Venmo Launches a Credit Card – Up to 3% Cash Back

Venmo Launches a Credit Card – Up to 3% Cash Back

Venmo is rolling out its new credit card, issued by Synchrony Bank, to select users with the latest app and plans to allow everyone to apply by the end of the year.

It doesn’t earn “points” but it does earn 3% cash back on whatever you spend the most on in a month, 2% on the next highest spend category, and 1% on everything else.

The Venmo Credit Card’s Bonus Categories

The categories are interesting:

Grocery, Bills & Utilities, Health & Beauty, Gas, Entertainment, Dining & Nightlife, Transportation, and Travel

Here are the definitions of the bonus categories

• Dining & Nightlife: Restaurant and quick serve restaurants that sell prepared food and drinks for consumption on the merchant’s premises, carry out, drive through or delivery; plus, establishments that sell alcoholic beverages such as wine, beer, mixed drinks, and other liquors and beverages for consumption on the premises.
• Travel: Airlines, hotels, motels and resorts. This category may include bed and breakfast establishments, resorts, cabins, cottages, hostels, timeshares, short-term property rentals less than 30 days in length, and local inns. The specific MCCs defined as Airlines and Hotels will be referenced as Travel in your Venmo app.
• Bills & Utilities: Telecommunications, internet service providers, ongoing delivery of television/radio/streaming content on a subscription or fee basis, subscription products or services (such as magazine/newspaper subscriptions), electric or gas power, water supply, and refuse disposal or other utility services.
• Health & Beauty: Drug stores and pharmacies that sell prescription drugs, over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and may also sell related items such as cosmetics and toiletries, and cosmetic stores that sell beauty products. This category also includes sports and recreation facilities that require membership such as health clubs, tennis, golf and swimming clubs.
• Grocery: Stores that sell food merchandise for home consumption, convenience, bakery and delicatessen stores, and wholesale clubs that sell a full range of goods (often in bulk) and services in warehouse-style stores. The specific MCCs defined as Grocery and Wholesale will be referenced as Grocery in your Venmo app.
• Gas: Service stations that sell engine fuel.
• Transportation: Ground transportation such as rental cars, taxicabs, ride share merchants, limousines, bus lines and passenger railways. This category also includes tolls, parking meters and parking garage fees. The specific MCCs defined as Ground Transportation will be referenced as Transportation in your Venmo app.
• Entertainment: Movie theaters, theatrical and concert promoters, video rental and game stores, books and newsstands, amusement parks, music stores, and toy and hobby stores.
• Other: Any other Eligible Purchases that do not fall into the categories described above are not eligible to earn 3% or 2% Cash Rewards, and when the Card Account is used to send money to other Venmo users through your Venmo account. Beginning on the first day of the Statement Period following the first anniversary of your Card Account opening date and on that date each year thereafter (“Anniversary Date”), any Eligible Purchases made in your combined 3% and 2% Spend Categories exceeding $10,000 will earn 1% Cash Rewards.

Summary

Here’s a link to the card detail page on Venmo.

Originally, I was hopeful some of these bonus categories might be more flexible than we thought, but now that we have the details, and know there is a $10,000 cap per year on bonus categories, it’s not super interesting to me.

At least it is a way to earn 3% on your utility bills, something no other personal card has, so that’s something!

Thoughts?

Let me know below in the comments, on Twitter, or in the private MilesTalk Facebook group.

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You can find credit cards that best match your spending habits and bonus categories at Your Best Credit Cards. 

New to all of this? My “introduction to miles and points” book, MilesTalk: Live Your Wildest Travel Dreams Using Miles and Points is available on Amazon and at major booksellers.