Craft store chain Michaels is now offering a credit card with rewards and other perks that build off of the existing Michaels Rewards program.
A 9% Reward!
The most significant and attractive aspect of the Michaels credit card is that it offers a 9% reward on purchases at Michaels stores and Michaels online. In the standard Michaels Rewards program, you’d earn 3% on your purchases, or 6% after you spend at least $300 at Michaels in a year. So having the credit card means 3%-6% in additional rewards on your Michaels purchases.
But You Have To Use Rewards Fast
Every time you earn $5 in rewards in the Michaels Rewards program, you are issued a $5 rewards voucher. With a 9% reward on your purchases, you can earn a $5 voucher with just over $55 in purchases, so earning a redeemable reward can happen fast. (You can also redeem more than one $5 voucher at the same time if you have multiple vouchers available.)
The downside to the Michaels Rewards vouchers is that you only have 32 days to use them once they’ve been issued. This may be fine if you are a frequent Michaels shopper, but for some people it might force them to make a purchase at a Michaels store or Michaels online sooner than would naturally happen. That pressure to take advantage of your rewards voucher could lead to purchases you’re not thrilled about or vouchers that you earn but never use — an undesirable outcome either way.
New Cardholder Bonus
You’ll get 20% off your first purchase with the Michaels credit card. As far as we can tell, this is “stackable” with other coupons or discounts on your purchases, so you could take advantage of multiple savings offers on the same Michaels haul.
Other Benefits
Beyond the Michaels credit card’s rewards, most of what you’ll receive is occasional discounts without a concrete timeline of when you might get them:
- Cardholder-only discounts
- Free shipping offers for online purchases (but free shipping is not a permanent benefit)
- Special financing offers on large purchases
- Birthday “perk” (usually a discount offer during your birthday month)
Other Things To Know:
- The Michaels credit card has no annual fee.
- It is accepted in Michaels stores and Michaels online, but it can’t be used anywhere & everywhere, i.e., it is NOT a Visa, Mastercard, American Express or Discover credit card.
- Comenity Capital Bank is Michaels’ partner for this card. Comenity issues many credit cards on behalf of retail partners, and handles the card accounts, card payments, and card customer service.
- The interest rate on the card is likely to be over 25%, perhaps even over 30%. While high interest rates are the norm for retail store credit cards like this, you need to be sure not to carry balances from month to month on the card or you will pay more in interest than you gain from getting a higher rewards rate.
Author: Adam Jusko
The card is great for shopping at Michaels. However, the bank they went with is terrible. Everything about them is terrible! The payment options are terrible. You can not pay with a debit card you MUST pay by setting up your checking account which I hate. I want to pay my bills immediately not have to wait for everything to process through snail banking! Next worst thing I’ve ever seen is if you don’t make your payment before 5pm your payment is dated the next day. So don’t be like me and pay AFTER I got off work at 5:30pm the day my payment was due (my payday) because now my payment is considered late. All of Comenity’s/Bread Financial credit cards are like this. I also have a Maurice’s CC and I hate using it as well. I think as soon as I pay that one off Im closing it.