Most personal finance writers will tell you store credit cards are dead weight. High APRs, limited acceptance, pushy checkout pitches. What's not to hate? But a handful of store cards genuinely accelerate a points strategy if you know which ones earn at categories you already spend in and which can be converted into travel value.
This review walks through five of the most-asked-about store cards (the Target RedCard, Amazon Prime Visa, Best Buy Visa, Costco Anywhere Visa, and Apple Card) and answers the question that actually matters. Where does each card stretch into travel value, and where does it stop being worth the wallet slot?
Quick Summary
Best For: Households who already shop heavily at one of these retailers and want to either offset everyday spending or feed a transferable-points stack.
Standout Benefit: The Target RedCard's 5% off everything at Target, with no annual fee, a guaranteed return on grocery and household spending most travel cards earn nothing on.
Biggest Drawback: Most store cards are closed-loop or store-only. They don't help you hit minimum spend on a new welcome bonus, and their rewards rarely transfer to airlines or hotel partners.
Bottom Line on Travel Value: The Amazon Prime Visa is the only card on this list whose rewards convert directly into travel through a transferable-points portal. The rest are cash-back cards that fund travel indirectly, by reducing the cash you spend on groceries, electronics, and household goods.
Target RedCard: The 5% Gold Standard for Everyday Spending
Most travel rewards conversations skip Target entirely. That's a mistake. For households spending $400 to $800 a month on groceries, household goods, and seasonal stuff, the Target RedCard's flat 5% discount on every Target purchase is the highest guaranteed return you'll find with no annual fee.
How it works: It's a discount, not a points program. Swipe the card, get 5% off the total at the register or online. Free two-day shipping on most online orders. An extended return window. No annual fee. No category caps. No quarterly opt-in.
The travel angle: The RedCard itself doesn't earn miles or transferable points. What it does is free up cash. If you spend $6,000 a year at Target between groceries, cleaning supplies, kids' clothes, and the rest, the 5% saves you $300. That's $300 you can redirect to your travel card's annual fee, a Hyatt night, or a Southwest flight booked with cash.
The Target Circle Card variant: Target also offers a Circle Card branded as a Mastercard for use outside Target. It earns 1.5% on non-Target spending, but here's the catch. That 1.5% only translates back into Target dollars, not cash and not points. The store-only version is the better pick unless you're trying to consolidate to one card.
Where it breaks: The RedCard's 5% only fires inside Target. Compare to the Chase Sapphire Preferred at 1x on Target spending. At $6,000 a year, that's 6,000 Ultimate Rewards points, worth roughly $75 toward travel through the portal or potentially $120 if transferred to Hyatt. The RedCard's $300 in savings beats the Sapphire's portal value handily, but if you're chasing transferable points specifically, the math shifts. For most households, the cash savings win.
Verdict: Worth getting if you spend $200+ monthly at Target. Use it at Target, use a travel card everywhere else.
Amazon Prime Visa: The Only Store Card With a Real Travel Pipeline
The Amazon Prime Visa is the outlier on this list. It's technically a co-brand card with Chase, which means its rewards behave differently than every other card here.
How it works: 5% back at Amazon and Whole Foods (Prime membership required), 5% on Chase Travel bookings, 2% at gas stations, restaurants, and on local transit, 1% everywhere else. No annual fee on the card itself, though Prime runs $139 a year.
The travel pipeline: Here's the under-discussed part. The points you earn aren't just Amazon-store credit. They're Chase Ultimate Rewards points when redeemed through Chase Travel. That means the 5% rate at Amazon and Whole Foods translates into roughly 5 cents of travel booking value per dollar spent through the Chase portal.
If you also hold the Chase Sapphire Preferred, things get more interesting. While Prime Visa points don't pool into the Sapphire's UR account for transfer to airline and hotel partners, you can use Prime Visa points to book travel through the Chase portal at full cent-per-point value, freeing up your Sapphire UR balance for transfer partner redemptions where it earns more.
Real-world math: A household spending $300/month at Amazon and $200/month at Whole Foods earns 5% on $6,000 a year. That's $300 in Chase travel credit, or 30,000 points if you let them stack. Pair that with a paid Prime membership you'd already keep, and the card pays for itself many times over.
Where it breaks: The 5% rate requires an active Prime membership. Drop Prime, you drop to 3% at Amazon, still decent, but no longer category-leading. Also: the points expire when you close the account, and they don't transfer to airline programs the way Sapphire UR points do.
Verdict: The best travel-rewards store card for anyone with active Prime, full stop. Pair it with a Sapphire Preferred or Reserve for max flexibility.
Best Buy Visa: A 5% Stack on Travel and Dining With a Catch
The Best Buy Visa (issued by Citi) is one of the most overlooked cards in the rewards game, mostly because Best Buy isn't a daily-spend retailer for most people. But the earning structure is unusual enough that it deserves a careful look.
How it works: 5% back on Best Buy purchases (in points), 3% on gas, 2% on dining and grocery stores, 1% everywhere else. No annual fee. Rewards come as Best Buy reward certificates, redeemable in $5 increments toward Best Buy purchases.
The travel angle, and the catch: This is where things get tricky. The Best Buy Visa does not earn 5% on travel or dining categories. Those are 3% and 2% respectively. The 5% is only at Best Buy. Reward certificates are store-only and can't be cashed out or converted to points or miles.
So how does it fit a travel strategy? Indirectly. If you're already buying a laptop, headphones, a TV, or any electronics for travel (noise-canceling headphones for the flight, a travel router, a new camera), the 5% rate at Best Buy on a $1,500 laptop is a $75 reward certificate. Use that toward the next electronics purchase, and you've effectively cut $75 from your travel-tech budget.
Where store-card-only beats co-brand: The store-card-only version (without the Visa logo) earns the same 5% at Best Buy but doesn't carry rewards on outside spending. Pick the store-only version if you don't want another Visa in rotation; pick the Visa if you can use the 3% gas rate.
Where it breaks: Best Buy redemptions don't translate to travel directly. If you don't shop at Best Buy at least 2-3 times a year, the rewards pile up unused, then expire. Compare to the Chase Sapphire Preferred earning 1x at Best Buy and converting to airline miles. For non-frequent Best Buy shoppers, the Sapphire is the better pick.
Verdict: Worth it only if you spend $500+ a year at Best Buy. Otherwise, skip and use a transferable-points card.
Costco Anywhere Visa: A Travel Card in Disguise
The Costco Anywhere Visa from Citi is technically a store card. Your Costco membership is required and the card doubles as your warehouse ID. But the earn structure looks more like a mid-tier travel card than anything else on this list.
How it works: 4% back on eligible gas and EV charging worldwide (up to $7,000 annually, then 1%), 3% on restaurants and eligible travel, 2% on all Costco purchases (in-warehouse and online), 1% everywhere else. No annual fee beyond the $65 Costco Gold Star membership.
The travel angle: Of all the cards here, this one earns the most flexibly on travel categories. The 3% on restaurants and eligible travel beats most no-annual-fee cards in the same brackets. Rewards come as a Costco Cash Reward certificate once a year in February, which can be cashed in at any U.S. Costco for cash or merchandise. Yes, you read that right: cash. That converts directly to travel funding.
Where store-card-only wins: There is no store-card-only version. Costco's gas pump card and warehouse charges are all run through the Costco Anywhere Visa. The card is the membership pairing.
Where it breaks: The annual redemption is rigid. You get the certificate once, in February. Miss the cash-out window and the rewards are gone. Also: 1% on non-bonus categories is below the 2% baseline of cards like the Citi Double Cash, so the Anywhere Visa shouldn't be your everyday card.
Verdict: A solid backup card if you fill up at Costco gas regularly. The 4% gas rate generates real cash that funds real travel, but only if you keep paying the membership.
Apple Card: Daily Cash Sounds Travel-Friendly Until You Do the Math
The Apple Card (issued by Goldman Sachs) gets pitched as a clean, transparent rewards card. Here's the honest breakdown.
How it works: 3% Daily Cash on Apple purchases and at select merchants when you use Apple Pay (Uber, Walgreens, Nike, Panera, T-Mobile), 2% on all Apple Pay purchases, 1% on swiped chip transactions. No annual fee.
The travel angle: Apple Card rewards are paid as Daily Cash to your Apple Cash card, where they're available immediately as cash. Cash doesn't translate to airline miles or hotel points, but it does pay for travel purchases directly.
Real-world math: For a household running $2,000/month through Apple Pay, the 2% rate puts $480 back in your account annually. That's roughly equivalent to a Citi Double Cash, but limited to merchants accepting Apple Pay (a real limitation outside major U.S. cities).
Where it breaks: The 1% rate on chip-swiped transactions is below baseline. The 3% bonus categories don't include travel, dining at most restaurants, or grocery stores. And the Daily Cash is just cash: no transfer partners, no portal multipliers, no airline miles.
Verdict: Outclassed for travel rewards by a Citi Double Cash (2% on everything, no Apple Pay requirement) or a Chase Sapphire Preferred (3x dining, 2x travel, transferable points). Pass unless you're deep in the Apple ecosystem.
How These Cards Fit Into a Wallet Strategy
For most points-focused readers, the layering looks like this. A primary travel card (Sapphire Preferred or Capital One Venture X) handles dining, travel, and big welcome-bonus spend. A flat-rate backup like the Citi Double Cash covers everything outside bonus categories at 2%. Then, store cards plug in only where they out-earn that 2% baseline at retailers you already use.
Target RedCard at Target: 5% beats 2%. Worth it.
Amazon Prime Visa at Amazon and Whole Foods: 5% beats 2%, and points feed back into the Chase travel portal. Worth it.
Costco Anywhere Visa for Costco gas: 4% beats 2%. Worth it.
Best Buy Visa: only worth it if you spend $500+ at Best Buy annually.
Apple Card: outclassed by Citi Double Cash for non-Apple-ecosystem households.
Notice what's missing: department store cards, gas station cards, airline-branded credit cards from regional airlines, and most checkout-counter pitches. The 10% off your first order rarely justifies the hard inquiry.
Final Verdict
Store cards aren't usually the right travel rewards play, but a few stand out. The Target RedCard's 5% off makes it the strongest no-annual-fee everyday-savings card in this category. The Amazon Prime Visa is the only card that converts directly into transferable Chase travel value. The Costco Anywhere Visa earns enough at gas and restaurants to fund travel through its annual cash-back certificate. The Best Buy Visa works for genuine Best Buy regulars and almost no one else. Skip the Apple Card for travel; a Citi Double Cash does the same job with broader acceptance.
Pick one or maybe two based on where you actually spend, and pair them with a primary travel card that earns transferable points. This article contains affiliate links. If you apply through our links, we may earn a commission at no cost to you, which helps us continue sharing points and miles strategies with the community.
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