For the Contractor and Handyman - If you are in the contracting business, I suspect that there is a high chance that you would buy the bulk of your tools and supplies from a particular store or chain of stores. If you happen to buy a lot of hardware from Ace stores, then the Ace credit card will be something that they hope you would want to check out. But the key question is should you get it? The answer is not really that simple (as we'll soon find out).

How Are You Rewarded For Using This Card - The Ace Rewards Visa allows you to earn 5% rewards for every dollar that you spend at Ace stores. Now, this needs a little explanation. Previously, you did indeed get 5% rewards as long as you shopped at Ace stores. But they have now added a little hurdle to cross. If you spend less than $12,000 during the calendar year, you get only 3%. Once your annual spend exceeds $12,000, you get an additional 2%, making it 5%.

Ace Rewards has also just added a new feature into their cards. They are now allowing cardholders to earn 10% rewards on specific categories that rotate quarterly. This appears to be taking a cue from rotating category cash back cards like the Chase Freedom and Discover More. The 10% rebate is very good, but it is unclear from their website what those categories will be. One can only presume that you will know if you are a card member.

You also get to earn 2% rewards at gas stations and grocery stores. And for the usual regular purchases, the standard 1% applies. I really like the 2% rewards on gas stations and groceries because very few cash back cards give extra rebates on these items these days.

A little Bribe: Sign Up Bonus - New cardholders will get $10 Enrollment Bonus Certificate that can be used at Ace stores.

What Are Ace Reward Points Worth? - While earning 5% rewards for purchases at Ace store is great, the key question is how much are Ace points worth? Sadly speaking, not very much. 12,500 points will get you a $25 Ace Rewards. That is only 0.2% in reward terms, which is really low and bad for a reward program.

Fees - Like most store cards, this card comes with no annual fee.

The are two aspects of this card that we have to compare. The first is obviously the points earning ability of the card. The other aspect is the value of the reward program. In terms of store cards, the Ace credit card ranks pretty well as it allows you to earn 5% rewards. 5% is at the upper end of the range for store cards (which normally ranges from 2% tp 5%). Furthermore, you get to earn 2% on gasoline and groceries.

The other relevant comparison to make is with the home depot credit card. The home depot credit card allows you to earn 3 points for evert dollar that you spend at their stores. You also earn double points for gas, grocery and restaurant spending. So these two cards are similar, but the Ace is better in terms of allowing you to earn 5% rewards versus 3% for the Home Depot card.

But here is where it all goes downhill for Ace. And it is not the card's fault, but rather the reward program. Most reward program has a 1% payout. That mean for example 1,000 points gets you $10 in rewards or gift cards. But as we mentioned earlier, you need 12,500 points just to get a $25 rewards whereas you would have just needed 2,500 points for other program to get the same rewards. From the reward perspective, it totally ruins the great features of the card.

Fortunately, there are alternatives to getting rewards or discounts from Ace. The Discover More Card allows you to earn 5% rebates from Ace store when you shop online. In fact, you will get free shipping for most items when you have it shipped to a local store.

The Ace Rewards credit card is actually a good card in terms of the ability to earn reward points. 5% on Ace purchases and 2% on gas and groceries isn't too shabby at all. But the problem is not the card, but the reward program itself. You need so much more points to get the same equivalent in rewards than almost all other store reward programs that I know of. Hence, I cannot recommend this card even if you shop a lot at Ace hardware stores.

Instead, I would suggest you get the Discover More Card, which allows you to get 5% rebates (I look at it more like discounts) at ace.com. You will get free shipping for most items if it is delivered to your local store (most likely because it is either at the store already or they absorb shipping to their stores anyway). Regardless, 5% rebates (ie reall 5%) from Discover is pretty good and is much better than what the Ace rewards program could give you.