Best Buy Credit Card SCRA: Citi's 30.99% Card and Plans Capped at 6%

A $2,200 Best Buy card balance that you owed before your orders costs about $682 a year at the card’s 30.99% purchase rate. Capped at 6%, it costs $132. The roughly $550 difference is forgiven, not deferred. (An illustration: simple interest, no payments or new charges for twelve months. Citi compounds daily, so your statement will run a little higher.)

Best Buy prints a range, so check your statement for your own rate:

Range from bestbuy.com, rate from Citi pricing table 77-0926, both read October 19, 2026.

Citibank lends, Best Buy runs the offers

Version 100-BBY-PL-US 0326 of the card agreement names Citibank, N.A. as the lender. Citi’s pricing table 77-0926 sets the purchase rate at prime plus 23.99%, which was 30.99% on a 7.00% prime as of September 22, 2026, a daily rate of 0.08490%. It lists no penalty APR. A late payment costs $30, or $41 if another one follows within six billing cycles; the smallest interest charge Citi will bill is $2.

Best Buy’s own disclosure, which we opened in a full browser on October 19, 2026 because the site refuses scripted reads, gives a wider picture: variable purchase rates of 27.99% to 30.99%, and non-variable rates of 6.00% to 24.34%, “as of the last 30 days.” Its credit card FAQ routes every account question to Citibank at 1-888-574-1301 and says nothing about military service.

So the request goes to Citi. Its SCRA page (read the same day) takes requests online, by phone at 877-804-1082, or by fax at 866-533-0503 with a cover page to Citi Military Response Correspondence, and says benefits post within 2 to 3 billing cycles, with “some accounts” updated before others “based on account type.” Store cards are not named, so list the Best Buy account by number. Citi’s general desk, and why the 0% figure that circulates online is not in Citi’s terms, are on our Citi guide.

Reduced rate plans: your fixed payment has to drop

Besides deferred promos, the agreement offers “Reduced Rate Credit Plans”: one purchase at a lower fixed rate, repaid by a set percentage of the plan’s highest balance each month. Five of the six plans in the agreement charge more than 6%.

Plan terms from the Citi agreement, checked October 19, 2026.

Section 3937(a)(3) says the periodic payment is reduced by the forgiven interest “allocable to the period for which such payment is made.” That is a cut each month, not a fresh payment schedule. Our estimate, using simple monthly interest and a plan bought before your orders whose 36 payments all fall due while you serve: a $2,400 TV on the 36-month plan at 12.99% carries a payment of $81 (3.3689%, rounded up). Month one includes about $25.98 of interest; at 6% it would be $12, so about $13.98 is forgiven and that payment should be about $67. The cut shrinks as the balance falls, and across the plan about $274 is forgiven. If Citi lowers the rate on paper but keeps billing $81, ask why in writing.

Deferred promos: interest from the purchase date

The other financing type is deferred interest. Best Buy’s storewide offer, read October 19, 2026, is 12 months on purchases of $299 or more. Miss the 12-month payoff and the interest is charged “from the purchase date,” its page says. Appliances get 18 months at $599, home theater 24 months at $999, unlocked phones 24 months at $649. Illustration: a $1,200 laptop on the 12-month offer, left untouched, would bring about $372 of interest at 30.99% once the twelve months run out (simple interest on the full balance).

Three details from Best Buy and Citi change how you pay these down:

1. By default Citi sends money paid over the minimum to whichever balance carries the top APR, and steers it to a deferred promo only during that promo’s final two billing cycles (three, in one timing case).
2. Best Buy’s financing guide says that if you have several purchases and want to direct where your payment goes, call Citibank at 1-888-574-1301. Use that before you deploy.
3. Best Buy’s points come only with “Standard Credit.” Choosing financing trades the 5% back for time.

Suppose the promo began before service and runs out during it. On our reading of § 3937, the deferred interest that builds up once you are on orders is held to 6%, and the earlier months keep the card rate. Citi’s agreement is silent on that split, so get Citi’s answer in writing before the end date.

The My Best Buy Visa adds one more charge. Its pricing table lists an annual fee of none to $59, which Best Buy’s disclosure says is “based on creditworthiness.” Section 3937(d)(1) counts “renewal charges, fees, or any other charges” as interest, so on a pre-service Visa account our reading is that the fee counts toward the 6%. Ask Citi to say how it treats yours.

Opened on orders: the 36% rule instead

A card opened during qualifying active duty, or by your dependent then, sits under the Military Lending Act. Citi’s agreement makes you a Covered Borrower if, at opening, it determined you were an active duty member or a dependent of one, and it states that the cost of credit to covered members “may not exceed an APR of 36 percent.” For you, that limit governs; the MAPR explainer shows how fees fold into it. At 30.99%, the purchase rate is under it on its own.

The same section takes Citi’s arbitration clause off a Covered Borrower’s account, and the statute bars any lender from making a covered member “submit to arbitration,” under 10 U.S.C. § 987(e)(3). Everyone else can reject arbitration by mailing Citi a signed notice within 45 days of opening, at P.O. Box 790340, St. Louis, MO 63179. Covered Borrowers can hear their disclosures at 1-877-625-6379. The arbitration guide explains what keeping your day in court is worth.

Best Buy card: claim the cap

1. Compare your account-open date with your orders. Before service means the 6% cap; during service means the MLA. The eligibility checker helps with split dates.
2. List every Best Buy plan on your statement: deferred promos with end dates, and reduced rate plans with their APR and monthly amount.
3. Size the claim with the savings calculator.
4. Send Citi your orders and a written request naming the Best Buy account; the letter generator drafts it. Phone 877-804-1082 or fax 866-533-0503.
5. Get Citi’s reply on paper: the rate applied, the effective date, each reduced rate plan’s new monthly amount, and the treatment of post-call-up deferred interest.
6. Call Citibank at 1-888-574-1301 to aim extra payments at the promo that ends first.
7. The statute’s filing window closes 180 days after your release. The deadline checker gives you the date.

The law behind this: 50 U.S.C. § 3937

Six percent on debts from before service: read the statute , or read § 3937 in plain English, with its enforcement record .