Zurp is a new fintech that has recently announced a $5 million pre seed capital fundraise to build a credit card that doesn’t reward cardholders but instead rewards content creators that those cardholders are fans of. In exchange the cardholders receive exclusive content (similar to Patreon or OnlyFans).
Given that credit card sign up bonuses can be in the high hundreds of dollars and everyday earning rates are 2%+ it’s hard to imagine that this will catch on. I could see it somewhat working if they were able to get some high profile content creators and pump out customized cards with specialized rewards but acquisition of that type of talent wouldn’t be cheap and based on this card it looks like they are chasing the generic route.
The card will run on the Mastercard network and and be issued and managed by First Pryority Bank of Oklahoma.
If you really love a particular content creator my suggestion would be to just sign up for a credit card that offers a high sign up bonus, then find their Patreon or OnlyFans and donate that way instead. Sorry no DoC credit card coming anytime soon.
Hat tip to VFTW
I recieved an email telling me Enzo was transitioning over to Zurp. Anybody else hear this?
I got an email saying Enzo was transitioning over to Zurp. Has anyone else gotten that?
sounds like a card used in Power Rangers
Zurp is the sound of that VC seed money disappearing into Lamborghini leases.
The name “Zurp” conjures the sound one would make while burping during a nap. “..zzz.zzzz…zzzuuuurrrp…zzz…”
(Good thing they didn’t name it “Zart,” I guess.)
Zurp, the card for stalkers!
To everyone who thinks this card is a petty dumb idea, you’re right. But I also wouldn’t bet against its failure either.
My guess is this credit cards target audience will be 18-25 year olds. Based on what I know about 18-25 year olds, most of us are almost totally financially illiterate and barely know anything about credit cards. Given we spend so much time on social media, we see very few ads for credit cards because big banks like Chase and Wells Fargo don’t seem to want to sell to this audience.
If we do know anything about credit cards, it’s that “credit cards are bad” because we heard from a friend or family member about how they got buried in credit card debt and had to work their ass off to pay off the debt. These are the same people who when I show them my portfolio of 12 credit cards I rotate between, they think I’m doing something illegal.
Now think about all the dumb to us financial products individuals like Mr. Beast or Linus Tech Tips have been sponsoring like Current checking (Schwab checking is better because they will pay your ATM fees), privacy.com (capital one eno will give you virtual card numbers for free AND you get cash back), or the Apple Credit card. These fintech companies are still around, and probably doing very well. Not because of their product is better in absolute terms, but because they are just better at selling to younger people.
This stupid “Zurp” credit card I could see being a huge hit with my friends (who know almost nothing about credit cards) who browse TikTok and want to directly support their creator. I wish people would do just a TINY amount of research and realize there are better products , but most are too lazy to do even that. These are the customers Zurp is trying to target.
^ Yes, this.
Bless all those youngsters and other cognitively impaired folks. Without the profits reaped from them, my bonus income would stop. 🙂
“These are the same people who when I show them my portfolio of 12 credit cards I rotate between, they think I’m doing something illegal” — You only think this does not happen in real world 😛 but then
Amateur
Odd they wouldn’t make it a low yield rotating categories card and pay creators a cut of net profits. 100% of “rewards” going to creators just seems doomed to fail from launch.
Ironically if it was a debit card it likely would work better — so many financially illiterate people love swiping debit and think credit is the devil. That make is used to 0% cashback and yield isn’t that much worse than credit with the Durbin-exempt/”pre-paids”
US aggregate credit card debt is nearly $1B and you consider debit card users to be “financially illiterate”.
Yes we do. The ones in CC debt are far worse though
As much as I hate to say it, there are absolutely going to be some Gen Zers or late millennials who sign up for this card just because they never considered getting a credit card before. If you hadn’t noticed, most big banks do a really poor job at advertising to younger people. I could see this catching on simply because the audience they are selling this product to isn’t aware of the other choices they may have.
>fintech
>pre seed
>capital fundraise
Did you really need so many bullshit words to say “con-artists swindle stupid investors”?
Imagine being such a simp you take a credit report hit for the benefit of some shilltube (or worse) grifter
Yes, apparently you do need so many words! Duh!
For a second, I thought it was April 1st.
We an extraordinarily bad card offer (Walgreens) followed by an even worse one with this Zurp nonsense.
Will & Chuck – I hereby challenge you to build a trifecta of awful cards today.