SoFi Credit Card review: Solid cash back for SoFi customers

Editorial Note: Intuit Credit Karma receives compensation from third-party advertisers, but that doesn’t affect our editors’ opinions. Our third-party advertisers don’t review, approve or endorse our editorial content. Information about financial products not offered on Credit Karma is collected independently. Our content is accurate to the best of our knowledge when posted.

We think it's important for you to understand how we make money. It's pretty simple, actually. The offers for financial products you see on our platform come from companies who pay us. The money we make helps us give you access to free credit scores and reports and helps us create our other great tools and educational materials.

Compensation may factor into how and where products appear on our platform (and in what order). But since we generally make money when you find an offer you like and get, we try to show you offers we think are a good match for you. That's why we provide features like your Approval Odds and savings estimates.

Of course, the offers on our platform don't represent all financial products out there, but our goal is to show you as many great options as we can.

These offers are no longer available on our site: SoFi Credit Card, Chase Freedom Flex℠

Pros

Solid cash back rates for SoFi banking customers
No annual fee

Cons

Maximizing rewards requires additional SoFi accounts

SoFi Credit Card: Core features

The SoFi Credit Card has no annual fee and is uniquely designed to incentivize cardholders to open multiple accounts with the card issuer. These may include a SoFi bank account or investment account — or even student and personal loans.

Here’s how this card can shine for certain people while being a dud for others.

Maximize rewards when you redeem with SoFi

The SoFi Credit Card offers 2% cash back on every purchase. But it’s important to know that with this card, not every cardholder will be able to redeem at that rate.

The card technically earns two points for every $1 you spend. And you’ll get a redemption value of 1 cent per point. But there’s a catch — you’ll need to redeem your rewards in very specific ways to see that value, including the following:

Deposit into a SoFi checking or savings account
Deposit into a SoFi Money® account
Deposit into a SoFi Active Invest account
Payment toward a SoFi personal loan, SoFi private student loan or student refinance loan (student refinance loan redemption option is currently unavailable in New York)

What else you need to know about the SoFi Credit Card

As you consider whether the SoFi Credit Card is right for you, here are some other details to keep in mind.

The card has no foreign transaction fees.
You’ll get up to $1,000 in cell phone protection.
You can enjoy some World Elite Mastercard® benefits, including $5 monthly credits with Lyft, free two-day shipping with ShopRunner, a two-month trial of Instacart and more.

Who this card is good for

The SoFi Credit Card could be worth considering if you already have an account with SoFi (like a bank account, investment account, personal loan or student loan), and would like to keep your financial accounts under one roof.

If you have a student or personal loan with SoFi, though, you’ll still want to have automatic payments set up from your checking account and only rely on your cash back redemption for extra payments. That way, you can avoid the possibility of not making the minimum payment required on your loan if you don’t earn enough rewards in a month.

Keep in mind, though, that you can use rewards from most cash back credit cards to save, invest or pay down debt — the SoFi Credit Card can just make the process a bit easier. If you’d rather not be tied down to only redeeming cash back with SoFi, there are plenty of alternatives that give you some more flexibility with how you can redeem your rewards, including other no annual fee credit cards.

Not sure this is the card for you? Consider these alternatives.

If you’re not sure about the restrictions that come with the SoFi Credit Card’s rewards program, or you simply want some other options to compare, here are some top choices.

Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card: Good for people who want a high cash back rewards rate on all purchases with no caveats.
Chase Freedom Flex℠: Consider this card if you want to earn a higher rewards rate on everyday spending categories that rotate every few months.
Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express: A solid choice for families who spend a lot on groceries and gas.

About the author: Ben Luthi is a personal finance freelance writer and credit cards expert. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business management and finance from Brigham Young University. In addition to Credit Karma, you can find his wo… Read more.