Banana Republic Rewards
The Banana Republic Rewards program and more importantly, the Banana Republic Visa, play a huge role in my overall credit card spend strategy. I’ve increasingly focused on everyday rewards unrelated to travel for years, and my family and I obtain huge value out of Banana Republic Rewards. Last year, the program underwent a significant overhaul, resulting in various changes affecting members. But how impactful are these changes? Do consumers come out ahead, or has the program devalued? I aim to answer these questions today. But first, I’ll reset the basics of the program and credit card.
Note: Banana Republic Visa card rewards are only redeemable for clothing and other items at the Banana Republic/Gap family of stores.
Banana Republic Rewards Visa Basics
Frequent Banana Republic shoppers looking to maximize their earning and rewards will do best by obtaining the Banana Republic Visa card is issued by Synchrony Bank. The card earns 5 points per dollar spent at Banana Republic, Gap, Old Navy, and Athleta. All other purchases normally earn 1 point per dollar spent. Each is worth one cent per point for redemption at these stores.
Synchrony issues cards for other stores in the Gap family, but we’ll be focusing on Banana Republic Rewards loyalty program changes today.
The Most Significant Banana Republic Rewards Changes
The program rolled out a plethora of changes last year, and I’ll focus on the changes where I’ve seen the most impact.
Elite Status
Program tier names have been changed to Core, Enthusiast, and Icon. Shoppers now obtain Enthusiast or Icon with $500 or $1k minimum annual spend (respectively) at any store within the family. Alternatively, shoppers can obtain Icon by reaching 5k total points earned across all stores.
Another significant change is that Banana Republic/Gap Visa Signature cardholders automatically obtain Icon status by simply holding the card. This top tier status, formerly named Luxe, previously required $5k calendar year spend to obtain. Spend is no longer necessary for that status! Of course, the program gives cardholders plenty of reason to spend on the card – more on that later.
Points Earning
Top tier elites no longer obtain 20% quarterly extra points on all spend. Instead, we obtain a flat quarterly bonus for all member tier levels, provided a member makes at least one purchase at any family store within the quarter. See below:
- Core: 125 points
- Enthusiast: 250 points
- Icon: 500 points
The 20% bonus points disappearing is a clear loss. I enjoyed stacking this tier bonus with periodic bonus spend offers up to 10x for a total of 10.2x rewards. But no more.
Shipping Benefits
Luxe members previously received free shipping with no minimum purchase amount. Now, members of all tiers receive free shipping, but with one major catch. Shoppers can only obtain free shipping with a minimum $50 purchase. Core and Enthusiast members obtain free 3-5 day shipping, and Icon members have free 2-3 day shipping.
In terms of shipping speed, this is a win for Icon level members. I previously recall only receiving free 3-5 day shipping as a Luxe member. But the $50 minimum spend requirement for free shipping is difficult to ignore. This requirement puts more on individual shoppers to responsibly plan and spend for free shipping.
Other Touches
Redemption has gone digital. There’s no more fooling with paper certificates. Members have more flexibility in redeeming points without going significantly out of pocket. How? Members can apply points up to the closest full dollar of a purchase subtotal. For example, let’s say you have a purchase subtotal of $57.74. You can now redeem 5,700 points on the order, and you additionally owe $0.74 (plus tax on that $0.74). You’re no longer stuck redeeming at the fixed denominations of the paper certificates!
Unused Gap Cash, BR Style Cash, and Old Navy Super Cash previously expired. Now, members can turn those unused funds into rewards, albeit at a paltry rate of $1 for 1 reward point. That’s almost nothing, but it’s still an improvement.
Conclusion
More good news is that members continue to receive targeted, periodic spending offers. For instance, I’m currently earning 5x points on all grocery, gas, dining, and wholesale club purchases in the first quarter of the year. I’ve also had great experiences with program representatives via the Banana Republic site’s chat function. The Banana Republic/Gap family of credit cards will also be moving from Synchrony to Barclays in the future. Fortunately, the word is that existing cardholders will be automatically product changed to the future Barclays versions. Therefore, if you’re interested in the card, you may want to apply while it’s still with Synchrony, especially if you’ve been unable to obtain cards from Barclays recently.
Programs that don’t devalue with updates are wins for consumers. Unfortunately, that rarely happens anymore. Overall, I feel the Banana Republic Rewards program hasn’t gotten worse with this update, and that’s huge. And in some areas, particularly points redemption and free shipping, one can conclude the update is an improvement.
What do you think of the Banana Republic Rewards program’s changes?
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I too had Luxe status previously but with my new card, I’m only Enthusiast. Not sure why, since your article states by being a Luxe cardholder, I should have been granted Icon status. The $50 for free shipping is also a bit on the high side.
KH,
It’s possible your status change is unrelated to the change to Barclays. How recently have you met elite requalification?
The birthday reward also changed didn’t it? You used to get $15 or was it $10? Now it’s just points? Can you confirm if this is the case? Thank you.
NJ,
Program directs users to log in to view their birthday rewards. Upon login, I only see that I’ll receive bonus points on my birthday (no amount given). I’m not expecting much.
Was missing that, too! Thanks for bringing this up, NJ!