Barclaycard Rewards MasterCard®

10-second breakdown:

A solid choice for consumers with middle of the road credit, Barclaycard’s Rewards MasterCard is a great choice if you’re looking for rewards but don’t have the clout to apply for top tier cards.

Key benefits:

• 2X points on gas, utility & grocery store purchases (Walmart and Target not included).
• Redeem points for gift cards, statement credits, or cold hard cash.
• No point limits or expiration, so you can save them up indefinitely.

Who it’s for:

Not everyone has astounding credit, it’s a full-time job to keep a flawless track record. Just because your credit score isn’t in the upper echelons of society doesn’t mean that you can’t have a good credit card with a decent rewards program though. Barclaycard gets that, and that’s why they released the Rewards MasterCard.

This card is for individuals with fair credit (from 650 to 699).

The details:

This particular card is marketed to savvy consumers who have so-so credit, but are still crazy enough to dream of a great cash back rewards program. Barclaycard’s Rewards MasterCard is easier to obtain than many of the other more competitive credit cards out there, but still lets you earn great cash back rewards competitive with those cards that only the 1% can obtain.

Even if you have excellent credit already this is still a card worth a look. The Rewards MasterCard goes beyond the cash back rewards and offers a few extra perks that are worth looking at. If you keep a consistent payment schedule, Barclaycard includes a few features that make it easy to track and improve your credit score as well. If you already have excellent credit, that’s awesome, this card will help you maintain your status. Still working your way up? You’re also in the right place.

The APR on Barclaycard’s Rewards MasterCard is a little on the high side, it’s a variable 24.99%. That’s the only differences you’ll notice between the Rewards MasterCard and competitor’s cards with higher credit requirements. The Rewards MasterCard keeps competitive with no annual fees, and a 3% balance transfer fee. This isn’t a card you want to keep a running balance on, the high APR combined with no 0% introductory rates means this card is much more valuable as your daily spender so you can rack up some cash back.

As you might expect, Barclaycard’s Rewards MasterCard is all about getting as much cash back as possible. This is where it stands head and shoulder above other fair credit cards and plays in the big leagues. You get 1 point per dollar spent on all of your purchases, which comes to 1%.

The kicker is that Barclaycard will give you 2% or two points per dollar spent on purchases for gas, groceries and utilities. There’s no limit either, if you have a family of ten and drive a hummer, power to you – the card will rack up 2% on all of your immense gas and grocery bills. One side note though, half department half grocery stores like Walmart and Target are not included in the 2%.

It’s a similar rewards system to other high-end rewards programs that have categories that you earn extra cash back on. The Rewards MasterCard is a little easier to keep track of though, many of the competitors rotate the bonus cash back categories every three months, and you usually need to go onto their website each quarter to re-enroll in the bonuses. The Rewards MasterCard keeps it a lot simpler, it’s 2% for those three categories all year, no need to remember to enroll at a later date.

Earning points is great, but without a way to cash them in they’re more or less pointless, right? Barclaycard has your back, there are a number of things you can spend your points on. As you would expect from any decent rewards program, you can redeem your points on gift cards or statement credit. You can also get cash back deposited into your bank account or Barclaycard threw a curveball and lets you use points to pay for any purchase you made in the past 90 days.

In order to redeem any of the options, you’ll need a minimum of 1,000 points. It’ll get you $10 worth of your choice of reward. While there’s no points transfer option here, say as a gift to your family member, you could always purchase something with the points and gift that instead.

The cool part is that there are no limits on the amount of points you can earn and redeem. They also don’t expire as long as your card is in good standing with Barclaycard. If you want to get gifts for all ten members of your family, you could save up your points all year to help put a dent in your holiday spending.

Barclaycard also includes a few extra features to help track your credit. They include free access to your FICO score that you can access online anytime. Nothing says motivation like watching your credit score rise. They can also send you alerts each time your credit score changes, either for the better or worse.

Even with fair credit, you can still get great cash back rewards if you use your card correctly. Barclaycard’s Rewards MasterCard is for people with middle of the road credit that still demand great cash back promotions.

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