Well, this has the potential to suck depending on how it’s implemented. The Bumped app announced today that they’re pivoting from their current business model of being a card-linked program for (mostly) in-store transactions to becoming what appears to be a glorified shopping portal that offers fractional shares of stock rather than cashback.
From the email they just sent out:
We heard it loud and clear from pilot users: you want more stock rewards from more brands, without the constraints of categories. That’s why we’re pleased to bring you The Stock Marketplace – a new approach to stock rewards where you can get fractional shares of stock when you spend online or in store with hundreds of brands.
We’re also excited to announce that you’ll get to choose which stocks you are rewarded in, and update your choices at any time. Now you can own what you love, and spend where you want.
You’ll be switched over to the new Bumped automatically on Thursday, October 29, which gives you a bit of time to wrap up any transactions on the pilot. Your login and Bumped portfolio will remain unchanged (unless you change them, of course).
In case you’re not familiar with Bumped, it was a card-linked program that had a waitlist to join. You linked your credit cards, then selected one retailer in each of the 10 categories on offer. For example, here are some of the categories and eligible retailers/restaurants/services:
- Club Warehouse – 1%
- Sam’s Club – (this was the only option)
- Coffee – 2%
- Starbucks
- Caribou Coffee
- Dunkin’ Donuts
- Peet’s Coffee
- Grocery – 0.5%
- Kroger family of stores
- Albertsons family of stores
The fact that Bumped was a card-linked program was awesome because once you’d linked your cards, that was it – you’d earn rewards automatically. No needing to click through from a portal, no specific offers to add to your card, etc.
It looks like that’s changing from October 29. This current iteration will be ending and it appears that they’ll be switching to a shopping portal model. If that’s what happens, it’ll be incredibly disappointing and will likely sound the death knell for their company. From the FAQs about their new offering:
How much stock will I receive?
Typically, the percentages vary between 1-5% of purchase spend. However, these may change as often as the offers do. Keep up with your Bumped app for new offers as they come!
1-5% cashback for a shopping portal simply isn’t going to cut it – not when you have other portals like TopCashback and Rakuten regularly offering well in excess of 5% cashback/Membership Rewards when using their portals.
The exception will be if Bumped maintains their positioning as a card-linked program which happens to stack with other shopping portals. If that’s the case, this could be an awesome development as a 1-5% payout in fractional shares of stock in additional to earning cashback/rewards with another portal would be unexpectedly generous. I think it’s highly unlikely this’ll be the outcome though (probably a 1-5% likelihood to match the payout), as I can’t see how they’d generate enough income/profit without also earning affiliate income as a shopping portal.
I’m therefore very pessimistic about these changes, but will reserve full judgment for post-October 29 once the new version of the Bumped app has been released. It would be great to be pleasantly surprised by whatever they have planned, but what’s been announced so far is underwhelming.
On a side note, I’d been planning on creating a resource all about the Bumped app and how it can be used for gift card purchases, so I’m glad that my procrastination has paid off for once as the guide would be moot in a few weeks! If there turns out to be anything interesting about their new iteration from October 29, I’ll let you know.