1% back rewards debit card from TAB Bank

Doctor of Credit notes that TAB Bank is currently offering a cash back checking account (called Kasasa Cash Back Checking account) that includes a debit card that comes with 1% cash back on debit card purchases when you make at least 15 debit card purchases of a minimum of $5 each and 1 direct deposit, ACH, or bill pay transaction. That seems impossibly generous (and indeed, digging through the terms it sounds unlikely to work out as nice as it sounds), but it seemed worth reporting for those interested.

The Deal

• TAB Bank is offering a Kasasa Cash Back Checking account. This account features a debit card that offers 1% cash back on purchases when you complete at least 15 debit purchases per month of at least $5 each and you have at least 1 direct deposit, ACH transfer, or bill payment per month
• Direct link

Key Details

Notable items from the account disclosures:

• Purpose and expected use of accounts – This account is
  intended to be the accountholder’s primary checking account in
  which payroll transactions and day-to-day spending activities
  including but not limited to grocery, gasoline, apparel,
  shopping, dining, sporting and entertainment transactions are
  posted and settled.
• Commensurate with the spending activities identified
  above, we expect the account’s debit card to be used
  frequently throughout each month and for transaction amounts
  to reflect a wide dollar range. Small debit card transactions
  conducted on the same day at a single merchant and/or
  multiple transactions made during a condensed time period
  particularly near the end of a Monthly Qualification Cycle are
  not considered normal, day-to-day spending behavior. These
  types of transactions appear to be conducted with the sole
  purpose of qualifying for the account’s rewards and thus will be
  deemed inappropriate transactions and will not count toward
  earning the account’s rewards.
• TAB Bank reserves the right to determine if the
  account is being maintained for a purpose other than day-today, primary use. Accountholders who persist in making debit
  card transactions in a calculated and limited fashion in order to
  meet their monthly qualifications may have their accounts
  converted to a different checking account or closed altogether.
  We also reserve the right to convert the account to a different
  checking account if the account does not have consistent active
  use over 3 consecutive Statement Cycles.
• The following activities do not count toward earning
  account rewards: ATM-processed transactions, transfers
  between accounts, debit card purchases less than $5.00, debit
  card purchases processed by merchants and received by our
  bank as ATM transactions, non-retail payment transactions and
  purchases made with debit cards not issued by our bank.
  Transactions bundled together by merchants and received by
  our institution as a single transaction count as a single
  transaction for the purpose of earning account rewards.
• Link to read full account disclosures

Quick Thoughts

The account itself has no monthly fee or monthly minimum and there is no cap to the 1% rewards you earn (though you do need the 15 transactions per month and have 1 direct deposit, ACH, or bill pay transaction to earn 1% back). They also refund ATM fees nationwide (up to $5 per transaction up to $15 per month).

It sounds on the surface like it might be pretty attractive to some folks, but the way the account disclosures are worded seems pretty deliberate to me. I get the impression that they understand ways the account could be abused and they left plenty of room to close it if they see fit. Note that the terms also state that if they close the account, any rewards that hadn’t yet been posted to the account are forfeited. The specific exclusion of non-retail transactions eliminates some uses and leaves enough ambiguity that I don’t expect this to be as good as it sounds.

Still, it seemed worth reporting because I may indeed be wrong.

H/T: Doctor of Credit

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