(EXPIRED) PointCard “Golden Ticket” and other increased referral offers

The PointCard Debit Card is out with some new targeted referral offers that might make the card more appealing (and separately they have some new 10x offers out this week that may be appealing and are noted under “quick thoughts” below). I received two emails about referrals: one “Golden Ticket” that is good for $150 for both sides when a friend opens an account and spends $100 by 4/5. That offer is only valid for one person. I then received a second referral offer that is good for $100 for both sides after the new account holder spends $200 by 4/7.

The Offers

• PointCard debit card is out with new referral offers today. I received two different referral offers to share with friends:
  • “Golden Ticket” offer: Each side gets 15,000 points (worth $150) when you refer one friend and they are approved and spend $100 on their new PointCard by 11:59 PDT on 4/4/22 (only valid for one referral)
  • $100 offer: Each side gets 10,000 points (worth $100) when you refer a friend and they are approved and spend $200 on their new PointCard by 11:59 PDT on 4/6/22 (valid for up to three referrals

Key Terms

• Link to terms for “Golden Ticket” offer
• Link to terms for $100 offer
• For you or the new referred customer to earn the points through this offer, the referred new customer must (i) be approved for PointCard and not previously have had a PointCard account, (ii) spend at least ($100 for the Golden Ticket offer or $200 for the general offer) using PointCard for rewarded transactions (which exclude funds transfers, gift card purchases, and restricted MCCs) before 11:59 PM PDT on [April 4th for Golden Ticket offer or April 6th for general offer] and (iii) pay their first membership fee for a monthly or annual plan.
• This must be the new customer’s first PointCard account.
• See links above for full terms

Quick Thoughts

I am assuming that these offers are targeted as my wife hasn’t received any offer at all via email. As noted above, these new offers are very limited — I can only refer one person for the $150 offer and three people for the $100 offer. There would be no way for me to know when three or four people have used my link, so I’m not sharing a link here (I wouldn’t want readers to sign up and not get a bonus!). You would be much better off finding a friend who has the card and a link.

Oddly, Point had apparently suspended my ability to refer altogether in late 2021. Despite the app advertising a place to invite friends, it didn’t generate a link and my old code didn’t work. Now my wife seems to have suffered that fate. I have gotten emails about referral promotions, but haven’t been able to generate a link until today. I received back-to-back emails this morning about the new promotion, one with the subject line “You’ve got the golden ticket” about the $150 referral offer and one for the $100 offer. I was surprised when I went to the app and I was able to generate a new referral link / code (which I can confirm is different from my old code).

If you have the card and offer and know someone who might be interested, either offer can be a solid deal. The PointCard has a $99 annual fee (or you can pay $9.99 per month), so either of these offers will effectively make the card free for a year or make it profitable if you only intend to pay monthly for a few months.

Either way, I’ve found the PointCard to be a nice win. For a while they ran some nice “streak” offers to use your card several days in a row and get a nice little chunk of points back. We haven’t seen a streak offer in a while, but they have run decent offers pretty regularly for great return at popular merchants.

For instance, through 3/27 they currently have 10x points (10% back) at Urban Outfitters, Nordstrom, and GAP. There are plenty of regular or longer-term offers as well, including 5x / 5% back at Amazon, Whole Foods, Costco, Trader Joe’s, Walmart, Best Buy, Etsy, coffee shops, and more (most of those offers are limited to something like 5,000 points per offer period, which are roughly monthly). There are many more. Base earnings are 1x (1%) everywhere, 3x (3%) rideshare and food delivery. While I generally prefer earning transferable currencies, I have taken advantage of a lot of PointCard offers and generally lean on it as my Amazon card of choice.

I do wish they’d simply the referral system – this sort of multiple-tier referral offer is kind of weird. We’ve seen instances in the past where different cardholders had different referral offers and I think that makes the program confusing. Still, if you have the Golden Ticket offer and a family member who is interested, it is hard to argue with $300 between the two of you for the cost of a $99 annual fee and $100 in purchases.

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