Published 1/30/2022

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Albert is a neobank that offers some unique cash back opportunities. There is no AF for this debit card and no hard inquiry

They offer other features like savings/spending tracking, small personal loans etc. This review will be focused on the cash back/SUB opportunities they offer

There is already an extensive overview on DoC here and here on this but I wanted to share my experiences

I continue to have a small DD go into the account to keep my balance up to make it easier to spend the funds on offers

Signing Up

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When signing up, I used a referral bonus and received a total of $75 (old referral program)

Signing up was quick and easy. The app is nice and polished and (IIRC) gives you access to the card before you physically receive it

If you want to join, feel free to use my referral link. We will both get $150 if you:

• Have three consecutive monthly $200+ DDs
• Spend $100 on the card every month for three months

You can also snag one from the DoC Referral Page for Albert

Cash Back

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The Offers

Albert offers cash back offers in their app. These boosts differ per user per week. You may get one boost one week and not the next. Or you ay get one boost every other week. Not exactly sure how this is determined.

Every offer is capped at $5 total cash back per offer. Below is an example of the cash back offers in app (on 1/30/22). Before taking this screenshot, I used a Shell offer for 10% off which no longer shows. I think these refresh on Mondays

Note: Costco only accepts Visa credit cards but accepts any type of debit card so Albert works in store! Also, the boost for Costco works at the gas stations if you’re into that

Historical Offers

These are all the offers I have ever gotten in Albert. I will also be adding to this list boosts other users have shown me proof that they have received the boost. Comment below with some sort of proof to get your boost added!

Merchant	Percent	Last Seen	User	Frequency
Target	10%	5/1/2022	@fearthezwriter	Weekly
Chipotle	15%	5/1/2022	@fearthezwriter	Weekly
Shell	10%	5/1/2022	@fearthezwriter	Weekly
Starbucks	10%	5/1/2022	@fearthezwriter	Weekly
Lyft	10%	5/1/2022	@fearthezwriter	Weekly
CVS	15%	5/1/2022	@fearthezwriter	Weekly
Grubhub	10%	5/1/2022	@fearthezwriter	Weekly
Doordash	10%	5/1/2022	@fearthezwriter	Weekly
McDonald’s	15%	5/1/2022	@fearthezwriter	Weekly
Walmart	10%	5/1/2022	@fearthezwriter	Bi-Weekly
Etsy	15%	5/1/2022	@fearthezwriter	Weekly
Costco	20%	5/1/2022	@fearthezwriter	Weekly
Sephora	15%	1/30/2022	@fearthezwriter	Weekly
Dunkin’	10%	1/30/2022	@fearthezwriter	Weekly
WholeFoods	20%	2/14/2024	@fearthezwriter	Weekly
Kroger	20%	2/14/2024	warhawke	Weekly
BestBuy	15%	2/14/2024	warhawke	Weekly
Chick-fil-A	15%	2/14/2024	warhawke	Weekly

Using Offers

In order to use offers, you must activate the offer before making the purchase. Once you make the purchase, the cash back is instantly shown and you will receive a notification of how much you earned (again, up to $5 back max). These offers also seem to work fine with gift card purchases as long as the merchant name is the same for gift cards as it would be for a normal purchase.

Also, since all offers are maxed at $5, you would want to spend equal to or less than the amount that will earn you that $5. Mathematically, you want to spend X, where X = $5/Y% and where Y% is the cash back percentage offered. For example, for the Dunkin’ offer, X = $5/10%; so X = $50

Offer Behavior

Update: the pending transaction bug/cheat has been patched. They now award on the actual transaction not the pending transaction

Something I have learned is that the cash back is assessed on the pending transaction, not on the final settled transaction. This may not seem important but let me give you an example.

The most common offer I use is the Shell offer. I have the card number hooked up to my Shell FuelRewards to also get $0.05 off per gallon. I also have it added to my Bumped account with my transportation set to Shell for another 1%.

When I get gas I usually just fill my tank i.e. don’t specify a fueling limit. When pumps do this, they set the fueling limit to something like $100. As a result, the pump makes a temporary charge to your card to make sure you have the funds for it/check if the card is valid. This is where the cash back comes into play.

Even though the temporary charge is not real and actually doesn’t even show in the app, you receive your cash back based on that charge. So every time I fill up at the pump, regardless of how much I spend at the pump, I get $5 cash back.

You could game this if you really wanted to. Use the card at the pump to purchase say $5 of gas, get $5 back in cash back. I just use this normally but this should work (although gaming could ruin this feature for everyone if it becomes excessive and Albert notices)

Also something to note, I have noticed that if you use PayPal to check out and use your Albert card, the boost will not get applied. I have contacted support to get the offer applied manually but probably a good idea to avoid PayPal to ensure the boost is applied

Total Value

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I opened my Albert account on 10/7/2021. Since then I have used the card exclusively on purchases where offers were available. As stated above, I have earned $75 as a SUB. Looking in the app, it says that I have earned $127.74 in cash back for a total value of $202.74 in under four months (as of 1/30/2022).

I find Albert to be very useful in my cash back setup and plan to continue to use it as long as they continue to offer these offers.