Update 5/9/23: There’s now a $250 Amazon gift card signup bonus.
Original Post:
Arcadia Power is a consumer-facing company which focuses on saving users money on their electric bills, as well as helping the environment. They facilitate digital payments for electric bills, they offer price alerts for better electric rates in your area, and they have wind energy, community solar, and home efficiency programs. Here is the About Us page and here is a rundown of their programs and here’s a Techcrunch article.
Anyone with an electric bill can use Arcadia, whether you own a home or rent one, have a business, or a rental property. Arcadia is available nationwide by creating a free account and connecting your power bill to their online dashboard.
Last month, they began allowing users to pay their electric bill with a credit card as a way to incentivize users who will signup to rack up the points. Many utility providers don’t accept cards or charge a convenience fee for using one. Now, anyone who has an electric bill can earn points on that spend by paying through Arcadia. And if your water or gas gets billed together with electric that will be paid together with the credit card. Visa and Mastercard only.
The company presumably makes money from up-selling other products in their program – the credit card fees are their customer acquisition cost. They also get a bit of float here since they pull the money within a few days of when the bill is generated. It’s possible they might be gaining from using the customer data as well.
[They offer two plans: one is free and offsets 50% of your energy consumption with wind-powered energy; the other has a small cost and offsets 100% of your consumption. Basically, they buy into wind farms to offset your non-green electric consumption. As far as I understand, the 50% option is more of a mental gain than anything else as they can choose to buy up wind energy with or without you.]
Overall seems like a win for anyone who can generate real spend from their electric bills. For now we don’t know of any special credit card category bonus for Arcadia – please let us know if you experience anything on this end. (INK Preferred does not earn 3x with Arcadia.)
There’s also a $5 $10 signup bonus which gets applied to your account if you signup using a referral link, or $25 if you signup for the 100% plan which has a fee. Here’s reader Ryan’s referral link – he let us know about Arcadia. Feel free to leave your own referral links in the comments below (note: full name appears in referral), but only if you’ve tried it out and have something of value to add to the conversation. You get $5 $10 per referral to a free account and $25 per referral to a paid account. Plus, get a free Nest with 5 referrals; more details here.Â
Another option is to use Swagbucks and get $10 back for signing up with Arcadia, though one reader mentions having an issue getting the Swagbucks on Arcadia. Certainly if you’re doing the paid option, take the referral for the $25 bonus.
What Cards Earn Bonus Categories?
- U.S. Bank Cash+ earns 5% when utilities is selected: 1,
- VantageWest earns 5% when utilities is selected: 1,
Update History
Update 5/12/21: Arcadia is giving a $50 statement credit when you share your energy setup.
Update 12/8/20: Just to clarify further – Arcadia says they will enroll everyone to the $5/month plan on Dec 14th and there is a two month free trial. The free trial ends by Feb 12th 2021. So, you have time until Feb 12th to cancel your membership to avoid getting charged for it. Here’s how to cancel Arcadia.Â
Update 12/3/20: Arcadia is axing their free 50% renewable energy plan. They are also changing the paid one to be a flat $5/month fee to get 100% renewable energy, rather than an extra 1.5¢/kWh.
Reader Ryan notes: Instead of an ongoing benefit, it now really only makes sense to sign up for this as a one-off credit towards your energy bill with a referral link, then cancel within 30 days to avoid the $5/month charge. Arcadia might make sense to use on an ongoing basis for big energy users and/or for those who want to pay a bit extra to support the environment with 100% renewable energy.
Second update on 12/3/20: I’ve re-opened up the comments for discussion. No more referrals in the comments.
Update 6/11/20: Reader Ryan got a special link with $25 signup bonus for new member. Here’s the link. This offer is slated to end on November 15, 2020.
Update 6/6/20: Referral link now gives $10 for each (instead of $5 for each).
Update 4/9/19: Referral bonus has been boosted to $25.
[Update 3/15/19: Groupon is offering a $20 sign up bonus. Hat tip to reader Fried S]
[Update 12/20/18: Acorns offers $15 for signing up t0 Arcadia Power, that’s better than the $5 signup bonus when using a referral. More about Acorns in this post.]
[Update 12/6/18: They’ve just sent out an improved referral offer of $1,000 for 10 referrals. Feel free to leave your own referral links in the comments below (note: full name appears in referral), but only if you’ve tried it out and have something of value to add to the conversation. Do NOT leave your referral again if it’s already there. There’s a $5 signup bonus for new members ($25 if you signup for the 100% plan which has a fee). ]
Update 3/17/18: There’s currently a $20 signup bonus via a Facebook ad, valid through March 31, instead of the typical $5 or $10 bonus mentioned below. (HT: FM) Update 2: Realized now that the $20 bonus might be for those who signup for the paid offering. Not sure it’ll pay out for the free offering.
http://www.arcadia.com/referral/?promo=mehul18373
This comment has been stickied as it’s the referral link of IS250 who had one of the best comments from February/March. Support contributors who make helpful comments by using these types of links https://www.doctorofcredit.com/best-comments-february-march/
Thank you in advance.
signed up with this, thank yoU!
Anyone considering using Arcadia should check the feedback on the BBB (Better Business Bureau) website first.
They are sunseting the Arcadia Solar program, they will return the remaining deposit $1/month over the next 62 months. So now you are required to pay $5/mo to get your $1/mo back. I’m done with them.
for those of ya’ll who are still using Arcadia, keep an eye on your bill. I typically don’t as this was automated for me, but this month I just happened to look at it.
This month, I was charged to be part of their Community Solar Farm, which I did not sign up to nor received noticed on.
I’ve reached out to their support and this is what they told me “As a point of clarification, Arcadia awarded you a credit of $33.91 and charged you for only $30.52 of that credit. You realized your savings in the $3.39 of that credit you didn’t repay.”
So they wanted me to pay a total of $85 on my $54 bill, as they gave me a credit and charged me more than the credit awarded.
Providing an updated link. I have been with Arcadia for years now, and have had no issues with the billing. I enjoy the 5% cashback using my U.S. Bank Cash + Credit Card. Not really much else to say, but would appreciate the help to get to referral #10 as I am currently at 9. Thank you!
https://arcadia.com/referral?promo=jeffrey1234
In September 2020, I had received an email from Arcadia that I had 9 referrals and was 1 referral away from the $1000 bonus.
A year later, I’ve had several more referrals and am wondering why I haven’t received the $1000 credit. Now, they say I am 3 away. Their explanation: “Referrals must be active for at least 30 days and remain active until we process the $1000 credit bonus. Some of your previous referrals are no longer active.”
I don’t think there’s any way to actually verify one’s referral stats, the referrals don’t appear in the dashboard anymore. it’s certainly plausible that a lot of referrals have left because they are eliminating the free accounts. I guess we Just keep referring and hope for the best.
My referral: https://arcadia.com/referral/?promo=tj3228
Nope. And I’m sure they are tired of me asking what my count is.. One time I logged in to my account and there were pop up messages about 3 or 4 people who I referred, but I never saw credits for them. Very buggy and weird. Since nobody can sign up for free accounts anymore it’s a bit strange that I haven’t hit 10. I just had another $10 credit post on the Jan statement.
Have to think it’s a bitof a moving target with people cancelling as they nerf the free accounts.
The $5 fee makes it not worth it in the winter months but I kept it going so far. Probably next fall I’ll suspend it and restart it in the summer when the 5% cc rewards on the bills offsets the $5 fees.
Well, thanks for the quick response. I knew that they had restrictions on the number that could be free “basic” users, but that’s not cool that they changed the wording on continuing to be a member.
For anyone wondering, here is the FAQ they linked in a recent email exchange I had with them:
https://support.arcadia.com/hc/en-us/articles/360007782993-What-is-Arcadia-s-referral-program-?
I don’t think the “remain active” was a thing until recently… but hopefully, we both can get our fairy tale ending. I do wish you luck!
I just don’t know why many people would still sign up now when it’s no longer free, unless they spend more than $100/mo on electric can use a 5% card. I’m hopeful but don’t really expect it.
You ever get $1000 ?
Nope. I pretty much gave up hope, but I still have my account. I tried to work with someone online to get some more exposure, but it got shot down. Too bad, because I could have helped that person with some other referral programs.
The last time I contacted Arcadia was several months ago… they said my number was like 6. IIRC, only two free customers count.
At some point recently, Arcadia stopped allowing Visa/Mastercard gift cards as a payment method, which is too bad. Real credit/debit cards only.
Arcadia is giving a $50 statement credit when you share an Instagram post. Details here: https://www.instagram.com/p/COsmg6Cn6Ub
My referral: https://arcadia.com/referral/?promo=yauheni6314
Posted, thanks https://www.doctorofcredit.com/arcadia-get-50-toward-power-bill-for-sharing-picture-of-your-energy-setup/
Just tossing out another data point of the $0 plan still in action in NH, regardless of the fact that I was emailed to be swapped over to the non-free plan in February.
Still on the $0 plan in VA. Even got a referral last month, which was awesome!
To be clear, I did not get an e-mail about my plan being changed, and I did not call them to ask questions.
https://arcadia.com/referral/?promo=christian4362