Credit: Venmo

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Summary

• Venmo Stash: choose a bundle of stores/restaurants for targeted cashback on your Venmo debit card.
• Tiered rates: 1% base, 2% with auto-reloads, 5% when you get direct deposit into Venmo.
• Max $100 back monthly; cashback posts to your Venmo balance; live now for all debit card users.

Cashback is a staple feature of rewards credit cards, but it’s something we don’t see too often on debit cards—banks want you to get credit cards with them, so they’re not going to put amazing rewards programs on their run-of-the-mill debit cards. Venmo’s latest rewards program for its debit card might actually be better than your credit card’s, though.

Venmo, which is owned by PayPal, has just announced “Venmo Stash,” a new rewards program for the app’s integrated debit card. The program moves away from traditional points-based systems, opting instead for a multi-level cashback structure that directly incentivizes users to adopt Venmo’s banking-like products. Unlike regular rewards programs on most credit cards, this doesn’t give you cashback absolutely everywhere you tap your card. Instead, you’ll have to choose from a “bundle” of shops and restaurants that match your lifestyle better. For example, if you’re the kind of person who drives to Taco Bell before buying some stuff at Walmart, you can choose a bundle that includes both places and a few others you visit often.

Despite being limited in the number of places that will give you cashback, it makes up for it by giving you some pretty insane cashback that keeps going up as you go deeper into your relationship with Venmo. You’ll earn a baseline 1% cashback when you get the debit card, 2% when you enable “auto-reloads” from your bank account, and 5% when you start receiving direct deposits from your employer right into your Venmo account.

A lot of credit cards offer 5% only in very specific scenarios—the Amazon Prime Visa card, for example, gives you 5% when you use it to buy stuff on Amazon. The fact that this gives you up to 5% at several places of your choosing, considering this is a debit card, is pretty neat. You can only get up to $100 back in cashback each month. If you set up direct deposit for the full 5%, this means that you can spend $2,000 a month from your debit card and get $100 back by the end of it. Not too shabby.

This should be live for all Venmo debit card users now, and the cashback should go right back into your Venmo balance.

Source: Venmo