5 Things to Know About the B&H Payboo Credit Card

The B&H Payboo Credit Card, issued by Comenity Capital Bank, is the store credit card for B&H, which was founded in 1973 and sells photography, video and audio equipment, computers, televisions and other electronics. B&H is based in New York City, but ships to most countries worldwide (except for Iran, North Korea and a small handful of others).

The $0-annual-fee B&H Payboo Credit Card offers a choice between a discount on sales tax (with some exceptions) or special financing for up to 12 months.

Here are five things to know about the B&H Payboo Credit Card.

The B&H Payboo Credit Card is a “closed-loop” card, meaning it can only be used on B&H purchases, whether you make them in-store, online or over the phone.

If you apply for a new card and are approved, you can use your card instantly for online checkout.

Rather than earning traditional cash-back rewards, the B&H Payboo Credit Card offers a discount on the sales tax. When you make a purchase, you pay for it in full (including sales tax), and then you get a credit back on the purchase total that covers the tax.

Effectively, this is like earning a cash-back rate that changes depending on your shipping address. As of this writing, someone in Miami would get a 7% discount, while someone in Chicago would save 10.25%. That’s a pretty compelling offer compared to getting just 1-2% cash back with other cards.

If you’d prefer to pay off a large purchase over time, you can opt for special financing, but you need to spend a minimum amount to qualify. Pay no interest for six months on purchases of $199 or more, or for 12 months on purchases of $599 or more. If your special financing plan is a deferred interest plan, that means that you’ll owe interest on the total original purchase amount if you don’t pay down your balance by the end of the no-interest period.

You can’t get both the discount on sales tax and special financing on a purchase, so choose carefully. There’s a workaround, though: You can decide at checkout to split your payment into two separate transactions on the Payboo credit card, applying the discount to one part and the financing to the other.

Note that if you split the payment between the Payboo card and a different card, only the portion of the payment you make with the Payboo card will qualify for savings or financing. (So in that case, you’d still have to make a choice.)

As of this writing, the Payboo credit card’s standard APR is 35.99%, which is quite high. For comparison: As of November 2024, the average interest rate on credit cards assessing interest was 22.8%, according to the Federal Reserve.

It may be worth using a credit card that offers a better 0% intro APR promotion (not a deferred interest plan) and a lower standard APR. That way, if you aren’t able to pay off your balance in full by the end of the no-interest period, you’ll owe interest only on the remaining amount, not the original amount borrowed.

For example, with the Wells Fargo Reflect® Card, you’ll pay 0% intro APR for 21 months from account opening on purchases and qualifying balance transfers, and then the ongoing APR of 17.24%, 23.74%, or 28.99% Variable APR.