Posted by: John S Kiernan

PlayStation® Card from Capital One® EDITOR’S RATING 4.7 / 5 PROS

• Up to $50 first-purchase bonus
• 5% back on PlayStation Store purchases and PlayStation and Sony products from authorized retailers
• 3% back on mobile-phone bills (1% on everything else)
• 0% purchase APR for 6 months
• No annual fee

CONS

• Potential for a very high regular APR
• Inconsistent redemption value

The Verdict: The PlayStation® Card from Capital One® won’t really help you save on everyday expenses like gas and groceries, which makes it ill-suited to be your primary spending vehicle. But it can save you a bundle on gaming and entertainment expenses, in addition to perhaps helping you avoid undue aggravation if you have a teenager in the house.

With that being said, the average gamer is 35 years old, according to the Electronic Software Association, and the PlayStation® Card does a great job of rewarding the kid in all of us. It gives you 5 points for each $1 that you spend at the PlayStation™ Store and at authorized PlayStation and Sony retailers, plus 3 points per $1 spent on your monthly mobile phone bill. All other purchases earn 1 point per $1.

The PlayStation® Card is somewhat less enticing on the financing side of things, though it does offer 0% on new purchases for 6 months and charges no balance-transfer fee. The main flaw is the fact that its regular interest rate could be above the market average, depending on your creditworthiness, which is well above the 20.79% average for credit cards that require “good” credit for approval. But that can be avoided by simply paying your balance in full each month.

As a result, the PlayStation® Card is an excellent option for anyone who makes frequent PlayStation purchases but usually requires no financing assistance to pay for them. And while the card’s good-credit approval requirement might prevent many people from qualifying, this would be a good card to open with the intent of making your child an authorized user, considering that it doesn’t charge an annual fee. Read on for more details about this offer and a comparison of popular alternatives.

The Highlights

• $50 First-Purchase Bonus: Capital One commemorates the first purchase that you make within 90 days by giving you a $50 PlayStation™ Store Code. That’s some of the easiest money you’ll ever earn.

• Up To 5 Points Per $1 Spent: You will earn 5 points per $1 spent at the PlayStation Store, an online marketplace for games and other digital media and on PlayStation and Sony products purchased from authorized retailers. Furthermore, you’ll earn 3 points per $1 on your cell-phone bill. In order to earn more than 1 point per $1 spent on such transactions, you will submit a “Bonus Points Form.”All other purchases made with this card yield 1 point per $1 spent. PlayStation Points are worth about 1 cent apiece, which means 5,000 points would get you $50 to spend at the PlayStation Store.

• Limited-Time 0% Financing: The PlayStation® Card regularly offers a 0% introductory rate for new purchases. So if you have a big-ticket purchase coming up that will take longer than a single billing period to repay, particularly if it’s a Sony item, break out your calendars and consult a credit-card calculator to see if this interest-free term suits your needs. 

• No Annual Fee: Most cobranded credit cards don’t charge annual fees, so the PlayStation® Card is not alone is this respect. But no fee is always better than some fee, all else being equal, so you have to give credit to the PlayStation® Card where credit is due.

The Lowlights

• Potential For A Very High Regular APR: Good credit is generally required for PlayStation-Card approval, but if you qualify and your credit is good but not great, you could end up paying interest at a rate that’s considerably higher than what someone with good credit card should expect, according to our latest Credit Card Landscape Report, but it’s actually also on par with many offers targeted to people with bad credit. With that being said, you could be awarded a regular rate as low as 16.24%, but it will likely take exceptionally excellent credit.

Other Things To Consider

• Sony Rewards Account Required: It’s worth noting that you will have to register for a Sony Rewards account in order to redeem your earnings. It is free to sign up at SonyRewards.com, but it’s nevertheless another task to add to your to-do list. 

• Potential For Low Redemption Value: The points that you earn with your PlayStation® Card won’t always be worth a cent apiece, as will be the case if you redeem for a digital gift card for the PlayStation Store. For example, the movie “The Walk” on DVD costs 1,999 points at the Sony Rewards Store. Based on Amazon.com’s $12.49 price for that movie, each PlayStation® Card point would be worth about $0.0162, which is actually good compared to some of your other options.

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via Finance Xpress