Uber just become one of the many tech giants to offer a credit card. While this undoubtedly signals some sort of intent on Uber's end to become more involved in commerce as general, it also allows them to collect a vast amount of information on the purchase records of their card holders which will surely be invaluable to their business. While I always err on the side of caution of new cards, this one I believe is noteworthy enough to point out some features and I think it is a very strong no-fee credit card.
Card Perks
- Zero Annual fee
- $100 bonus after $500 spent within first 90 days
- 4% Cash Back at Restaraunts
- 3% Cash Back on Airfare, hotels, Airbnb, other rentals
- 2% Cash back on online purchase
- 2% on Uber Credits
- 1% Cashback on everything else
- $50 online subscription fee after spending $5,000 a year (appears to work like a $50 statement credit?)
- $600 phone insurance IF you use the card to pay your monthly phone bill
- Cash Back can be used for Uber Credits, actual cash back deposits, and gift cards
- APR either 15.99, 21.74, or 24.74% based on credit scores with no limit to the max credit available should you have high enough income and credit for this to matter
- No foreign transaction fees!
- VISA
- Access to exclusive events? Not sure what this implies just yet
Let me unzip that into what I like and don't like. First off my like points;
Zero Annual fee with a fair minimum spend bonus of ~20% return. This is pretty normal for a zero fee card I would say. 4% on restaurants year round is pretty astounding in my opinion. While other cards may offer higher if in a category bonus, or higher net if redeemed towards travel, year round this is a great option. I also love how the 3% travel category includes Airbnb - more of the newer travel cards are swaying towards this, but many exclude it. The $50 statement credit is fine, but at 1% return I think it's a bit hefty for the amount of data Uber is collecting on you. The phone insurance is also a really nice perk considering the 2 year insurance plan of a new iPhone can run around $130 as is. I'd like to look into the details more on this, but as it stands it sounds like a flat $65 savings per year, but there would be some caveats to it. This likely only falls into the 1% rewards category and some carriers and plans do not allow auto pay from a credit card. This is also a VISA with no internal transaction fees! I try to travel a lot and this is invaluable. I have also yet to have a business that accepts credit not accept VISA, but have had other card types like Discover rejected.
Now for what I dislike;
Uber has had privacy concerns in the past and this card is granting so so much access to it's consumers spending habits and data. While Uber said they won't share this data, past misuse of consumer data has me questioning it. The 2% back on Uber credits also feels very weak to me. This is the Uber credit card, I would think that there would be a higher reward for choosing Uber while using their card. Surely there's a greater margin they can share for the valuable info they are getting.
With the above said, I would recommend this as a new card to individuals who do not have strong credit cards already in possession and who are unwilling to have cards with annual fees -- after the second year. What I mean by this, is I feel the Discover IT, with it's 1st year matching cashback and quarterly rotating 5% category bonuses is one of the best cards you can obtain for at least the first year of it's life. After that the Discover IT is in my opinion trounced by the Chase Freedom (to clarify I have both of these cards in my wallet) as the Ultimate Rewards points offer great value combined with other Chase cards. However, the Uber card becomes a very strong contender in non-category rewards percentages with almost no downside. For a casual card user I do recommend this one even if I likely won't be getting it myself, and am very curious to see what types of moves Uber makes into the commerce world with this offering.
I'm thinking about doing a series on Credit cards and what my top recommendations would be. I like to travel and run as much as possible through my cards to maximize point spend, recently taking a vacation to Japan in May for free (hotel and airfare covered by points) due to my cards and methods. If you have any questions hit me up or ask for a post on it. In my wallet I personally use the Chase Sapphire Reserve for the 50% point redemption bonuses, the Chase Freedom Unlimited, Chase Freedom, and Discover IT (no longer use this) to obtain at minimum 2.25% cash back per dollar spent, and at maximum 7.5%. I also have some ideas on manufactured spending involving crypto I think can be successful. I want to test it but believe I can swing about ~$1500 worth of points yearly for free.
Referral links to the cards I use, please ask me questions
- Discover IT https://refer.discover.com/s/jbydl
- Chase Sapphire Reserve https://www.referyourchasecard.com/19/POJRDKJRFZ
- Chase Freedom Unlimited https://www.referyourchasecard.com/18/7XA7JFG5D8