Best Buy, Amazon and Target cards against a plain cash-back card for electronics

The short answer

For a planned electronics purchase, the My Best Buy Credit Card, the Prime Visa and the Target Circle Credit Card each pay 5% at their own store. A flat cash-back card such as Citi Double Cash or Wells Fargo Active Cash pays 2%. Five against two looks decisive, but in Julia's examples it held up only when three things were true: the store's price was competitive, you could use the reward, and the card's fee or membership didn't eat the difference.

None of the three works as an everyday card. The Best Buy and Target cards earn nothing away from their store, and the Prime Visa earns 5% only with a Prime membership. On Julia's everyday card test the Best Buy card scores 34, the Target card 41 and the Prime Visa 55 out of 100, against 69 for Double Cash and 70 for Active Cash. That doesn't make them poor deals on a purchase you were already going to make. It means each has a narrow job.

Start with the price. A 5% reward on a higher price can lose to 2% on a lower one.

What each card pays

• My Best Buy Credit Card (store version, no annual fee): 2.5 points per dollar on qualifying purchases with Standard Credit, and every 250 points becomes a $5 Best Buy certificate. That is 5% in certificate value for future Best Buy shopping, not cash.
• Prime Visa (no annual fee): with an eligible Prime membership, 5% at Amazon.com, Audible.com, Whole Foods Market and through Chase Travel, 2% at restaurants, gas stations and local transit, and 1% elsewhere. An eligible Amazon Visa without Prime earns 3% on qualifying purchases.
• Target Circle Credit Card (no annual fee): 5% off eligible purchases at Target and Target.com when you pay with it. It's a discount at checkout, with no points to redeem.
• Citi Double Cash and Wells Fargo Active Cash (no annual fee): a flat 2% on eligible purchases. Double Cash makes it 1% when you buy and 1% through eligible payments, so pay the balance rather than carrying it.

The price comes first

• At Best Buy, a $1,200 camera bundle earns $60 in certificate value, which would bring the price to $1,140 if you counted it in full. A 2% card earns $24. Found for $1,150 elsewhere, with equivalent shipping and returns, the same bundle costs $1,127 after a 2% reward. You'd save $13 by buying elsewhere, even after giving Best Buy's points their full certificate value.
• At Target, or on Amazon with the Prime Visa, an item at $180 costs $171 after 5% back. The same item at $170 elsewhere, with equivalent delivery and returns, costs $166.60 after a 2% reward, which saves another $4.40. If Target starts at the same or a lower price, it can win instead.

Compare the total before settling on a store.

Can you use the reward?

A reward you can't use is worth less than it looks.

• Best Buy: points have no cash value. Certificates discount eligible future purchases, typically expire 60 days after they're issued, give no cash change and can't pay the card bill. Julia's test is whether at least $24 of the reward would replace something you'd buy anyway, because that is the cash you give up on the 2% card. If all $60 replaced a planned purchase, you'd be $36 ahead. If it replaced only $20 of shopping, she'd take the $24 in cash.
• Prime Visa: rewards are tracked as points, but they're Amazon card rewards and don't become transferable Ultimate Rewards. When rewards cover an Amazon purchase, that portion isn't a new card charge and earns no new purchase reward. If cash redemption gives equivalent value and you'll pay in full, you can pay normally and redeem cash separately.
• Target: the 5% is an immediate discount, so there is nothing to redeem and no reward to expire.

Fine print that moves the result

• Best Buy versions and fees: there are store-card and Visa versions, and the pricing disclosure lists annual fees from $0 to $59. With a $59 fee, $60 of rewards falls to $1. Visa rewards outside Best Buy don't automatically come with the store-only card.
• Best Buy financing: the current storewide offer is 12 months on qualifying purchases of at least $299, with deferred interest. Promotional financing doesn't earn Standard Credit points, so you'd give up the $60. Plus and Total members earn 1% in points on qualifying Best Buy purchases whichever card they use, so keep that membership reward on both sides of the comparison.
• Best Buy new-card offer: another 5% in points on the first purchase day within 14 days of opening, which would bring the bundle's certificate value to $120. It isn't 10% on every purchase in those 14 days, and it doesn't repeat each year.
• Prime membership: the extra 2 percentage points over the non-Prime Amazon Visa are worth $108 on $5,400 of eligible spending. Julia's score charges the Prime Visa the full ordinary annual cost of Prime, which her record lists as $139, and the extra reward doesn't cover that. If you'd keep Prime anyway, the card decision is easier to separate.
• Prime Visa eligibility: Amazon Pay at an unrelated merchant isn't the same as Amazon.com, international Amazon sites don't automatically get the higher rate, and Whole Foods purchases through an excluded third-party service may earn differently.
• Target eligibility: gift cards, certain prepaid cards, pharmacy purchases and fees can be excluded. On $2,250 of eligible purchases, 5% saves $112.50 against $45 at 2%, a gain of $67.50. Counting the whole $2,680 of receipts would overstate it. The debit version of the card gives the same core discount, so you don't need to open a borrowing account to get it.

Keep a store card in a small role

Julia's records describe the Best Buy card as a companion to an everyday card for planned purchases at that retailer, and the Target card as a companion for eligible purchases already planned there. The Prime Visa example shows how the advantage shrinks when a card does more than that.

On $5,400 of qualifying Amazon and Whole Foods purchases, Prime Visa earns $270 against $108 for a flat 2% card, a gain of $162. Add $12,000 of ordinary 1% spending to Prime Visa and the total reaches $390, while a 2% card on all $17,400 earns $348, a lead of just $42. Keeping only the $5,400 on Prime Visa and the other $12,000 on a 2% card earns $510. That's $120 more than using Prime Visa for everything, and it needs no extra shopping.

Borrowing can erase a discount. An $800 Target purchase saves $40 at 5%, but carrying the balance and paying $60 in interest leaves you $20 worse off than paying full price without that borrowing cost.

Before you act

Before you apply, check the card version and its annual fee, the list of eligible and excluded purchases, how long certificates or rewards last, whether a financing option on your screen replaces normal rewards, and whether the debit version of a store card gives the discount you want. Use three recent receipts to check eligible purchases and compare prices with realistic alternatives.

Julia's records for these cards were checked on October 6, 2026. Rates, offers, fees and financing terms may have moved since, so go by the terms on the issuer's page.

The cards in this guide