If you or someone in your life is a radio-controlled (RC) models hobbyist, then the no-annual-fee Horizon Hobby credit card might pique your interest. The card rewards holders for all kinds of purchases, including those made with Horizon Hobby, a radio control and model train manufacturer and distributor.
But the company also offers a tiered loyalty program, independent of its co-branded credit card, that already rewards members for shopping with Horizon Hobby and its partners — and the card itself doesn’t add much in the way of value or benefits. Rewards can be redeemed solely toward purchases made with the brand, and there’s no 0% intro APR offer to help you finance any expensive RC products.
Here are five things to know about the Horizon Hobby Visa Credit Card.
🤓Nerdy Tip
The Horizon Hobby Visa card is not to be confused with the similarly named Horizon Gold card, a separate — and expensive — product that’s not affiliated with the Horizon Hobby brand and is aimed at applicants with poor credit (typically, FICO scores of 629 or lower).
Image courtesy of Imprint Payments.
1. It offers a preapproval process
Issued by First Electronic Bank and managed by the company Imprint, the Horizon Hobby credit card allows you to submit an application to see if you are approved without any impact to your credit scores.
Once you accept the card offer, though, a hard credit check will be performed, which can temporarily ding your scores.
2. It earns points in Horizon Hobby’s loyalty program …
To get the Horizon Hobby credit card, you have to be a member of “the RC Club,” Horizon Hobby’s free-to-join customer loyalty program.
Independent of the credit card, RC Club members earn points at different rates depending on their level of spending with the brand. But holding the credit card will boost those rates because it earns a flat 5 points per $1 on all spending, which stacks with the loyalty program’s earnings. Here’s how it works.
The RC Club program has three levels: Standard, Legend and Elite. When you join, you’ll automatically be enrolled in the Standard tier. However, you’ll need to spend at least $1,500 with Horizon Hobby in a year to have Legend status, while Elite status will cost you a yearly membership fee of $129.99.
The Standard tier earns you 5 points for every $1 spent with the brand, Legend status snags you 15 points per $1 spent with the brand, and Elite status gets you 20 points per $1 spent with the brand.
So if you have the Horizon Hobby Visa Credit Card as well as Elite status, you can top out at 25 points for every $1 you spend with Horizon Hobby: 20 points from your status in the loyalty program, plus 5 points from the credit card.
🤓Nerdy Tip
RC Club members also get benefits like free shipping on eligible orders, discounts on certain items and $5 coupons for writing reviews.
3. … But those points aren’t worth very much
A card that gives you 5x back on all purchases with no annual fee? Sounds like a unicorn … until you consider the value of those points and how you can use them.
You can redeem RC Club points starting at 2,000 points. Every 2,000 points you earn is equal to $5, so points are worth a paltry 0.0025 of a cent each — woefully short of the industry standard. The best rewards credit cards tend to offer points worth at least a full penny each.
On the plus side, remember that you’re earning points from two different sources here (the card and the loyalty program). At the lowest program tier, you’d hit the redemption minimum by spending at least $50 with the card at Horizon Hobby.
Still, there are other resrictions. Like many co-branded retail cards, you can redeem your points only with the brand at HorizonHobby.com and at any of the store’s 13 local redemption partners across the country (as of this writing).
And about that latter option: If you’re redeeming with partners, you must do so through the Imprint app. But when you redeem points this way, their value — along with the redemption minimum — may vary depending on the retailer.
4. New applicants get a small points boost
In addition to ongoing rewards, the card offers the following promotion as of this writing: New cardholders can earn 16,000 points when they make three purchases within the first 180 days after approval.
You can redeem those points for store credit at Horizon Hobby only. And, again, because of how little the points are worth, this welcome offer can only get you $40 in credit. (With a typical rewards card, 16,000 points would be worth $160.)
5. You’re better off with a general cash-back card
Even the most devoted of Horizon Hobby shoppers will find more value in a rewards card that offers cash back you can redeem toward more than Horizon Hobby purchases.
For example, the $0-annual-fee Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card earns an unlimited 2% cash back on all qualifying purchases. Its cash-back rewards can be redeemed for statement credit, as a withdrawal from a Wells Fargo ATM in $20 increments using a Wells Fargo ATM or debit card, as a direct deposit into a Wells Fargo checking or savings account, or as a mailed paper check.
The card also comes with an intro APR promotion, in addition to the following sign-up bonus: Earn a $200 cash rewards bonus after spending $500 in purchases in the first 3 months.
