The WSJ reports that an official Uber co-branded credit card is on its way and Lyft is expected to follow as well (although we don’t know who is issuing the Lyft card). The Uber credit card will be processed by the Visa payment network and will be issued by Barclaycard. This comes as a surprise to me given the relationship Uber had established with Capital One and of course the current $200 credit set-up with The Platinum Card® from American Express.
Barclaycard issues several major credit cards. Most notably the Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite MasterCard®, the AAdvantage® Aviator™, Red World Elite Mastercard®, the Wyndham Rewards® Visa® Card, and JetBlue card. But Barclaycard also offers a ton of other cards that are either co-branded or associated with major brands including:
- Hawaiian Airlines
- Miles and More (Lufthansa)
- Frontier Airlines
- LL Bean
- NFL Extra Points
- Barnes and Noble
- Princess Cruises Rewards
- Carnival World
- Priceline Rewards
- Apple Rewards
So Uber will be another addition to a pretty large pool of co-branded credit cards. Many of these cards don’t come with very lucrative sign-up bonuses, though. For example, the Priceline card gives you 5,000 points (after your first purchase) for a total of a $50 statement credit. The Carnival World card offers 10,000 “Fun Points” worth up to $100 (depending on how you use it). The Barnes and Noble card offers a $25 gift certificate after your first purchase. The plus is that these cards offer no annual fees and cash back discounts or points to these merchants at decently high rates (5X).
Based on those cards, I’d predict something like the following for the Uber card:
- No annual fee
- Sign-up bonus worth $50 to $150 after first purchase or low spending requirement
- 3X to 5X (or more) on Uber purchases
- 1X on all purchases
- Uber “VIP” status
- Random Uber benefit?
The biggest issue with getting this card to me is that Barclaycard has so many other solid options for credit cards. The Barclaycard Arrival Plus, the AAdvantage Aviator Red, and the Wyndham Rewards Visa Card are all in my Top 10 credit cards because they offer great value and two of them come with very easy sign-up bonuses.
It can be difficult sometimes to get approved for multiple Barclaycards if you’ve been actively applying for credit cards. It’s not uncommon for Barclaycard to ask you to close one of your Barclaycard to “open up room” for another approval. So for me the Uber card would just get in the way of much more valuable Barclaycard bonuses but that’s just my take on it and we haven’t seen the details on the card yet.
Daniel Gillaspia is the Founder of UponArriving.com and the credit card app, WalletFlo. He is a former attorney turned travel expert covering destinations along with TSA, airline, and hotel policies. Since 2014, his content has been featured in publications such as National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, and CNBC. Read my bio.
