The Durbin Amendment to the Dodd-Frank legislation largely did way with debit reward programs (pour one out for PerkStreet.) Dodd-Frank is now under assault from all quarters in Washington, but looking fairly strongly entrenched.
Still, debit rewards programs are making a comeback with the release of GoBank‘s Uber Visa debit card, announced today. The GoBank accounts for Uber, offered by Green Dot Bank, are already fairly specialized, offering realtime “cashouts” for drivers after completed trips.
The card includes the following cashback rewards:
- 3% Cash Back at Exxon and Mobil gas stations when drivers use their PIN at the pump
- 1.5% Cash Back at all other gas stations
- 2% Cash Back at Walmart for in-store and online purchases
- 15% discount on select automotive maintenance services at Jiffy Lube
- 10% Cash Back on auto part purchases at Advance Auto Parts and participating Carquest Auto Parts locations. (Maximum of $100 per month on up to $1,000 total spending per month on purchases)
- 8% Cash Back when you pay your monthly Sprint bill and on purchases in Sprint corporate retail stores or online at sprint.com. (Maximum of $50 per month per account on up to $625 total spending per month on purchases. Excludes select accessories sold at non-corporate Sprint stores. Learn more here.)
Other Uber Visa Debit Card offers include 24/7 roadside assistance from Urgent.ly covering tow, tire change, and more (4 incidents total) for $0.49 a month with sign-up; free withdrawals at tens of thousands of ATMs nationwide; and the ability to cash out earnings on Instant Pay for free up to 5 times a day.
Note the use of PIN at the pump. Visa generally favors chip & signature over chip & PIN, but gas pumps are unique payment terminals, and have the longest time to adapt to EMV standards. Here’s Visa on EMV at the pumps. And gas stations, because they overwhelmingly sell just one product, are allowed to discount cash purchases. Technically it’s legal for any merchant to do that, per NerdWallet.
Green Dot Chief Revenue Officer Brett Narlinger discussed Green Dot’s banking-as-a-platform strategy on a recent podcast with INV Fintech, this site’s sister accelerator. Partnerships like that with Uber are critical to the bank’s future plans, Narlinger said.
Read more on Uber.