Other posts in this series:
It’s time to take a break from my journalistic watchdog activities to get back to actually writing about cool stuff like credit cards. Today’s installment: Synchrony (formerly known as GE) credit cards, part 2. I’m using as my jumping off point this list of cards, but if I’m missing anything by all means let me know.
My previous post dealt with Synchrony cards I currently have, so I could write that with more authority than I have here. So why bother with cards I know little to nothing about? Partially to educate myself, partially in the hope of seeing if anybody knows anything interesting about any of these cards, and partially because I can’t find good discussions on most of these anywhere else. Most of what you can find are generic cut-n-paste jobs on those card-schlepping websites like CardHub, NerdWallet, and the like.
Final point: based on what I’ve seen so far, most of the value in Synchrony cards lies in the promotions they run, and that varies dramatically from card to card.
That said, let’s get started.
Dick’s Sporting Goods MasterCard: This is one I’m curious about because of what looks to be a respectable rewards program. With Dick’s rewards program and no credit card, you get 3% back on your in-store purchases. With the credit card, you get 6% back, and that increases to 10% during your birthday month.
Looking at the rewards details a little more closely, it appears the math is off a bit. Here’s the text:
6% back in Rewards** on in-store purchases.
- Earn Points for Purchases
- $1 of in-store purchases = 2 points
- $3 of out-of-store purchases = 1 point
- 300 points = $10 Reward
So if you buy $150 in-store, that’s 300 points, which gets you a $10 reward. 10 divided by 150 is 6.67%. Is my math off? I can’t imagine somebody would want to understate their rewards, but that’s what the math is telling me.
Walmart MasterCard: You can get $25 when signing up for this… big deal. There’s a five cent per gallon discount on gas purchased at Walmart… big deal. Rewards are a flat 1% on everything. Lame.
Ebates Visa: This one might be worth a look for some people. It gives an extra 3% on all purchases done through the ebates portal, and in the regard it seems similar to the Upromise card, which I have written about here. If you’d like to know more, Doctor of Credit wrote it up here, as did Maximizing Money here.
TJX Rewards MasterCard: 5 cents per dollar spent at T.J. Maxx, Marshall’s, HomeGoods, and Sierra Trading Post; 1 cent on the dollar everywhere else. I have no idea if any of those stores have gift card racks.
eBay MasterCard / PayPal MasterCard: These appear to be the same thing. Both offer 3 points per dollar spent on gas & restaurants, 2 points per dollar on eBay and PayPal transactions, and 1 point per dollar on everything else. The redemption options look like you’ll get less than a penny per cent, however, which is what this guy says as well. I’m not seeing much of interest here.
Sam’s Club MasterCard: Here’s one that doesn’t get much attention as it should since it offers 5% back on gas purchases (up to $6,000 per year) with no annual fee. It also gives 3% cash back on dining and travel. Note that there is a business version of this card as well as a personal.
Chevron / Texaco Visa: Ten cents per gallon discount if you spend $300 per billing cycle; or a twenty-cent discount if you spend $1,000 per billing cycle. The maximum gas discount per calender year is $300, while giving up $1,000 per month on a 2% cashback card would cost $240. No thanks.
Anybody have any of these?
The post Synchrony credit cards part 2: The ones I don’t have appeared first on Personal Finance Digest.
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