Credit Cards

BJ’s Wholesale Club, Capital One Unveil New Co-Branded Cards

A popular retailer has just unveiled its refreshed co-branded credit card line-up in collaboration with a new issuer. BJ’s Wholesale Club has announced a new slate of credit cards that will now be offered in partnership with Capital One. The new cards will be known as the BJ’s One Mastercard and the BJ’s One+ Mastercard. Customers will be able to start using their new cards on February 27th.

First, the BJ’s One card will offer 3% back in rewards on most BJ’s purchases and 1.5% back in rewards on all other purchases (wherever Mastercard is accepted). Additionally, cardholders will save 10¢ a gallon at BJ’s Gas stations. Meanwhile, the BJ’s One+ ups the BJ’s purchases category to 5%, increases the “everywhere else” category to a flat 2%, and rewards cardholders with 15¢ per gallon off at BJ’s Gas stations. Note that the One card is available to Club Card members, while the One+ is exclusive to Club+ Card members. Neither credit card option carries an annual fee nor do they charge foreign transaction fees.

To redeem rewards, cardholders will need to accrue at least $10. Then, they’ll be able to redeem their balance toward purchases up to their transaction total (previously, rewards had to be taken in $10 increments). These rewards do not expire.

The BJ’s One and BJ’s One+ cards replace the BJ’s Perks Plus and BJ’s Perks Elite cards respectively. While those offerings featured 3% or 5% back on BJ’s purchases (depending on which card tier customers opted for), the other rewards worked a bit differently than the newer editions. Most notably, while the Capital One cards feature enhanced flat cashback amounts for all other purchases, the previous products included 2% back at gas stations and 2% back on dining, along with the standard 1% on all other purchases. Those versions of the cards stopped accepting applications in November of last year.

Depending on how customers previously used their BJ’s credit card, this refresh could be a good or bad thing. On the one hand, moving to a flat 1.5% “everywhere else” may be a downgrade to those who used their BJ’s Perks cards exclusively for the 2% categories. Still, for most customers, the trade-off could put them ahead. Meanwhile, the new BJ’s One+ card seems to be a win all around as the 2% now applies to all other purchases and the gas savings increase to 15¢ per gallon. Ultimately, we’ll have to wait and see what shoppers think of these updated offerings when they officially go live later this month.

Also published on Medium.

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