U.S. Bank Smartly Card Review: Lucrative Option for Loyalists

Potentially rich rewards

Cardholders can effectively double their rewards rate and earn a hard-to-beat 4% cash back on all purchases. But there are steep balance requirements to do so.

Consumers who have a Bank Smartly® Savings account and at least $10,000 in combined balances in a U.S. Bank Smartly Checking account and/or Safe Debit account can earn a "Smartly Earning Bonus" on top of the card’s 2% base rate:

• If you have $10,000 to $49,999 in balances: You earn a 25% rewards bonus to get a rate 2.5% cash back.

• If you have $50,000 to $99,999 in balances: You earn a 50% rewards bonus to get a rate of 3% cash back.

• If you have $100,000 or more in balances: You earn a 100% rewards bonus to get a rate of 4% cash back. 

The Bank Smartly® Savings account requires a $25 minimum balance. To qualify for the elevated rates, you must maintain an average daily balance in Smartly Checking/Safe Debit within the ranges listed above for the preceding 90 days.

Introductory 0% APR offer

The U.S. Bank Smartly™ Visa Signature® Card comes with a 0% intro APR period on purchases and balance transfers which can help holders pay down debt transferred from another card or pay off large purchases. New cardholders get a 0% intro APR for 12 billing cycles on purchases and balance transfers, and then the ongoing APR of 17.74%-27.99% Variable APR.

No annual fee

It doesn't cost anything to carry the U.S. Bank Smartly™ Visa Signature® Card. The combination of its high flat rate, $0 annual fee and interest-free period makes it a solid contender among the top flat-rate cash-back cards on the market.

Rewards are tied to U.S. Bank

Not only must you bank with U.S. Bank to get the card’s elevated rates. But even to get the full value of the base 2% cash back rate, you’ll need to have a U.S. Bank account.

That’s because even though the U.S. Bank Smartly™ Visa Signature® Card is considered a cash back card, it earns cash back rewards as points. And to get the full value of those points, you must redeem them as a deposit into an eligible U.S. Bank account.

In other words, when redeemed as a deposit this way, points are worth their full value of 1 cent apiece. But when you redeem points for other options like statement credits or gift cards, you may get a lower value per point.

High balance requirements for elevated rewards

To earn the U.S. Bank Smartly™ Visa Signature® Card’s highest possible rate of 4% back, you’ll need at least $100,000 in balances. That’s a steep requirement. Even the card’s less lucrative 2.5% and 3% rates require balances of $10,000 and $50,000, respectively. Perhaps more important, the money has to be sitting in a Smartly Checking account and/or a Safe Debit account. Neither of those accounts pay interest on deposits. Balances in the interest-bearing Smartly Savings account do not count.

When the U.S. Bank Smartly™ Visa Signature® Card first launched, the balance requirement applied to a wide range of accounts, including checking, savings, investment accounts, IRAs, certificates of deposits and even personal trust accounts. In April 2025, seven months after the card's debut, U.S. Bank made significant changes to the Smartly card's terms. Those changes meant that while you could still earn 4% on card spending, doing so means tying up six figures in accounts that do not provide any return on investment.

Also, business and commercial accounts don't qualify for the earnings bonus, nor do accounts owned by authorized users.

No sign-up bonus