I received this email yesterday (likely because I had the honey browser extension installed at one point). Does this change mean the “5% back” on the debit card will only be redeemable for gift cards after Aug 1st?
“Notice:
Amendments to the PayPal Rewards Program Agreement
Effective: August 1, 2026
Please note that certain features of the PayPal Rewards Program are being updated as follows:
– The option to redeem PayPal Rewards Points for cash back into your PayPal balance account or directly into a linked bank account or linked debit card will be discontinued.
– The option to redeem PayPal Rewards Points for cash back deposited into a PayPal Savings account will also be discontinued.
If you would like to redeem your PayPal Rewards Points using either option listed above, you must do so before 11:59 PM Pacific Standard Time on August 1, 2026. Alternatively, you may explore other available options to redeem your Rewards Points, for example, by redeeming your points for gift cards on the Honey website.”
Did PayPal just kill the 5% cashback on their debit card?
byu/EDSman11 inCreditCards
Posted by EDSman11
4 Comments
I believe you can also use the points at 1cpp on Amazon checkout, so if you frequently shop on there, it isn’t as impactful of a nerf.
For those interested here are the updated terms: [https://www.paypalobjects.com/marketing/ua/OA/pp-rewards-program-tnc/en-US-080126.pdf](https://www.paypalobjects.com/marketing/ua/OA/pp-rewards-program-tnc/en-US-080126.pdf)
Late to the party, this sub already had its flash of a dozen posts talking about the nerf and asking about alternatives a while ago. Tldr is yes, no more cash back redemption for an actual cash deposit, only Honey gift cards and some specific types of PayPal purchases apparently. We have to wait and see how things pan out to get a sense of how dead the card truly is, but people have already been talking about it in past tense for like a week. People also got scared that the nerf would affect the PayPal Cashback Mastercard, apparently not as that doesn’t seem to earn PayPal points. I think the PayPal Business Debit is also unaffected as that seems to also bypass the points system.
Best debit card alternative rn is the Venmo debit card for 5% on Walmart and other specific vendors but with a direct deposit requirement. And among credit cards, the Venmo credit card has basically the same definition of groceries as the PayPal debit card but at unlimited 3% instead of capped 5%. Rather ironic given that Venmo and PayPal are the same company.
They’re only getting rid of the points to cash redemption options. You can still get the 5% back if you use your points when checking out with PayPal. It’s not perfect, but if you’re able to use PayPal to pay, the card is definitely not useless like some people seem to imply.