And as always, please go to ProudMoney.com where we do credit card reviews, we talk personal finance, we talk deals and all sorts of other fun stuff too.
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