A new credit card promises that it can adapt to cardholders’ lives and spending habits to deliver more rewards.
About the Vera World Mastercard:
The FinTech company Vera has unveiled plans to launch a new credit card. In partnership with Zeta, they’ve created the Vera World Mastercard. What makes this particular cashback credit card special is that, instead of offering just one rewards structure, it offers three different options.
With the Vera World Mastercard, customers will be able to switch between three earning modes. First, cardholders can opt to earn a flat 2 points per dollar spent on all eligible purchases made with the card. Specifically, like with the Citi Double Cash Card, 1x is earned at the time of the purchase while the other 1x is applied when cardholders pay their balance.
The next option offers 3x points on purchases made via Apple Pay and Google Pay. With this scheme, all other purchases will earn 1x back.
Finally, the last Vera card option offers 5x cashback on “featured categories.” For example, through December, Entertainment and Dining purchases will earn 5x back. All other purchases will earn 1x.
According to Vera, customers will be able to easily switch between these three modes at any time, with their selection going into effect with the next billing cycle. Additionally, Vera’s terms confirm that points will be valued at 1¢ each (100 points = $1). Moreover, points do not expire and can be redeemed in any amount at any time. The Vera World Mastercard has no annual fee.
Currently, the Vera card is available by invitation only. Those interested can join the waitlist on Vera’s site.
What They’re Saying:
In a press release announcing the card, Vera CEO Sandeep Sachdeva explained, “After spending decades building and scaling credit card businesses, we saw a fundamental disconnect between how quickly consumers’ lives have changed and how financial products are designed to support those changes. We built Vera on a single belief: financial products should adapt to customers, not force customers to adapt to them.”
My Thoughts:
We’ve seen credit cards that offer a certain amount of customization, such as the ability to choose an enhanced rewards category. However, the option to actually change the entire rewards structure of a card is something that’s definitely new to me. I also happen to think it’s a great idea.
Personally, of the three modes, I think I’d opt for the 3x on Apple Pay option most of the time (if this were my only credit card, that is). However, if the featured categories aligned with what I expected to spend in a given month, I might switch over to the 5x option temporarily. In fact, I think that 5x could prove to be interesting for those who already have a lot of credit cards but are always looking for a boost.
As for the viability of the Vera World Mastercard, I’m not familiar enough with the company to say whether or not I think it will last. I do think that the rewards options are pretty balanced, though, so I don’t think they’re over promising. So, this is a card I’ll be keeping an eye on — and I’m intrigued to see if larger credit card companies might try to copy this idea for themselves.
