The Offer
- Receive a sign up bonus of $100 when you first use your new Upromise MasterCard from Barclaycard
New 5% Categories + Other Category Changes
In addition to this new sign up bonus, they’ve also added some new categories that earn 5% cash back, they are as follows:
- participating Upromise Dining Restaurants (previously 4%)
- eligible purchases from participating travel partners through Upromise.com (previously only 1%)
They’ve also removed 3% cash back on eligible gas purchases at Exxon/Mobil locations (not a big loss as it’s possible to get 5% cash back on all gas purchases) and added 2% cash back at department stores (also not that useful as it’s possible to get 2%+ cash back on all purchases).
The Fine Print
- No annual fee
- Card earns at the following rates:
- 5% cash back on eligible Online Shopping through Upromise.com (this is in addition to the portal rate)
- 5% cash back on participating Upromise Dining Restaurants
- 5% cash back on eligible purchases from participating travel partners through Upromise.com
- 2% cash back at eligible movie theaters
- 2% cash back at department stores
- 1% cash back on all other purchases
- Free FICO Score
- Valid until May 31st, 2015
Our Verdict
It’s been possible to get a $100 sign up bonus on this card since February 10th (standard bonus is only $25) but that required a minimum spending of $1,000 and it also required you to use a creditcards.com affiliate link. The changes to the categories don’t make much of a difference to me, I’d kill for a 5% restaurant card but at the moment this only supports restaurants in the Upromise dining program which is very limiting.
The main benefit of this card is that it earns 5% cash back on Upromise portal purchases in addition to the portal payout, Upromise is normally competitive with other shopping portals such as top cash back (but they don’t have American Express gift cards).
We’ve added this bonus to our list of credit cards with no minimum spend requirement and also our list of credit cards with cash sign up bonuses.
Hat tip to Chasing The Points
Think this is worth picking up as a student?
Just applied for and am waiting to hear back from the Sallie Mae application I did earlier today. I’ve heard this one is ever so slightly more difficult to get as someone without prior credit, though, since it’s through Barclay.
Thoughts?
Unless you usually do a lot of spending through Upromise portals (unlikely as a student) you’d probably be better off with the Citi Double Cash to go with the Sallie Mae card.