Update 11/2/24: Tech is now showing up for November. Hat tip to Eternal Blue
PayPal has launched a new debit card where cardholders can choose one category to earn 5% cash back on, up to a limit of $1,000 per month in spend. Currently it seems that the card is invite only mode and you can check your PayPal account to see if you’re eligible. Some things to note:
- There is no annual fee
- You have to select your category each month, otherwise you won’t earn 5%
- Categories you can choose are here:
- Grocery
- Dining
- Gas
- Clothing
- Health/beauty
- Full terms here
$50 a month max. Woohoo!
Better than the Citi Custom Cash which only allows $25
Using the Walmart Pay feature in the Walmart app (with the PayPal debit card set as your payment method) to scan the QR code on the checkout register screen works for 5% groceries category. I have not tested swiping the debit card by itself.
I’ll have to try that. Interesting that it coded as grocery for a Super Walmart and not just a Neighborhood Walmart Market.
For clarification, it was at a Supercenter not a Neighborhood Market.
Genuine question: what’s the incentive for them to force me to choose a category every month? Why not allow me to choose once and forever?
PayPal saves money every time someone forgets to select a category for the month.
So it’s a citi custom cash with double the cap? Smells like a bait and switch to me. I don’t see how this can be sustainable, especially on a debit card which charges less in merchant fees than a credit card.
PayPal will lock and shutdown your account, freezing your funds. Beware of thinking this is a good card. Avoid PayPal.
I’ve been banned from PayPal multiple times. I think i’m on my third account.
My conclusion with PayPal: If you are a consumer who doesn’t keep any money in your account and doesn’t use it to transfer money to friends and family, PayPal is just fine. Just use your account for buying things only and there’s nothing for PayPal to take.
But if you are receiving money for any reason at all, stay FAR AWAY from Paypal! Use anything else!
I ordered the physical debit card for the 5% offers. I decided not to use it because it turns out you have to download the application to your phone to be able to use it.
I’m just curious, why did that dissuade you from using it? You only need to login on the app once a month to select the category.
The application is spyware.
Eric 🔗
You can download an application called Island for Android which allows you to section off a part of your phone to put potentially damaging apps in. These apps have very limited access to your phone, and can be turned off at any time by shutting down your Island profile. I use it for a lot of my apps that I use on a daily basis, but that drain my battery in the background as well as any potential spyware apps.
Edit: I see now that you can only select a monthly category from within the app. I thought the website had that function as well.
I’m still curious why you think the app is spyware. Do you have any references detailing why? Couldn’t you just install the app at the beginning of the month, select your category, and then delete the app? Or install the app on an old phone or tablet? Or install the app in an Android emulator like Bluestacks?
Has anyone successfully received cashback with any debit card using PayPal bill pay?
What kind of stores fall under “tech”?
Been using it for restaurants 5% and it’s working great, even gives you a real-time notification that you’ve earned 5% cashback
Would be nice to have a way for it to pull money out of a connected bank and still get the 5% back… I like the idea of using it for 5% at restaurants, but I do not like the idea of keeping $100+ in the account.
You should open the PP Savings account like I did as there was no Chex hit. That way, you will earn 4.3% (as of now) on your money while you wait to use it up. However, make sure to always transfer money from your “Savings” to your “Balance” account before attempting to make debit purchases.
Ah I had forgotten about their savings account, that does help the proposition a bit. Now I’ll have an actual reason to fiddle with my phone at the table instead of doom scrolling…
“Sorry babe cant talk, important stuff afoot, pushing small amounts of money around to myself. What!? No, fn matcha ice-cream is gonna put us over the cashback cap.”
The Paypal debit card can be funded instantly from another debit card for free. Move money into the PP debit account only when needed and you can minimize the amount of cash sitting idle between uses.
Can you reload your PayPal account with the discover debit card for an additional 1% cash back?
There technically is. If you set an auto transfer to say 100 or 150, whatever your max restaurant spend would be in one transaction, you can keep say 100-150 and set it up to transfer if balance gets below say 50 or 100. Seems to work pretty well and you don’t have to help say 500-1000 in your PP account.
How much $ in interest do you actually expect to lose with keeping $100 in the account? It’s not that significant.
This has been my go to grocery card. Cash back is instant when I pay with debit and a pin. I opened up a PayPal savings account and I park my grocery budget there and transfers to the spending account is instant. It also works at Costco too
Costco counts as grocery with debit and pin? Or are you just saying that the card can be used at Costco?