SoFi sent out a survey about a new credit card they are looking at launching. The proposed card would earn 2% back on all purchases, provided you deposit the cashback into a SoFi Money/Invest/other account. It would also earn 5% cashback in two categories of your choice (up to $4,000).
Key details presented in the survey:
- $99 annual fee
- No foreign transaction fees
- Card will be Mastercard World Elite and come with all Mastercard benefits
- 2% cashback everywhere when redeemed to SoFi Money, Invest, or loan account. Otherwise 1% back.
- 5% cashback in two categories of your choice ($4,000 limit per)
- Cell phone insurance up to $1,000 – that’s more than the standard Mastercard benefit of $600
Below is an image, shared by Reddit user PartySunday (more images here). Readers in the comments here mention getting slightly different versions whereby the annual fee will be $149 or $49, and some of the card details change a bit. In all versions, the 2% cashback everywhere is steady, as well as the other benefits; it’s just the 5% category that has detail changes between the versions.
Without the annual fee, it would be a compelling product as something better than the standard 2% card. I’m not sure that the $99 annual fee will be worth it for most people to get the extra 3% on two categories, no foreign transaction fee, etc. However, assuming the 5% category options are broad, it could still become another 2% option given that it should be easy to offset the annual fee with the 5% categories. Personally, I’d prefer if they just made it fee-free and dropped the 5% category perk to simplify the product.
I find it really interesting to watch as SoFi comes out and becomes a real player in the deposit/investment market, and now looking at the credit card market. I haven’t analyzed their numbers, but they seem to have come out of nowhere in this space as they shifted from being exclusively (?) a lender, and now moving into the bank and card space.
Hat tip again to PartySunday
