X1 Smart Credit Card Review – Earn 2x – 4x On All Purchases (Up To 4-8% Cashback)

Update 11/29/22: 3x points for the year when you spend $15,000 on the card in that year is now capped at $7,500 per spend per month. Feel like this change should be effective January 1, 2023 but doesn’t seem to be. Might be worth filing a complaint with the CFPB if it affects you. Hat tip to Kian

Update 5/19/22: X1 has added some more merchants including Amazon, Best Buy, and Home Depot but when you redeem against these charges it’s 0.75¢ per point instead of 1¢ per point. Old options are still at 1¢ per point. Hat tip to veeRob

A new card has launched called ‘X1 Smart Credit Card‘. Let’s take a look at this new card in this quick review.

• No annual fee
• Card earns at the following rates:
  • 2X points on every single purchase
  • 3X points on every single purchase for the year if you spend $15K+ on the card in that year
  • 4X points on every single purchase for a month for every friend you refer (If you bring in 10 friends for example, you’ll get 4X points on every single purchase for 10 months)
• Stainless steel card
• Credit limit will be based on your income, not credit score

How Much Are Points Worth?

Points are worth 1¢ per point on most merchants, there will be some merchants where points will be worth 2¢ per point.

Our Verdict

I don’t see how this is sustainable long term, especially if you can get 2¢ per point when redeeming points at some merchants (I assume you redeem points against these charges?). That would mean you could get 4% – 8% cash back on all purchases. That being said this is a product from Thrive (they created ThriveCash) and have raised $10 million over two rounds (although the last round was in December 2018). Lately we’ve seen a lot of these fintech products with a lucrative offering, unfortunately many of them have never actually launched. Do not share your referrals in the comments.