You can now earn Uber credit by spending money with your Visa card.
Uber today unveiled a new program called Local Offers that is initially available to users in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Here’s the jist: You link your Visa card to your Uber account, use the Uber app to enroll with restaurants and retailers that are apart of the program, and get one Uber point for every $1 spent at those places with your Visa card. When you reach 100 points, you’ll get a free ride up to $10.
Participating businesses include Peet’s Coffee, Veggie Grill, and other local restaurants and retailers. There is a maximum number of points you can earn with each business for a given time period.
This is not a huge money-saving deal, but if you’re already using a Visa card and take trips with Uber, it’s an easy way to earn some Uber credits.
https://youtu.be/FQZU_C2qQ50
There seems to be more activity around the connection between physical retailers and transportation services like Uber and Lyft, which lets people earn Starbucks Rewards points for using its service, for example. The Uber-Visa partnership also reminds me of Validated, a new Seattle startup that lets users recoup the cost of parking, Uber, Lyft, taxis, and public transportation if they meet the minimum spending requirements of a participating retailer.
Other financial giants like Capital One and American Express also have their own rewards-related partnerships with Uber.
As Uber — now valued at more than $60 billion — irons out its business model, it is testing new programs like Local Offers to get more people to use its app. Last week it started piloting a beta subscription program that offers flat fares on rides throughout the month of September in exchange for a monthly fee.
