Pay and be rewarded? With the Swisscard Cashback Duowhich consists of two cashback credit cards, this is possible!
The two Cashback Cards are always available in combination, either as a American Express and Visa or American Express and Mastercard - you decide for yourself! The highlight of this duo? You always have a second credit card at hand. For example, if a card is blocked due to loss or theft, or if an online shop or shop does not accept a certain brand, you always have an alternative at hand!
With the Cashback Duo from Swisscard, it is a matter of real credit cards. No prepaid models, but cards with monthly billing. Both credit cards are free of charge and have numerous advantages. You're probably wondering why you get two free credit cards with cashback?
Find out the answer to this question and more details about advantages, disadvantages, fees and insurance in these Swisscard Cashback experiences.
You get two credit cards. This gives you very high coverage worldwide and you always have a second card at hand. In addition, both cards are free of charge, there are no annual fee.
Here are all the advantages of the Cashback Duo credit types from Swisscard:
The Foreign currency fees are relatively high at 2.50 % and also for Cash withdrawals falls a Fee of 3.75 % an. In addition, the free insurance cover is small compared to other cashback credit cards. You should also note that the full Cashback of 1 % only with the American Express Card is possible. Amex has low coverage in Switzerland and is rarely accepted in online shops. The additional Mastercard or Visa only offers a cashback of 0.25 %.
You'll soon find out how you can still use the card intelligently and what alternatives there are!
Here you will find the main features of the Swisscard credit card pair:
Type | Amex & Visa OR Amex & Mastercard |
Settlement | Monthly on account, eBill, direct debit |
Additional card | free of charge |
Instalment facility | Available (13 % annual interest) |
Security | 3-D Secure |
Region | Usable worldwide |
The Swisscard Cashback Cards Duo allows you to get money back every time you pay with your card. Every time you use the American Express Card 1 % of the purchase price and in the use of the Mastercard or Visa 0.25 % of the purchase price. You get the cashback once a year as settlement on your credit card statement.
You need to know that the payout date must not be within the cancellation date of the card. Otherwise, the claim to the cashback will be forfeited.
Some issues are excluded from the cashback:
With the Cashback Cards you can Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay and even SwatchPay use. With mobile payments, you can track transactions even better, giving you a sharper overview of your spending and budget.
As New customer you get a Starting credit of CHF 100. You get this in the form of a Cashback increase for the first 3 months. Your cashback will be increased to 5 %. The limit kicks in once you reach CHF 100. After that, you can continue to collect up to 1 % cashback.
If you until 31 October 2023 submit a complete card application, including the Cashback Cards Promo Code in the application process, you will receive another CHF 100 as starting credit given.
However, there are a few small hurdles to overcome. To receive the additional starting credit of CHF 100, you must make at least one payment with the Swisscard Cashback Cards via Apple Pay within three months of submitting the card application. Whether you do this via your iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch is entirely up to you.
As soon as you have successfully completed the payment with Apple Pay using the Cashback Card, the amount of CHF 100 will be credited once to your Cashback Cards card account within six weeks.
Security is a major concern, especially when it comes to your online payments. Have you ever heard of 3-D Secure heard? This security standard was developed jointly by American Express, Mastercard and Visa. More and more online shops are using 3-D Secure to identify you as a card payer and to protect both you and the seller. Protect against card misuse.
3-D Secure is already integrated in the Swisscard app. This means that you can check and approve your payments in the app. As soon as you make a purchase, you will receive a code via SMS or in the Swisscard app that you can use to identify yourself.
In the duel with the competition from Cembra with the Certo! One Mastercard and Migros with their Visa card, the credit card duo from Swisscard has a customer-friendly fee structure.
Here is a table with the most important cost units:
Category | Amount |
---|---|
Annual fee | CHF 0.- |
Annual fee additional card | CHF 0.- |
Foreign currency fee | 2,50 % |
Annual interest for partial payment | 13 % |
Cash withdrawal in CHF | 3.75%, min. CHF 5.- |
Monthly statement in paper form | CHF 1.95 |
Monthly statement in the app | CHF 0.- |
Fee for telephone service | CHF 1.90 per call |
With the return of goods insurance, you are globally and Secured up to a goods value of CHF 1'000. You can get a refund for undamaged products worth at least CHF 60 if the seller refuses to take them back. However, you must have paid for at least half of your purchase with one of your Duo credit cards!
Here are more details about the return of goods insurance:
Return of goods insurance | Up to CHF 1'000; products from CHF 60; 50 % of the purchase must have been paid with a Cashback Card |
Costs | none |
Scope | worldwide |
In the first part of the experience report, you learned about the advantages and disadvantages of the Swisscard Cashback Duo. Now you can see a table that shows the Direct comparison with the competitor product, the Certo! One Mastercard, shows:
Swisscard Cashback Duo | Certo! One Mastercard | |
---|---|---|
Cashback | 1 % with Amex, 0,25 % with Mastcard and Visa | 1 % and 0.33 % as real money |
Cashback payout cycle | Annual | Quarterly |
Insurances | Return of goods insurance | Travel and Shopping Insurance |
Annual fee | CHF 0 | CHF 0 |
Additional card fee | CHF 0 | CHF 0 |
mobile payment | Yes | Yes |
Behind the Cashback Cards is the Swiss Credit card provider Swisscard AECS GmbH. The company, which is jointly owned by Credit Suisse (now UBS) and American Express (and therefore always has an American Express card on offer), is the only provider where you can get all three major credit card brands.
You can choose to combine your American Express Cashback Card with a Cashback World Mastercard or a Cashback Visa. Thanks to this credit card combination, you benefit from a broad acceptance worldwide. Swisscard came up with this offer to be competitive and make up for the big 0.25 % cashback disadvantage.
In summary, the Swisscard Cashback Duo Credit Card offers a Strong combination of flexibility, security and premiums. The security features are also very strong and take away the worry of credit card fraud. Unfortunately, the big drawback is the cashback system itself.
Only the American Express credit card, which is rarely accepted in Switzerland, gives you 1 % of the purchase value back as cashback. Mastercard and Visa only give back 0.25 % of money. This makes it easy for cashback collectors to decide to switch to another credit card. Cash withdrawals, payments abroad or instalment payments get expensive, here you can resort to one of the following cards.
Have you already tried the Swisscard Cashback Duo credit cards? How do you like them? Feel free to write in the comments!
4 responses
I recently used the Cashback (Mastercard) to buy tickets. I did not receive an invoice, but a payment reminder with additional costs for payment reminder, address research fee, debit interest, paper invoice fee of a proud CHF 58.94!!! I then paid this invoice 14 days later. Today (24.1.2024) I received another invoice of CHF 0.78 for debit interest. I am seriously wondering what kind of dodgy company this is and will report the whole thing to the Kassensturz!!!
By the way: A telephone call costs CHF 1.90 (per call). However, no connection was made!
Wow, that's not exactly positive. Thanks for sharing!
Please let us know what you were able to find out and how the case progressed.
Good luck!
I have been happy with the cashback cards for over 3 years, which credit a nice chunk after a year. In fact, as described in the article, you first have to ask whether AMEX is accepted. This can sometimes be annoying (probably for both sides - but the fees for the seller party are already enormously high with AMEX). That's why I've also had the CERTO card with me since 2022, which is used as an alternative. The Swisscard app does what it needs to, it's simple and easy to use. However, I find it a great pity that Swisscard offers mobile payment (including Swatch Pay), but Garmin Pay is not included. Several enquiries initially went unanswered, before finally a blanket statement was given that the user profile should be checked first. However, this should not be a killer criterion for not using the Cashback Card - we are now very spoilt by technology. When applying for the card, make sure that the promo code is actually entered, otherwise the 100.00 will not be credited (unfortunately I have forgotten this). In any case, we can highly recommend the Cashback Card.
Thanks for all the info and your tip about the code, Philip! 🙂