Sam's Need to "Bulk" Up the Deals: Sam's Club Credit Card Review

Sam's Club is one of the most popular warehouse clubs. Despite an annual fee of around $35.00 per year, Sam's Club allows members to save money by offering many items in bulk from huge canisters of cat food to 6 packs of deodorant. Sam's Club offers good deals on non-bulk items too from bathing suits and books, to grills and garden accents.

Sam's Club also offers another option, the Sam's Club credit card. Unlike the Sam's Club membership card, there's no annual fee attached to a Sam's Club credit card.

Here's the catch, or the convenience, depending on your point of view.

The Sam's Club credit card appears easy to obtain. This is a store credit card, so it's meant to be used for purchases at a Sam's Club. It can also be used at the Sam's Club affiliate, Wal-Mart. The credit card "renews" each automatically and so does your Sam's Club membership, which they charge to your Sam's Club credit card. If you're convinced you'll always renew, this may be convenient. If not, it may be a hassle.

Perks for the Sam's Club Credit Card

Easy to get
No annual fee
Use at Sam's Club or Wal-mart
Serves as your Sam's Membership card
Get cash up to $60.00
Offers fraud liability
Cardholders get special offers
Convenient for getting cheaper gas

Interested in the interest rate?

Recently it has been 18.5%, not as high as some store credit cards but certainly no bargain either. It has been as high as 20% and if you make a payment late, watch out, it will jump up to 28% until the balance is paid in full.

Paying for Purchases at Sam's Clubs:

Sam's Club has a policy of not accepting Visa or American Express. They only credit cards they accept are Discover or their own Sam's Club credit card. This is one enticement that gets many customers to sign up for Sam's credit card.

Not all Sam's Clubs or Wal-marts have gas pumps but for those that do, the gas is cheaper and the Sam's Club credit card holders enjoy the pay at the pump. Watch out though and make sure you can pay off any charges before the due date because the gas won't be a good price if you have to pay a high interest rate on it.

Why the Sam's Club Credit Card is disappointing:

Compared to other store credit cards, the special offers to Sam's Clubs members just aren't special enough in our opinion. Sam's offers cardholders deals on specific products but they may or may not be items that you're interested in. Compared to store credit card offers like those from Kohl's that offer up to 30% off of a purchase of your own choice, these deals seem lame. For the higher interest rates and limited store use on this card, we need more incentives from Sam's to keep carrying this card.