Shopping Black Friday sales at Walmart? Here are the best ways to pay

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With Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the holidays just around the corner, you're probably gearing up to shop for gifts for friends and family. The holiday season can be expensive for most people, but if you're shopping at major retailers you can easily save some money by using the right credit card or enrolling in free online rebate programs.

CNBC Select looked at dozens of credit cards to find the best card to use when shopping at Walmart for Black Friday. Here's what you need to know before you shop online from the comfort of home or in person and brave the Black Friday crowds.

You can pay for your Walmart purchases in a variety of ways such as with a credit card, debit card, cash, gift card or now, a 'buy now, pay later' loan. However, credit cards are one of the best options because they offer rewards and consumer protections.

Here are some of the best cards to use when shopping Walmart's Black Friday Sales:

Best card for rewards at Walmart

If you're looking for a card that will earn you a high rewards rate on your in-store and online Walmart.com purchases, you should consider the Capital One Walmart Rewards® Mastercard®. The card offers 5% cash back at Walmart.com; 2% cash back on Walmart® in-store purchases, at restaurants and on travel and 1% cash back everywhere else Mastercard is accepted. 

While you might want a higher rewards rate for your in-store purchases, Walmart also gives cardholders a welcome bonus: 5% back on in-store purchases when using Walmart Pay for the first 12 months of card membership (after, earn 2%).

In other words, if you're signing up for the card for the first time, you can get 5% cash back on both in-store and online purchases during the holiday shopping season. Walmart Pay is also easy to use. Cardholders just need to download an app, add their preferred payment method — a credit card, debit card or gift card — and then scan the QR code that you get at checkout.

Best card for cash back

For people who want a card that earns them cash back at retailers that are not just Walmart, the Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card is a good option because it offers a welcome bonus and has a solid, flat cash-rewards rate on all purchases. If you're planning on spending a lot this holiday season, you can cash in on the welcome offer of $200 cash rewards bonus after you spend $500 within the first three months of card membership. You'll also get 2% cash rewards on all eligible purchases. The card has no annual fee.

Best cards for the welcome bonus

If you're spending a lot more than you typically would this holiday season, a card with a generous welcome bonus could be a good choice for you. With credit cards, you typically only earn between 1% and 5% on your purchases. If you sign up for a new card with a welcome bonus, on the other hand, you have the chance to earn a lot more money upfront.

The Chase Freedom Flex℠ offers $200 cash back after you spend $500 on purchases in your first three months from account opening. That's like earning 40% cash back on $500. So instead of looking for a card that'll earn you cash back on certain spending categories, you might opt for a card with a welcome bonus and a spending requirement that you can hit without going beyond your means.

If you're willing to get a card with an annual fee, you could get a much larger welcome bonus with the Citi Premier® Card, which is currently offering 60,000 ThankYou® Points after you spend $4,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening. Plus, for a limited time, earn a total of 10 ThankYou® Points per $1 spent on hotel, car rentals, and attractions (excluding air travel) booked on the Citi Travel℠ portal through June 30, 2024.

Though the redemption value varies, if you redeem the 60,000 points at thankyou.com for store gift cards like Target and Macy's, you can get $600 to spend which is a one cent per point redemption value. If you assume a one cent per point redemption value, the cash-back rate on the welcome bonus is 20%. Or, you can transfer those ThankYou points to travel partners and potentially receive significantly more value.

Best 0% APR intro period 

With a 0% introductory APR credit card, cardholders can revolve their balance on new purchases and/or balance transfers without paying interest. The introductory period typically lasts between 12 and 20 months. This means that you can make your holiday purchases now and wait to pay them off without interest and fees (as long you make the minimum monthly payment). However, you should remember that in order to qualify for a 0% APR credit card, you'll need a good (670-739) or excellent (740 and greater) credit score, so this isn't an option for everyone. 

The Wells Fargo Reflect® Card is a great choice for people who need a longer repayment period: Cardholders will get an an introductory 0% APR on purchases and qualifying balance transfers (then, 18.24%, 24.74%, or 29.99% variable APR) for 21 months from account opening. Balance transfers made within 120 days from account opening qualify for the intro rate, BT fee of 5%, min $5. You won't get a welcome bonus or any rewards with this card, but it's a good option for those who want to carry a balance on their card without having to pay interest.

Shopping portals and cash-back platforms

A shopping portal is offered by affiliates of a company to encourage customers to shop by offering them cash back or rewards. With shopping portals, you typically need to visit a website, download a browser extension or use an app to earn rewards for your purchases.

CashBackMonitor is one site that will show you which services you can use to earn the greatest amount of rewards when shopping at Walmart. All you have to do is click one of the options and then you'll be redirected to another website where you can sign up for the respective platform. Once you've signed up, all you need to do is click through the shopping portal to Walmart's website and then shop.

Rakuten is a free service that gives people cash back on certain Walmart purchases. Once you've downloaded the browser extension or the app, click through Rakuten before doing your normal shopping at Walmart. You can then redeem your rewards as cash through PayPal or as a check. 

Another service you might consider using is Ibotta, a free cash-back and rebate platform. With Ibotta, you can also earn cash back on certain purchases by using the browser extension or by shopping in person or online through the app or the website.

Credit card shopping benefits

When you're buying gifts this holiday season, there's a chance your sweater arrives with a hole or your new watch doesn't work. If you end up needing to return an item or you receive a faulty product, credit cards are a great payment choice because some offer purchase protection, return protection and an extended warranty. A few credit cards that offer this benefit are The Platinum Card® from American Express and The Chase Sapphire Reserve®.

Walmart+ membership

If you're planning on doing a lot of online shopping at Walmart.com, you might consider getting a Walmart+ membership. With Walmart+, members will receive unlimited free delivery on orders and discounts at select gas stations. The service costs either $98 a year or $12.95 a month, or you could try the 15-day free trial period.

But, if you pay for your Walmart+ membership with The Platinum Card® from American Express, you'll receive a statement credit reimbursing you for the full cost every month. Plus Up Benefits are excluded and subject to auto-renewal, Terms apply.

Walmart no longer offers its layaway program which allowed shoppers to pay for an item over time and then collect it once they had paid it off. However, Walmart partnered with Affirm to help customers finance their purchases. With Affirm 'Buy Now, Pay Later' loans, Walmart shoppers can split the cost of their purchase into installment payments due over three to 12 months, depending on the cost of the purchase. And unlike layaway, consumers can get their purchase before they've paid it off in full. 

However, with Affirm, you could end up spending more on interest than you would with a traditional credit card: Interest rates range from 10% to 36%, but some items may have a 0% promotional APR offering. Affirm does not charge late fees.

If you're considering using a BNPL loan, you should make sure to read the terms and conditions of your loan. You'll want to check the interest rate, when the payments are due and whether Affirm will report your loan to the credit bureaus.

Affirm does not report loans to Experian that are 0% APR and four bi-weekly payments or if consumers were offered one loan option of a three-month payment term with 0% APR. Short-term BNPL loans could harm your credit score regardless of whether you're paying them off in full and on time, so make sure you understand how a BNPL loan could affect your credit score and how much it could cost you in interest.

Due to potential supply chain issues and shipping delays this holiday season, it's best to get a head start on gift shopping. With a credit card, you have the potential to earn a welcome bonus and rewards on your purchases and also benefit from purchase protection and an extended warranty. The holiday season might be a big spending period for you, but there's no reason you can't save some money in the process.

At CNBC Select, our mission is to provide our readers with high-quality service journalism and comprehensive consumer advice so they can make informed decisions with their money. Every credit card guide is based on rigorous reporting by our team of expert writers and editors with extensive knowledge of credit card products. While CNBC Select earns a commission from affiliate partners on many offers and links, we create all our content without input from our commercial team or any outside third parties, and we pride ourselves on our journalistic standards and ethics. See our methodology for more information on how we choose the best credit cards for Walmart.

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