Popular Bank Rewards Card

At a Glance

The Popular Bank Rewards Card offers cardholders up to 1.5% cash back on all their purchases and a low annual fee. New Cardholders can also take advantage of 0% interest for 12 months on purchases. Additionally, this card lets you transfer a balance from another credit card at zero interest for 12 months with no minimum payments.

Ideal for Those Who:

• Already bank with Popular Bank
• Want to earn cash back on their purchases
• Would like to take advantage of 0% interest on purchases for 12 months
• Need to transfer a balance from another credit card and plan to pay it off in 12 months

Popular Bank Rewards Card Review

The Rewards Card from Popular Bank is one of three credit cards that this bank offers consumers who reside in the mainland United States. It is Popular Bank’s middle-of-the-road card.

It offers less cash back than the Preferred World Mastercard®, but you have to pay more to use this card than you with the Platinum Card (which has no fee). As such, the perks of this card don’t really stand out as much as Popular Bank’s other options.

Nevertheless, there are some benefits to applying to this card, such as its introductory 0% APR offers. Keep reading to see if this credit card is a right fit for you.

Earn Cash Back on Your Purchases

The Popular Bank Rewards Card offers cardholders 1% cash back on net purchases valued at $1,000 or less. If you make a purchase that’s greater than $1,000, you will earn 1.5% cash back.

Popular Bank refers to its cash back as cash rewards. So, if you come across this term when you apply for this card, just know that this is the bank’s way of saying cash back.

Now, this credit card’s cash rewards get a little complicated when it comes to how Popular Bank calculates your rewards. With the Preferred World Mastercard® you earn a flat 2% on your purchases, and you earn those as you spend.

However, cash back on your Rewards Card is calculated per year. A year, according to Popular Bank, starts on the date you opened your account and ends on your account anniversary date.

You may not be able to see an accurate representation of your cash rewards until your first year is up. This can be frustrating to cardholders, especially if you are trying to figure out how much you need to spend in order to break even on the annual fee.

How Much Do You Need to Spend to Break Even?

The Popular Bank Rewards Card’s annual fee is nearly a quarter of the Preferred Card’s fee. As such, you don’t really need to spend much to earn enough cash back to make up for the fee you pay.

You will have to spend almost $1,700 in one year to earn $25 in cash rewards, which comes out to the annual fee amount for this card. By comparison, you’d have to spend almost $5,000 with the Popular Bank Preferred World Mastercard® to break even with that card.

Of course, this doesn’t factor in any interest you would have to pay with this credit card. When it comes to APRs, there aren’t any advantages to applying for one card over another. They all offer the same interest rates. These can vary widely from competitively low to being on par with many retail cards (which can often have high APRs).

Redeeming Your Cash Rewards

While the Popular Bank Rewards Card isn’t all too generous with its cash back percentages, it does give cardholders the freedom to redeem their rewards at their convenience. Not all credit card issuers do this, and some automatically give you credits or mail you a check as soon as you’ve earned enough points.

With this credit card, you can keep accumulating points for as long as you want provided that your account is active and in good standing. When you are ready to redeem your points, simply call the Popular Bank customer service number and specify how much of your cash rewards you want to convert to a statement credit.

Unfortunately, Popular Bank only issues statement credits for your cash rewards. If you were looking for a rewards program that gives you the option of applying your cash back to your checking or savings account, this may not be the card for you.

0% Introductory APR on Purchases

The biggest draws of the Popular Bank Rewards Card are its introductory 0% interest rates. New cardholders don’t have to pay interest on their purchases for 12 months from the date of opening an account.

If you’ve been needing to make a large purchase, this feature is something that can really help you financially. However, it is important to identify what you need to purchase before you apply for this card rather than trying to figure out how you can use it after you already have it.

Additionally, you should have a plan to pay off your balance within 12 months. Keep in mind that once the promotional 12-month period is over, any remaining balance will automatically accrue interest. And Popular Bank’s interest rates can be pretty high if you don’t have the best credit.

0% Introductory APR on Balance Transfers

In addition to no interest on purchases, the Popular Bank Rewards Card also offers new cardholders 12 months of 0% APR on balance transfers. On top of that, you don’t have to make any minimum payments on that balance for 12 months.

Now, there are certain things to keep in mind, though. For starters, you only have 90 days to transfer a balance and take advantage of 0% interest. And the 12-month period begins on the day you open an account and ends on the anniversary of that date.

You also should remember that while you won’t have to make payments on your transfer for 12 months, you will still have to make payments on balances from purchases and other transactions. Also note that once the 12-month period is over, you’ll immediately have interest added to any remaining transferred balance.

Nevertheless, this is still a great balance transfer credit card, especially if you have a high balance on an existing credit card. You have two options to take make the most of this offer and save money.

If you have been approved for an APR that is lower than your other credit card, you can hold off on paying off your transferred balance for a year. This gives you some time to build up your resources.

If your Popular Bank Rewards Card APR is the same or higher than your other credit card (or credit cards), you should make plans to pay off the balance you transfer within a year. Otherwise, you may find yourself in the same situation once the introductory period is over.

Should You Apply for the Popular Bank Rewards Card?

This credit card is probably most appealing to people who already bank with Popular Bank. As with most bank-issued cards, you must already have an account with Popular Bank in order to qualify for a credit card.

If you are looking for a cash back card with this financial institution, this may be a better option than the Preferred World Mastercard®. The Preferred card’s annual fee is almost 300% higher than the Reward card’s annual fee. However, you only get about 33% more in cash rewards.

The Preferred card does offer a huge selection of World Mastercard® perks, but most of those are travel related. If you aren’t a frequent traveler or don’t really care about these perks but still want to earn cash back, then the Popular Bank Rewards Card might just be an ideal match.