SunTrust Prime Rewards Credit Card Review

Card Details	The Offer	Is it Worth It?
Pros and Cons	Why 5 Stars?	Fees
Benefits

Card Details

Regular APR:	12.99% – 22.99% (Variable)
Intro APR (Purchases):	None
Intro APR (Balance transfers):	Prime Rate (currently 5.00% variable) Intro APR for 36 months for transfers in first 60 days
Rewards Rate:	1% Unlimited Cash Back on all qualifying purchases
Credit Needed:	(670 – 850) Good/Excellent
Annual Fee:	None
Card Brand:	Mastercard

*See online credit card application for details on the terms and conditions.

Offer Highlights

• Click APPLY NOW to apply online
• 3 year introductory offer at Prime Rate (currently 5.00% variable APR) on balance transfers made in the first 60 days after account opening
• Pay no balance transfer fee when you transfer a balance during the first 60 days your account is open. After the first 60 days of account opening, the fee for future balance transfers is $10 or 3% of the amount of the transfer, whichever is greater
• 1% Unlimited Cash Back on all qualifying purchases
• $100 in statement credit after you spend $500 on qualifying purchases, in the first 3 months after account opening
• No annual fee
• No foreign transaction fee
• Cash in even more. Get a Loyalty Cash Bonus of 10%, 25% or 50%3 based on your deposit relationship with SunTrust, when you redeem your cash back directly into a SunTrust Checking, Savings or Money Market account

Is SunTrust Prime Rewards Credit Card worth it?

SunTrust Prime Rewards Credit Card is a great card for people looking to transfer and pay down debt over 3 years. Cardholders get a 3 year introductory balance transfer offer at the Prime Rate (currently 5.00% variable APR) on balance transfers made in the first 60 days after account opening.

Importantly, there is no balance transfer fee when you transfer a balance during the first 60 days your account is open. It’s unusual for cards to offer no balance transfer fee, and very unusual to find no fee and 0% interest on balance transfers for 15 months. One option is Chase Slate, which has no balance transfer fee for transfers in the first 60 days and 0% Intro APR for 15 months on transfers in the first 60 days.

However, say you have $10,000 of credit card debt accumulating a variable 25% interest APR on another card or combined between cards that have 30-day billing cycles. That 25% APR works out to a 0.25 / 365 = 0.068% daily periodic rate.

If the average daily balance you’ve carried is $10,000, then the interest you accrued in one day is $10,000 x .00068 = $6.80. Over 30 days you will owe 30 x $6.80 = $205 in interest. If you are only able to make a monthly payment of $250 on that debt, then you will have $10,000 – $45 = $9,955 as your daily balance the next month.

In this scenario, you will spend thousands of dollars on interest if you don’t move the debt. The challenge is that you will not be able to pay off your credit card in 15 months, even with a 0% for 15 month balance transfer offer. So the Chase Slate offer could be harmful, because the interest rate increases again after 15 months.

However, if you transferred the debt to SunTrust Prime Rewards, you would have 36 months to pay it off. You’d have to pay a little bit of interest, but if you assume the prime rate is 5%, the first month’s interest would only come to 0.05 / 365 = 0.0001 x $10000 x 30 = $41. Every month that number will go down of course, as you pay off the principal.

If you have more than $5,000 in credit card debt, SunTrust Prime Rewards is a great card for you.

Pros

• $100 in statement credit after you spend $500 on qualifying purchases, in the first 3 months after account opening
• 1% Unlimited Cash Back on all qualifying purchases
• Cash rewards don’t expire
• No annual fee
• No foreign transaction fee
• Get cash back deposited in your bank account or statement credit for a minimum of a $5 redemption amount
• You can earn a Loyalty Cash Bonus of 10%, 25%, or 50% if you redeem through an ACH deposit into a SunTrust deposit account

Cons

• No rewards

Why 5 Stars?

Regular APR

4 Stars

Intro APR

5 Stars

Fees

5 Stars

Perks

4 Stars

Overall

5 Stars

Fees

Foreign Transaction Fee	None
Balance Transfer Fee	None for all balances transferred within 60 days of account opening, then $10.00 or 3% of the amount of the transfer, whichever is greater
Cash Advance Fee	$10.00 or 4% of the amount of each advance, whichever is greater
Penalty APR	None

Benefits

$0 Fraud Liability

Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver

Baggage Delay Insurance

Concierge Service

Emergency Card Replacement and Cash Advance

Extended Warranty Program

Identity Fraud Expense Reimbursement

Identity Theft Resolution Services

Purchase Protection

Price Protection

Roadside Assistance

Travel Accident Insurance

Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance

Travel Assistance

Editorial Note: This content is not provided by the issuer. Any opinion, analyses, reviews, or recommendations expressed on this page are those of the author?s alone, and may not have been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the issuer.

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