5 Things to Know About the Saks Credit Card

High-end retailer Saks is known for its luxury offerings from seemingly every well-known designer: Gucci, Prada, Givenchy. The store’s co-branded credit cards, on the other hand, are decidedly low-rent.

The cards’ rewards rates are only good for the highest of Saks spenders, and even if that’s you, you’ll face severe redemption restrictions, including one that’s practically unheard of among other credit cards. On top of that, the welcome offer is stingy, and the fees can nickel-and-dime you if you’re not careful.

A Saks card inside a Prada wallet — and it’s not even made of metal? Michael Kors would never.

There are actually two Saks credit cards:

• The Saks Mastercard, which is “open loop,” meaning it can be used anywhere Mastercard is accepted.

• The Saks Card, which is “closed loop,” and thus can only be used at Saks, including Saks OFF 5th, saks.com and saksoff5th.com.

Neither card has an annual fee. Applicants may choose which version they want to apply for.

The amount of rewards you earn on Saks purchases depends on how much you’ve spent at Saks since the beginning of the calendar year. Unfortunately, to achieve the highest rewards rate, you’ll need to spend a lot.

• If you spend less than $2,500 a year at Saks, you’ll earn 2 points per $1. (Saks Mastercard holders also earn 2 points per $1 on all non-Saks spending.)

• If you spend between $2,500 and $9,999 at Saks, you’ll earn 4 points per $1.

• If you spend more than $10,000 at Saks, you’ll earn 6 points per $1.

There’s another caveat to these rewards rates: You won’t earn bonus rewards if you pay with a third-party payment account like PayPal, a mobile or wireless card reader, or a mobile or digital wallet.

Earning rewards with a Saks card can be a complicated affair, and the same can be said for redeeming those rewards. Points are worth an industry-standard penny each, but if you want to get the most value of them, you’ll need to abide by the following redemption rules:

• Points can only be redeemed for Saks gift cards.

• You must have at least 2,500 points to make a redemption.

• Saks gift cards expire on the last day of the year in which they are issued.

• Points expire on Jan. 1 of the following year in which they were earned. 

• Points cannot be redeemed between Dec. 15 through Feb. 15. Points remaining after Dec. 15 will be paid out in a gift card the first week of February (assuming you’ve amassed at least 2,500 points).

For more seamless redemptions, consider a card like the $0-annual-fee Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards Credit Card. Nerds who have the card report that there is no minimum redemption, and you can redeem rewards any time rather than waiting until the end of the billing cycle.

As noted above, you won’t owe an annual fee, but you could still end up paying to use your Saks card if you’re not careful. The terms and conditions for both cards state that you’ll be charged up to $35.88 per year: Cardholders will owe $2.99 for every month that their balance is more than $3.50 and they receive a paper statement.

To avoid this unnecessary charge, enroll in paperless statements. From the Saks credit card website, select Account > Paperless Statements > Manage Paperless.

Both Saks cards have the same welcome bonus, which is a 10% discount on certain Saks purchases made the first day they use their Saks credit card. Compared with other rewards cards, that sign-up bonus is measly.

For example, the $0-annual-fee Chase Freedom Flex® has the following welcome offer: Earn a $200 Bonus after you spend $500 on purchases in your first 3 months from account opening. To get the same value from the 10% one-time discount on a Saks credit card, you’d need to spend $2,000.