The
U.S. Bank Smartly™ Visa Signature® Card is a good everyday credit card for people with
good credit, especially those who also have a savings account with U.S. Bank. It’s worth applying for this card because there’s no annual fee and you get at least
2% cash back on all purchases. Plus, having enough deposited in a U.S. Bank Smartly® Savings account can score you 25% to 100% more rewards.
This is a pretty well-rounded card, too, offering a 0% introductory APR promotion to go along with its rewards and lack of an annual fee. It’s not perfect, though, and you can learn why that’s the case below.
What I Like About the U.S. Bank Smartly™ Visa Signature® Card
No annual fee
This makes the
U.S. Bank Smartly Card a good choice for light spenders and people who already have cards with annual fees in their wallet. It also saves you an average of
$25.22 per year compared to the 1,500+ other cards in our database.
2% cash back
You can earn about twice as much cash back with the
U.S. Bank Smartly Card as you would with an average rewards card. The flat rewards rate is also very helpful, whether you don’t want to bother with bonus categories or you already have other cards with higher earn rates in your favorite spending categories.
U.S. Bank savings account bonus
If you maintain a high enough balance on a U.S. Bank Smartly Savings account, you can get extra rewards on every purchase that you make with the
U.S. Bank Smartly™ Visa Signature® Card. As you can see below, you could even turn this 2% cash back credit card into a 4% cash back card, which would be amazing.
Smartly Savings Account Balance | Smartly Credit Card Rewards Rate |
$0 | 2% cash back |
$10,000 | 2.5% cash back |
$50,000 | 3% cash back |
$100,000 | 4% cash back |
0% intro APR
A lot of rewards cards don’t offer 0% introductory APR promotions, so their high regular APRs apply from the start. That’s why I like this aspect of the
U.S. Bank Smartly Card offer, even though the 0% period is only about average in length, according to
WalletHub research.
What I Don’t Like About the U.S. Bank Smartly™ Visa Signature® Card
No initial bonus
The
U.S. Bank Smartly™ Visa Signature® Card does not offer a traditional initial bonus, so you won’t earn a lump sum of cash back for meeting an initial spending requirement. The unique savings account bonus kind of replaces this common feature.
If you’re not going to earn the savings account bonus, you might want to consider one of the other
2% cash back cards on the market right now.
High regular APR
Even if you get a rate at the low end of the advertised range, it’s still going to be way higher than the rate at which you’re earning cash back. So, if you want to avoid losing money with this card, you need to pay your bill in full by the due date every month after the initial 0% APR promotion ends.
Requires good credit
Like most 2% cash back credit cards, you need
good or excellent credit to qualify for the
U.S. Bank Smartly™ Visa Signature® Card. As a result, your odds of getting approved aren’t likely to be high unless you have a credit score of
700 or better. You can
get your free credit score here on WalletHub to better assess your chances.
Note: This review is not provided, commissioned or endorsed by any issuer. Opinions and ratings are our own.