Capital One Walmart Rewards® Mastercard® review: Great rewards for customers of one of the largest retail chains

For fans of online shopping and Walmart stores, the Capital One Walmart Rewards® Mastercard®* could be one of the best credit cards for groceries, everyday products, electronics and home furnishings.

Boasting no annual fee, it offers an impressive 5 percent cash back on Walmart.com purchases, including grocery pickup and delivery orders. The card also earns 2 percent cash back for in-store purchases, which is the same as what you’ll earn with flat-rate cash back cards. And, since this is an instant-use credit card, you can begin racking up high rewards with the big-box retailer within minutes of approval.

As long as you take advantage of the card’s high-earning potential and pay your balances in full and on time, the Walmart Rewards Mastercard is a solid pick. But if you prefer to shop elsewhere, a flexible rewards credit card that earns bonus cash back in various categories may provide greater value.

The Capital One Walmart Rewards Mastercard can be a great option for loyal Walmart customers who shop regularly online and can make the most of this card’s generous cash back rates. This card also has a solid flat rate for Walmart purchases and big-budget staples like gas, restaurants and travel.

Rewards: Great rewards for Walmart regulars

You can outpace the rewards on several other cash back and rewards cards with the Walmart Rewards Mastercard by shopping online with this popular retailer at Walmart.com. However, you might also squeeze more value from this card for restaurant, Walmart gas and travel purchases. The combination of boosted rewards for store loyalty and everyday value for regular purchases sets this card apart from other branded credit cards. If you make most of your purchases online at Walmart and only want to hold one rewards card, you’d be the perfect candidate to make the most of this cash back card.

The only downside is that the card’s highest ongoing cash back rate only applies to online purchases at Walmart.com. A restriction like this won’t be a problem for savvy online shoppers, but in-store shoppers won’t earn as much cash back. However, if you shop in-store, you’ll still benefit from the best available cash back rate for Walmart purchases — 2 percent back. You will have difficulty finding another credit card that rewards more than or equal to this rate at Walmart because many cards with boosted rates specify that Walmart purchases won’t earn bonus points or cash back.

Welcome offer: Unique chance to earn a high cash back bonus

With this card's unique welcome offer, you could earn a substantial amount of cash back in your first year — 5 percent cash back on purchases in Walmart stores for the first 12 months when using your card with Walmart Pay. If you shop online at Walmart.com, this welcome offer can’t do much for you since it matches your ongoing cash back rate for online purchases on the retailer’s website. However, if you prefer to shop in the store, this welcome offer can help you build a large cash back balance before your ongoing cash back rate of 2 percent sets in.

Standard welcome offers on comparable cash back cards hover around $200 and require you to spend anywhere from $500 to $3,000 to earn them. The Walmart Rewards Mastercard has a welcome offer that doesn’t place a ceiling on your cash bonus and doesn’t have a spending requirement. You can spend as little or as much as you please in stores to earn 5 percent back. You can make this offer competitive with other welcome offers by spending at least $4,000 in Walmart stores, earning $200 back. However, you can make this offer much more generous the more you spend, making it a beneficial offer for new cardholders with a substantial amount of in-store spending to do their first year with the card.

For instance, if you make $12,000 of in-store purchases at Walmart in your first 12 months with the card, you’ll earn $600 of cash back. This value is three times as much as the cash value of competing welcome offers on cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠ and the Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards credit card.

Although it requires quite a bit of spending, this welcome offer doesn’t place any limitations on the cash bonus you can earn. If you’re likely to spend quite a bit in-store at Walmart in your first year — whether you’re furnishing a house or making regular trips for groceries and household items — this card may have the best chance at earning a substantial bonus for your first-year spending.

APR: Potentially low ongoing APR without penalty rates

The Walmart Rewards Mastercard has a fairly low regular APR, on the low end. Although its high end aligns with what you should expect on most cash back cards, you can qualify for an APR a few percentage points lower than the current average credit card APR. Your creditworthiness will determine if you qualify for this card’s lowest APR, but it may be inaccessible to anyone with a less-than-ideal credit profile.

Many cash back cards have favorable APRs, but store-branded cards like the Walmart Rewards Mastercard usually have relatively steep APRs that can inflate your credit card balance with interest.

For instance, the Prime Visa card has a regular, variable APR of 19.24 percent to 27.24 percent. This APR range is a few percentage points higher than the Walmart Mastercard’s lowest APR and a few points lower on the high end. Between the two cards, if you have an excellent credit profile, you could qualify for a lower APR with the Walmart card.

On the other hand, a card like the Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi card has a regular APR of 20.49 percent (variable) and a penalty APR of up to 29.99 percent. The Costco card has a consistent APR, but it’s higher than the Walmart Rewards Mastercard’s lowest possible APR, and it could charge a high penalty APR if you make a late payment or a payment is returned to you. Fortunately, the Walmart Mastercard doesn’t charge a penalty APR. While you shouldn’t make late payments a habit, you’ll have peace of mind knowing your APR won’t rise substantially for missing your due date.

Although this card has its strengths for Walmart customers, it has several drawbacks that make it a poor choice for everyday cardholders who want a simple, hassle-free cash back card. 

Intro APR: Interest can accrue early on 

Many of the best cash back cards come with introductory APR offers for either balance transfers or new purchases. Several of these cards have offers for both, letting cardholders curb interest while they make payments as they please (until the offer term ends) and benefit from generous cash back rates. The Walmart Rewards Mastercard doesn’t have any intro APR offer, meaning your balance will accrue interest at the card’s regular APR if you carry a balance starting.

All this means is that you don’t get the introductory period in which you won’t accrue interest if you don’t pay on time each month; you’ll need to pay on your due date, every billing cycle, to avoid interest charges.

Lacking an intro APR isn’t necessarily a glaring drawback on most cash back cards, but it’s an even bigger drawback on this card because of how cardholders might want to take advantage of its welcome offer. You can maximize this card’s rewards potential with its boosted cash back welcome offer for the first year by earning an additional 3 percent on in-store purchases for a total of 5 percent back. It would be much easier to squeeze value out of that welcome offer if you had an intro APR to help you keep your balance low, especially if you plan on racking up large charges to make the most of your in-store cash back rate for the first year.

Not only does the lack of an intro APR mean you have to pay on time each month starting with your first statement, but it means you might struggle to make the most of this card’s unique welcome offer.

Perks: Limited perks compared to other cards in this category

The Walmart Rewards Mastercard does not carry extra perks or benefits that bring value to your wallet. Other than its outstanding rewards rate for purchases at Walmart.com and solid rate for in-store purchases, this card lacks any Rewards and cash back cards have generous rates that reward you for purchases using your card, and often come with extra perks that bring additional value.

Several issuers like American Express, Citi and Chase include solid perks on their rewards cards. Cards from these issuers have various cash back and rewards rates, and may not be great options for Walmart purchases, but different perks will appeal to different cardholders.

Of course, if you’re a Walmart regular, the Walmart Mastercard can be a great choice. However, if you don’t shop at Walmart, you should look at other cards because they may have perks that appeal to your spending habits.

Usability: Stringent terms for earning cash back

Store credit cards are sometimes challenging to maximize because they reserve the best rewards for purchases at their respective retail locations. The Walmart Rewards Mastercard is an exception to this rule because it has a boosted rate for restaurant and travel purchases, but it still lacks convenient usability, making it a difficult cash back card to make the most of.

The most notable restriction is how difficult it might be to maximize this card’s welcome offer. You’ll need to shop in-store at Walmart and use Walmart Pay to earn 5 percent cash back for your in-store purchases for the first year. Although this can amount to a healthy cash back balance, the hurdles you must jump through to build that balance are more complicated than a standard welcome offer. Plus, you’ll need to spend at least $4,000 in-store at Walmart with Walmart Pay to earn at least $200 cash back, which is roughly equivalent to the cash value of most no-annual-fee cards’ welcome offers with spending requirements ranging from $500 to $1,500.

This card rewards generously for Walmart gas and in-store purchases with a 2 percent cash back rate, matching the flat rate of popular cash back cards. This boosted rate could make it a great card for everyday purchases like gas and groceries, but only some Walmarts have an expanded grocery section or a gas station. That said, if you live in a region without a fully-equipped Walmart, you might be missing some of the best features of this store-branded cash back card.

Compared to other cash back credit cards, the Capital One Walmart Rewards Card is the clear winner, but only if Walmart is your go-to place to shop. If you’re looking for more versatility, here are two other cash back credit cards that will reward you for purchases made at traditional supermarkets.

If you value cash back above all other rewards, it makes sense to pair the Capital One Walmart Rewards Card with a flat-rate cash back card or another cash back card that offers rewards in different bonus categories. 

For many, Walmart is more than a retailer—it’s the primary hub for groceries, home goods, auto care and more. There are over 5,300 Walmart stores, making this card offer very appealing. With unlimited 5 percent cash back on purchases at Walmart.com, which includes grocery pickup and delivery, there’s a lot to love for those who shop online at the superstore.

However, if you prefer shopping at different stores or do not live close to a Walmart or a Walmart supercenter with an expanded grocery section, getting the card may not be worthwhile. Instead, consider adding a card to your wallet that offers rewards in broader categories that match your spending habits.

*The information about the Chase Freedom Flex℠ and the Capital One Walmart Rewards Mastercard have been collected independently by Bankrate.com. The card details have not been reviewed or approved by the card issuer.

We rate credit cards using a proprietary card scoring system that ranks each card’s estimated average rewards rate, estimated annual earnings, welcome bonus value, APR, fees, perks and more against those of other cards in its primary category.

Each card feature is assigned a weighting based on how important it is to people looking for a card in a given category. These features are then scored based on how they rank relative to the features on other cards in the category. Based on these calculations, each card receives an overall rating of 1-5 stars (with 5 being the highest possible score and 1 being the lowest). 

We analyzed over 150 of the most popular rewards and cash back cards to determine where each stacked up based on their value, cost, benefits and more. Here are some of the key factors that influenced this card’s overall score and how the score influenced our review: