You may have come across an ad on Instagram or Facebook for an early sign-up link to the new Landers Cashbank Everywhere credit card by Maya offering up to 5% cashback on Landers, 2% on dining, and 1% everywhere else. At first glance, it seems like an awesome card plus it comes as your Landers membership card with a 50% promotional renewal discount, but let me answer some questions and break down how it's mediocre at best for me.
So before anything else, if you didn't already know almost all my credit cards are travel credit cards driven towards travel perks and earning of miles. We might value credit card features and perks differently and that is okay.
What is the Landers Cashback Everywhere credit card?
It's a 2 in 1 card, a credit card, and a Landers membership card. You could even categorize this as a co-branded card and is very similar to UnionBank's S&R Visa Platinum with the same credit card and membership card hybrid, earn points/cashback to be converted to grocery rebates, and tiered cashback with the superstore, dining, and everywhere else.
In fact, it's clear that these cards are rivals and Landers just upped S&R by providing better slightly better cashback rates. Landers can offer better cashback rates probably because its partner Maya is a digital bank and does not have as high of an overhead as a traditional bank like UnionBank does.
I believe the main selling point of the Landers card has been its 5% cashback from purchases in Landers, which sounds amazing until you see this
You have to spend PHP 50,000 total on your credit card before you become eligible for the 5% cashback rate at Landers and PHP 20,000 for the 4% cashback rate. It still doesn't sound too bad right? Well if you read the full mechanics you'll realize how difficult it is to accumulate some actual rebates.
Now let's do a little math, since the vouchers are in blocks of 500 you'll need at least 500 points to be able to get (1) one PHP 500 voucher. Let's assume you're only using the card for Landers since it has the highest base cashback rate of 3%, you'll need to spend PHP 16,800 in Landers just to earn one voucher worth PHP 500.
Sure you can spend on the credit card and make it hit the threshold and earn 5% on Landers, but realistically I don't think the average middle-income Filipino family will be spending more than PHP 20,000 on groceries in Landers every month on a consistent basis.
Take note that your points total resets every calendar month so if you happen to spend less than PHP 16,800 on Landers (based on our example) or reach 500 points you won't get a single Peso of cashback. Plus if you read the terms and conditions it seems that the 4% and the 5% are promotional rates and will end on November 13, 2024.
Did I get the card?
Yes, I signed up for the early access which had a PHP 350 renewal offer because at first glance it really seemed like a great card and I've been a Landers member for years now so it just made sense at the time. Somehow it didn't reflect on my Lander's membership since it was still active and I had to recently renew it at PHP 500.
Unfortunately, when I signed up there was barely any information about the card except for the featured 5% cashback. I didn't hear anything about my application until I recently got text messages.
Who can take advantage?
As I said earlier, I prefer travel credit cards, but that doesn't mean this isn't the right card for others. I honestly have too many credit cards with most not being NAFFL (No Annual Fee For Life). So I need to hit a certain spend amount for each card to get the annual fee waiver plus I'm losing out on valuable points and miles.
If you are someone who can take advantage of reaching the minimum spend for this card then by all means you should enjoy this card.
Additionally, it gives a very generous credit limit. Some forums say it's based on your spending in Landers, others say it's your credit history with Maya. Based on my experience, I go to Landers maybe only 4 - 5 times a year with an average spend of around PHP 5,000 per visit and was given a 7-digit credit limit which surprised me.
As for now the the credit card has no place in my wallet unless I somehow start spending loads in Landers. I've gone ahead and locked all access to the credit card through the app and will only use it as a Landers membership card and the occasional big grocery for a party or something. Good thing there is no annual fee for the credit card.
Bonus: according to some users cash-in to the Grab wallet with this card has no fee since it is a visa card and also does not get flagged with a quasi-fee.
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