On February 14, 2023, Best Buy will be ending their Best Buy Rewards program which offers up to 2% back as store credit on purchases. The program will remain when you use a Best Buy credit card – the card will continue to offer 5% back in rewards.
Best Buy also made a positive change by offering all My Best Buy members free shipping on everything on Bestbuy.com with no minimum. The My Best Buy program is free to join.
They are also offering a special $100 signup bonus on the Best Buy credit card now.
Yes I spend over 100k there each year thru my job, with the only incentive was the points given. I have to use a company credit card. I spent 5000 in the last month without knowing this ended. I will be ending my relationship with them. I will use amz, cdw, and whoever now.
No more loyalty member rebates for puchases without your credit card? Then no more purchases from me. Astonishingly short-sighted and stupid.
My wife found out about the policy change when she bought an Apple laptop today. It will be our last purchase at Best Buy.
Am I able to earn points until 2/14 or points earning has been stopped?
I’ve been doing biz with BBY since way back when the program wasn’t free and there weren’t tiers. It seemed like they were improving for the better when they stopped charging and all but over the last few years it’s gone downhill. Getting rid of tiers, shipping perk, point banking, etc. And now you have to have their credit card to even get points. Seems like they are going backwards and isolating potential buyers.
Guess I can go back to buying from Amazon now. That rewards program was literally the only reason I shopped at Best Buy. People shop at Best Buy enough to get a credit card??
Worst Buy.
best buy credit customer will get 5% + 2% (the original store credit)? or just 5% after Feb
Best Buy made it so difficult to use the reward certs towards some big-ticket item you actually want. No option to bank points past $20 then they auto-issue a cert with an expiry date. Same rules for CC spend offers. Free shipping is better but man does BB make it difficult to be a loyal customer.
On the one hand, it is pretty shitty since the whole point of shopping at Best Buy and giving up CC cash back at Amazon or Walmart was the additional My Best Buy rewards points (when it was tiered, it was 1%, 2% and 2.5% additional. After tiers were removed it went back to 1% additional), so losing it sucks. On the other hand, Best Buy is just getting in line with the rest of the market – Amazon and Walmart CC is 5% cash back, Lowes and Target are 5% discount at the point of sale with the CC. The only problem is, 5% BB rewards is not the same as cash back.
First $235.85 purchase:
Walmart / Amazon CC – ($235.85 + 6% tax) * 5% cash back = $12.50, so technically $237.50 end of the day.
Lowes / Target CC – (95% of $235.85) + 6% tax = $237.50.
Best Buy – ($235.85 + 6% tax) * 5% rewards = $15 to be used on a future purchase (I chose $235.85 because I needed a final CC charge amount of $250 to get a reward amount divisible by 5 since BB rewards are only redeemable in $5 amounts).
Second $235.85 purchase
Walmart / Amazon CC – $237.50
Lowes / Target CC – $237.50
Best Buy – ($235.85 – $15 reward) + 6% tax = $234.10, plus 5% rewards, or $11.71 (works out to be 586 BB points) towards a future purchase
The power of the Best Buy rewards is that they can be used to reduce the taxable amount. So on that second purchase you save $3.40 vs the other stores, but then you are stuck with more BB rewards…repeating cycle.
I will say this, though. The Best Buy credit card does have some quality perks for those who are considering getting it to continue earning points. GENERALLY every quarter they do the same 5% category rewards, and sometimes it is more than 5%. Q1 is usually 10% rewards points back on utilities, although I haven’t yet seen if that is the case for this year. Q4 is generally 5% on wholesale. Q2 is usually 5% gas or groceries, and Q3 is usually 5% travel. Then every so often (probably like 5 times a year) you’ll get an offer for earning a rewards certificate – spend $150 at Best Buy stores, get $30 certificate or the sort. I use it to get gas gift cards cards lol. Problem with those certificates is that they have an expiration and are non-refundable unlike certificates generated from redeeming points.
I ain’t reading that.
i gave up after the third line..
Its actually quite a detailed analysis. Too bad you guys didn’t go to college, one works at McD and the other barely knows English.
Does the affect 5/24? Or store cards are ok?
They have (or at least used to have) two different cards, one is just a Best Buy store card, and the other one has a VISA logo and can be used anywhere. The VISA card would affect 5/24 with Chase, but the store card shouldn’t, assuming they even offer that one anymore.
Store cards do count against 5/24.