Is the Banana Republic Credit Card Worth It? Editor’s Review for 2024 (2024)

Pros

• No membership fees
• High rewards rate
• 25% discount initial rewards bonus

Cons

• No intro APR on purchases
• No intro APR on balance transfers
• Foreign fee
• Requires good/excellent credit

Is the Banana Republic Credit Card Worth It?

The Banana Republic Credit Card is worth it for people with at least good credit who like to shop at Banana Republic, Gap, Old Navy and Athleta. It offers 5 points per $1 spent at Banana Republic, Gap, Old Navy and Athleta, and 1 point per $1 spent on all other purchases, with a $0 annual fee. There’s also an initial bonus of 25% discount on your first Banana Republic purchase, and you get free fast shipping on all online orders of $50+.

To top it off, you can get a couple thousand bonus points each year just for shopping at multiple Gap Inc. brands. You can get access to exclusive sales and offers, too.

If your credit score isn’t high enough to get the Banana Republic Credit Card, you may instead qualify for the Banana Republic Store Card, which is available to people with fair credit. The only major difference is that the Banana Republic Credit Card can be used anywhere, not just at the partnered stores, and gives 1 point / $1 spent on purchases made outside of those stores.

What You Need to Do to Make the Banana Republic Credit Card Worthwhile

To make the Banana Republic Credit Card worthwhile, you should always pay your monthly bill in full by the due date. The card’s APR is extremely expensive, at 29.99% (V), which means that it’s easy for interest charges to outweigh any rewards you earn on the card if you carry a balance.

Also, don’t forget to make at least one purchase at Banana Republic within 14 days of opening your account, or you’ll miss out on your special 25% discount. In addition, it’s a good idea to shop at all four partnered brands (Banana Republic, Gap, Old Navy and Athleta) every year so that you can get the biggest possible bonus of 2,000 points.

Banana Republic Credit Card Highlights

• Discount for Your First Online Purchase: You will receive a 25% discount on any BananaRepublic.com purchase made within 14 days of account approval, with no limit to the dollar amount to which you can apply the savings. So if you know that you’ll be buying a lot from Banana Republic in the near future, opening this card and strategically packaging your purchases into a single order could save you a lot of money. The only things this discount does not apply to are gift cards, packaging, taxes and shipping costs.

• Up to 5% Back On Purchases: You will receive 5 points in return for each $1 that you spend at Banana Republic, Old Navy, Gap and Athleta. For every 500 points that you earn, you will receive $5 in Banana Republic store credit. That means you’ll effectively earn 5% cash back on all Banana Republic-family purchases. If you get approved for the Banana Republic Credit Card, you will also earn 1% back on all other purchases.

• No Annual Fee: Without an annual fee to worry about, both the Banana Republic Credit Card and the Banana Republic Store Card can be purely vehicles for saving money. The lack of a fee also makes them $22.22 cheaper than the average credit card.
• Quarterly/Yearly Bonuses: You can receive a bonus of 250 points if you make at least one purchase per quarter at Banana Republic, Gap, Old Navy or Athleta. If you have reached the Icon membership tier (5k+ points earned), you will get 500 points instead. In addition, every year you can earn bonus points based on how many of the four brands you shop at. Two brands gets you 500 points, three gets you 1,000 and all four gets you 2,000.

Banana Republic Credit Card Lowlights

• Points Expire After 12 Months: Failing to make a purchase for one year will result in the forfeiture of any unredeemed rewards you’ve earned. This, together with the fact that you can’t redeem more than 25,000 points in a single billing period, makes it imperative to redeem on a regular basis when using a Banana Republic credit card.

• Not Built for Financing: Neither the store card nor the Mastercard version offers 0% financing on new purchases, or even allows balance transfers, and both charge interest at a 29.99% (V) annualized rate, while the market average for store credit cards is 30.54%. As a result, you should avoid carrying a balance from month to month with either card.

Other Things to Consider About the Banana Republic Credit Card

• Modest Bonuses: No matter which offer you get, signing up for email account updates will score you 500 points, and opting in for paperless statements gets you another 500. That’s an easy $10 right there, assuming the changes won’t hamper your account management. Furthermore, as long as you make at least one Banana Republic purchase every 12 months, you will receive an unspecified birthday gift each year.

• 3% Foreign-Transaction Fee: Only the Mastercard version can be used to make international purchases, but even that should be avoided due to the 3% foreign fee that will unnecessarily inflate your expenses.

• Icon-Status Benefits: Banana Republic credit-card users who spend the $1,000+ per year needed to amass at least 5,000 points qualify for “Icon” status. This gets you a Double Reward Day, Create your Own Sale Day and receive 15% of any purchase at the family of brands, and free basic alterations — as long as you make one purchase with your card at Banana Republic every year.

Banana Republic Credit Card vs. The Competition

Retailers and their cobranded credit cards face competition on a daily basis, and there’s a lot of it out there. So let’s see how the Banana Republic Store Card stacks up against some of its most popular rivals. We chose the store card for this comparison, as it is available to a broader segment of people and offers all of the Visa version’s best features.

Banana Republic Credit Card Review Methodology

This Banana Republic Credit Card review is based on WalletHub’s proprietary 100-point credit card rating system. By using a consistent methodology to evaluate the Banana Republic Credit Card and all other cards, WalletHub’s credit card experts make it easy for people to compare their options and find the best credit cards for their needs.

The WalletHub rating system uses 16 key metrics grouped into seven categories: Fees, Rewards, Two-year Cost, Interest Rates, Approval Requirements, Special Features, and Reviews. Each metric has a maximum number of points allocated to it, based on the metric’s importance as determined by our editors. The points are added up to create an overall rating for the Banana Republic Credit Card out of a maximum of 100 points, which is then converted to a 5-point scale.

Ratings for each category reflect how close Banana Republic Credit Card is to WalletHub’s definition of a 5-star credit card, which is based on market conditions and what we believe are reasonable terms. We compare Banana Republic Credit Card to that standard to give a numerical approximation of how reasonable and competitive its terms are compared to other cards.

To learn more about how WalletHub rates credit card offers, check out our full credit card review methodology.

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Important Disclosures