4.05% Cash Back For The First Three Months With BB&T Spectrum Rewards

Update: We got some of questions answered about this card here.

A few days ago, Miles4more tagged me in a post letting me know about a credit card that could earn a potential of 4.05% cashback on all purchases for the first three months.  PFdigest also had a pretty good post that is worth reading as well. I decided to run the math to see if this card was worth a look or not.

Card Overview

• Only available in selected states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia or D.C
• Earn 3% cash on all net qualified purchases for the first 90 days
• Earn 1% cash on all net qualified purchases thereafter
• Earn a 5% anniversary bonus on cash earned every year
• Earn an additional 30% bonus on cash earned when spending $50,000 or more annually
• No annual fee
• Introductory APR of 0% for the first twelve billing cycles
• No sign up bonus

The Math

As you can see, this card is really only going to be useful for the first three months when it has a base earning rate of 3%. On the terms & conditions page it clearly states that you’re able to earn both the 30% and 5% anniversary bonus. There is no mention of you not being able to earn the anniversary bonus on top of the 3% introductory earning rate either (although there is equally no mention that this is possible).

Let’s look at a few different spending scenarios to see if this card makes sense. We’re going to pit it against the Barclays Arrival card which earns 2.22% on all purchases.

Spending	BB&T Spectrum	Barclay Arrival	Difference	Difference – $200
$50,000	$2,025	$1,110	$915	$715
$40,000	$1,220	$888	$332	$132
$30,000	$915	$666	$249	$49
$20,000	$610	$444	$166	-$34
$15,000	$457.50	$333	$125	-$76
$10,000	$305	$222	$83	-$117

To receive $400 in additional value, you’d need to spend $48,193As you can see, if you’re spending the $50,000 required to get the full 4.05% cash back, it’s easily worth it. You’d net $915 more than if you’d put it on your Arrival card. If you’re spending less than $50,000, it might still be worth getting this card. You need to remember that this card doesn’t come with a sign up bonus, you can get a $200 cash bonus fairly easily which means you’d need to spend $24,097. Here are the spending breakevens if you value your hard pulls at more or less than $200.

• To receive $300 in additional value, you’d need to spend $36,145
• To receive $200 in additional value, you’d need to spend $24,097
• To Receive $100 in additional value, you’d need to spend $12,049

[Read: Credit Cards With The Best Cash Sign Up Bonuses]

The majority of people aren’t going to be able to spend anywhere near $24,097 in three months ($8,032.3 per month) in non category spend. Those who engage in manufactured spending might be able to spend this much, as well of those with large business expenses (although this is a personal card).

How feasible spending this much is, is also going to depend on the credit limits that BB&T grants. Unfortunately there is not a lot of information when you search creditboards credit pull database. In fact there is only one data point when it comes to credit cards (and it’s not even for this specific card) and the person was granted a $20,000 credit limit when they had a credit score of 770.

If you receive a lower limit, you might be able to pay off the balance mid cycle but not all card issuers allow you to spend more than the credit limit in a single month.

Our Verdict

If this card had the introductory 3% base rate for the first six months instead of the first three months, I would jump on this offer if I lived within the service area. I’d also jump on it if a decent cash sign up bonus was offered. Unfortunately neither of these is the case.

Applying for this card is a risk and I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re extremely confident that you can spend a high volume on non category spend. Even then there are significant risks involved:

• Will BB&T tolerant large amounts of spend, especially if it’s manufactured?
• Will BB&T pay the anniversary bonuses on the 3% promotional base rate?
• What credit limit will BB&T offer? Will they allow you to exceed your credit limit in a single month?

As we mentioned previously, this is only worth it during the promotional 3% base rate. If you want a card that earns at a high rate on all purchases, I’d recommend looking at these cards. I’m sitting this one out, what about you?