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This last week Fold's Development team released a new update to their debit card that has divided the community. In a previous article that you can read , I supported and liked what they were trying to do. My first glace led me to believe it was full of perks for Spin+ (premium card) holders like myself. The last few days though I realized it was not as cut and dry as I had thought and the update brought along several new things I did not hear about till later.
Initial Reaction
Right off the bat, they had my attention with the price of the Spin+ card being lowered from $150 (which was arguably pretty steep) to $100. Some people were still upset about how high the price was but when you look at what they offer and the lack of fees (they even pay for the gas fees when you opt to receive your balance) it quickly made up for it. Since I paid the $150 I have received 4 payouts totaling over 1.2 million sats or 0.012 BTC. Which has easily offset the amount I spent even in the bear market.
With the revamp they had gift card tiers meaning that those that signed up or paid for their debit card were given access to a much wider variety of gift cards. While FOLD cardholders have access to more than the people who do not sign up, like Bed Bath & Beyond, Southwest Airlines, and Taco Bell, the people that pay for the card can also get gift cards from places like Amazon, Airbnb, Chipotle, DoorDash, Home Depot, REI, Uber, Uber Eats! They also added a new subscription plan that allowed people to choose a monthly option instead of paying for the full year and added key features like zero fees on cash back, zero fees on ATM withdrawals, and more!
Reading the blog post and seeing the new interface led me to believe that this change was just unlocking a ton of new features. They did say that there had been a change to the spin wheel you use after purchase but from what I understood it was the ability to earn more if you used the card several times over the course of a day.
Additional Changes
When I think of Fold I think of an app that I spin the wheel on each day and then use to buy a gift card spin a bonus wheel after that and stack my sats that way. Using Fold in this way lets me turbocharge my sat stacking ways and often earn 7-8% back on purchases from Amazon. What I did not realize until I purchased an Amazon gift card two days ago was how my strategy/plan was not going to be near as effective anymore. Now on Fold if you purchase a gift card the percent back that is listed for the card is what you are going to get back. Spins would not only be used on purchases with your debit card that were NOT on gift cards. When I realized this it suddenly made sense to me why they had increased the percentage back on 21 different gift cards from 0.5 to 2%. Southwest Airlines gift cards for instance now earn back 4% a huge increase from the 2.5% back that I got back just a month prior! Several like AMC and Nintendo now have 9% back on their cards which is much more than I would have ever expected.
Another change was also made with how you can load your card with money. Previously, you could use the immediate refill function as many times as you would want, and from what I have heard it was like this for everyone. Now though they have not only tiered it out but also put some guardrails on it. Regular Fold card holders now get one free immediate refill a month and Spin+ users get three. After this, there is a 1.5% charge per instant funding request. This charge has really really rubbed some people the wrong way but what I do not think they are aware of or just do not care about is that instant funding is not a cheap thing for a company to offer and this is why it took Fold until just a few months ago to offer it. Having a cost like this while also giving people free sats every day adds up to be a pretty significant expense. The instant funding was also to be used as a "crap I want to use this" to pay something let me throw some quick cash on here to do so not this is how I refill my card option.
Final Thoughts
In part due to the way that many people became ingrained with using Fold, myself included, this change is a little disappointing. The Fold Team in their Discord has also been very understanding of the feelings that some people are expressing however there is a small group that I think is missing the point of not only the changes but the card in general. When you get a debit or credit card typically people will use these for various purchases, not just one single thing. I think those that do have a debit or credit card for really a single usage most likely do not have one that's sole purpose is to purchase gift cards. Fold is trying to build out a card that is attractive to the average person to use every day multiple times a day. After all, the typical person using these cards wants to earn rewards for their purchases and with this card currently tapping into the debit card world that is notorious for not offering rewards, it can make a name for itself. As we move closer and closer to mass adoption and cryptos and the blockchain being more and more popular changes are bound to happen and this was one of them.
People have recently begun to pay either rent or mortgages with their Fold card and I cannot think of a better way to stack some crazy amounts of sats! With this in mind, people have started to branch out into new and everyday ways to stack sats, and the company needed to adapt. It is important to realize that by doing what they are not only is the core idea the same but it is also helping people utilize a card that can benefit them in the real world and let them earn more sats back overall. It's a pretty big change and it will take some getting used to but the way that I am looking at it is that now the card is becoming more attractive for the average person instead of those who really were only purchasing gift cards.
Please know I am not a financial advisor and make sure you do your own research! If you enjoyed this article and would like to further support me below are a few referral links that if you used when signing up I would appreciate it! Also, follow me on Twitter @Cje95_
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