New BB&T Spectrum Rewards Credit Cards, Includes $200 Signup Bonus and $50 Airline Incidental Credit

BB&T has discontinued the old version of their Spectrum card which earned 3% or 4.05% everywhere for 90 days. A few weeks ago, they released two new Spectrum credit cards to replace the the old version, the Spectrum Cash Rewards credit card and the Spectrum Travel Rewards credit card.

Like all BB&T products, these cards are only available for those in the following states: AL, DC, FL, GA, IN, KY, MD, NC, NJ, OH, PA, SC, TN, TX, VA, WV.

Spectrum Cash Rewards

Card Details | Terms (PDF)

• No annual fee
• No signup bonus
• Get 3% cash back on gas, 2% cash back on groceries and utilities, and 1% cash back on all other purchases. 2% and 3% Cash Back is earned for the first $1,000 of total monthly spend on qualifying Merchant Category Code purchases. After that, you earn 1% on everything.
• Get 10% bonus cash when you redeem rewards into your BB&T checking or savings account

Spectrum Travel Rewards

Card Details | Terms (PDF)

• $89 annual fee, waived the first year
• 20,000 bonus miles signup bonus (worth $200) when you spend $2,000 within 90 days
• Earn 2x miles on air/hotel/car rentals and 1x miles on all other purchases (unlimited miles available)
• No foreign transaction fees
• Get an $85 credit for TSA Pre✓ or Global Entry once every 4 years
• Annual $50 airline incidental credit each calendar year toward check bag fees, in flight purchases, and more

I can’t seem to find many details on redeeming rewards, but it’s probably similar to the Arrival+ and Venture cards with the miles being redeemable to offset any travel purchase shown on the statement.

“Enjoy flexible rewards you can use for travel, gift cards, statement credits and more. Plus, your miles are worth 75% more in value when redeemed for hotel stays.” Maybe hotel stays yield a value of more than 1 cent-per-point?

Our Verdict

The Spectrum Cash card doesn’t come with any signup bonus and doesn’t look too too interesting for regular spend.

The Spectrum Travel card isn’t particularly exciting, but I think a lot of people will find it interesting for it’s $200 signup bonus, and hopefully the $50 airline incidental credit can be useful as well. Doubtful the card will be worth keeping after the first year since there’s an annual fee beginning the second year.

Big thanks to reader Mark for sharing this