Sad news for a once-promising program – Bumped has announced that it’s closing down with immediate effect.
The History Of Bumped
Bumped began life as an in-store card-linked offer program. You linked payment cards and earned 0.5% back as stock at retailers you selected in various categories. While 0.5% wasn’t a huge return, I loved the concept as it was set-and-forget – once you’d linked your cards, you didn’t have to do anything more. It would simply track and pay out on all spend at your chosen retailers. The 0.5% was awarded as stock in your selected companies or, in some cases, in funds like VTI.
This was a notable opportunity for some people because eligible retailers included Sam’s Club for Warehouse Clubs and the choice of Kroger or Safeway/Albertsons for grocery stores. That meant people could earn an extra 0.5% back at stores that they were going to be manufactured spending at anyway.
In October 2020, Bumped severely downgraded their app by removing the card-linked element and pivoted to a shopping portal model. The rates they offered were poor in comparison to other shopping portals, so it simply wasn’t worth using the app anymore.
This pivot didn’t have the desired effect, so four months later they revived the card-linked program. In some ways, the revamped version was even better as it provided the opportunity to earn 1% back (rather than 0.5%) at Sam’s Club or BJ’s Wholesale Club. One of the downsides was the removal of the grocery store category.
That change lasted almost 18 months, but in July 2022 Bumped advised users that they were once again pivoting away from the card-linked offer program and returning to a shopping portal program. That didn’t bode well for their future, so in that update I wrote:
This doesn’t bode well for their future, so I’ll likely cash out my earnings as it’ll be easier to do now than it likely will be if the company ends up closing abruptly.
Bumped Shutting Down
Sure enough, Bumped sent out an email today advising that they’re shutting down with immediate effect. If you have a Bumped account you should’ve received the same email, but just in case here’s the text from the email:
We’re in your inbox today to share some unexpected (and sad) news — Bumped has decided to cease operations of our ownership rewards programs— effective immediately. Your account and holdings are safe, secure, and remain protected by FINRA and the SIPC. This news means:
1. All Bumped Reward Programs are shutting down today. This includes Shop Now, the Bumped Shopping Extension, and all other Bumped rewards programs. However the following exceptions are:
- TAB Bank will continue their reward program through December 31, 2022 (TAB Flow, and TAB Flow+).
- Moves has suspended their program as of December 19, 2022 pending their reward program upgrade
- Pending rewards will be processed.
2. There is nothing you need to do at this time. Your securities account (the Bumped Financial, LLC account that holds your stock) will remain with Apex Clearing Corporation — our clearing firm and custody partner. Apex has been a part of the Bumped and the stock rewards journey since our inception and will keep your assets secure.
3. After 30 days, Apex will be taking over your brokerage account and services will be limited to liquidations or transfers to another broker-dealer.
4. Apex will take over communications and brokerage account management from there. Keep an eye out for more information from them.
5. There will be no costs to you associated with your assignment of your brokerage account to Apex.
6. If you would like to transfer your brokerage account to another Broker/Dealer: Please note that most firms will not accept fractional shares in an account transfer and see our fee schedule for account transfer fees. Should you decide to initiate an account transfer after the move to Apex, the account transfer fee is the same, keeping in mind Apex may also send additional communications after the move. Note: you will need to initiate the ACAT/transfer from the receiving account/broker-dealer. This means it will be initiated from where you’re transferring your account to, and our clearing firm’s DTC number is 0158.
Again: there is no action required on your part. If you would like to opt-out from moving your account to Apex you will need to let us know by January 19, 2023 by logging in to your Bumped account, clicking “Account” in the top right corner, and selecting “Get Help”.
The decision to close Bumped is a heartbreaking one — and one our team has worked tirelessly to avoid. It would be easy to simply blame the combination of unexpected (and unprecedented) external market events, but those of us left winding down the company hold great accountability for the disappointment this presents. We are deeply sorry to be winding down the Bumped rewards you’ve known and loved for half a decade.
Thank you for believing in Bumped. Thank you for sharing our vision for an ownership economy, and ultimately proving to the market that there is a need for — and opportunity in — making everyday customers into owners.
Sincerely,
–The Bumped TeamAn important note on your privacy: The confidentiality of your information and your privacy are important and are protected by law. Both Bumped and Apex will comply with the requirements of SEC Regulation S-P concerning the privacy of consumer financial information, to the extent applicable. Since your account is already held at Apex, you may review their privacy policy at https://apexfintechsolutions.
com/privacy-and-legal/
This is a disappointing outcome and I feel genuinely sorry for the Bumped team as I think they did try their hardest to make a success of Bumped, even if I was somewhat scathing when they’d first pivoted to the shopping portal model. The opportunity to earn rewards in return for shopping at retailers and restaurants you selected definitely had the potential to engender loyalty to those brands, with those rewards coming in the form of stock being an interesting twist versus earning straight cashback or some kind of points system redeemable for gift cards. It just seems like the business model simply wasn’t profitable which is a shame.
R.I.P. Bumped – you really will be missed. And good luck to the team behind Bumped – I hope they get a chance to build on their vision in the future and are able to create something akin to Bumped that works for us and is profitable for them.
Hi Stephen – Nice post-mortem on Bumped. I also certainly wish their team all the best.
I also wanted to thank you for keeping us updated on the last stages of Bumped’s trajectory. Thanks to your updates and advice, I was able to cash out back in August and collect the rewards that had accumulated in my account. It was a bit of a chore, requiring intervention from Bumped support and payment via a manual check sent from Apex, but it worked. Not a ton of money, but it probably bought someone a nice Christmas present.
I hope you and Shae are doing well and that you have a great holiday season!
Thanks! Yep, we’re doing good – hope you all are as well 🙂