Where debit meets credit – This debit card features credit card benefits

I came across an interesting startup called Point, which offers Point App and Point Card. Point App is a mobile wallet application from which you can apply for and manage your Point Card. Point Card is a debit card that offers benefits similar to those of a credit card. Benefits include 5x points on subscriptions such as Netflix, Spotify, Hulu and some others, 3x points on food delivery & ride share, 1x points on everything else, no foreign transaction fees and more. Instead of banking on your missing your payments, Point makes money from interchange fees which are a small percentage of your spend and a subscription fee. In order to use Point Card, a customer must pay $7/month or $5/month on an annual plan.

I think this card will be helpful to those who are conscious of their budget and interested in credit-card-like benefits. 47% of Americans carry credit card debt that amounts to $890 billion in total in Q1 2020. Failure to make payments on time results in a high interest which often comes in the range of 13% – 26%. Further inability to make payments repeatedly will put a revolving customer in a vicious cycle as in that case, compounding interests work against him or her. I work for a bank and a credit card issuer and let me tell you: we want you to be delinquent on your credit card debt. It’s a significant source of revenue and profit to issuers. With Point Card, the risk of delinquency is taken away as you can only spend money that you actually have. There is no temptation to make impulsive purchases on credit and break personal budget.

Point Card may not make sense for every one, though. I mean, if you are willing to pay a few bucks a month to have a cool-looking debit card and some nice features that mimic those of Apple Card, by all means. If you want to break even on a $5/month annual subscription at 1x points redemption rate, you’ll need to spend at least $500/month for this investment to make sense financially. If a family puts all utilities, car insurance and subscriptions, and other discretionary expenses on a Point Card, it can easily exceed $500 while the family can avoid the risk of delinquency.

I do think it’s an interesting concept that can appeal to a group of consumers. As a fan of personal finance, I want to see more folks in control of their own finance and stay away from the temptation from card issuers. I hope that as Point scales and continues to be nimble without a big budget in marketing as well as physical branches, it can offer more rewards to attract more customers.