I just got an offer to apply for the Farm Bureau Member Rewards MasterCard credit card. Since we take advantage of good credit card offers to get free travel, is the Farm Bureau credit card worth it?
The first thing that I noticed on my solicitation letter is that the Farm Bureau Bank credit card offers a 0% intro APR on purchases and balance transfers for the first 12 months.
Actually, that’s a problem.
If you’re running a balance on any credit card, the banks are going to win and you are going to lose in this credit card game. If you’re in trouble with credit card balances, this could help but it’s only a temporary fix.
I know this from 1st hand experience.
When I was younger, I didn’t handle my finances responsibly. Credit card balance transfer offers (like this) just delayed my addressing the root cause of my trouble. Looking back on that experience, I think the credit card card companies were trying to take advantage of my desperate situation.
Between Sandra (aka Zuzu) and me, we’ve gotten about 10 new credit cards in the last 2 years and we have used the points from those cards to get a ridiculous amount of free luxury travel.
However, the first rule of Reward Travel is that you must pay off every credit card in full, every month. The interest rates on most credit cards (over 17% on this card) would make a loan shark blush.
If you do have a credit card with a balance, the only financial advice that matters is to get that card paid down as soon as possible! Only then would I recommend looking at new credit cards.
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Farm Bureau Credit Card Benefits
- $100 statement credit after you spend $500 in the first 90 days
- Triple points on each dollar spent on Gas, Grocery and Dining
- Double points on each dollar spent with select Farm Bureau partners
- Single points on every dollar on other purchases
- Farm Bureau membership dues waived if you spend $6,000 annually on this card
Is the Farm Bureau credit card worth it?
The short answer is no, you shouldn’t get the Farm Bureau credit card if you care about the math behind this card.
Zuzu & I are always looking for the best credit cards so I decided to run the numbers and share them in this Farm Bureau credit card review.
Since the advertisement is bragging about Farm Bureau membership dues being paid once you hit $6,000 in a year, let’s compare spending $6,000 on the Farm Bureau credit card versus spending $6,000 on the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred card is what I recommend to most people who are interested in earning big rewards from credit cards.
How Much is the Farm Bureau Credit Card Worth?
If we spend $6,000 on the Farm Bureau card, we’ll earn between 6-18k Farm Bureau points.
How Much are Farm Bureau Points Worth?
According to Wallethub, Farm Bureau points are worth 0.84 cents each. That means our $6,000 spend is worth $50 to $150. We’ll likely also get the $100 statement credit and we’ll get our Farm Bureau membership fees paid. That fee is $30 here in Tennessee!
Total Value: $180-280
Farm Bureau Card vs Chase Sapphire Preferred Card
If we spent $6000 on the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, we’d earn a welcome bonus of 60,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points. Just like the Farm Bureau card earns bonus points on some categories, the Sapphire Preferred has these bonus categories:
- Travel (purchased thru Chase): 5 points per dollar
- Travel (all other travel): 2 points per dollar
- Dining: 3 points per dollar
- Streaming Services: 3 points per dollar
- Online Groceries: 2 points per dollar
- Everything else: 1 point per dollar
So our $6000 spend would earn 6,000 – 30,000 points. With a 60k welcome bonus, that’s a total of 66k-90k Chase Ultimate Rewards points.
According to Wallethub, Chase points are worth between 1 cent and 1.25 cents. That gives us a value of $660 – $1,125.
Pro Tip: Once Zuzu & I learned the secrets to free travel, we started getting 3 cents, 4 cents and even 6 cents for each Chase point! So these points would be worth more like $2,000-$3,000 to us!
We would have to pay a $95 annual fee with the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, so subtract that.
Value of Chase Card (if you don’t get our free eBook): $565 – $1,030
Should You Get the Farm Bureau Mastercard Credit Card?
Just to be clear, I really admire Farm Bureau as an organization.
In fact, Zuzu is a 3rd generation TN Farm Bureau member. I’m all for supporting the Farm Bureau if you feel like we do about it.
However, if you consider the math, it would be financially foolish for me to get the Farm Bureau card.
In the best case scenario for the Farm Bureau card, it’s $185 WORSE than this Chase card. And if you consider an average scenario with both cards, the Farm Bureau is $517 worse than the Chase card.
Want to support the Farm Bureau? Become a member of your state’s FB & consider their insurance products. That’s what we do.
Just don’t get the Farm Bureau credit card. It’s not a good deal.
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