Staples Credit Card Review – Earn 5% Staples Rewards and Special Financing Options

Overview

Direct Link to Staples credit cards

Staples recently made changes to their Staples Rewards program. The biggest change was disallowing online orders at staples.com from earning 5% back in Staples Rewards.

However, Staples card holders do get 5% with online purchases too, so I thought it’s worth taking a look at Staples credit card lineup.

Staples offers three separate card versions. All are issued by Citibank. These cards are store cards, meant for use at Staples only.

• Staples personal account
• Staples business account
• Staples commercial account

The business and commercial accounts come with convenient order tracking and spending controls. The commercial card does not offer any financing option while the business and personal accounts do.

We don’t know whether business and commercial version will stay off your personal credit report, as is the case with other Citi business cards. Store cards might work differently.

Rewards

As noted, all of these Staples credit cards earn 5% in Staples Rewards on regular purchases, both in-store and online. Non-cardholders only earn Staples Rewards in-store.

It’s not clear whether the purchases need to be charged to the Staples card in order to earn 5% Staples Rewards. There’s a good chance that won’t be necessary.

Another rewards advantage for cardholders is that they are immediately considered Premier members and earn 5% right away, as well as get higher ink recycling benefits. Non-cardholders need to first spend $1,000 before getting to Premier status and earning 5% (until then they’ll earn just 2%).

Signup Bonus

The card usually comes with a bonus of $50 with $150 minimum purchase (I’m not sure if it needs to be a single $150 purchase or combined purchases). This bonus offer is for Staples Business or Commercial Credit accounts, not the personal account.

The end date showing at the time of this writing is 10/28/17, but it seems to be a standard offer that will get extended.

Upon approval, the $50 credit will appear on your Staples credit account statement when $150 purchase is made within 45 days of account open date.

Interest Rates and Financing

A big focus of the Staples credit cards are on businesses, and they often need financing to help pay off large purchases over time.

The personal card and business card offer financing options. The commercial card does not offer financing at all.

Standard APR for purchases as of this writing are:

• personal card: 28.99%
• business card: 14.99% or 19.99% or 23.99%, based on creditworthiness

Staples does have special financing options for large purchases paid for with business or personal versions:

• Purchases $299 can pay no interest if paid in full within 6 months
• Purchases $499 can pay no interest if paid in full within 12 months
• Purchases $799 can pay no interest if paid in full within 18 months

I’m not sure if this financing option is automatic or if you have to enroll for each large purchase.

Final Thoughts

The two positives of these cards are the 5% online earn and the financing options. If we’ll ignore the financing angle for a moment, the main reason to get the card would be for those who spend a lot at staples.com – I’m sure there are some businesses and resellers who fall into this category.

Bear in mind, there are numerous credit cards that earn bonus rewards at office supply stores. Notably, some of Chase’s INK cards earn 5x points which are worth a minimum of 5% when redeemed for cash. Likewise, Amex’s SimplyCash earns 5% back.

Assuming cardholders earn 5% even without charging the Staples card, getting the Staples card is a straight 5% bonus since you can still pay with your regular credit card. If you do need to charge the Staples card to get the 5% rewards online, it wouldn’t be nearly as useful. Would only really make sense for someone who spends a lot at staples.com and blows through the maximum bonus earn on those other cards ($25k or $50k).

Regardless, it wouldn’t typically make sense to use the Staples card for in-store purchases since everyone gets 5% Staples Rewards there, and you may as well use another credit card that earns 2%-5%+ rewards.

This is all looking from a rewards perspective. There are some businesses who need the financing, and for them the rewards calculations aren’t as important as the free financing benefit.