B&H Photo’s New Credit Card Pays Back Sales Tax; We Take a Look

B&H Photo’s newest product is a Time Machine that rolls back everyone’s calendar to 2018, to the mail-order-friendly days before it became mandatory to pay sales tax on out-of-state purchases. B&H properly collects and remits the appropriate sales tax but instantly rebates the same amount to the purchaser who uses their new Payboo store credit card.

How It works
Customers who have a U.S. billing address and a valid SSN/ITIN apply for and receive B&H’s Payboo store credit card. Apply online and you’ll get a decision instantly. Card transactions are processed through Synchrony Bank (more on them later). There is no annual fee.

Use the Payboo store credit card to pay for purchases at bandh.com, by telephone, at their Manhattan retail store, or at B&H B2B and EDU portals. Note that this is not a general purpose credit card and therefore cannot be used at other retailers.

B&H Photo charges and collects sales tax as required by the regulations in effect in the state where you live. Then B&H instantly applies a reward equal to the sales tax to your order if you are paying with your Payboo Card. Your final bill includes the price of the items purchased, the sales tax due and the offsetting reward credit.

Taxes are collected and remitted in accordance with applicable laws, so purchasers are not obligated to declare the transaction as unpaid sales tax when they file individual income tax returns.

Synchrony Bank
The card is issued through Synchrony Financial. They’re huge. Total deposits at Synchrony Bank increased 13% in 2018 to $64.0B. Deposits accounted for 73% of funding.

You may already be dealing with Synchrony. In 2018 they acquired PayPal’s $7.6 billion credit receivables portfolio. This acquisition extended their co-brand program and they became exclusive U.S. issuer of PayPal Credit. Synchrony Financial already has retail credit card partnerships with Amazon, Google, JCPenney, Lowe’s, QVC, Sam's Club and zulily, Home Shopping Network (HSN) and Crate & Barrel.

What Payboo Is Not
Payboo is not a general purpose credit card like a Visa or Amex. It cannot be used anywhere except at B&H or their properties.

Payboo does not replace your pre-existing B&H financing credit card. Both are distinctly separate instruments. Transactions, balances and application information cannot be transferred from one to the other.

Payboo is not a scheme to avoid paying sales tax. State and local taxes are properly collected from the purchaser by B&H and remitted to the taxing authority. B&H applies a reward credit in an amount equal to said tax instantly at the time of purchase.

Payboo is not a “points” or accrued-credit program. In other words, purchasers are not required to accumulate reward points and then apply them on future purchases. The savings are instantaneous.

Payboo does not necessarily work exactly the same way in every state, because laws vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. For more information, visit B&H’s Payboo FAQ page.

Why the name Payboo?
According to Henry Posner, director of corporate communications at B&H and long time photo industry veteran, the name was chosen by B&H CEO Menashe Horowitz from a list of potential candidates during a long, tiring airplane trip. There is no hidden meaning or historical precedent.

—Jon Sienkiewicz