People have been wait listed for X1 card for a while and finally it has launched, well, kind of. People who were at the top of the waitlist, aka “influencers” and bloggers, seem to have gotten an invite to apply for the card.
The “features” of the X1 card are as follows:
- 2x points/dollar
- 3x points/dollar spend for the entire year (granted you spend $15k+ in that year)
- 4x points/dollar for each friends you invite who gets the card
- 0 annual fee
- no foreign transaction fee (FTF)
- 17 g pure stainless steel
- end free trials automatically with auto-expiring virtual cards
- cancel subscription payment in one click
- spend anonymously without disclosing your personal information
- create virtual cards for one-time use
- get instant notifications on refunds
- up to 5x higher credit limit than traditional cards
- credit limit is based on current and future income
The card lets you earn 4x points on everything for 30 days for each friend you refer. There are some other products that went with similar “refer to get temporary boost”, like Beam and Jasper, and I think its a failure in concept. Generally speaking if the whole product revolves around inviting another sucker, its usually a terrible product. But, X1 seems to have other somewhat redeeming quality so we will see how it competes against the excellent lineup of credit cards in US.
Redeeming Points
Their website says that you redeem points at 1 cpp at purchase made at select merchants (see list in second screenshot below). On the other hand if you redeem it for statement credit (cashback) then you only get 0.7 cpp. So, if you redeem points for statement credit then 2/3/4x is 1.4/2.1/2.8% cashback respectively.
Closing Thoughts
No signup bonus sucks. You can find other cards with 2x or 2% reward from a traditional bank that have some signup bonus and obviously.
3x and 4x will totally not be abused.
