Verizon Visa Card

Rewards by category

Our take

On paper the Verizon Visa Card has one of the strongest everyday earn tables of any no-annual-fee card: 4% on groceries, 4% on dining, and 4% on gas or EV charging, all uncapped, plus 4% on Verizon purchases like devices and accessories. The monthly Verizon bill itself earns 1%, as does everything else. Four percent uncapped on the three categories most households spend the most on is a real number, not a teaser rate.

The condition that decides everything is the currency. Rewards are paid in Verizon Dollars, worth $1 each when applied to your Verizon bill and worth nothing anywhere else — no statement credit, no bank transfer, no gift cards. If you leave Verizon you stop earning and forfeit the balance you have built, and unused Verizon Dollars expire after 24 consecutive months with no rewards activity. That lock-in is why SwipeCaddy values them at 0.9 cents rather than a full cent: a currency you can only spend at one company, and only while you remain its customer, is not the same as cash.

Run the arithmetic against your own bill before you make this your grocery card. A household spending $1,000 a month on groceries, dining, and fuel generates about $40 a month in Verizon Dollars — which is only worth what your Verizon bill can absorb. Earn faster than you can burn and the balance sits idle, exposed to the 24-month expiration and to whatever you decide about carriers later. If you are a long-term Verizon or Fios customer (a mobile line is not strictly required) and your bill comfortably absorbs the rewards, the 4% tiers are excellent. If you are shopping carriers, take a cash-back card instead. The 0% APR device financing over 36 months on select purchases is a separate perk, useful on its own terms.

The math

Run $400 a month of dining through this card and you're earning about $173 a year at our conservative valuations. There's no annual fee to earn back — everything above the 1x base rate is pure upside.

Where it lands in our rankings: #4 for dining · #5 for groceries

Store bonuses

• Verizon4x

Key benefits

• 0% APR device financing over 36 months on select Verizon device purchases

Common questions

Does Verizon Visa Card have an annual fee?

No — Verizon Visa Card has no annual fee.

What does Verizon Visa Card earn on dining?

4x on dining.

What rewards does Verizon Visa Card earn on everything else?

1x on all other purchases, in Verizon Dollars.

What happens to my Verizon Dollars if I switch carriers?

You stop earning and you forfeit the balance. Verizon Dollars only have value applied to a Verizon bill, so leaving the carrier makes any unspent rewards worthless rather than transferable or cashable. There is a second expiration to watch even if you stay: unused Verizon Dollars are forfeited after 24 consecutive months with no rewards activity, so an idle balance can quietly disappear.

Do I need a Verizon mobile line to get the card?

Not strictly. Fios-only customers qualify as well, so a home internet or TV account is enough to open and use it. That said, the rewards still only redeem against a Verizon bill, so the smaller your bill, the harder it is to spend down 4% earned on uncapped groceries, dining, and gas. Match your expected earn to the bill you actually pay before you commit.

Related reading

• How we value points and miles (and why our numbers are lower than everyone else's)SwipeCaddy ranks cards by reward rate × a conservative cash value per point: 1¢ for cash back and transferable points (Chase, Amex, Citi, Capital One, Bilt), 1.1–1.3¢ for airline miles, 0.4–1.4¢ for hotel points, and 0.8–0.9¢ for store currencies. Optimistic transfer values are recorded for context but never ranked, because most people never achieve them.