U.S. Bank Shield™ Visa®

Our primary source puts the variable APR at 17.74% to 28.74%; a secondary source cites 16.99% to 27.99%. We have not been able to resolve which is current, so the page carries the discrepancy openly rather than picking the friendlier number or quietly averaging them.

That's a full point of difference at both ends of the range, which on a carried balance is real money. Before applying, read the rate off U.S. Bank's own disclosure — this is exactly the kind of figure that should not be taken from a comparison site, including this one.

4% cash back on prepaid air, hotel and car reservations booked through the Travel Center is a high rate on a very specific transaction type. Prepaid bookings are the least flexible way to buy travel — typically non-refundable and non-changeable — so the rate is partly compensating you for accepting worse terms.

The $20 annual statement credit after 11 consecutive months of purchases is a loyalty mechanism rather than a benefit: it rewards not closing the card, and it lapses if you skip a month. It's worth $20 if you were keeping the card open anyway and nothing if you weren't.

There's no broad everyday earning rate verified in our data, which makes this a card to hold alongside another rather than to use as a primary.

4% on prepaid air, hotel and car reservations booked through the U.S. Bank Travel Center — and nothing at all anywhere else. Every other card among the 41 here earns something on ordinary spending, even if only 1%. This one does not.

That makes it unusable as a primary card by design rather than by weakness. It is a card you take out for one kind of transaction and put away again, and judging it against a general-purpose card misreads what it is.

This site records 17.74% to 28.74% from one source and 16.99% to 27.99% from another, and has not been able to reconcile them. That gap is published rather than hidden because a rate is not a figure to average between two sources.

It matters more on this card than on most. A card that earns nothing on general spending gives you no rewards to weigh against interest, so if a balance ever sits on it the APR is the entire cost with nothing on the other side. Read U.S. Bank's own disclosure before applying. The $20 annual statement credit after eleven consecutive months of purchases is the other published term worth checking against your own use.

4% on prepaid air, hotel and car reservations booked through the U.S. Bank Travel Center — and nothing at all anywhere else. Every other card among the 41 here earns something on ordinary spending, even if only 1%. This one does not.

That makes it unusable as a primary card by design rather than by weakness. It is a card you take out for one kind of transaction and put away again, and judging it against a general-purpose card misreads what it is.

This site records 17.74% to 28.74% from one source and 16.99% to 27.99% from another, and has not been able to reconcile them. That gap is published rather than hidden because a rate is not a figure to average between two sources.

It matters more on this card than on most. A card that earns nothing on general spending gives you no rewards to weigh against interest, so if a balance ever sits on it the APR is the entire cost with nothing on the other side. Read U.S. Bank's own disclosure before applying. The $20 annual statement credit after eleven consecutive months of purchases is the other published term worth checking against your own use.