IKEA® Visa® Credit Card

IKEA® Visa® Credit Card Review

Having no annual fee, the IKEA Visa Credit Cardis a great option for those with an upcoming move, tenants who want to make rental-friendly upgrades, or DIY-ers looking for their latest craft project. This card is very user-friendly with a straightforward rewards structure that conveniently lacks any of the membership or spending requirements that many other retail cards require.

While this card will not offer much by the way of an enhanced shopping experience (Free meatballs? We wish. No free shipping or delivery, either) if you always turn to IKEA when you want to inexpensively try new home décor trends, the IKEA® Visa® is the easiest way to save on their already affordable product range.

IKEA® Visa® Credit Card vs. IKEA Projekt Credit Card

IKEA offers three credit cards to consumers, all issued by Comenity Bank: the IKEA Projekt, IKEA Visa®, and IKEA Visa® Signature (identical to the IKEA Visa but with additional protections). All three are fantastic options for the homeowner or renter looking to furnish, decorate, or otherwise spruce up their space on a budget – but the closed-loop and the open-loop cards serve two distinct purposes.

The closed-loop IKEA card, IKEA Projekt, offers shoppers special 0% APR financing plans for purchases of $500 or more but can only be used in IKEA stores. The open-loop IKEA Visa card (as well as its Signature-versioned counterpart) can be used anywhere that Visa is accepted and instead earns up to 5% back on everyday purchases on popular home-centric bonus categories in addition to IKEA purchases. These earnings called “Reward Dollars” can then be redeemed for $15 Reward Certificates and applied at checkout for savings on your final purchase total.

Signup Bonuses & Introductory Offers

New IKEA Visa cardholders will receive up to $50 in rewards to use on their next IKEA shopping trip with two separate signup bonuses.

The first signup bonus is a one-time $25 discount on your first purchase after being approved for the IKEA Visa and making an IKEA purchase with your card the same day. For those who apply online, this offer will appear as a statement credit (may take up to two billing cycles to appear). Note that this discount cannot be applied towards IKEA gift cards or the assembly services of TaskRabbit and Traemand.

The second signup bonus is a $25 reward for making a purchase outside of IKEA stores (Traemand and TaskRabbit purchases do not count towards this requirement). Spend $500 within the first 90 days of opening the account and receive an additional $25 IKEA Reward.

Unfortunately, those looking for 0% interest will have to rely on the IKEA Projekt credit card as the IKEA Visa has no special financing offer.

Earning Reward Dollars with IKEA Visa Bonus Categories

There’s a lot to like when it comes to the IKEA Visa card’s bonus categories (it would easily be our top choice if it offered cash back as a redemption method). It has surprisingly lucrative rewards with a 5/3/1 bonus structure, making for an above-average return on coveted categories without any limitations or caps on earnings. Rather than points, the IKEA rewards program refers to these earnings as Reward Dollars.

IKEA Visa bonus categories are as follows:

• 5% back on IKEA, IKEA restaurant, Traemand, and TaskRabbit purchases
• 3% back on dining, grocery, and utility purchases
• 1% back on all other purchases

Cardholders have a rare opportunity to earn bonuses on utilities, a very seldom included bonus category. Utility services are categorized as those with MCCs between 4800–4999 and includes a wide range of services that you probably rely on every single day. Besides being one of the easiest ways to passively earn points, this card probably won’t be competing with the other credit cards in your wallet. You’ll be getting the best value by using your IKEA Visa to pay for things like:

• Electricity
• Gas
• Water
• Sanitation
• TV
• Radio
• Phone & Internet

While the rewards for dining and groceries are less of a novelty, they’re still much more than a nice-to-have – 3% is a competitive return rate that rivals some of the most popular dining credit cards currently in the market like the SavorOne by Capital One and no-annual-fee grocery rewards from the Blue Cash Everyday AMEX.

How Reward Dollars Work

Reward Dollars function as “points” with each one having an individual value of 1¢. They are earned with every single purchase made on the IKEA Visa and can take up to two weeks to post to an account. However, cardholders will be able to view their Reward Dollars balance on their monthly account statement.

Reward Dollars have a limited shelf life and expire 36 months (3 years) from the date that they were earned. While this isn’t a terribly short period of time, those who doesn’t see themselves shopping at IKEA within this time frame run the risk of having their earnings expire.

Redeeming Earnings for IKEA Reward Certificates

The IKEA Visa Credit Card has only a single redemption method: $15 Reward Certificates. These function as coupons and allow the user to take $15 off the total price at checkout.

Reward Certificates are automatically generated every time the cardholder has accumulated 15 Reward Points. Effectively, IKEA card owners will be able to generate a $15 for every:

• $300 spent at IKEA
• $500 spent on dining, groceries, and utilities,
• $1,500 spent anywhere else

Cardholders enrolled in paperless billing will be able to see and access their rewards through their account center and will also be notified via email. Those who are not enrolled and receive physical copies of the card statements will have Reward Certificates mailed out within 60 to 90 days after qualifying for a reward. Additionally, Comenity Bank will not replace any lost or undelivered Reward Certificates so its all the more reason to enroll in paperless billing.

For those who recently went on a shopping spree with their IKEA card should pay careful attention to their account as those auto-generated Reward Certificates expire a short 45 days after being issued.

Using IKEA Reward Certificates: Limitations & Restrictions

By far the most restrictive aspect of owning the IKEA Visa card is when it comes time to redeem rewards.

Rewards cannot be combined with other discounts or Reward Certificates, meaning that the maximum you’ll be able to save is $15 at a time. An easy workaround, however, would be to purchase items individually and apply a different Rewards Certificate for each item – just make sure that your item is worth more than your voucher.

When it comes to the types of purchases IKEA Reward Certificates can be used towards, they can only be applied to IKEA merchandise which, sadly, excludes the IKEA restaurant, gift cards, and shipping costs.

A Rewards Certificate can only be used once, so any remaining value will be lost. Additionally, items that were purchased with a Rewards Certificate and later returned will not have the voucher replaced. As such, cardholders should exchange unwanted items rather than a full refund which would then result in the waste of a reward.

Should You Apply for the IKEA® Visa® Credit Card?

While this card might seem like a no-brainer for the recent college graduate looking to furnish their home for the first time or a first time homeowner that finds themselves with several empty rooms to fill, this card doesn’t make sense for the person who only shops at IKEA for their big-ticket items (like beds and sofas). Items like these won’t warrant replacing for years so this M.O. could leave the IKEA Visa to languish and collect dust in the sleeve of your wallet. One-time (or once every few years) buyers who plan on purchasing furniture in bulk would instead be better off with the IKEA Projekt card – the only IKEA card option that offers 0% interest payment plans.

The ability to earn 5% in rewards on IKEA rewards is better suited for the person who always turns to IKEA for accent pieces and accessories or frequently rotates their home décor for the seasons newest style trends. This card would be even better for the person who turns to IKEA’s sensible and affordable marketplace to shop for everyday home items like flatware, cutting boards, or storage containers. This shopping style also ties into the best way to make use of IKEA’s restriction-laden Reward Certificates, which is easily the card’s biggest drawback.

Only one Reward Certificate can be applied per purchase—and taking $15 off probably won’t do much good in the face of a one-time purchase that costs several hundreds of dollars. Instead, the small denominations of the Reward Certificates will make the most impact on smaller purchases, items like light fixtures, wall art, or kitchen accessories. This reason alone makes the IKEA Visa credit card better suited for smaller – but frequent – purchases rather than large but infrequent ones.

Overall, if you live near an IKEA showroom, are the type to stop by “just to see what’s new,” and then find it difficult (or even impossible) to leave without something new in hand, the IKEA® Visa® Credit Card would be a great fit. Since it has no annual fee, it’s a low maintenance card to own. An IKEA-lover can use every shopping trip (or IKEA restaurant break) can fund their next one.

For those who like IKEA but only browse out of necessity, consider other non-cobranded credit cards that offer rewards for furniture or home décor (MCC 5712) and more flexible rewards. If you spend less than $300 at IKEA per year, the U.S. Bank Cash+ Visa Card is a great alternative which allows you to earn 5% back on your choice of nine categories, one of which includes furniture stores.

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