The best card to use at Best Buy isn’t the Best Buy credit card.
You might expect that the Best Buy credit card offers the best rewards at Best Buy or perks that make it the best card to use at the retailer. But the card’s rewards come with some big caveats and the promotional financing offered can be an expensive trap. In most cases, you’ll get better rewards and better protections on your purchases using a different credit card.
Here are the best cards to use at Best Buy.
The best cards to use at Best Buy
| Rewards at Best Buy | Consumer benefits | |
|---|---|---|
 American Express® Business Gold Card Annual fee: annual_fees (See Rates and Fees) | Up to 4x Membership Rewards® points Earn 4x Membership Rewards points on the 2 categories where your business spends the most each billing cycle. | Extended warranty Purchase protection |
 Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express Annual fee:$0 | 3% on U.S. online retail purchases on up to $6,000 per year in purchases, then 1%. | Purchase protection |
 U.S. Bank Altitude® Reserve Visa Infinite® Card Annual fee: $400 | 3x points when you use mobile wallet. Redeemable for 3% cash back or 4.5% toward travel. | Extended warranty Purchase security Return protection |
 U.S Bank Cash+® Visa Signature® Card Annual fee: $0 | 5% cash back on the first $2,000 in combined eligible purchases each quarter in two categories you choose. Choose electronic stores as your category to earn at Best Buy | – |
 U.S. Bank Shopper Cash Rewards® Visa Signature® Card $0 intro annual fee for the first year. ($95/year thereafter.) | 6% on two retailers you choose. Eligible retailers include Best Buy. | Extended warranty Purchase security Return protection |
Why not the Best Buy credit card? It has plenty of downsides.
The Best Buy credit card offers 5% rewards at the retailer. But when you look beyond the flashy headline, you’ll find that the rewards are lackluster, the card doesn’t offer basic benefits, and the promotional financing is likely more rewarding for Citi and Best Buy than it is for you.
The Best Buy credit card includes no extended warranty benefit.
The Best Buy credit card does not include an extended warranty benefit. Many credit cards, including several cards with no annual fee, will give you an additional year of warranty coverage for free when you purchase your item with the card.
Extended warranty protection is especially important when shopping at a retailer like Best Buy. Many of the things you’d purchase at Best Buy—cell phones, electronics, televisions, and computers—are large purchases where having an extended warranty benefit could really pay off.
Of course, Best Buy is happy to sell you an additional warranty, but why pay for an extended warranty when you can usually get the same or better coverage from a credit card?
The rewards on the Best Buy credit card are hard to use.
Part of the reason why Best Buy can offer 5% “rewards” is because of the strings they attach to these rewards.
With the Best Buy credit card, you won’t receive cash back. Instead, your rewards come as a coupon that can only be used for a discount on a Best Buy purchase. Worse yet, the coupon they give you expires. This might put you in a position where you end up making a purchase at Best Buy just to use your $5 coupon, when you could purchase the same item for a better price from another retailer.
The card offers lackluster rewards in other categories. The Best Buy card doesn’t appear on our list of the best gas credit cards, despite its promised 3% rewards because a discount at Best Buy is much less valuable than 3% as cash back. Likewise, the card’s rewards on dining, takeout, groceries, and other purchases are beat by a 2% cash back credit card.
Financing offers that could cost you
Some cite the Best Buy card’s financing offers as a reason to get the Best Buy credit card. But before you finance something using your Best Buy credit card, be aware of how you’ll be charged interest if you do not pay off your entire balance by the end of the promotional period. Here’s what the terms and conditions of Best Buy’s promotional financing say:
If the balance is not paid in full by the end of the promotional period, interest charges will be imposed from the purchase date at the purchase rate on your account
Best Buy credit card Deferred Interest Promotional Terms and Conditions
More on the best alternatives to the Best Buy credit card
Here’s a bit more on the best cards to use at Best Buy.
American Express® Business Gold Card: Maximum points for Best Buy purchases
The American Express® Business Gold Card will earn you the most transferable points for your Best Buy purchases. If you’re collecting Membership Rewards® points, this is the card to use.
With the Amex Business Gold, you’ll earn 4x Membership Rewards® points in the 2 select categories where you spend the most each month, on the first $150,000 in combined purchases from these categories each year. One of the card’s select categories is “U.S. purchases made from electronic goods retailers and software & cloud system providers” which would include Best Buy.
In addition to rewards, you’ll get Amex Purchase Protection and Amex Extended Warranty coverage when you use your card for purchases, so you won’t be tempted to spend extra on warranty coverage at checkout.
Learn more about the American Express® Business Gold Card.
Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express: 3% cash back at U.S. online retail, plus extended warranty
If you prefer not to be locked into buying only from BestBuy.com, the Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express can give you good cash back rewards at U.S. online retailers and an extended warranty on the items you buy.
With the Blue Cash Everyday, you’ll earn 3% cash back rewards on the first $6,000 of purchases you make at U.S. online retailers each calendar year (1% thereafter) plus your purchases you make on the card will be covered by American Express’ excellent extended warranty protection.
Learn more about the Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express.
U.S. Bank Altitude® Reserve Visa Infinite® Card: Up to 4.5% travel rewards wherever you use mobile wallet
The U.S. Bank Altitude® Reserve Visa Infinite® Card is one of our favorite cards to use for in-store purchases, thanks to its generous rewards and robust consumer protection benefits.
When you use the Altitude Reserve to pay with Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Samsung Pay, you’ll earn 3x points on your purchase. And these points can either be turned into 3% cash back rewards or 4.5% rewards if you redeem them for travel purchases. Best Buy accepts mobile wallet purchases in store, but so do most other major retailers. This makes the Altitude Reserve not only one of the best cards to use at Best Buy, but also one of the best cards to use at Target and Costco.
You’ll get plenty of benefits when you use your Altitude Reserve card to pay for your expensive electronics at Best Buy—the card includes the trifecta of extended warranty protection, purchase security and return protection.
Learn more about the U.S. Bank Altitude® Reserve Visa Infinite® Card.
U.S Bank Cash+® Visa Signature® Card: 5% cash back rewards
The U.S Bank Cash+® Visa Signature® Card can get you 5% rewards on your Best Buy purchases with no annual fee.
With the Cash+ card, you’ll earn 5% rewards on the first $2,000 in combined eligible purchases in two categories you choose. If you choose “electronics stores” as your category, you’ll earn increased rewards at Best Buy. And those rewards will be cash back, not a coupon that forces you back to the store.
Like with the Best Buy credit card, you won’t get an extended warranty benefit on the purchases you make with the Cash+. But you will get more flexible cash back rewards, rather than a coupon to use at Best Buy.
Learn more about the U.S Bank Cash+® Visa Signature® Card.
U.S. Bank Shopper Cash Rewards® Visa Signature® Card: Up to 6% cash back at Best Buy
The U.S. Bank Shopper Cash Rewards® Visa Signature® Card offers market-leading rewards at most of its 6% eligible retailers, including Best Buy.
With the Shopper Cash Rewards, you get to select two retailers from a list of about 24 large national retailers each quarter. When you make purchases at your two chosen stores, you’ll earn 6% cash back on up to $1,500 in combined purchases each quarter. In most cases, the rewards you’ll earn with the Shopper Cash Rewards card beat what you’ll get with the stores’s credit card.
Better yet, the card offers extended warranty protection, purchase security coverage, and return protection. So not only will you get more rewards, but you’ll get better protection than you will with the Best Buy credit card.
Learn more about the U.S. Bank Shopper Cash Rewards® Visa Signature® Card.
