New U.S. Bank Smartly Card Offers up to 4% Cash-Back, an Industry Best

When it comes to cash-back credit cards, earning 2% cash-back on all purchases is the standard. Some issuers, like Robinhood, have made waves lately by annocuing a cash-back card that will earn 3% cash-back on all purchases.

Now, U.S. Bank has blown that out of the water by announcing the upcoming U.S. Bank Smartly™ Visa Signature^® card, which will have the ability to earn an industry-leading cash-back on all purchases, provided you qualify for the higher earning rates.

Let’s take a look at the details and how to boost your earning rates.

U.S. Bank Smartly Card Details

Here is how the cash-back earnings on the U.S. Bank Smartly card will work.

All cardholders will earn unlimited 2% cash-back on all purchases, with the ability to boost this cash-back rate depending on the amount of deposits you hold with U.S. Bank at the following rates:

• Earn a 25% bonus, boosting your cash-back rate to 2.5% on all purchases, with a qualifying balance between $5,000 to $49,999
• Earn a 50% bonus, boosting your cash-back rate to 3% on all purchases, with a qualifying balance between $50,000 to $99,999
• Earn a 75% bonus, boosting your cash-back rate to 4% on all purchases, with a qualifying balance of $100,000 or more

Fortunately, U.S. Bank doesn’t require you to hold these total amounts in its Smartly^® Savings account, as your average daily combined qualifying balances can come from a combination of accounts, including checking and savings accounts, money market accounts, CDs, IRAs, and more. And you aren’t required to have any of these accounts to apply for the U.S. Bank Smartly card, though they’re obviously beneficial for cardholders.

For those familiar, the setup is nearly identical to the Bank of America Preferred Rewards program. However, the Bank of America Preferred Rewards program only allows you to earn up to 2.625% cash-back on all purchases with the Bank of America^® Unlimited Cash Rewards Credit Card for holding the same $100,000+ in combined assets with Bank of America.

One item to keep in mind is that, while you can earn up to 4% cash-back on all purchases with the U.S. Bank Smartly card, the cash-back you earn will only be redeemable at full value when redeemed as a deposit into an eligible U.S. Bank deposit account. This means that other redemption methods — like statement credits, gift cards, and travel — may have a reduced redemption rate. And while these earnings are provided as points, you can’t combine those points with any other U.S. Bank credit cards.

This is in stark contrast to the Robinhood Gold Card, which promises 3% cash-back but offers reduced redemption values when redeeming your rewards as cash-back via statement credit.

How To Apply

Since the card has not fully launched yet, you can join the waitlist on the U.S. Bank website to be among the first to apply when it does. Joining the waitlist only requires you to provide your name and email so that U.S. Bank can contact you when applications go live.

Final Thoughts

The ability to earn an uncapped 4% cash-back on all purchases would, without a doubt, make this the best cash-back credit card on the market from an earnings perspective.

That said, while the cash-back rewards are enticing, the announcement is limited on other details about the card including any fees it might charge, along with benefits and purchase protections it may or may not offer. Given that, stay tuned for our full review of the card when it officially launches with all of these details.