Holders of the Kroger Rewards credit card are losing the five-cent-per-gallon discount at Kroger Fuel Centers. U.S. Bank, which issues the card, is moving the accounts to a different product, the Smartly Visa Signature card. The discount ends when the replacement card is activated, and the switch is expected to be finished this fall.
CardRates, a card-industry news site, reported the details this week. The terms below are as CardRates describes them.
What Kroger cardholders lose
The fuel discount is the loss named most often, but it is not the only one. According to CardRates, the old card paid 5 percent cash back on the first $3,000 of eligible Kroger Pay purchases each calendar year, then 2 percent after that. Mobile-wallet purchases earned 5 percent on the first $3,000 each year, then 1 percent.
The Smartly card has no Kroger-specific benefits at all. That means the grocery-chain bonus categories, along with the five cents a gallon at Kroger Fuel Centers, are gone once the new card is switched on.
A simple example shows the size of the fuel loss. A driver who fills 20 gallons a week at a Kroger Fuel Center saves $1 a week at five cents a gallon, or about $52 over a year. The grocery cash back is the larger number for a household that spends heavily at the store.
What cardholders gain, and what carries over
CardRates reports that cash back on purchases outside Kroger rises from 1 percent to 2 percent. That higher rate applies only when rewards are sent to an eligible U.S. Bank deposit account or taken as a statement credit.
The site also cites WCPO, the Cincinnati television station, for 3 percent back on gas and groceries during the first 12 months of the new card. That introductory rate is a limited-time feature, so it does not replace the permanent fuel discount.
Some things do not change. Neither card has an annual fee, and credit limits, balances, APRs and earned rewards carry over automatically, according to CardRates.
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For a Kroger shopper asking what is lost and whether the new card is worth keeping, the answer depends on where the household spends. A shopper who fills up at Kroger and buys most groceries there loses the most. A shopper whose spending is mostly elsewhere may come out ahead at 2 percent, provided the rewards go to a U.S. Bank deposit account or a statement credit.
What cardholders need to do, and when
Cardholders do not have to apply for the new card. The current card keeps working until the replacement arrives in the mail, and the new card can be used once it is activated. CardRates says the transition is expected to wrap up in the fall of 2026, and gives no single date for every account.
The replacement carries a new account number and a new expiration date. That is the detail that tends to cause trouble, because any bill, subscription or store account saved to the old number has to be updated by hand.
For questions, CardRates points to U.S. Bank’s FAQ page for the Smartly card, the letter the bank sent to cardholders, and the phone number printed on the back of the card.
The grocery cash back is also tied to a calendar year. A cardholder who has already used up the $3,000 bonus tier in 2026 earns only 2 percent on Kroger Pay purchases for the rest of the year, so the practical loss between now and the end of the year may be smaller than the list of benefits suggests.
Why Kroger’s card is changing now
CardRates places the card change alongside other Kroger news. Kroger operates 1,229 stores in 16 states, and it has agreed to acquire Giant Eagle, Inc., which has 197 supermarkets and 11 standalone pharmacies, with closing expected in 2027. The company also plans to close about 60 underperforming stores over 18 months.
None of that changes the card terms for a current cardholder.
Which payments are tied to the old Kroger card number?
A card that changes its number and expiration date can leave a missed autopay or a late-fee notice behind, and a bill that goes unpaid can end up with a collector. Balances and APRs carry over, so the amount owed stays the same, but nothing carries over the list of what was charged to the card.
The Bank Account & Debt Protection Kit includes a debt inventory, call log and deadline tracker for exactly that kind of account change, along with the debt-validation steps if a collector ever contacts a household over a balance. Part 8 holds the letters, worksheets and contacts.
Get the debt inventory and deadline tracker for the Kroger card switch →
More Financial Reading
- 21 Ways to Stretch a $2,087 Social Security Check
- 15 Places to Find Your Share of the $4.25 Billion States Give Back
- 15 Ways Retirees Are Tapping a Record $14.9 Trillion in Home Equity
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
