Don’t Let Your Favorite Team Lead You To This Financial Mistake

Saving money on don let favorite team does not have to be complicated. We rounded up the essentials so you can spend less and skip the guesswork.

Key Takeaways

• But your favorite team should have no direct correlation with the rewards credit card you choose to put in your wallet.
• Major credit card issuers are known for their savvy marketing strategies.
• From American Express’ old-school “Don’t leave home without it” commercials to the more modern Capital One “Wh...

Sports are fun! But your favorite team should have no direct correlation with the rewards credit card you choose to put in your wallet.

Major credit card issuers are known for their savvy marketing strategies. From American Express’ old-school “Don’t leave home without it” commercials to the more modern Capital One “What’s in your wallet?” campaign, banks have been trying to catch your eye and wallet with marketing slogans and campaigns.

They’ve taken this to the next level by targeting specific demographics with credit cards that are curated for their interests. Sports are not immune in this endeavor.

Card issuers have partnered with both American sports leagues and individual teams to create some seemingly attractive credit cards.

And, while the presence of your favorite team’s logo on the card art may seem cool, there’s actually varying levels of usefulness for these cards once you look under the hood. Some of them are simply not worth it.

In this article, I’m going to show you a few examples of how card issuers are leveraging your favorite sports teams, and give you some suggestions for resisting the temptation and finding a card that may be more useful for your wallet instead.

3 Examples of Credit Card Issuers Leveraging American Sports Teams

Sports fans are no strangers to seeing their favorite teams used to market financial products. For years, local and regional banks have offered checking accounts featuring debit cards branded with the logos of nearby pro and college teams to attract shoppers.

While Team Clark recommends using credit cards over debit cards, those team-branded checking accounts are frequently relatively harmless, especially if they come with no monthly fees and consumer-friendly features.

However, credit cards are a different story.

More banks and card issuers are partnering with sports teams to encourage fans to sign up for team-branded credit cards. But just because a card appeals to your loyalty as a fan doesn’t mean it’s a good financial decision. Before applying, it’s key to compare the rewards, fees and benefits against other cards on the market.

Here are three popular examples of how pro sports have been integrated into the credit card world:

NFL Extra Points Visa® Credit Card

This card, which is offered by Bread Financial (via Comenity Capital Bank), gives you a chance to pick your favorite NFL team for the card art and earn 3% back on qualifying NFL purchases.

And while it does offer 2% back on some popular spending categories, that merely matches the 2% cash back that money expert Clark Howard recommends that you get from your everyday spender.

Reasons to Avoid:

• Most spending categories only earn 1% back
• The welcome bonus falls short of top offers from other no-annual-fee cards
• Promotes “special financing” of NFL tickets, which we would never recommend

New York Yankees Mastercard®

Major League Baseball is not as aggressive in offering a “league wide” credit card, but there are some team-specific opportunities out there.

One of the most prominent is a card attached to the 27-time World Series winning New York Yankees.

It offers an impressive 5% back at Yankee Stadium, which is probably worth considering if you’re a season-ticket holder who is in the Bronx upwards of 81 times per year.

But the average Yankee fan probably gets to the stadium once or twice per season, at best. So that means your 5% earning opportunity is going to be extremely limited with this card.

That being said, I will say that 3% at restaurants, bars, gas, rideshare and mass transit is actually a pretty solid return. The 1% back on all other purchases, though, is not very good.

Reasons to Avoid:

• Big 5% back category is only good at Yankee Stadium
• 1% back on everyday purchases is not good

NHL-Themed Discover it® Credit Card

This is a different than the first two cards mentioned, but it’s a heavily-marketed, sports-themed credit card so I feel it’s key to explain the differences.

Discover, which is now owned by Capital One, negotiated a deal with the NHL to make team-themed card art for its popular Discover it® Credit Card.

This means that people who apply for this card are simply getting the Discover it with customized card art. It spends exactly the same way.

There are no hockey-specific perks that come with the card, which is known for its first-year cash back bonus match and rotating 5% spending categories.

We have, at various times, included this card in our list of best welcome bonus cards and best cash back cards thanks to the ability to leverage 5% spending in some popular categories.

However, we DO NOT recommend this card as an everyday spender. It only earns 1% back in the non-bonus categories.

Use These No Annual Fee Credit Cards Instead

If you need a credit card for purchasing tickets to the big game or buying concessions while you’re there, there are some options out there that will reward those purchases AND better serve your wallet in everyday life.

Start with a 2% Cash Back Catch All

Before we get into reward spending categories, I want to reiterate Team Clark’s base credit card advice: We recommend a no annual fee credit card that awards unlimited 2% cash back on every purchase you make.

That will ensure that you are effectively spending 98 cents on every dollar that is charged to the card, regardless of the type of purchase that you’re trying to make.

Here are a couple that we frequently recommend:

.credit-card-capsule td.label { width: 50%; font-weight: bold; } .c-cpp__cta { border-bottom: none; text-align: center; } .c-cpp__cta>a { background-color: #19ad47; color: white; text-decoration: none; padding: 0.75rem 1.25rem; display: inline-block; font-size: 1.25rem; } .c-cpp__cta>a:hover, .c-cpp__cta>a:focus { opacity: 0.7; } .capsule_c-cpp__arrow_link>a { text-decoration: none; padding: 0.75rem 1.25rem; display: inline-block; font-size: 1.5rem; color: #00ae41 !key; } Synchrony Premier World Mastercard® Learn More → Annual Fee: $0 Rewards Program Details:

2% Cash Back on Every Purchase: Your cash back is unlimited and gets credited to your statement every month, automatically.

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Earn unlimited 2% cash rewards on purchases with no categories to track or quarterly activations.

Find a Card That More Generically Enhances Your Sports Spending

Some people choose to “set it and forget it” with a 2% card, while others use it as a base return on spending with hopes of beating that return with complementary credit cards in their wallet.

That can be a little more work, but some people find it worth it when they are able to squeeze the extra cash back out of cards that offer enhanced rewards for a specific type of spend.

Most of the sports-centric cards we mentioned above offer some version of that “better than 2%” enhancement, but most are too narrowly focused. For example, just how frequently will yo

Final Thoughts

The bottom line: a little research on don let favorite team goes a long way. Compare your options, watch for seasonal offers, and never pay full price when a better deal is one click away.

Originally published at clark.com.