Citi Best Buy Mastercard Becoming A Visa + New Bonus Category

The Best Buy credit card has a long history, it was first issued by HSBC and then Capital One took over and finally Citi took over. When Citi took over the card no longer earned 2% cash back on gas, but kept earning 2% on restaurants and 5% on Best Buy purchases (but they also made you choose between 5% cash back on Best Buy purchases and 0% financing for twelve months, the other issuers gave you both of these benefits).

Citi & Best Buy have announced that starting in fall of 2015 Citi Best Buy cardholders will receive new cards that will run on the Visa payment network. This is presumably part of Citi’s deal with Visa that they struck to get the Costco card away from American Express.

They’ve also announced that cardholders will be able to earn 2% cash back on gas purchases until January, 2016. This isn’t very appealing though as there are cards that earn 5x/5% on gas purchases and cards that earn over 2% on all purchases.

gas rewards

You can view the F.A.Q’s on the official page by going here. One question some people have that is not answered, is will some card members be upgraded to Visa signature? My educated guess is that no, this won’t happen. None of the store cards that Citi issue are all Visa Platinum rather than signature. You can read more about those differences in tiers here.

 

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4 Comments
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Paul
Paul (@guest_155658)
August 5, 2015 19:36

I would get this card if it gave 5% cash back on those $200 Visa gift cards. Can anyone confirm this for me please?

Edward Maguire
Edward Maguire (@guest_154555)
August 3, 2015 17:35

If you view the terms for new applications, you’ll get either a Visa Gold or Platinum.

Raj
Raj (@guest_154541)
August 3, 2015 16:38

Best Buy sells visa gift cards, right? Can you get 5% back when buying them?

Anonymous
Anonymous (@guest_154606)
August 3, 2015 20:28

I’m not sure if the Best Buy card earns cash back on those gift cards (which are maxed at $200, usually kept behind the customer service desk so you need to ask for them, and can have a PIN if you call in and set one), but I can confirm that the cards earn points for Best Buy’s rewards program. Each full dollar spent (they do not round up) gives 1 point, and 250 points can be redeemed for a $5 rewards certificate, yielding an extra 2% back if you actually have Best Buy purchases to make (to my knowledge, these certificates are not transferable). I’m not sure on this one, but I think that it counts towards Best Buy elite status.