Update 12/8/25: In our Frequent Miler Insiders Facebook group, we learned that @katiestraveltricks on Instagram has reported that the 7,500 Companion Pass qualifying points stack with the 10,000 Companion Pass qualifying points that credit card holders receive each year. That could be a solid deal for someone looking to qualify without opening a business credit card.
Note that if you are interested in the debit card, you may want to open it by December 31st as you must be a debit card holder by 12/31 in order to receive a 20% off coupon code the following January. If you wait until after January 1st, 2026 to apply, you will not receive the 20% discount code until January 2027.
Last month, Southwest announced that it would be launching a debit card. Details were limited, but we managed to find a landing page that contained some card details, such as the welcome bonus and earning rates. Based on those limited features, the card didn’t seem very interesting.
The Southwest debit card is now available for applications. Along with that, full details of the card’s features are now available and it turns out that the card is a little more compelling than it initially appeared.
Southwest Debit Card Features
You can apply for the Southwest debit card here. Here’s a full list of the card’s features:
Earning rates
- 1 point per $1 spent
- Southwest purchases
- Dining
- Subscriptions (including utilities and streaming services)
- 1 point per $2 spent
- All other eligible spending
Sign-up bonus
- 2,500 bonus Rapid Rewards points after spending $100 and having two recurring deposits within the first 90 days
Monthly fee
- $6.99, waived if you maintain a minimum monthly balance of $2,500
Other features
- Annual spend bonus:
- Spend $5,000-$9,999.99 & earn 2,500 bonus points
- Spend $10,000-$14,999.99 & earn 5,000 bonus points
- Spend $15,000+ & earn 7,500 bonus points
- 20% off promotion code – awarded every January
- $35 statement credit each calendar year for Southwest purchases – excludes Upgraded Boarding and inflight purchases
- 7,500 bonus Companion Pass qualifying points each calendar year – awarded by January 31 each year or within 30 days of account opening
- All points earned are Companion Pass eligible – this includes points earned from the sign-up bonus and the annual spend bonus
- No ATM surcharges when using Cirrus network
Quick Thoughts
When the card was first announced, this was what we knew about the card:
- Have a 2,500 Rapid Rewards point welcome bonus after you have two recurring deposits and spend $100 in the first 90 days
- Earn up to 7,500 bonus points per cardmember anniversary (rather than calendar year) based on your annual spend
- Earn 1 Rapid Rewards point per dollar on:
- Southwest Airlines purchases
- Dining
- Subscriptions
- Earn 1 Rapid Rewards point per $2 dollars on:
- Everything else
Those limited details initially made the card seem underwhelming, but the full card details make it somewhat interesting.
For starters, you get 7,500 Companion Pass qualifying points each year. Note that these aren’t redeemable Rapid Rewards points; instead, they simply contribute towards the 135,000 qualifying points needed each calendar year to earn a Southwest Companion Pass. Although that’s only 5.55% of the points needed to earn a Companion Pass, it could be a useful boost, especially if you get towards the end of the year and find yourself falling short. If you were only ~7,500 qualifying points away from earning a Companion Pass, you could apply for the debit card and voilà – you get to the 135,000 point threshold with ease. If that’s your plan, bear in mind that these qualifying points can take up to 30 days to be awarded after opening an account, so it might not work if getting the card in December.
You also earn 2,500 bonus Rapid Rewards points when signing up for the card and spending $100 and getting two recurring deposits in the first 90 days. Those points are also Companion Pass qualifying, so that’s a total of 10,000 Companion Pass qualifying points when also accounting for the 7,500 aforementioned points. Those 2,500 Rapid Rewards points will be awarded within 8 weeks after the 91st day of opening your account, so it sounds like those won’t be earned until February 2026 at the earliest, meaning you won’t be able to have those count towards the 2025 Companion Pass qualifying year.
The $6.99 monthly fee seems high, but at least there’s the ability to have the fee waived by keeping an average of $2,500 on deposit each month. There is a potential opportunity cost to that, but not so much if you’d otherwise have been leaving it in your checking account earning 0.01% interest.
The big spend bonuses aren’t too stringent. If you spend at the exact $5,000, $10,000, or $15,000 thresholds to earn 2,500, 5,000, or 7,500 bonus Rapid Rewards points respectively, you’re effectively earning 0.5 bonus points per dollar. That makes the card’s total potential earning rates 1.5x for the 1x spending categories or 1x for the 0.5x categories. That’s still far from amazing, but it could be useful for some people who otherwise have no option for earning Southwest points through spend.
There are a couple of unexpected benefits. Getting a coupon code for 20% off each year could save you a decent amount of money. Meanwhile getting a $35 statement credit on Southwest purchases shouldn’t be hard to max out.
In fact, those benefits alone could easily offset a full year’s worth of monthly fees. At $6.99 per month, you’re looking at spending $83.88 on annual fees over the course of a calendar year. If you value that $35 benefit as good as cash, that reduces the net fee to $48.88. If the 20% discount can be used on a flight costing $250+, your savings will offset the rest of the monthly fees paid. In reality, the flight spend would probably need to be closer to $275-$300 as the discount will only apply to the base fare, not taxes and fees.
This Southwest debit card still isn’t very compelling for someone eligible for a Southwest credit card given those cards’ benefits and superior earning potential. However, for someone who’s over 5/24 (and thus can’t get a Southwest card or an Ultimate Rewards-earning card that can be transferred to Southwest), having the opportunity to earn Rapid Rewards points and Companion Pass qualifying points through spend with no credit check could be appealing. It could also be worthwhile for someone who needs a (somewhat) quick boost of 7,500 Companion Pass qualifying points towards the end of the year and/or someone who can generate a lot of debit card spending where credit cards aren’t accepted.
Applying for this card is most certainly not a no-brainer. However, I am pleasantly surprised by the suite of benefits and features on the card that can provide value for the right person.
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3% foreign transaction fee. no thanks
Anyone know what counts as a recurring deposit? Never had a debit card before.
I’m wondering the same thing I don’t get a paycheck but I could send an ACH from one of my business accounts to the new debit card account twice a month or something
Would that qualify?
Also- does anyone know if the SUB generates a 1099 like a bank account or points are not reported like a credit card?
For those that are doing tax payments to get the annual spend bump, those extra points are delivered on your anniversary not when you reach them. And the card has to be open on your anniversary so can’t cancel half way through the year.
Does anyone know how to actually see points earned through debit card spend? I used the card for a couple of different types of transactions last month, the statement closed over a week ago, and I haven’t earned any Southwest points. The debit card app doesn’t seem to display points earned by using the card anywhere.
Thanks for today’s episode. I thought it was interesting from the get go thinking about tax payments. I hadn’t realized the daily limit would be there for purchases. I have made a couple small direct deposits, but waiting to make a purchase until January to get the 2500 welcome bonus.
I got the personal credit card in October and sub expires 2/2 which required 3k spend. I also avoid business cards even though I get how much they would help.
85,000 sub bonus
3,000 sub spending
10,000 boost credit card
7,500 boost debit card
3750 tax payment #1 of 7,500 (1 pt/$2)
3750 tax payment #2 of 7,500
2,500 welcome bonus debit card after making purchase.
115,500 toward companion pass by early Feb. let me know if you see any holes in my math or thinking.
rest to come from regular credit card spending. Or maybe I’ll do 2 more debit card tax payments through other processor. TBD….
I hadn’t paid much attention to the 20% coupon but it really could add up and make the lack of interest income on the 2500 sitting here not earning anything more worthwhile.
Thanks!
Didn’t meant to have this be a reply! Oops. No answer as I haven’t spent anything
Has anyone verified whether the 7500 companion pass qualifying points stack with the credit card 10,000 points?
I don’t see any cap on spending- thinking about large estimated tax payments since no fee for debit cards and I’ve just been writing checks all these years….. Greg?
If I’m reading it right, the terms (https://pages.southwestdebit.com/account-agreement.html) state that there IS a $7,500 per day limit:
Card Purchases (Signature and PIN combined)
I thought that there was an annual cap on TOTAL SPEND for this AND the UA debit card? But if we can pay $7500 every day for 10/20/50 straight days, we could pay all of our estimates that way and earn miles & status points on all of our tax bill with zero processing fees!
Sounds to good to be true and I assume that you would be all over that if it worked…
The problem with that idea is that you can only make two tax payments per tax processor. So you can make four charges for each quarterly estimated tax payment.
7500 x4 processors x 4 Qtrs = 120k
7500×4 extension and 7500×4 final = 60k
Total 180k Taxes paid max
= 90k SW points (do we get 90k Companion points too?)
Then add 10k bonus at start
15k extra for spend and keeping card = 115k
One big caveat: the 20% off coupon doesn’t work on the cheapest basic fares. If someone was planning on buying that fare class, the 20% off isn’t nearly as valuable.
would you recommend using this card to pay federal income taxes?
Thanks
This could be interesting for me. I wonder if the 20% off is capped. Between student loans and my car note which I can pay with a debit card but not a credit card, I can put $10k spend through this debit card earning me 5,000 rapid reward miles annually. It’s not a lot of miles but it’s spend that I do anyway
Wait for Delta’s in 2 years when they partner with Greenlight. Bozos over there don’t understand how card economics work. The mongrel in charge that doesn’t know anything about loyalty will just do because others do. Derp
Does this count against 5/24?
No – because it’s a debit card rather than a credit card, there’s no credit check and it won’t report to your credit.
If you have both the credit and debit card, will you get the companion pass boost from both cards? 10k for the credit plus 7.5k for the debit? As someone who signed up for the 100k personal card offer last month, I’m trying to figure out how to get the rest of the way for a 2026-27 companion pass, so this could be very interesting.
I haven’t seen anything in the terms of the debit card – nor the terms for the Companion Pass – that state that you can’t receive both.
Very cool, thanks. I’ll give it a shot