Liberty Bank Visa Signature® Real Rewards Card

At a Glance 

Liberty Bank Visa Signature® Real Rewards Card earns cardholders 1.5 points for every dollar they spend. There is no annual fee for this card and no limit to how many points you can earn. New cardholders also receive 2,500 bonus points with their first purchase. Additionally, new cardholders can take advantage of 0% APR for six months on purchases and balance transfers.

Ideal for Those Who:

• Don’t want to pay an annual fee
• Want to earn rewards points on their purchases
• Would like to take advantage of 0% APR on their purchases for 6 months
• Need to transfer a balance and intend to pay it off in 6 months

Liberty Bank Visa Signature® Real Rewards Card Review

The Liberty Bank Visa Signature® Real Rewards Card is one of the more basic rewards cards that Liberty Bank offers consumers. It earns you 1.5 points for every dollar you spend with no spending categories to worry about.

There’s no limit to how many points you can earn, but you are limited on how long you can wait before you redeem your points. There’s no annual fee for this card, which makes the rewards that much more rewarding.

New cardholders can also earn 2,500 bonus points on their first purchase with no purchase minimum. What’s more, new cardholders can take advantage of an introductory 0% APR offer for six months on both purchases and balance transfers. Keep reading to learn more about the benefits of the Liberty Bank Visa Signature® Real Rewards Card.

Earn 1.5X Points on Your Purchases

The Liberty Bank Visa Signature® Real Rewards Card earns you one and a half (1.5) points for every dollar you spend with this card. Some rewards cards offer tiered points systems (including Liberty Bank), with different purchase categories earning you different amounts of points.

It can be a headache to remember what kinds of purchases earn you the most points with those types of cards. Luckily, you don’t have to worry about that with this card.

Almost every type of purchase can earn you the same amount of points when you use the Visa Signature® Card. Certain financial transactions, like balance transfers and cash advances, will never earn you points. But this is a common feature of most (if not all) rewards cards.

Your rewards points appear on your account at the end of your monthly billing cycle. This means that you won’t see your rewards points on your account immediately after making a purchase. As such, you will have to wait a month after signing up for this card before you can start redeeming points.

Keep in mind that you earn points on your net purchases. What this means is that Liberty Bank will deduct any credits or refunds you receive from your total purchases to calculate your points.

For example, if you spent $1,500 but received a refund of $200, you will only earn points for $1,300. This isn’t a unique restriction for a rewards card. It prevents cardholders from earning points without actually spending any money.

To kick start your earnings, the Real Rewards Card gives you 2,500 bonus points when you make your first purchase with your new card. There is no purchase minimum to receive these points, so you can earn 2,500 points even if you only spend one dollar.

You’ll earn these points in addition to your regular points. If your first purchase totals $500, for instance, you’ll earn 3,250 points on that purchase.

Redeeming Your Points

The Liberty Bank Visa Signature® Real Rewards Card doesn’t let you redeem your points until after Liberty Bank posts them to your account at the end of your monthly billing cycle. The Elan Rewards Program manages this card’s rewards. It features a catalog of merchandise, gift cards, and travel vouchers at varying redemption levels.

However, as with many rewards catalogs these days, you cannot browse the catalog until you actually have a credit card account. This can make it frustrating to determine how many points you need to get an item, but Liberty Bank does give potential applicants a hint as to how much points are worth.

In addition to using your points on the rewards catalog, you can redeem your points for cash back either as a deposit into your Liberty Bank checking or savings account or as a statement credit. Deposits take about seven business days to appear on your account. Statement credits, on the other hand, will appear on your credit card balance within one to two months.

Your 2,500 bonus points is actually worth a $25 credit. This means that each point is roughly equivalent to $0.01 (one cent). As such, every dollar you earn will earn you one and a half cents.

There’s no limit to how many points you can earn, but your points do expire after five years. That gives you a lot of time to rack up a lot of points you can redeem for:

• big cash deposits
• statement credits
• items from the rewards card.

However, you need to make sure to use your card consistently in order to earn enough points before they expire.

0% APR on Purchases

Besides earning rewards points, the Liberty Bank Visa Signature® Real Rewards Card provides some other great perks. Chief among them is an introductory 0% APR on purchases for six months.

This promotion is particularly attractive for people who need to finance a large purchase that they can pay off in six months. You just need to calculate what your monthly payments will be and whether you have the cash flow to afford them each month. You should also identify what you need to purchase early on or preferably before you apply for this card. This way you can maximize the time you have to pay it off.

If you need to make an extraordinarily large purchase, however, you may want to check out some other 0% introductory APR cards on Bestcards.com. While a six-month promotional period is better than nothing, many competitors offer 12 or even 18 months of interest-free purchases.

0% APR on Balance Transfers

The Liberty Bank Visa Signature® Real Rewards Card offers a similar zero-interest period on balances, too. However, this deal may not be as appealing. For starters, 0% APR doesn’t translate to a free balance transfer. You still need to pay a fee to transfer a balance onto this card.

Additionally, you only have 186 days from the date that open your account to transfer a balance and take advantage of this deal. Furthermore, you’ll only have six months to pay it off.

Now, if you have the cash to pay off a relatively small balance, this may be an excellent feature for you. However, not everyone may be in that position.

If you have a $10,000 balance on another credit card and want to pay it off without paying additional interest, your monthly payments will come out to nearly $1,700 a month.

That can be a significant portion of someone’s paycheck. In such instances, it might be better to leave your balance on your other credit, especially if you have a reasonable interest rate with that card.

Should You Apply for the Liberty Bank Visa Signature® Real Rewards Card?

This Visa Signature® Card can be an ideal match for someone who is looking for a basic rewards card. This might be a perfect starter rewards card for someone who wants to see what it’s like to earn points but doesn’t want to commit to an annual fee.

There are no points tiers or spending categories to worry about. You have the freedom to redeem your points for a variety of items, as well as cash back. The points system with this card is only slightly higher than the 1X points per dollar spent that is the baseline for most rewards card.

The introductory zero-interest offers are nice add-ons, but they really aren’t the selling points of this card. If you care more about paying off a credit card balance or financing a large purchase with 0% APR, there are other credit cards you may want to consider.