Quick highlights
- Rewards rate: 5 percent cash back at Walmart.com, including pickup & delivery; 2 percent cash back in Walmart stores & fuel stations, at restaurants and on travel; 1 percent cash back everywhere else Mastercard is accepted
- Welcome offer: Earn 5 percent cash back in Walmart stores for the first 12 months when you use your Capital One Walmart Rewards Card with Walmart Pay
- Annual fee: $0
- Regular APR: 17.99 percent or 29.49 percent (variable)
Current sign-up bonus
Instead of a flat cash back bonus, the Walmart Rewards Card currently offers an elevated cash back rate in your first year: You can earn 5 percent cash back in Walmart stores for the first 12 months when you use your card with Walmart Pay. That’s 3 percent higher than the regular rewards rate you’d get when shopping in-store at Walmart.
To get access to the extra cash back, you’ll need to sign up for Walmart Pay, the store’s digital wallet, and use it exclusively at checkout. If you were to use the card at Walmart without the Walmart Pay app, you’d only earn 2 percent back.
If you do the majority of your shopping at Walmart across categories including groceries, clothes and car maintenance, you could earn a significant amount of cash back in the first year. Based on average household spending estimates from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, using the Walmart Rewards Card with Walmart Pay for these purchases in your first year could earn you close to $400 in cash back.
Rewards rate
The Capital One Walmart Rewards Card offers good everyday value for loyal shoppers. All the points you earn, even the 1 percent cash back on all other eligible purchases made outside of Walmart can be used to effectively write off future purchases.
How you earn
Cardholders earn an unlimited 5 percent cash back at Walmart.com, including grocery orders made for in-store pickup or local delivery. This is especially useful since Walmart typically doesn’t count as a grocery store, according to most credit card merchant category codes.
The unlimited 5 percent rate for a card that charges no annual fee is impressive, especially since it almost rivals that of top U.S. supermarket rewards cards. This includes the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express, which offers a slightly higher rate of 6 percent but carries an ongoing annual fee of $95 ($0 intro annual fee for the first year) and a spending cap of $6,000 per year on grocery purchases.
On purchases made at Walmart stores, you’ll earn an ongoing regular rewards rate of 2 percent cash back, whether or not you use Walmart Pay. Combined with Walmart’s everyday low prices, this is still a good deal, considering most other rewards credit cards only offer 1 percent cash back for shopping at superstores like Walmart and Target.
On top of the grocery rewards, you also earn 2 percent cash back at restaurants, on travel and for purchases made at Walmart and Murphy USA gas stations. Everywhere else Mastercard credit cards are accepted, including at Sam’s Club stores and all other gas stations, you’ll earn 1 percent cash back. These are nice add-ons that help give the Walmart Rewards card more value, but you’ll definitely want to look at different options if you spend a lot in the following areas:
How to redeem
There are multiple ways to redeem your cash back, but the most common way to use your Walmart rewards is as a statement credit to cover purchases made with the card. While rewards can only be applied to purchases made in the last 90 days, partial redemptions are an option. After selecting the purchase and the amount of cash back you want to redeem, the charges will disappear in two to three business days.
You can also request a check for your cash back balance or redeem for gift cards at Walmart or other retailers. Rewards can also be used for travel reservations, including flights. The number of points will vary based on the requested trip, and reservations must be booked 72 hours in advance.