What is the best credit card at Best Buy?

Max Cash Preferred Card earns the most at Best Buy right now at 5%.

How does SwipeCaddy pick the best card at Best Buy?

We rank each card by its reward rate times a conservative cash value of its points or miles — no inflated transfer valuations — and apply Best Buy's card-acceptance rules, so the "best" card is one you can actually use at the register.

What's the catch with the My Best Buy Visa Card's 5x rate?

Mainly that 5x is not the same as 5%: those rewards are valued below a full cent each under a conservative valuation, so the cash equivalent works out to about 4.5 cents per dollar. There is no annual fee to offset, and the only card above it here is the Max Cash Preferred Card at a selected-category, capped 5%, so treat 4.5% as the realistic number and swipe accordingly.

Is a no-annual-fee 2% card good enough at Best Buy?

For occasional purchases, yes. Several runner-up cards charge no annual fee, and their 2% is a solid floor; just mind the fine print, like the $50,000 yearly cap on the American Express business cards. The tradeoff: the Max Cash Preferred Card (5% when Electronics is selected and you are under its $2,000 combined quarterly cap) and the My Best Buy Visa Card (about 4.5%) earn more than double per dollar, so regular Best Buy shoppers give up real rewards by settling for flat rate.

Best credit cards at Best Buy

In store

1
#15%
Max Cash Preferred Card
Elan Financial Services · Visa · No annual fee · Choose this category · up to $2,000/qtr (combined)
5%
2
#25%
U.S. Bank Cash+ Visa Signature Card
U.S. Bank · Visa · No annual fee · Choose this category
5%
3
#35x
My Best Buy Visa Card
Citi · Visa · No annual fee
5x
4
#43x
Huntington Voice Rewards Credit Card
Huntington · Mastercard · No annual fee · Choose this category · up to $2,000/qtr (combined)
3x
5
#53x
Robinhood Gold Card
Coastal Community Bank · Visa · No annual fee
3x
6
#62x
The Business Platinum Card from American Express
American Express · Amex · Business · $895/yr · up to $2,000,000/yr (combined) · Lower rate after the cap
2x
7
#72%
Apple Card
Goldman Sachs · Mastercard · No annual fee · Pay with the mobile wallet
2%
8
#82%
Blue Business Cash Card from American Express
American Express · Amex · Business · No annual fee · up to $50,000/yr
2%
9
#92x
The Blue Business Plus Credit Card from American Express
American Express · Amex · Business · No annual fee · up to $50,000/yr
2x
10
#102%
Citi Double Cash Card
Citi · Mastercard · No annual fee
2%

Online

Good to know at Best Buy

Best Buy doesn't limit which card networks you can use, in-store or online, so the decision is purely about earning rates. The top of the ranking is now a conditional 5%: the Max Cash Preferred Card from Elan pays 5% at electronics stores — but only if Electronics is one of the two 5% categories you selected, and only on the first $2,000 of combined quarterly spend across both picks, a bucket one big TV can drain before it earns 1%. It has no annual fee, but there is no national application either: Elan distributes it through partner banks and credit unions. Just behind it, the My Best Buy Visa Card from Citi earns 5x with no selection step, worth about 4.5% in cash terms, while everything behind them clusters at 2%.

The 2% tier comes with fine print. Both American Express entries, the Blue Business Cash Card and The Blue Business Plus Credit Card, cap earning at $50,000 per year. Apple Card only pays 2% when you pay through the mobile wallet. And the four Capital One options carry annual fees between $95 and $395 while earning the same flat rate you can get from the no-fee cards above them.

For most shoppers the practical top pick is still the My Best Buy Visa Card, because you can actually apply for it and its roughly 4.5% needs no quarterly selection and no $2,000 quarterly ceiling. Take the Max Cash Preferred Card's 5% only if you already hold it and Electronics is one of this quarter's picks. If you carry neither, the fallback logic is simple: reach for whichever no-annual-fee 2% card is already in your wallet rather than paying a fee for the same rate. The rankings are identical in-store and online, so one decision covers both channels and there is no need to rethink your pick at checkout.

The math

Spend $100 a month at Best Buy and Max Cash Preferred Card returns about $60 a year at our valuations — a flat 2% card returns $24.

Common questions

What is the best credit card at Best Buy?: Max Cash Preferred Card earns the most at Best Buy right now at 5%.
How does SwipeCaddy pick the best card at Best Buy?: We rank each card by its reward rate times a conservative cash value of its points or miles — no inflated transfer valuations — and apply Best Buy's card-acceptance rules, so the "best" card is one you can actually use at the register.
What's the catch with the My Best Buy Visa Card's 5x rate?: Mainly that 5x is not the same as 5%: those rewards are valued below a full cent each under a conservative valuation, so the cash equivalent works out to about 4.5 cents per dollar. There is no annual fee to offset, and the only card above it here is the Max Cash Preferred Card at a selected-category, capped 5%, so treat 4.5% as the realistic number and swipe accordingly.
Is a no-annual-fee 2% card good enough at Best Buy?: For occasional purchases, yes. Several runner-up cards charge no annual fee, and their 2% is a solid floor; just mind the fine print, like the $50,000 yearly cap on the American Express business cards. The tradeoff: the Max Cash Preferred Card (5% when Electronics is selected and you are under its $2,000 combined quarterly cap) and the My Best Buy Visa Card (about 4.5%) earn more than double per dollar, so regular Best Buy shoppers give up real rewards by settling for flat rate.