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Toyota Rewards Visa Review

overall rating
2.8

No annual fee, but a clunky points redemption process

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The Toyota Rewards Visa is aimed at promoting loyalty to Toyota dealerships. There is no annual fee, and rewards earned with this card can be used for service, parts, and even vehicle purchases. There is a bonus of 5,000 points when you spend $500 outside of Toyota dealerships in the first 90 days.

Toyota Rewards Visa®

Overall Rating
2.8
Toyota Rewards Visa®
On Comenity Bank's Secured Site.
Current Offer

5,000 bonus points for spending $500 outside Toyota dealerships within first 90 days.

Recommended Credit
Score Our recommended ranges are based off of the FICO® Score 8 credit-scoring model. Credit score is one of the many factors lenders review in considering your application.
350 579
580 669
670 739
740 799
800 850
Fair - Excellent
Regular APR (%) 13.99% - 22.99% variable
Annual Fee $0
Rewards Earning Rate 5 points/$1 spent at Toyota dealerships, 2 points/$1 spent on gas, dining and entertainment purchases, 1 point/$1 spent everywhere else Visa is accepted.
Balance Transfer Fee Either $10 or 5% of the amount of each transaction, whichever is greater.
Foreign transaction fee (%) 3%
how this card stacks up
When compared among all rewards cards in our database:
Rewards
Benefits
Low Fees
Security/Customer Experience
Low Interest
worst best

The Toyota Rewards Visa is not one of our top rated rewards credit cards. You can review our list of the best rewards credit cards for what we think are better options.

Full Review of Toyota Rewards Visa

Pros
  • No annual fee

  • Bonus of 5,000 points

  • Tiered rewards on certain purchases

Cons
  • No introductory APR

  • Travel redemptions are difficult

  • Foreign transaction fee

Pros Explained

  • No Annual Fee: With the Toyota Rewards Visa card, cardholders don’t have to worry about paying an annual fee.
  • Bonus of 5,000 Points: There's a bonus of 5,000 points when a cardholder spends $500 in the first 90 days. However, it’s important to note that in order to receive the bonus, that $500 must be spent on other things, outside of a Toyota dealership. Points earned can then be redeemed at the Toyota dealership and are likely worth $0.01, making the bonus worth $50 when redeemed for service or parts, or toward a car purchase at a participating Toyota dealership.
  • Tiered Rewards on Certain Purchases: The Toyota Rewards Visa offers tiered rewards, with some purchases earning more points. Cardholders earn 5 points per dollar spent at Toyota dealerships and 2 points per dollar on gas, dining, and entertainment. All other purchases earn 1 point per dollar. Because it’s a Visa, this card can be used almost anywhere in the world.

Cons Explained

  • No Introductory APR: There's no low or 0% introductory APR for balance transfers and new purchases with the Toyota Rewards Visa, unlike some other cards.
  • Travel Redemptions Are Difficult: This card is not a good option for those looking to redeem for travel. Given that it's a Toyota card, and not meant to be a travel card this isn't terribly surprising. Those wishing to redeem for travel will have to spend their points with a third-party company called Aspire, and are limited to the company's travel catalog.
  • Foreign Transaction Fee: Unlike some credit cards, this card comes with a foreign transaction fee of 3%.

Who This Card Is Best For

For the most part, this card is designed for people who want to earn rewards that they can use at a Toyota dealership, or for those who spend a fair amount of money there.

As an all-purpose cash back card, the Toyota Rewards Visa is only mediocre, since the 5 points per dollar are only earned on Toyota purchases. For those who want a tiered cash back rewards card that earns top rewards on common categories, the Amex Blue Cash Everyday card, with its 3% back at U.S. supermarkets (up to $6,000 per year), 3% back on U.S. online retail (up to $6,000 per year), 3% back on gas at U.S. gas stations (up to $6,000 per year), and 1% on all other purchases, might be a better choice.

Toyota Rewards Visa Bonus

When cardholders spend $500 at places other than a Toyota dealership within the first 90 days, they can receive 5,000 bonus points. When redeemed at a Toyota dealership, this bonus is worth $50.

Many other cards offer much higher bonuses. For example, the Chase Freedom Unlimited card also has no annual fee and provides $200 cash back after spending $500 in the first three months. Plus, the Chase Freedom Unlimited card offers a 0% APR introductory period for 15 months on purchases.

Rewards Earning Details

The Toyota Rewards Visa offers a tiered program:

  • 5 points per dollar spent at Toyota dealerships
  • 2 points per dollar on dining, entertainment, and gas
  • 1 point per dollar on everything else

Rewards Redemption Details

The primary way to redeem points as at participating Toyota dealerships. It’s possible to use points to pay for service and parts, and even put them toward a vehicle purchase. You can expect to probably receive 1 cent per point.

Other redemption options include statement credit, gift cards, merchandise, and travel. Statement credit is the easiest and most flexible option. You'll get 1 cent per point, and redemptions start at $25. For other redemption types, there are a few hoops to jump through, and redemption rates are set by the parties that administer the separate programs.

Travel fulfillment is through Aspire. You are limited to options and rates within their travel catalog. Gift cards and merchandise will be on similar systems.

All of these redemption options have their own processes and redemption rates, which can make it difficult to actually redeem points for anything other than Toyota purchases or a statement credit.

Transferring Points

The Toyota Rewards Visa doesn’t have a points transfer program.

How to Maximize Your Rewards

The best option for maximizing rewards is to use them at a Toyota dealership, after taking advantage of the higher rewards earnings tiers in some areas.

In 2021, the average consumer spent $3,568 on entertainment and $3,030 on dining out. They also on average spent $2,148 on gas during that year. These spending categories earn 2 points per dollar with the Toyota Rewards Visa, resulting in a potential of 17,492 points from those categories alone. When redeemed at a Toyota dealership, 17,492 points would be worth $174.92, which could potentially pay for some service or maintenance work.

To maximize the rewards you earn, you'd want to put all your additional spending at the Toyota dealership on your card and collect the 5 points per dollar.

Toyota Rewards Visa's Outstanding Benefits

  • Card Lock/Unlock feature
  • Roadside dispatch

Standard Benefits

  • $0 fraud liability
  • Chip technology
  • Cardholder inquiry service

Cardholder Experience

The Toyota Rewards Visa is issued by Comenity Capital Bank, which is not rated in J.D. Power’s 2022 U.S. Credit Card Satisfaction Study. 

Automated customer service is available 24/7. There is also live customer service available during certain hours.

Security Features

One of the most attractive security features with this card is the lock/unlock feature. It makes it possible to lock your card by signing into your account and clicking a button. If your card is lost or stolen, you can decline all new charges, while keeping your regular subscriptions and streaming services active. Once you find your card, you can unlock it.

Additionally, because it’s a Visa, the Toyota Rewards card comes with $0 liability on fraudulent purchases, as well as a way to receive emergency card replacement within one to three business days. 

Final Verdict

For people who expect to spend a fair amount of money at a Toyota dealership and would like to offset some of that with rewards or apply rewards toward the purchases of a new Toyota at participating dealerships, the Toyota Rewards Visa can be a decent card.

However, the rewards are fairly mediocre, and trying to redeem them for anything other than Toyota parts, service, or vehicles, or a statement credit, can be difficult. For those who want more flexible cash back tiered rewards, a card like the Amex Blue Cash Everyday could be a better choice.

Next Steps
For Toyota Rewards Visa®
on Comenity Bank's Secured Site.
Compare This Card
See how this card compares to similar cards
CURRENT CARD
Toyota Rewards Visa®
overall rating
2.8
Recommended Credit
Score Our recommended ranges are based off of the FICO® Score 8 credit-scoring model. Credit score is one of the many factors lenders review in considering your application.
350 579
580 669
670 739
740 799
800 850
Fair - Excellent
Regular APR (%) 13.99% - 22.99% variable
Annual Fee $0
Rewards Earning Rate 5 points/$1 spent at Toyota dealerships, 2 points/$1 spent on gas, dining and entertainment purchases, 1 point/$1 spent everywhere else Visa is accepted.
Investopedia Credit Card Rating Methodology
Investopedia is committed to delivering the best credit card recommendations in the industry. We’ll tell you when a card is good, we’ll tell you when a card is bad, and we’ll only call a card the best if we would recommend it to our friends or family members.
Overall Star Rating Explained
To rate credit cards we objectively assess, score and weight nearly 100 individual card features which roll up into five major feature sets: fees, interest, rewards, benefits and security/customer service. Here’s how we weighted those feature sets for the overall star rating of a card:
We have applied our proprietary rating methodology to every generally-accepted credit card in the U.S. domestic market to allow consumers to make fully informed choices. It’s important to note that for our overall score that we make a number of assumptions about how you would be using your credit card:
  1. While we make no assumption as to whether balances are carried on a given card we do assign varying weights to all credit cards’ introductory APR (if present) in addition to the regular, long term purchase and balance transfer interest rates.
  2. We utilize BLS (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics) income and average category spending data to calculate annual earnings rates for rewards cards that offer cash back, points or miles rewards at a set rate on all spending or in consideration of bonus rewards for certain spending categories, like gasoline, groceries, restaurants or travel.
  3. We determine the maximum points value of rewards cards by dividing the points, cash back or miles required to exchange for the retail price of the most valuable redemption option (for example, in the case of a card that offers a domestic roundtrip airline ticket as a redemption option vs. another redemption option of lesser value that requires the same amount of points or miles to acquire, we would base the rewards value on the airline ticket).
  • Cards that are selected best overall in their respective categories generally feature most if not all of the following attributes:
  • Low or Reasonable Fees Credit card fees come in many forms but the primary ones involve those for annual card membership and balance transfer. There are a myriad of reward and non-reward card options that charge no annual fee but for the many that do assess an annual fee the cost is often justified by their lucrative ongoing rewards and initial signup bonuses. Balance transfer fees are occasionally waived during introductory periods with certain cards, a factor which is heavily and positively weighted in our scoring model for cards offering this benefit. When charged, balance transfer fees range between 3% - 5%, which we grade accordingly. Other standard fees can generally be avoided, such as those for paying late or taking cash advances but we rate those relative to other cards in the market for reference, though with less weight assigned
  • Competitive Interest Many cards offer 0% introductory APR on purchases and balance transfers for varying lengths and then revert to a permanent or regular APR (based on a variable rate tied to the prime rate) that applies to any balances not paid in full. We rate both introductory APR percentage and length (in months) along with the midpoint of the variable regular APR interest rate range.
  • Valuable Rewards Credit card reward programs can be based on cash back, points or travel rewards (which can be generic or travel partner-specific, as with airline and hotel co-brand card programs). For cards that offer rewards we determine the value per dollar spent along with average redemption values and assign more favorable ratings to cards that offer superior consumer value. We also assign value to sign-up bonus offers and their initial spending requirements, when present.
  • Excellent Benefits Credit card benefits cover a range of offerings like concierge service, TSA Pre-check, auto rental coverage, travel accident insurance, lost luggage assistance and free credit scores. We rate cards on the number and level of over a dozen standard and upscale benefits and provide extra weighting emphasis for those travel-related perks that apply to premium travel cards when present.
  • Solid Security/Customer Service Security and customer service features like lost or stolen card replacement, being able to lock one’s card from an issuer app and 24 hour customer support are becoming more standard across the card market and we provide a significant amount of weighting to features in this area.
  • You can also read the full version of our methodology for a more in-depth look at how we assess cards and award them the best in various categories.