At Home Mastercard®

At Home Mastercard® Review

The At Home Mastercard® can be a great retail credit card to have in your wallet if you shop at this home décor store. This retailer has most of its stores in the eastern half of the United States, but shoppers can also purchase items online should they find themselves elsewhere in America but still want your At Home goods and perks.

Earn Up to 5X Points on Purchases

New cardholders get a special gift from the At Home Mastercard® just for signing up. After approval, you’ll automatically receive 10% off your first purchase at At Home stores (online or in-store) using your new credit card.

The At Home Mastercard lets cardholders earn points on all purchases. At Home purchases qualify you for 5X points for every dollar you spend. You’ll earn 3X points for every dollar when using the card for groceries – including delivery services like Instacart or Amazon Fresh. All other purchases will earn you 1X points per dollar spent.

Many retail cards from Synchrony Bank (the issuer of the At Home card) offer 5X points when you use your card at a particular retailer. Earning more than the one-to-one ratio on purchases outside the co-branded retailer (At Home, in this case) is not too common in these cards, instead mimicking a Chase credit card – the Amazon Prime Visa.

At Home Comparison

The Amazon Prime Visa is a great cash back rewards card for those who have an existing Amazon Prime subscription. But does it make more sense to you than the At Home Mastercard? Here are the two cards compared with another popular reward option, the Bilt Mastercard from Wells Fargo:

	At Home Mastercard®	Bilt Mastercard	Prime Visa
Annual fee	None	None	None
Rewards	Earn 5X on in-store and online purchases with At Home, 3X on groceries, and 1X on all other purchases.	Earn 1X points on rent payments (up to 50,000 points each calendar year), 2X points on travel purchases booked directly with an airline, hotel, car rental or cruise line., 3X points on dining.	Earn 5% back on Amazon.com and Whole Foods Market purchases and travel booked through Chase Travel, 3% back on purchases at restaurants, gas stations, and drug stores, 2% back on local transit and commuting, including rideshares, and 1% back on all other purchases.
Award options	Reward coupons ($5, $10,$15, 0r $20)	Rent, future down payments, statement credits, merchandise, classes and memberships	Pay with points, statement credits, Chase account deposits
Issuer	Synchrony	Wells Fargo	Chase
Network	Mastercard	World Elite Mastercard	Visa Signature

Redeem Points for Award Certificates

Cardholders are eligible for a $5 reward certificate for every 500 points they earn. If you use your At Home Mastercard just for making purchases at At Home, you essentially earn $5 for every $100 you spend. Cardholders can only receive a maximum of four monthly rewards certificates, so spend wisely. Additionally, rewards expire after 90 days.

Being that home design stores typically sell big-ticket items; you would expect it to be easy to rack up many points from purchasing a single piece of merchandise. However, At Home’s price points are pretty low compared to many other home furnishings retailers.

A sofa from At Home ranges in price from around $300 to just over $500, earning you about $15 to $20 in rewards credits. Compare that to sofas from Macy’s, which retail for around $1,000…and Macy’s isn’t even a high-end furniture retailer. At Home also doesn’t offer many options for large furnishings, like dining tables and beds. Most of this retailer’s inventory is comprised of small, inexpensive home accents, like picture frames and throw pillows.

How to Maximize Value with Reward Certificates

The positive in this is that even a $10 reward credit can cover the cost of an average item, like a tabletop picture frame. But the big problem here is actually finding an opportunity to spend enough money at At Home to earn those reward credits. You’d have to buy a lot of tchotchkes to be able to earn a free tchotchke.

That’s why 3X points on groceries with this card is such a draw. You only need to spend around $166 on groceries to qualify you for a $5 reward credit. That’s usually around the cost of an average family’s weekly food shopping trip. Within a month, you can rack up around $20 worth of At Home credits. And that doesn’t even include any points you might have earned from other purchases.

Special Promotional Financing Options

The At Home Mastercard features a promotional 0% APR for $299 or higher purchases. This is actually a deferred interest for a 6-month period. So, if you decide to purchase that $350 sofa from At Home, you can pay it off in six months without paying interest. Any balance remaining from that purchase after the six months is up and accrues the regular purchase APR, which is a little on the higher end. If you want to use this card’s deferred interest feature, you should try paying off those purchases within six months to avoid paying that hefty interest.

What’s really good about this 0% interest promotion is that you can take advantage of it any time you want as long as your account is active and in good standing. Many other credit cards only offer promotional APRs when you first sign up for the card, and you have a limited time period to take advantage of that promotion.

At Home Insider Perks™ Elite Perks

Insider Perks™ is At Home’s loyalty program, and you automatically get enrolled as soon as you’re approved for the At Home Mastercard®. You receive a special bonus gift on your birthday and can make returns without presenting a receipt. Members are also the first to know about sales, new products, and other promotions before the general public. This way, you can access the best deals before merchandise sells out.

At Home likes to advertise this as one of the perks of its Mastercard. However, you can join the Insider Perks™ program for free and still receive all the abovementioned benefits. So, if you were considering signing up for this card for the Insider Perks™, know that this free program takes minutes to join online.

Here is a quick breakdown of the Insider Perks elite tiers and the benefits offered:

Achieving VIP status is fairly simple – especially with a full year to make that $350 in purchases with At Home. Reaching that tier is a reward in itself, thanks to an additional 10% off all At Home purchases as a VIP member!

Store Card Comparison

Synchrony also offers a store card version of the At Home Mastercard – the closed-loop At Home Rewards Credit Card. That card is closed loop, meaning it only works for purchases with At Home, but nowhere else. And because of this, store cardholders won’t earn rewards outside of the store.

Store cards typically offer little value when compared to a no annual fee Visa or Mastercard. That’s not just because of the limited usability but also because of lower credit limits and reduced welcome offers. Not so here, however, as the At Home Store Card is great value – especially considering the lower credit score requirements store cards often have. This greater availability offers people with fair credit the chance to receive special financing on home projects over $299 – not bad!

Other Card Features

The At Home Mastercard® Credit Card also offers the benefits and protections that come from a Mastercard product. These features include:

Beyond these essential features, cardholders also enjoy EMV chip technology, providing additional security for online and in-store purchases, mobile wallet connectivity, and a simplified mobile app.

Synchrony Ratings

How does Synchrony stack up as a credit card issuer? Here is a selection of ratings for the bank:

Should You Apply for the At Home Mastercard®?

Perhaps the most obvious answer to this question is that this card is ideal for a regular At Home shopper since you can only use your rewards at this retailer’s stores and website. Five points for every dollar spent at At Home may seem like a lot, but it’s actually pretty standard for Synchrony rewards cards. Additionally, At Home’s merchandise is pretty inexpensive, and its stores may be few and far between, depending on where you live. All of this adds up to limited opportunities to earn lots of points.

But there is always a silver lining. Three points for every dollar spent on groceries is perhaps this card’s chief saving grace. You can earn about $20 worth of in-store credits from just one month’s worth of grocery bills. And while At Home’s low-cost merchandise is a negative when earning points, it’s actually a good thing when it comes to redeeming points. If you use your At Home Mastercard regularly, you can pretty much redeem your points for one free item every month.

If you are an interior designer or decorator, this might be a good option for you regardless of whether or not you are frequent At Home shopper. You can use this credit card anywhere, even on purchases made at other home furnishing stores.