United Airlines just introduced a debit card that earns MileagePlus miles.
The card certainly won’t be for everyone — particularly those looking to maximize their benefits and perks with the airline’s cobranded credit cards — but there are likely still some travelers who will find value in the new United MileagePlus® Debit Rewards card.
The card is powered by Galileo, SoFi’s tech platform, and it offers all the traditional benefits of a debit card with unique MileagePlus benefits.
Here’s everything you need to know.
The information for the United MileagePlus Debit Rewards has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
United debit card benefits
Before you get too excited, this isn’t one of those lucrative credit cards that offer scores of bonus miles and perks.
The economics of debit cards (thanks in part to the Durbin Amendment) make it so that United and its issuing bank (Sunrise Banks) aren’t going to make as much money from interchange and revolving credit as they would from a credit card, so the card won’t be as generous. When asked how the economics of this card work, United executives essentially said, “They work, but we won’t tell you how.”
That said, even with a more limited suite of perks, here’s what the card includes:
- Earn one mile for every $1 on United purchases
- Earn one mile for every $2 on all other purchases
- Earn 2,500 bonus miles after spending $10,000 per year on your debit card
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United will waive the $4 monthly fee as long as the average daily account balance in your debit account is $2,000 or more.
As with other popular debit cards, you’ll be able to lock and unlock the card, as well as set spending limits.
United will also be offering a sign-up bonus of 10,000 bonus miles when you open an account and spend $500 within the first four months of card membership.
There are no travel or Premier benefits with the card, but you are allowed to open both a United debit and credit card.
United debit card bonus miles
United will also award bonus miles for those with certain qualifying account balances in their debit accounts.
The full bonus rates are as follows.
Average daily balance Annualized bonus miles<$2,000N/A $2,000 – $2,499N/A $2,500 – $4,999.992,500 $5,000 – $9,999.995,000 $10,000 – $24,999.9915,000 $25,000 – $49,999.9930,000 $50,000+70,000
Personally, these bonus mile rates aren’t compelling enough to warrant me depositing money into a United debit card account. With high-yield savings rates hovering around 4% using apps like Wealthfront, I’ll earn a lot more interest in cash than I would MileagePlus miles. Plus, cash can’t just be devalued at a moment’s notice like MileagePlus miles can.
Bottom line
Mileage-earning debit cards might sound like a blast from the past. (They are.)
Ever since the Durbin Amendment, we haven’t seen many travel rewards debit cards. United believes that this card will offer compelling value to younger travelers who want the simplicity of a debit card with mileage earning. (It’s a similar argument that Southwest made when it also recently introduced a debit card.)
As for you and me, you’re likely better off sticking with a cobranded United credit card — unless, of course, you have trouble following the golden commandments of having a credit card.
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