My Best Buy® Visa® Card review: Tech retail rewards without the bells and whistles
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Snapshot
3.3
Bottom line
The Best Buy® Visa® Card turns your purchases into rewards that can be used towards your next Best Buy haul. It’s a good choice for people who can afford to pay off their balance each month and already have another credit card for their primary expenses. However, the restrictive rewards and “flexible” financing may prove difficult to navigate.
Intro offer
10% back in rewards
Rewards Rate
1% - 5%
Annual fee
$0
Regular APR
31.49% Variable
3.3
Bankrate score
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My Best Buy® Visa® Card overview
The My Best Buy Visa card offers rewards in the form of boosted discounts for Best Buy loyalists who want part of their everyday spending to go towards their next electronics or technology purchase. This card can be useful when given a specific purpose, but you may struggle to find its usefulness if you applied haphazardly when asked if you wanted to sign up for it at the register. However, if you’ve ever wanted to turn your weekly grocery spending into new headphones or other electronics, this card might be worth it for you.
The high rewards rate is enticing, but redemption is restrictive and it’s missing perks that come in handy if your new tech turns out to be defective. For that reason, this card works well for Best Buy loyalists and discount seekers.
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Rewards
- 5 percent back in rewards points on Best Buy purchases
- 3 percent back in rewards points on gas purchases
- 2 percent back in rewards points on grocery, dining and takeout
- 1 percent back in rewards on all other purchases.
- Limited-time bonus reward categories
Expert Appraisal: Typical
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Welcome offer
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10 percent back in rewards on your first day of purchases made within 14 days of account opening.
Expert Appraisal: Unimpressive
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Rates and fees
- $0 annual fee
- 31.49% Variable APR
- Up to $41 late payment fee
Expert Appraisal: Weak
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Other cardholder perks
- Option for deferred interest financing
Expert Appraisal: Weak
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My Best Buy Visa pros and cons
Pros
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This card earns a high rewards rate on Best Buy purchases, which helps offset costs.
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The welcome offer is customizable, so the more you spend on your first purchase, the more you’ll earn in rewards.
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You can still earn rewards when you use this card outside of Best Buy.
Cons
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This card lacks important card benefits like extended warranties or purchase protections.
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Rewards are only redeemable for Best Buy reward certificates that have no cash value.
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The high interest rate on this card makes it painful to hold any balance.
Why you might want the My Best Buy Visa
Whether you always have to have the latest technology or plan to upgrade the electronics throughout your home, the Best Buy Visa rewards your store purchases on top of rewards at gas stations, grocery stores and restaurants that add up to offset the cost of your new electronics purchases.
Rewards: Best Buy purchases highly rewarded
If you’re a frequent Best Buy shopper, you might get a lot of use from this card since it highly rewards purchases with the chain. My Best Buy Visa cardholders earn 5 percent rewards on purchases at Best Buy, but also earn rewards outside of Best Buy to go towards your next tech purchase with 3 percent on gas purchases, 2 percent on groceries and dining and 1 percent on all other purchases.
You’ll also occasionally receive limited time bonus rewards offers that could add to your points stash. New tech can be expensive, so earning rewards towards a Best Buy discount could be worth it for you.
Welcome offer: The more you spend, the more you earn
When you make your first purchase within the first 14 days of account opening you’ll earn 10 percent points back on your purchase as a welcome offer. If you plan this around a large purchase you could stand to earn a significant amount of rewards back, which you could redeem for a gift card or a discount on your next Best Buy purchase.
For example, if you spent $2,500 as the first purchase on your My Best Buy Visa, you’d earn a total of 12,500 points, which equals $250 of reward certificate value.
Why you might want a different retail store card
No matter how much you spend at Best Buy, this card has limited usefulness. The deferred interest offers and sky-high interest rate could make deep cuts to any rewards you’d manage to accumulate. Even if you pay off your balance every month to avoid interest, the rewards you’ve earned have tight restrictions on how you can use them.
Interest rate: High APR
Unless you’re able to pay off the balance on this card every month, it could easily become expensive to use even without an annual fee. That’s because it has a sky-high interest rate of 31.49% Variable APR. To compare, today’s average credit card interest rates are just above 20 percent. It’s even higher than the average APR for co-branded credit cards, which is 29.09 percent.
Rewards redemption: Overly restrictive
After you’ve done all the work of building up points and maximizing the rewards categories on your card, you might be disappointed with the limited options available for redemption. The only redemption options are a Best Buy rewards certificate or a non-Best Buy gift card.
The rewards certificate is a coupon for discounts on your future Best Buy purchases and it doesn’t have any cash value. The rewards certificate also can’t be used to purchase a Best Buy gift card. However, they can be redeemed for other types of e-gift cards. Unlike other co-branded cards, there’s no transferring those points to another rewards program to make use of them, which further limits the value of your rewards.
Deferred interest financing: Tricky to navigate
Although this card allows you to take advantage of special financing options on Best Buy purchases, that financing is in the form of deferred interest offers. While it can be helpful with certain precautions, there’s a substantial risk if you don’t pay off the full balance within the promotional period. If you leave even a dollar of the balance unpaid after the promotional period ends, you’ll be hit with retroactive interest on the full original purchase amount at 31.49% Variable APR.
How the My Best Buy Visa compares to other retail store cards
The My Best Buy Visa card doesn’t require an annual store membership fee like other co-branded retail cards, but it’s still missing some key features to make it worth your while. Other retail cards offer more flexibility and similar rewards.

My Best Buy® Visa® Card
Annual fee
Intro offer
10% back in rewards on your first day of purchases, or choose financing, when you are approved for the My Best Buy® Credit Card.
Rewards rate
5% back in rewards as a cardmember, earn and bank reward points with your Card. 3% back in rewards on gas purchases. 2% back in rewards on grocery, dining, and takeout purchases. 1% back in rewards on other purchases.
Recommended Credit Score
A FICO score/credit score is used to represent the creditworthiness of a person and may be one indicator to the credit type you are eligible for. However, credit score alone does not guarantee or imply approval for any financial product.

Annual fee
Intro offer
Get a $100 Amazon Gift Card instantly upon approval exclusively for Prime members
Rewards rate
Prime Card Bonus: Earn 10% back or more on a rotating selection of items and categories on Amazon.com with an eligible Prime membership. Earn unlimited 5% back at Amazon.com, Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods Market, and on Chase Travel purchases with an eligible Prime membership. Earn unlimited 2% back at gas stations, restaurants, and on local transit and commuting (including rideshare). Earn unlimited 1% back on all other purchases.
Recommended Credit Score
A FICO score/credit score is used to represent the creditworthiness of a person and may be one indicator to the credit type you are eligible for. However, credit score alone does not guarantee or imply approval for any financial product.

Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi
Annual fee
Intro offer
Rewards rate
Earn 5% cash back rewards on gas at Costco and earn 4% cash back on other eligible gas and electric vehicle (EV) charging purchases for the first $7,000 combined spend per year, and then 1% thereafter. 3% cash back on restaurants and eligible travel purchases and eligible travel, including Costco Travel. 2% cash back on all other purchases from Costco and Costco.com. 1% cash back on all other purchases.
Recommended Credit Score
A FICO score/credit score is used to represent the creditworthiness of a person and may be one indicator to the credit type you are eligible for. However, credit score alone does not guarantee or imply approval for any financial product.
Best cards to pair with the My Best Buy Visa card
The My Best Buy Visa card probably won’t make the top spot in your wallet, but making it a part of your card combination may help you maximize your rewards and get the most out of each card.
Who is the My Best Buy Visa right for?
The My Best Buy Visa isn’t right for everyone, but it works best for those who frequently shop at Best Buy, and those scope out the best deals to get a bigger discount on the tech they need.
Bankrate’s Take — Is the My Best Buy Visa worth it?
The My Best Buy Visa card might be worth it for deal-seeking, tech-loving, financially responsible card holders who make every effort to pay off their balance each month. Since the rewards are only redeemable for e-gift cards or rewards certificates, it’s mainly useful for Best Buy loyalists who could use a discount on their upcoming gaming system, pc build or other electronics. The lack of an annual fee might give the impression that it’s affordable, but holding a balance on this card or tripping up on a deferred interest offer could quickly become a problem once the high APR makes an appearance.
*The information about the My Best Buy® Visa® Card and the Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi has been collected independently by Bankrate.com. The card details have not been reviewed or approved by the card issuer.
Frequently asked questions
How we rated this card
We rate credit cards using a proprietary card scoring system that ranks each card’s estimated average rewards rate, estimated annual earnings, welcome bonus value, APR, fees, perks and more against those of other cards in its primary category.
Each card feature is assigned a weighting based on how important it is to people looking for a card in a given category. These features are then scored based on how they rank relative to the features on other cards in the category. Based on these calculations, each card receives an overall rating of 1-5 stars (with 5 being the highest possible score and 1 being the lowest).
We analyzed over 150 of the most popular rewards and cash back cards to determine where each stacked up based on their value, cost, benefits and more. Here are some of the key factors that influenced this card’s overall score and how the score influenced our review:
* See the online application for details about terms and conditions for these offers. Every reasonable effort has been made to maintain accurate information. However all credit card information is presented without warranty. After you click on the offer you desire you will be directed to the credit card issuer's web site where you can review the terms and conditions for your selected offer.
Editorial Disclosure: Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, and have not been reviewed or approved by any advertiser. The information, including card rates and fees, is accurate as of the publish date. All products or services are presented without warranty. Check the bank’s website for the most current information.