Last Wednesday details were announced for the new Uber Visa from Barclaycard.
The card offers 4% back on restaurants. It has a $100 signup bonus. There’s cell phone protection and a rebate on Netflix or Spotify. It’s an interesting no fee card with no foreign transaction fees but it’s missing premium benefits from Uber.
The signup bonus is $100 (“10,000 points”) after $500 spend within 90 days of account opening.
Here’s earning:
- 4% back at restaurants and UberEATS
- 3% back on airfare, hotels, travel agencies, and Airbnb
- 2% back for online purchases and Uber
- 1% back on everything else
Note that PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Android Pay do not earn the ‘online purchases’ 2% bonus, and online payments for utilities and government services don’t either.
The card earns points worth a penny apiece. So 4% back on restaurants means earning 4 points per dollar. Points can be redeemed for Uber travel, gift cards, or cash (statement credit or ACH to your bank account).
There’s no benefit to redeeming for Uber or gift cards vs. cash so you might as well take cash other than minimum redemption rules you can redeem points for $5 in Uber credit but the minimum for other redemptions is $25.
$5000 spend in a year earns a $50 statement credit for online services like Spotify, Sirius XM, Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime.
The card also offers cell phone protection if you charge your monthly cell bill to it. They cover “stolen and damaged cell phones as well as involuntary and accidental parting of your cell phone.” The coverage is secondary to other insurance you may have and will provide up to $600 in coverage after a $25 deductible. There’s a maximum of 2 claims and $1200 in reimbursements per 12 months.
This seems like an interesting card especially for a no fee product, 2% back for online and 4% for restaurants especially, but there are premium Uber-specific benefits which are missing. Perhaps they need to offer a premium version of the Uber card.
I’m super curious about the details of the “cell phone protection.” Perhaps once someone is approved we can find a copy of “Guide to Benefits” or at least an excerpt from it? If it’s secondary to my other insurance (which doesn’t exist), that means (in my head) for a $25 deductible insurance on my phone covering up to $600 per incident, up to twice a year! That would be really great.
Best details on “Cellular Telephone Protection” that I’ve found thus far:
https://www.barclaycardus.com/apply/action/handleFile?id=ubrFaqForwardUrl#q33
My biggest question is does it matter if the cellphone plan is prepaid vs. postpaid?
Agreed that no fee and the cell phone insurance might make it worthwhile.
Also, could be good for travelling if the Chip/Pin Setup is the same as the Barclays AA card (formerly US Airways), which I suspect it is. With the Barclays AA card, if you are at a terminal that requires a PIN to go with the chip (some European train ticket machines, e.g.), the card will allow you to enter a PIN to complete the transaction. If the place of purchase does not REQUIRE a PIN, it will operate like the normal US Chip and signature card.
The PIN functionality combined with the no-fee foreign transactions could make it a good card for international travel.
Can we product change, say, AA Aviator to this?
Re the question – “Can we product change, say, AA Aviator to this?”. I actually had just yesterday cancelled my Aviator Card because of the annual fee. I applied for the new Uber card today and was accepted immediately. I guess the answer is it doesn’t hurt to call and ask, but at least if your credit is OK a cancellation followed by a new application works.
The key thing for me is if this is a chip-and-pin card or not. Has anyone been able to confirm either way?
I am somewhat confused by this: Points can be redeemed for Uber credits directly in the Uber app. Points can also be redeemed for cash back or gift cards. All redemptions are at a 1% value.
@David
Virtually all cards issued by Barclays in the US have this CVM ordering:
1: Signature (paper)
2: Enciphered PIN verified online
3: Enciphered PIN verified by ICC
4: Plaintext PIN verified by ICC
5: No CVM required
My guess is that this card will support (Online/Offline) chip+pin for Europe, but still be signature priority, just like all the other cards they issue.
Bill – re the CVM priority – what is the rationale for every US card not having that priority? I can understand that they would want to keep signature first to avoid confusing the easily confusable. But the priority Barclays has allows the charge to go through in situations where the charge would otherwise fail. So, it seems no possibility of confusion.
If anyone is interested – here is a link to the “Guide to Benefits” that describes the cell phone coverage in detail on page 37.
@RonWilliams – no link…
Hmmm… “Secondary to all other insurance, including homeowner’s and renter’s”… That doesn’t sound promising….
What is Cellular Telephone Protection and what does it cover?
The Cellular Telephone Protection benefit provides coverage for damage to or theft of Eligible Cellular Wireless Telephones. Benefits may vary; so please contact your issuing bank and request your Guide to Benefits for specific terms, limitations and exclusions as well as what is defined as an “Eligible Cellular Wireless Telephone”. Coverage is supplemental to and excess of, valid and collectible insurance or indemnity (including, but not limited to, Cellular Wireless Telephone insurance programs, homeowner’s, renters, automobile, or employer’s insurance policies). After all other insurance or indemnity has been exhausted, Cellular Telephone Protection will reimburse the credit or check cardholder (the “Cardholder”, also referred to as “You” or “Your”) , up to the specified amount by your issuing bank, per claim. Cellular Telephone Protection may be subject to an issuer specified co-payment per claim and a maximum number of claims per twelve (12) month period.
There is small print on the FAQ’s that says “*Depending on the benefits of your card, some of these FAQs may not apply.”, so it is possible that’s not in force for the Uber card. I called CardBenefitServices and the phone dude was clueless.
Which credit agency does this pull?