Sallie Mae (SM) Credit Card Review (Discontinued)

Sallie Mae (SM)

Sallie Mae Credit Card (SM) Review

2018.3 Update: This card will be automatically converted to Barclaycard Rewards Credit Card (Discontinued) (HT: DoC). This is also a useless card. No idea what Barclaycard is doing here.

2016.12 Update: This card will be automatically converted to a card called “Commence by SallieMae Mastercard”. It only offers 2% cashback on Grocery & Utility and 1% cashback on everything. Basically useless.

Application Link

  • This card no longer accepts new applications.

Benefits

  1. Earn $25 after using your card in first 3 months.
  2. 5% cash back on grocery, up to $250 per month. 5% cash back on gas, up to $250 per month. 5% cash back on book, up to $750 per month.
  3. Some Walmart and Target purchases (depends on location) qualify for the 5% cash back at grocery, unlike AmEx credit cards which have narrower definition of grocery.
  4. Amazon purchases qualify for the 5% cash back on book. Note: only items marked as “Sold by Amazon” will qualify for 5% cash back on bookstore.
  5. No annual fee.
  6. Sallie Mae Credit Card is a MasterCard, which is more widely accepted than AmEx credit card. This is an advantage over AmEx grocery credit cards like AmEx Blue Cash Preferred (BCP) Credit Card and AmEx EveryDay Preferred (EDP) Credit Card.

Disadvantages

  1. 5% cash back on grocery is limited to the first $250 purchases per month, which may not be enough. After $250 you will only earn 1% cash back.
  2. It has foreign transaction fee, so it's not a good choice outside the US.

Summary

This card is a no-brainer choice! The only obvious drawback may be that it’s not easy to get if you applied for too many credit cards during the past 6 months. If you want to choose between Sallie Mae Credit Card, AmEx EveryDay Preferred (EDP) and AmEx Blue Cash Preferred (BCP) Credit Card, you can enter your monthly spending at CreditIntro and let it compute it for you, or you can read our comparison: Best Rewards Credit Cards For Grocery. The shorter answer is that if your monthly spending in grocery is less than $367 (assuming you have Chase Freedom Credit Card), you should choose Sallie Mae for grocery credit cards; even if your monthly grocery spending is more than $367, still you should probably get Sallie Mae Credit Card for its 5% cash back on gas and Amazon.

Note: During your application, if you choose student as occupation, the “school address” will be your default address, even if you choose “material will be sent to permanent address”. You need to contact custom services if you want to change your default address.

Historical Offers Chart

This card is discontinued on 2015.9.30.

Application Link

  • This card no longer accepts new applications.

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