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.

How many times have you been pressured to apply? I don't know about you but I find it extremely annoying. You may be peddled one of two cards - either the Best Buy card (store use only) or the Reward Zone MasterCard from HSBC. Read these reviews of both.

Best Buy Card (store version)
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 their 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% or 27.99% and the penalty APR was even higher.

Retroactive Interest: This store credit 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: I found this statement in fine print at the bottom of the card's 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.”

There are a lot of complaints out there about this! This is troubling since those with lower credit scores may be signing up for something they don't want.

Lousy Rewards: While researching the card and application on the Best Buy website, I was surprised to see the card appears to offer the same rewards as the non-credit card version of the Rewards Zone program. The only exception to this is with the financing offers: "you may also receive one additional bonus point for every point earned on qualifying standard revolve purchases (regular financing) made using the card"

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 Mastercard? Not necessarily, but here’s why you might not want one even if you do have the credit score required for 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. The no annual fee version is apparently 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
• 1/2 point for every $1 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 credit 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 application lists 17.99% for the lowest tier, and 21.74% for the higher. So the best case scenario is nearly 18%? That's crazy.

Low Credit Limit: Reportedly there are many complaints of cardmembers getting low credit 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?
After reviewing both cards thoroughly, I have difficulty finding any good reasons to apply for either. 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.

Last updated August 10th, 2011

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

Dont pay off the card! I was 30 days late( my mistake) on a 10 dollar minumum, paid off the 650 dollar balance within a few days and they cut off my credit. If I still carried a balance they said I would still have credit. Have had this same card for 15 yrs.

This was nice to find after the fact. Actually I got sucked in and got signed up for a Best Buy card, when I had to replace a tv that blew up. I got the rewards mastercard, though not the free annual fee one because my credit was too bad, but the annual fee one. However I was rewarded with $1500 credit limit, and it has 4x rewards on instore purchases, 2x on dining and groceries and 1x on all other purchases.

seemed well and good. But recently there is $8 in monthly "account Protection" fees, etc. and the interest rate is super high. So I keep the spend low and pay down each month. I mainly got it cause i buy a lot of games, and other electronic stuff from Best Buy, and I wanted to get the rewards. but the fees seem to out pace my rewards. Additionally I payed my bill (in full $980) on the 22nd of Nov and they notified me that it posted on the 24th. I went shopping (black Friday holiday shopping) on the 28th and went to one store and bought about $850 worth of stuff. the cashier said it was declined, so I had to call while there and talk to someone. There was a live person on a Sunday though that was a surprise, and they informed me that Yes I had payed the bill, and yes it posted to the account but the funds had not been transfered from my bank to my Best Buy credit card yet. so I was stuck with no credit on the card and $980 not in my checking account somewhere in the electronic waste land. They also said that it would not post until Dec 2 or 3. that seems a little to long for me.

I think like others I will maybe discontinue using the Best Buy card but keep the account open by small actives, but I wont rely on this card as a major credit card.

Can anyone recommend any cards besides Cap one or HSBC cards for people with decent income and recovering credit (almost there)? I have both the Cap One and the Bestbuy card (HSBC) but would like lower interest and more easy to deal with bank.

One unexpected upside to the HSBC Best Buy card is the online payment system is very quick & user friendly. My favorite feature was the ability to schedule more than one payment at a time. I just schedule 12 months worth of payments on my no-interest Black Friday purchase, so I shouldn't need to go onto their website again for a long time.

@xatomic--The Account Protection fees sound like the optional coverage everyone tries to sell you in case you become unemployed or die. Banks make a ridiculous amount of money on them. Just call them up and tell them you want to cancel that coverage.

I've had the store only best buy card for years and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it because the whole point of the card is to get YEARS of no interest deals they offer on whatever you're buying. Sure the interest adds up and gets added on if you don't off your balance within the no interest period but if you don't plan to pay off your purchase within the specified no interest period then you shouldn't be buying the items anyways. That's the whole point of the card take forever to pay it off but with no interest pretty sweet deal in my book.

Originally Posted by xatomic

I think like others I will maybe discontinue using the Best Buy card but keep the account open by small actives, but I wont rely on this card as a major credit card.

.

Careful, I was a very pleased customer of HSBC\BestBuy till today. I **HAD** a $2,000.00 plus credit limit and no balance on it – I thought. I kept this account open for small purchases and at time went months without using it. However, I always hated the fact that they do not offer Auto-payments. Their scheduled-payment method is not practical, it will process pay even if there is no balance on the account (just retarded). I always feared one day I was going to forget about it and pay late fees… well that day came much worse than I anticipated.

Back in Nov. 2010 I paid the card in full approximately $350.00 out of 2K credit. Just out of curiosity, today I checked my account to ensure all was ok and to my surprise there was a $200.00 balance. Thinking this probably was something I purchased and forgot about it, I scheduled the payment via their online method and immediately called their customer service number. (I thought if the fault is theirs I would cancel payment and deal with them).
I got the rep on the phone to find out, yes I was at fault. I made a $60.00 purchase late November (probably after my full payment) and totally forgot about it. BestBuy\HSBC charged me a late fee for December and January (I deserved that for being forgetful) and in mid January **CLOSED** my account February comes they never reached out regarding the status, but did charge me again late fee and other charges.

So now here I stand with bad entry in my FICO score and a closed account… that’s going to kill my credit.

I’m following up with HSBC , I believe this is an unfair practice. Closing my account for 60.00 is just ridiculous… from now on I will only open accounts with banks that offer auto-pay. C’mom we are humans and the technology is there.. why not use it?!

Anyways, wish me luck.