UFB direct offers a debit card that previously earned 1 American Airline for every $2 spent. They sent out an e-mail to their cardholders to let them know about a number of negative changes that will come into effect on June 1st, 2015:
- Earn 1 mile per $3 spent
- Limit of 120,000 miles per calendar year
- Purchases made at the following merchants (as classified by their merchant category code) will not earn miles: Super Markets, Super Stores, Grocery Stores, Wholesale Stores, Discount Stores, USPS, and financial or money transfer institutions are not eligible. Purchases made using virtual wallets, funds transfer services, or other similar technology are not eligible
It’s pretty obvious that these changes are focused solely on people trying to game the system (although the discount of 1 mile per $3 will definitely affect all cardholders). I can’t say I really blame UFB direct, there isn’t much profit to be made on debit card transactions anymore. I imagine as more and more people have been shut down on their SunTrust Delta cards, they have shifted their spend over to UFB and this has caused big losses.
UFB has been shutting down people to try and stem this problem somewhat, but this solution is more of a permanent one. There aren’t many nationwide rewards earning debit cards left anymore, SmartyPig still haven’t launched their 1% card. You can view a full list of all the rewards earning debit cards here.
Thanks to the following readers for making me aware of this change: Geof, Ari, Dan & Ben. Below is the full e-mail:
