Update 8/16/22: Albert Debit Card cash back offers are now behind their Genius subscription paywall. Currently they allow you to pay any amount for the Genius subscription. (ht drakeable)
Update 6/3/22: Swagbucks bonus is now 10,000 ($100), plus another $150 directly from Albert, after you receive $200 direct deposit. MyPoints is at 20,000, worth $126 – $133. (ht Pawan)
Update 11/7/21: Swagbucks bonus now reduced back down to $60 (from $125)
Update 10/22/21: Apparently the direct deposit bonus also requires debit card spend?
Update 10/17/21: Reader T reached out to let us know that Albert also has deals, similar to Cash app. Current deals include 15% cash back from Best Buy (max $5), 15% Old Navy, 15% Walgreens, 10% Home Depot, 10% Target (unlocks with DD), 10% DoorDash (unlocks with DD), 10% Lyft, 10% Starbucks, 15% Etsy, 20% Whole Foods.
Update 10/15/21: Swagbucks is now offering a 12,500 ($125) when you open the Albert account + get an insurance quote from Savvy insurance. (ht reader newguy) Assuming the $75 direct deposit bonus is still around, you can end up with $200 total from Albert + Savvy.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $135
- Availability: Nationwide
- Direct deposit required: Yes, $200+
- Additional requirements:
- Hard/soft pull: Unknown
- ChexSystems: No
- Credit card funding: Unknown
- Monthly fees: None
- Early account termination fee: None
- Household limit: None listed
- Expiration date: None listed
Contents
The Offer
Direct link to offer
- Swagbucks is offering 6,000 Swagbucks (worth $60) when you open a new Albert account and deposit of more than $20. Once you sign up you’ll also be offered $75 for receiving a direct deposit of $200+.
The Fine Print
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
Monthly Fees
This account has no monthly fees.
Early Account Termination Fee
Unsure if there is any early account termination fee.
Our Verdict
This is better than the $75 referral bonus. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised to see these offers increase in the future as Albert has raised over $170 million and typically these neobanks increased their bonuses over time. We will add this to our list of the best bank account bonuses.
Hat tip to reader Dylan
Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:
- A Beginners Guide To Bank Account Bonuses
- Bank Account Quick Reference Table (Spreadsheet) (very useful for sorting bonuses by different parameters)
- PSA: Don’t Call The Bank
- Introduction To ChexSystems
- Banks & Credit Unions That Are ChexSystems Inquiry Sensitive
- What Banks & Credit Unions Do/Don’t Pull ChexSystems?
- How To Use Our Direct Deposit Page For Bank Bonuses Page
- Common Bank Bonus Misconceptions + Why You Should Give Them A Go
- How Many Bank Accounts Can I Safely Open Within A Year For Bank Bonus Purposes?
- Affiliate Links & Bank Bonuses – We Won’t Be Using Them
- Complete List Of Ways To Close Bank Accounts At Each Bank
- Banks That Allow/Don’t Allow Out Of State Checking Applications
- Bank Bonus Posting Times
Dec 2024: fee is inflating to 16.99. Annual memberships are ending as well….Still able to make profit if I can do at least 2 weeks in a month x 5*$5 (Whole foods, BB, CVS, WAGS, Costco). So keeping.
I wonder if you are the only DoC reader left that still has an Albert account open.
Its Still profitable for me; I am able to sneak a quick trip to each of those 4 stores every week plus do Costco online as they all lie within an area that I have to anyway pass by. So yes, for me the additional $2 is not a big dent and I make up the entire monthly fee within a week.
Are you buying gcs for “odd” amounts at those stores or are you doing all legit purchases?
Its fairly easy to make odd amounts.
I wasn’t paying attention and got charged (2) $14.99 for October and November this year. Looks like it was $14.99 since November 2023 but I was on a yearly plan so I didn’t notice. I zeroed my account with Albert and asked them for a refund of the two months, which they granted. I signed up under the $8.49/month two-month trial. I regularly go each week to Whole Foods, Best Buy, Walmart, and Target and get giftcards that equate to the maximum $5 cashback so I’m getting around 9% cashback even with the $16.99 fee. I may keep Albert Genius even when my trial period ends.
Albert just sent me an email (see below) that starting in December everyone will need to pay for Genius to have an Albert account. It looks like I and many others will be closing our accounts soon.
Genius subscription
As of the effective date above, a Genius subscription will be required for all Albert Cash account holders. The price for a Genius subscription is currently $14.99/month.
If you are already subscribed to Genius, there will be no changes to your subscription.
If you aren’t subscribed to Genius you’ll be prompted to subscribe in the app. Once you subscribe, you won’t be charged for 30 days.
Got the same email, Dec 16 is the date. I wonder if I subscribe on Dec 15 and use the offers for 4 weeks before canceling mid January will work or not.
I just got the email. I’m definitely closing now.
You might have to email them to get your balance so you can clear out the account. You need to have a $0 balance for them to close the account.
I was unable to login to my account to view it myself as they required me to sign up for Genius to get in. That was very annoying.
how did you manage to close it? i wasn’t using this acc and remembered i had it just now, unable check my balance unless i pay into one of the monthly services, i know my balance is around 1$-5$ so i’m not worried about that, what worries me is they charging inactivity fee for years and only then closing it and sending those fees to collection.
Per terms of service:
“You can deactivate or close your Albert account at any time in the app by going to Profile > Menu > Help center > Deactivate or close my accounts or contacting support at 637-39 or [email protected]. You must complete the deactivation before the scheduled date of your Fee Payment.”
637-39 would be a short code text message.
Very scummy company. They continue to send email notifications of monthly statements that you cannot view without signing up again.
Pretty sure I have activated a Genius trial more than once just to be able to login to verify nothing funky is going on, and that repeats the cycle of madness.
Instead of Genius, should be called Insanity.
Evilex
Haha indeed, crazy to think that they actually have clients charging those ridiculous fees, i managed to sign in and transfered the remanining balance, once it settles i will try closing it.
I just checked my records. I was able to close my account via email back in late-2023.
Yep i’m doing the same, i think the transaction to empty the acc settled already, but just in case i’ll email them monday since i’m unable to access my account at the moment
They signed me up for their Protect program automatically. I found out from a welcome email I received 2 days ago. It’s a credit protect program. It’s an extra $5 a month. I don’t want it. Now they are saying I can’t cancel without also cancelling Genius which I already paid the annual fee for. I’m getting nowhere with their customer service. Anyone else have this issue?
I have an annual subscription, which was just renewed the first week of Sept. I only received an email announcing the new protection and monitoring features but that the new price wouldn’t take effect until the annual subscription renews. I did not receive anything about being charged another $5 per month on my current annual plan.
Anyone know the minimum amount of DD required to keep the offers coming? I ended my $200 monthly DD last month and now my offers ended as well even though I am paying for Genius. If I reinstate DD for say $100 would that work?
I do $11 biweekly and no issues.
Thanks $100 worked for me and the offers appeared almost immediately after the DD posted – just had to refresh. As a DP, my DD was same day DD which does also work (lower 1% fee for smaller amounts works better than $2.50 just in case anyone is going this route).
There is also a new weekly “boost” in Albert: 10% off at 7-11 which means an extra $5 a week that could offset the Genius price increase.
My DD is only $1.xx weekly. I sometimes change my DD to a different bank in order to satisfy a bonus requirement, but I never skip the Albert DD 2 weeks in a row or else I don’t get the offers anymore. So it seems that any amount is fine, but it has to be at least biweekly.
Interesting. After when it stopped in September, I restarted DD and have been going monthly (Oct 1st week, Nov 1st week) and it has worked so far…lets see how much longer it will continue.
BTW my first 14.99 fee hit today and I did some math and the 14.99 is still worth paying:
CVS, Walgreens, BestBuy: All $34 buys for $5 back
Whole Foods, Costco: Both $25 buys for $5 back
7-11: $50 buy for $5 back
Weekly spend: $202
Weekly cashback: $30
Monthly spend: $808
Monthly Cashback: $240 – $15 in Genius fee making it $225
If not for Albert, I would have to do this at Staples with 5% Ink meaning I would get only $40.40 CB.
So my overall cushion is $185 – even if I miss doing a few offers in the month its still good enough.
If your weekly CB is $30, shouldn’t your monthly CB be $120 rather than $240?
4 weeks in a month? (NOT biweekly – weekly)
Yes, there are 4 full weeks in a month, not 8.
Ah yes math error followed by brain freeze. $120 – $15 = $105 less the cashback otherwise earned on ink would make it $65 monthly gain. Still good I guess. Thanks.
Received this email:
“Hi ,
Since starting Genius, we’ve grown to help you budget, save, and invest automatically. Today, we also offer identity protection, credit monitoring, and Instant overdraft coverage.
To support our growing Genius services, we’re updating our subscription price to $14.99/month. Your monthly price will change to $14.99 after October 9, 2023.
Monthly subscribers will see this new price reflected in the following billing cycle at $14.99/month. Annual subscribers will keep their current price for the remainder of their plan and will see this new pricing reflected at $179.88 ($14.99 x 12 months) the next time your plan renews.
Thank you for trusting Genius — we hope to continue helping you with your financial goals and look forward to showing you what’s next. Make sure to update your app to access all the latest features. ”
The cash back saves me about $650 annually… but after the $180 annual subscription it nets to $470. And Albert takes up one of my (4) bank slots to which my employer allows me to split my direct deposit. I’ll keep Albert until my Genius subscription runs out in August 2024… but after that it’s probably not worth the hassle for me anymore.
I agree that it probably won’t be worth it anymore after the price increase.
I could never figure out why my offers are different than my wife’s. We both always have the 20% Whole Foods, which is the most important for me, but I always have a 15% Best Buy, and she never has it. This week, we used a lot of offers on her card, and as we used each one, another one would show up, including ones that she has never gotten before. She finally got the 15% Best Buy. Others that we saw were 10% Uber, 10% Uber Eats, 15% Old Navy, 10% 7-Eleven, 10% Chevron, 15% Taco Bell, and 15% Walgreens. I’m tempted to try to use a few more offers to see if any other new ones will show up, but even after all that work and spending, we still have never seen the 20% Costco in her account, which I get every week. I would imagine that if I use up a few more of her offers, the elusive Costco one will appear.
I always get the same ones: Shell 10%, Best Buy 15%, Walmart 10%, Target 10%, McDonalds 15%, Chick-fil-A 15%, Lyft 10%, Etsy 15%, Uber 10%, Doordash 10%. As I use those others appear: Whole Foods 20%, Sephora 15%, Dunkin’ Donuts 10%, and Old Navy 10%. My friend gets some I have never seen, like Home Depot, Chevron, Walgreens, Costco.
I used a few more on my wife’s today, and she got 15% Wendy’s, 15% Dollar General, 20% Kroger, and 15% CVS. I plan on using the Dollar General and CVS tomorrow. Maybe Costco will finally show up.
Still no Costco. Got 15% Burger King, 15% Sony Playstation, 10% Postmates, and 15% Sonic. I’m surprised there are so many offers that I’ve never read about here.
This is still profitable for the monthly $8 fee. Target and Walmart exact $50 has not worked for me. However, Whole Foods, Costco (which started appearing only recently), CVS and Walgreens are weekly staples netting $20 a week in rewards on $120 spend or $60+ a month on $350 spend. Even considering loss of CC rewards about $20 if 5% category bonus loss and the $8 Genius fee this is a total of $25 loss for a $60 bonus with a net gain of $35 a month with no 1099s to deal with as its cashback. And this is the worst case. With Target/Walmart/Shell/Best Buy occasional additional spend, the profit is even higher….have to think of getting P2 back on the train.
Interesting. I’ve never got CVS or a Walgreens offers. I’ve been having more issues with target online as target hits the card separately for multiple items often lowest amount first when I tried buying GCs , even combined with other stuff.
yes, only safe bet online is Costco which I am not sure how much longer it will continue, but the rest done in store have worked all but one time when I split a $100 Target payment into exactly $50 on this and $50 on Redcard which caused the offer to not work. But 47.99 has worked. I just go to customer service and tell them I have to split pay with Redcard and another card.
Also I think if you continuously keep doing offers you will likely get new ones. I never used to get Costco until last week.
When you say that it works at Costco online, do you mean that you can buy a $25 Costco Digital Shop Card?
yes correct. I guess you could buy general stuff at Costco online and pay for it with the Albert debit as well and it should still work as Costco takes MC online.
Wow, I made the false assumption that buying the Costco shop card would not work, since buying gift cards online is often processed by another vendor. I can’t believe I missed out for almost an entire year. I will have to start buying a $25 card weekly now.
its worth giving everything a shot when there are no DPs. as the loss is small here While BB, Target, WMT online are definitely a no-go for gift cards of any type, I did loose a few especially Target instore $50 GC buys that I thought should have gone through but did not. Overall I am well ahead now on this one given that I have a Whole Foods/CVS/Walgreens and BB are within range of my everyday travel and then the Coistco GC.
Did it go up? The lowest option I’m seeing is $16
I got charged $8 this week. So at least for existing, its still $8. If it increases I guess it may be time to quit…doing the math $16 cuts into monthly profit which now stands at $75 on a spend of about $450. When taking into consideration the $22.50 loss of cashback if these are bought using ink at Staples plus the $16 fee that reduces profit to about $36 which is still sustainable for now with an additional Walmart/Target/McDonaalds purchase thrown in here and there for a few dollars more in earning.
I didn’t realize that there’s a monthly option. I was notified that my membership will renew next month at $96 for another year. I remember paying less than that last year and also got a $10 bonus. Not sure if there’s any benefit to paying for another year up front, but I guess I’m stuck with the annual plan if the monthly is now $16 unless you’re grandfathered.
Not sure about Walmart and Target, but I still stop at Whole Foods once a week after dropping the kids off at school to buy two $25 Amazon gift cards for $20 each (using my Albert card and my wife’s Albert card). Been doing this for a long time and never had a problem. Around the holidays, they were out of $25 gift cards but had one $50 gift card left. They even let me do a split transaction to put $25 on each of the Albert cards, and both cards still got the $5 back.
$50 gift card at Target, also bought some toothpaste and used Target Circle rewards, total was $51.11 and $5 cash back is pending.
Target.com-$25 GC purchase worked. I wonder if two $25 GCs for $50 total would work. A single $50 GC purchase at target.com did not work. Bestbuy.com- 50 GC plus $15 GC ($65 total) worked. Does $50 GC no longer work? Sounds like from posts below that it does not. Would a $50 GC on sale for another amount such as $45 work at bestbuy.com?
I haven’t had any issues at Whole Foods. Thanks
As long as the total is not exactly $50 then I would think it should work
I did (2) $25’s as the first DP and that didn’t work. Stay away from $50 transactions