Update: Larry in the comments pointed out that while my referral code (and others I’ve seen) waives the annual fee for the first year, Stephen’s code does not. Mike in the comments notes that Player 1’s referral isn’t working to waive the fee, so this looks like this deal is only worth $100 per person. I’m not sure which accounts have the ability to refer with no fee or why, but if you have an account and Player 2 doesn’t it might be worth checking your referral deal.
We’ve written numerous times about the Point Debit Card and the many awesome promos they have run. While we mostly focus on credit cards, it has been hard to ignore repeated offers like $30 back on $200 when using your card 5 days in a row or 10% back on Amazon during Prime Day or 10% back at Target an ongoing 5% back at places like Costco, Best Buy, and Amazon in addition to occasional elevated offers like 15% back at Nike. Recently, Point increased its annual fee, but it looks like the fee is now waived for the first year when signing up through a referral. That could make this a $300 win for a couple playing in 2-player mode.
The Deal
- The Point Debit Card recently increased its annual fee to $99, but as seen below signing up through a referral offer currently drops the first-year fee to $0 and it shows $49 thereafter (See screen shots and explanation under the “How to” section below). Our referral codes are:
- Stephen’s code:
SPEPPER1(Update: Stephen’s code doesn’t appear to be waiving the fee for Year 1) - Nick’s code:NREYES6
- Stephen’s code:
- You will want to go to https://join.point.app/#/ and click where it says “promo code” and enter the referral code. If prompted to download the app, just be sure that you have a code entered in the “promo code” field when setting up your account. It may also be worth keeping screen shots.
How to work this deal
In very simple terms, here’s how this deal should work:
- Player 1 signs up for Point via referral and earns $100 back in points after spending $1,000 in the first 30 days
- Player 1 refers Player 2 for the same deal.
- When Player 2 meets the $1,000 spend, Player 2 receives $100 back in points and Player 1 receives $100 in points as a referral bonus
That’s a total of $300 on $2K in debit card purchases. That rivals a credit card bonus and it may be even easier to earn.
Note that if you go to the Point home page, you will currently see the new $99 annual fee.
However, if you click the “Promo Code?” field right below the red box in the screen shot above and enter a referral code, you will see the fee drop to $0 for the first year and $49 thereafter.
Note that I don’t know for sure that the $49 rate will stick. I am pretty confident that the $0 first year deal will stick as I’ve seen positive data points from folks who opened accounts and were not charged a fee (by contrast, most of us who signed up over the summer when the regular fee was $49 did indeed have the $49 annual fee taken from our initial deposits). It is not entirely clear to me whether the second year will stick at $49, but neither is it clear to me that the Point Debit Card will still be worth paying for a year from now — just set a reminder on your phone for 11.5 months from now to remind yourself to reevaluate that before they take out the next year’s fee. Either way, I always recommend keeping screen shots.
I’ve found the Point card to be well worth it at the $49 fee. As crazy as it sounds to pay for a debit card, I’ve earned far more than $49 back since my wife and I have each been able to take advantage of multiple streak offers for $30 back on $200 each (an easy $60 win each time) and rates of 5-10% back on Amazon among other things. For no fee the first year, it would be a no-brainer if we knew that these elevated offers would continue. As this is just a debit card account, there is no hard pull.
Of course, we don’t know that elevated offers will continue forever. In fact, I can’t imagine that the offers we’ve seen are sustainable in the long term. However, as I have frequently said in the past, rather than scaring me away that makes me strike while the iron is hot. I’m sure the deals will dry up, but I’ll be happy to have taken advantage of as many as possible before they do. Now with a waived annual fee in Year 1, there is no risk in opening the account in the hopes that we see some more similar offers — and there is an easy bonus to earn.
H/T: pakacat in the comments at Doctor of Credit
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I just signed up but it said they had trouble verifying me so asked me to try using the app. I did that and it asked me to enter my full SSN. I think this might have been a hard credit pull. On top of that, they just charged me the $99 annual fee even though I used your referral and have a screenshot of the $0 annual fee. Customer service totally sucks. I will try to cancel. Terrible experience.
No, it’s not a hard pull. Every single checking account and brokerage account in the United States requires an SSN. It’s a soft pull to verify identity.
That said, this $99 fee business absolutely stinks. I had seen several positive data points on the $0 fee. I’m working on writing an update based on these data points. Thank you and I’m sorry – what an awful customer service response.
I used the last 4 digits of my SSN and it didn’t work, so it asked for the full SSN and then it worked. All my credit reports are frozen so I don’t think there is a hard pull. I agree that their CS sucks, “we showed the wrong price online” does not go over well :/
That’s a relief that it isn’t a totally wasted effort with a hard pull on top. If Grant is right and they will not alter the fee, I will cancel whenever I can get Customer Service to respond to my text. I suggest you caution others against signing up if they don’t honor what they represented. I can’t imagine actually charging stuff, having issues, and then having to wait for text responses.
I used Nick’s referral code and got the $0 annual fee deal to pop up. But I was still charged a $99 annual fee once I finished enrolling.
I sent Point support a screenshot of the $0 offer on my application page but they still told me: “The ‘$0/first year then $49/year’ was displayed in error, we apologize for any disappointment this may cause. Our team is working hard on fixing this display issue that is occurring. You were correctly charged $99 for your membership fee, as that is our membership fee for all new members currently.”
I’m currently trying to close the account to get the annual fee waived. Maybe just my bad luck but buyer beware.
Got the same message when I texted Point:
“ Hi there, thanks for your message! Welcome to Point.
The “$0/first year then $49/year” was displayed in error in your web browser, we apologize for any disappointment this may cause. Our team is working hard on fixing this display issue that is occurring. You will be correctly charged $99 for your membership fee, as that is our membership fee for all new members currently.
Hope this helps clarify!”
Update: after several emails back-and-forth, Point customer support did say they would honor the $0 annual fee (though not the $49 second-year annual fee). Here’s the message I just got:
Hopefully the word has gone out at Point that there’s a problem and that they will waive the first-year annual fee for everyone who signed up. Good luck to everybody.
That’s great to hear. Still waiting to hear from Point via text if they will offer a similar deal to me. Provided a few screenshots so we will see what happens.
Beginning for referrals, don’t you make enough hocking ccs and other horseshit
I can’t seem to get the fee to drop when entering Spepper1.
Hmmm. You’re right. Well that’s interesting…
That makes me wonder if the same problem could happen with P1’s code when they generate a referral. If you still choose to sign up (my code seems to work), can you generate your referral code and see whether it works to drop the fee or not?
P1 Referral won’t work for me.
Ugh. That stinks. I’ve updated the post accordingly. Thanks to Larry and Mile for the comments.
So I just asked the point card about this- it doesn’t waive the fee initally. It will charge it then reimburse when you make the 1st purchase on food delivery.
Point card Response “Hi Lisa! Thanks for reaching out to us about this! Anyone referred under the terms of your current referral, will be charged the annual fee once account funding has been completed. After they make their first food delivery purchase within their first 10 days, you’ll receive 5,000 pts ($50) and they’ll earn a free year ($99) in points as reimbursement for the fee. Brands include Uber Eats, Postmates, DoorDash, Seamless, Grubhub, and Caviar. This offer ends on October 4, 2021.”