US Bank Shopper Cash Rewards Card Review

The U.S Bank Shopper cash rewards card was first sort of soft announced I did a video on it talking about the fact that its features looked really great but that one big thing was being left out and that was the fact of whether the card had an annual fee or not well the card has now launched

As I suspected it does have an annual fee it has a 95 annual fee that is waived for the first year so in the first year you don't have to pay it but then every year after that you would

So we're going to take a fresh look at the card and see if it is worth it once that 95 annual fee kicks in I think for a lot of people the answer is probably no but there is a sweet spot there where it could be now like many credit cards that have an annual fee if you waive it for the first year

It's very much worth it because you are going to to get six percent cash back at two retailers of your choosing from a list of retailers most of them pretty big names including Amazon including Walmart including Home Depot Best Buy

Kohl's Lowe's and a whole bunch of others as well so you can get six percent cash back on your purchases at two of those retailers on up to fifteen hundred dollars worth of purchases per calendar quarter and then each calendar quarter

you have to re-choose which two retailers you want so six percent and up to fifteen hundred dollars per quarter if you Max that out over the whole year you'd get six percent on up to six thousand dollars of purchases potentially in addition you get three percent cash back in a category of your choosing from a three-pronged list

You can choose three percent either on gas or electric vehicle charging on Wholesale Club purchases or on uh bills and utilities which is sort of a category that is hard for me me to really pin down in terms of all what is included in it

But anyway you get three percent in one of those categories again on up to fifteen hundred dollars worth of purchases in that category in the calendar quarter and then you have to re-choose that

Every quarter as well and then anything else that you purchase with the card 1.5 percent cash back and that 1.5 percent would also be uh applicable to the six percent or three percent categories if you went over the fifteen hundred dollars of purchases in a calendar quarter now of course

Let's not forget that bonus opportunity as the card has launched there is the opportunity to earn an extra 250 bonus if you spend at least two thousand dollars with the card in the first 120 days after

You open the account a decent bonus but they do make you spend a decent amount in order to get there that's kind of been the trend with a lot of credit cards recently where the amount that

You have to spend in order to get the bonus has been going up so first you're all to the good but then obviously once the 95 annual fee kicks in and then the effective cash back percentage you are getting on your purchases is going to change

Let's talk about those six percent categories since they are the star of the show here let's say you completely max out those six percent categories each quarter and so at the end of the year on six thousand dollars worth of purchases at those certain retailers

You have gotten 360 dollars cash back well that looks great at six percent but then subtract ninety five dollars from it for that annual fee now you're down to 265 dollars in cash back effectively and that is a 4.42 percent cash back rate which is not bad still which is why I say this card is something that can still be justified

Even with the 95 annual fee now let's say you don't Max it out let's say that you hit around a thousand dollars on average each calendar quarter and that at the end of the year you have spent four thousand dollars in those six percent categories

So you've earned 240 dollars in cash back in those six percent categories subtract ninety five dollars from that you've got 145 dollars that you have earned 145 dollars on four thousand dollars worth of purchases is a three point six three percent cash back rate still not bad obviously

we're not just going to look at the numbers on this card we want to look at other cards on the market especially at those retailers where we would be getting the six percent or the effective 4.4 percent or 3.6 percent

whatever it might be and see how things compare so an obvious place to start would be the Amazon Rewards Visa if you are a paid Amazon Prime member you're gonna get five percent in rewards on your Amazon purchases with that card so in

This case pay ninety five dollars for this card when you could get the Amazon Visa without an annual fee well then you would say that's actually the better deal but of course you'd be paying for Amazon Prime

So if you don't want to pay for Amazon Prime or if you're paying for Amazon Prime now and you've been thinking about getting rid of it and it was only the credit card that was keeping you around because you knew

If you got rid of Amazon Prime you would only get three percent back on your Amazon purchases with the Amazon Visa well then you might look at this card and say hey I can actually do better at Amazon even with that 95 annual fee because I spend a lot with the car and then you could do the same kind of equation with other things as well you've got the Walmart credit card

That gives you two percent in Walmart stores five percent at walmart.com you can make a case obviously that you would do a lot better with this card especially inside the stores Home Depot doesn't give you cash back on its credit card at all so obviously that would be a win here as well and then of course

I shouldn't give those three percent cash back categories short shift here either because they could be valuable now three percent back in the gas or electric vehicle charging category you could get get that on other cards in the market that have no annual fee so that one sort of a throwaway as far as

I'm concerned three percent back at warehouse clubs though that is good and when you look at the Costco card it actually only is giving you two percent inside Costco stores if you look at the Sam's Club card it's giving

You one percent back unless you pay for a higher level of membership to Sam's Club where you could then get a higher percentage so you could look at that as well and then you also have the choice of bills and utilities again not totally sure what that encompasses but better than

You would get from most other credit cards out there on the market at three percent so that's something to consider as well and then the 1.5 percent on everything else that

You purchase with the card is better than what most cards would do for you because usually when you default to the lowest level it would be one percent in this case it's 1.5 percent I personally would say that no matter what you do

No matter what card you get like this you still should have a card that is giving you at least two percent for all of your assertive catch all categories out there but 1.5 percent still better than one percent and if you you know go over your limits or you just forget once in a while and this is the card

You have with you or you just want to carry one card it's still better than a lot of others on the market so like I said at the beginning of this video there are some sweet spots where this card can be justified and be worth it

If you're someone that shops at Amazon a lot but don't want to pay for Prime and you're a Costco member at the same time I could see how this would be attractive to you especially if you're going to max out those limits in those particular categories

If you're someone that does your grocery shopping at Walmart you may know that oftentimes with cash back cards that have you know High percentages at supermarkets Walmart is not included so this is a place where you get six percent back on your Walmart purchases again effectively less than that once

You pay the annual fee but still more than you're going to get in other places now that said I think U.S bank has sort of I don't want to say shot themselves in the foot in a way with the annual fee

But I think they have made this a harder sell than it could have been some people just do not want to pay an annual fee and they are not going to go through the calculations to figure out if something is going to be a slightly better deal after paying the annual fee they're

Just going to see that it's going to be like a big red light goes off in front of them that says move on some people don't want to pay an annual fee for any card and I think even if some people were willing to pay an annual fee maybe for a travel card they're not willing to do

It on a cash back card so that is going to be a tough sell and I would not be surprised if U.S Bank is tinkering with this card in the future whether that is to pull back a little bit in terms of the six percent and then take away the annual fee or whether that is to increase the bonus up front

So it feels even more worth it when you first get the card I don't know but I don't know if this card is going to make it after the initial wave unless U.S Bank does something else to attract people.

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