Swisscard Cashback Credit Card Review 2024 – Free and 1% Cashback
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Recently Swisscard announced a new offer for credit cards: Swisscard Cashback. They offer an American Express (Amex) and a MasterCard or a Visa. They have already offered several cards. But these new Cashback cards are really interesting.
First of all, these cards are free! This fact is essential because a small fee will render your cashback useless unless you spend a lot of money. But these are not the only free cards in Switzerland! Interestingly, they offer 5% cashback in the first three months (limited to 100 CHF). After that, the cashback bonus becomes 1% on the American Express card and 0.2% on the MasterCard and Visa cards.
In this article, we cover everything about these cards.
| Yearly fee | 0 CHF |
|---|---|
| Card | AMEX and VISA / Mastercard |
| Cashback | 1% with AMEX, 0.20% otherwise |
| Foreign exchange fee | 2.50% |
| Interest rate | 11.95% |
| Emitter | Swisscard |
Swisscard Cashback Credit Card
A cashback of 1% is more than other free cards in Switzerland are offering! Of course, you need to be able to use the card as much as possible to use that extra cashback. Doing so may be difficult since American Express cards are not as well accepted as Visa and MasterCard, especially in Switzerland.
Swisscard Cashback cards come in two different sets:
- An American Express and a Visa
- An American Express and a MasterCard
So, if you opt for their offer, you will always have two cards. What is important is that only one card is interesting! The American Express card has a 1% cashback, which is more than other free credit cards in Switzerland. On the other hand, the Visa and MasterCard cards only have 0.2% cashback, which is lower than the best credit cards in Switzerland.
The idea is to use only American Express. You should not use the other credit card. If you can use the Amex, you should use it and use your secondary card when you cannot. That way, you will have 1% cashback on American Express purchases and 0.33% for other purchases.
The cards have a standard maximum limit of 10’000 CHF per month. We should never need that much. Depending on your income, you may not get the maximum.
1% cashback
As I already said, the most interesting point about this card is the 1% cashback. My current credit card only has 0.33% cashback.
I spend about 10’000 CHF on my credit card each year. This total is only on domestic purchases. I make international purchases with my Neon card. A 1% bonus on that amount is 100 CHF. This bonus is about 67 CHF more than I would get with the Cumulus MasterCard. This difference is a nice increase but not a huge one.
There is also a bonus of 5% cashback in the first three months. However, this is limited to a maximum of 100 CHF.
For me, it will not be a huge difference. At most, I will spend 3000 CHF in one month on my credit card. In this case, this would be a bonus of 100 CHF. Such a bonus is not life-changing. But it would still be interesting. On the other hand, this is still limited to what I can use American Express for.
The fees
I said the cards were free. You do not have to pay an annual or monthly fee. On the other hand, many things are not free of charge with these cards. These extra fees are how these companies get money!
First, these cards are incredibly costly for withdrawing money. If you withdraw money in Switzerland, you will pay 3.75% of fees or at least 5 CHF. Abroad, you will also pay a 3.75% fee but at least 10 CHF. These fees are pretty bad! All credit cards are bad for withdrawing money. As a rule, you should never withdraw money using a credit card.
Another thing this card is pretty bad at is payments in foreign currency. You will pay 2.5% of your payment if it is not in Swiss Francs or not in Switzerland. So, you should never use this card for foreign payments. If you want to make foreign payments for a fair price, you should use a Neon card. Some users are reported that even some Swiss websites end up charging the fee with American Express but not with the standard Mastercard and Visa. So, it is possible that the rules for Amex are worse.
Finally, if you carry a balance on your credit card, you will pay a hefty interest of 11.95%. Credit card interest is how credit card companies make most of their income. Of course, if you are serious about personal finance, you should never have credit card debt. Credit card debt is the worst kind of debt you can have!
Moreover, there are also many smaller fees. For instance, you must pay 1.95 CHF per statement if you want a paper statement. If you call them, you will pay 1.90 CHF per call. If you pay at the counter, you will also pay a fee. You will have to pay for everything you want on paper. If you are careful, you can avoid all these fees! But you need to be aware of them!
American Express in Switzerland
The main problem with this offer is that the interesting card with 1% cashback is an American Express card. And American Express cards are much less supported in Switzerland than MasterCard and Visa. Even in the United States, having a MasterCard or a VISA is generally easier. It is a bit crazy, given the name of the card!
It depends on the size of the shop. Support for American Express cards is improving. It used to be very poor. However, large retailers such as Migros and Coop now accept American Express cards.
It is worse for online stores. Most websites do not accept American Express cards, but many support PayPal, which supports American Express. On the other hand, if you use this card through PayPal, you may have to pay the foreign conversion fee.
If you have experience with Amex cards in Switzerland, I would like to hear about it!
Solution: Two cards
Unfortunately, one card does not rule them all! Since American Express support in Switzerland and abroad is not great, the solution is to keep two cards. However, the strategy is not to use Visa or MasterCard from SwissCard. The cashback on these cards is too low.
The strategy is to use the American Express card as much as possible. And then, use your Visa/Mastercard from Migros or Coop to get 0.33% back. With that, you will have a maximum cashback in both situations.
Of course, this is not as practical as using a single credit card. I can understand that some people do not want this. This is especially true since it will not give you a lot of income. In my case, I can generate, in the best case, 66 CHF more each year by using this card next to my current credit card.
There is also a second advantage of having a second credit card. With it, you have a second line of credit if you need it. Credit cards can complement your emergency fund well. But you need to be careful not to use this credit lightly and spend more because you have more credit cards. And be especially careful about always paying your balance in full.
I said the solution was to use two cards. The optimal solution is to use three cards. You still have to use another card for foreign currencies!
Ordering a Swisscard Cashback card
To order this card, I filled out the online form for ordering an American Express and a Visa. The procedure is straightforward, but you must set a lot of information. This is three times more complicated than my old Cumulus credit card. I do not know why they require so much information about this. They could simplify the procedure.
Moreover, they contacted me twice during the procedure for specific information. I can easily say this is the worst experience of all the credit card applications I have ever done. But I may have been unlucky.
Once everything was finally filled out and accepted, I received the cards quite quickly and could immediately start using them.
Alternatives
We can quickly compare the Swisscard Cashback card against some alternatives.
Swisscard Cashback vs Cembra Certo One
A great Swiss credit card with excellent cashback (up to 1%!), very flexible, and with a good mobile application.
- No yearly fee
- 1% cashback in three shops
The Certo One credit card by Cembra is a strong contender to Swisscard Cashback.
The Certo One offers 1% cashback in three shops of your choice. In other shops, you will get 0.3% cashback. The Cashback Amex will give you 1% everywhere.
However, Amex is not accepted everywhere, while Certo One is a Mastercard, which is accepted in 99% of places. This availability is a big advantage of Certo.
Other than that, both cards are very similar and free.
For me, the Certo One is a better card than the Swisscard Cashback simply because it is a Mastercard. However, the Swisscard Cashback is better if you want to optimize cash back to the maximum.
FAQ
How much cashback do you get with Swisscard Cashback?
With the Swisscard Cashback American Express, you will get 1% cash back. With the Swisscard Cashback Visa, you will get 0.2% cash back.
Who is Swisscard Cashback good for?
This card is good for people that want to maximize the cashback on their credit card, by holding an American Express.
Who is Swisscard Cashback not good for?
Swisscard Cashback is not great if you cannot use often an American Express, since the cashback is only good with this card.
Swisscard Cashback Summary
Swisscard Cashback
The Swisscard Cashback American Express is a credit card by Swisscard. This credit card gives 1% cashback on each transactions.
Product Brand: Swisscard
4.5
Pros
- 1% cashback.
- Two different cards.
- No yearly fee.
Cons
- American Express is not widely accepted.
- Transactions in foreign currencies are expensive.
Conclusion
This credit card offers a good offer! 1% cashback is nice, considering Switzerland’s market. This is especially true since this card has no annual fee. The other credit card with 1% cashback is the TCS Travel Mastercard Gold. However, this other card is not free!
However, this new offer is not enough by itself. First, American Express cards are not accepted everywhere. That means you must use a Visa or a MasterCard to use credit cards as much as possible. And the Visa and Mastercard Swisscard cards offer less cashback than the Migros and Coop credit cards. Therefore, you should keep your other credit card and use the Amex card for everything you can, as well as the other one when you cannot use the Amex.
Finally, you should, of course, not use these cards to withdraw money. And you should never use them to pay in foreign currencies. For this last one, you should use a Neon card.
Now, for most people, having several cards will be too much. And I completely understand this. I do not mind the small effort since I like optimization. But if you only want one credit card for your domestic purchases, I still recommend the Certo One Mastercard.
If you want this card, you can check the Swisscard Cashback website.
What do you think about this new credit card on the market? Do you plan to order?
Recommended reading
- More articles about Credit Cards
- More articles about Earn
- The Best 2024 Credit Card Strategy: No Fees and Maximum Returns
- Migros Cumulus Visa Credit Card Review 2024
- Certo! One Mastercard World Review 2024
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Merci pour votre document avez vous
Des documents en français merci
Every article in translated in French (top right button for french in the menu). But e-books are not yet translated.
I tried adding my poinz Amex cashback card to my French PayPal account but I got foreign payment charges, even though I configured the card as CHF in PayPal.
Can you confirm that closing my French PayPal account and opening a new one in Switzerland will sort out this issue?
As in the CHF payments would be made from a PayPal entity based in Switzerland which would not incur charges when paying with Amex and still have the 1% Amex cashback?
Are you aware of any other benefits of moving my account to Switzerland or is this the only one?
Thanks!
Hi Paul,
I cannot confirm that. It will depend on where the payment processor is and whether this is always in Switzerland for Swiss Paypal accounts. I am not sure this is guaranteed by Paypal.
I tried a few payments with my poinz Amex using my Swiss PayPal account and so far I’ve been charged the scammy 2.5% “foreign” payment fee every time.
This unfortunately means that they use the same payment processor for both accounts and this payment processor is abroad :(
I have also been using my cashback duo happily until I realised that I have been paying 2.5% surcharge on Zalando.ch orders. I am almost certain that the transaction is executed within Switzerland as I bought from Zalando with other cards and have never been changed any additional fee. So I went through my transactions in the past couple of months and realised that I paid 2.5% markup quite often whenever I bought from the Swiss branch of international brands. So if you buy from Coop and Migros cashback cards are safe but pretty much for everything else there is a risk of getting charged 2.5%. I sent a complaint to Swisscard but I expect them to get back to me with a standard useless answer. So I am planning to switch to Certo One completely to avoid similar situations.
Thanks for sharing, this is interesting. It’s possible that the rules of MC/Visa are different from Amex. For MC/VISA, the payment processor must be in Switezrland, otherwise a fee applies. So, some Swiss websites (.ch) are charging a fee for that, but not many. We have used Zalando multiple times with the Certo one and there is definitely no charge there.
Let us know what Swisscard says!
I’m using Swisscard (poinz) and while I get charged the ridiculous 2.5% fee with my Amex whenever the website isn’t Swiss with its headquarters in Switzerland, I don’t think I’ve had the 2.5% fee yet on the Visa card.
So generally if I’m 100% sure that the online retailer is 100% Swiss (for example SWISS Airlines, Digitec, etc.) then I pay with my Amex, otherwise I don’t take the risk and I pay with my Visa.
The most annoying part is that there is absolutely no way to know ahead of time which merchant will incur fees and which will not, and Swisscard refuses to tell you. So your only option is to try, learn, and remember for the next times.
Thanks for sharing Paul.
I completely agree that the worst part is the fact that we cannot know beforehand without testing (and paying).
@Baptiste You might want to correct the article based on this :) Currently says the following:
> The main problem with this offer is that the interesting card with 1% cashback is an American Express card. And American Express cards are much less supported in Switzerland than MasterCard and Visa.
> It is worse for online stores. Most websites do not accept American Express cards, but many support PayPal, which supports American Express.
The PayPal option is not really a viable solution if it means paying 2.5% fees on every CHF transaction…
I can add a note about the extra 2.5% fees being more widespread than with other cards.
Hi Baptiste,
I recently faced the same surprises with the 2.5% fee charged on top of all my Paypal transactions even if in CHF. From what I could gather this happens due to contract changes driven by Paypal. I don’t use this card for any other currencies other than CHF. I’m using it in CH and online where it’s at times difficult to know from which country the transaction is going to be generated. Some recent evidence, a monthly contribution to ShretheMeal where I changed the payment method from Paypal to CreditCard, using the very same card, has avoided that 2.5%. The issuing country changed from UK to Italy…so here the difference might also be that in EU is not applicable.
My question and concern is more related with the lack of online security this generates. To me, Paypal is great to ensure online protection when using credit cards. As I’m leaving Paypal to avoid those fees, would you recommend any other option to ensure online protection while still keep using these SwissCards?
Hi Paulo,
Is paypal really much more secure than using your card directly? The best online security would be virtual disposable cards but almost nobody offers these. And I don’t know any Swiss company that does them and gives you cashback on it.
I don’t have any option to strengthen security when using these cards.
Yes, because PayPal is not just a payment provider. It also comes with purchase protection for customers. They can ask PayPal for their money back if the item was never received or is in a poor condition. You don’t need to rely on the goodwill of the seller: both parties provide evidence and then PayPal decides the transaction should be reimbursed or not.
Good point, I did not think of that. But that would only apply when buying in place that do not already offer this kind protection.
Oh, it’s not just about marketplaces. When you go through PayPal to pay on a website you are also protected against that website.
For example I bought some Xiaomi batteries on Banggood and they turned out to be counterfeit. Banggood is a reliable seller in general but just like any shop it can sometimes be deceived by its suppliers. Customer support asked me to wait for them to “sort it out with [their] supplier” (whatever this means), and after 1 week of trying to get reimbursed in vain I just opened a PayPal dispute with the evidence.
They didn’t even wait for PayPal to judge the dispute to reimburse me. They knew they would lose anyway.
I used Banggood as an example but even local e-shops with good reputation sometimes find all the reasons in the world not to reimburse you when these are objects of value. With PayPal that can chime in as an arbitrator on request, you are not at the mercy of the seller any longer.
People complain all the time about fnac.ch. I would never buy anything from them because they don’t support PayPal. If they did, I would buy from them because I’d know I’m protected anyway.
Do you have experience with Visa/Mastercard chargebacks?
I was under the (possibly misguided) impression that it had restrictions on when you can claim them, and the process looks more bothersome. I’m not even sure that it’s without fees when you use cashback cards.
Oh and you can remove recurrent payments and permanent authorizations in two clicks. Again, this gives you a good protection against seller who make it a nightmare to unsubscribe, especially from trial periods.
Mastercard and Visa also provide customer protection so I still don’t see what additional benefits Paypal can provide. For example I ordered shoes from a website which turned out to be a scam copy of a brand that I trust. In the end they sent me fake Ray-Bans. I started a dispute with Mastercard through Revolut and got all my money back. I had a similar situation with a credit card from Cembra and got a full refund through a dispute.
It’s probably slightly easier to raise a dispute on Paypal than with Mastercard/Visa because everything is well integrated into the platform, while reaching MC/Visa is not always Visa. But it’s a very fair point; there is a fair amount of protection with modern credit cards and most people are not using it.
@Baptiste It’s not *slightly* easier with PayPal but *massively* easier. I recently requested a chargeback on my Swisscard Amex for a payment to powermeals.ch because on Oct. 30 they charged me CHF 59 instead of CHF 29. I immediately noticed and contacted customer support within a few mins and they blanket refused to reimburse me other than with credits (and I had no intention of ordering again).
For the chargeback I had to fill an online form that generated a PDF that I had to send as a letter with all the evidence (I printed high quality screenshots in colors to be safe). I posted it on Nov. 3, received a letter on Nov. 14 (dated Nov. 11) saying that they received my request and will review it, received another letter on Nov. 28 (dated Nov. 25) saying that they temporarily accepted the claim (at which point they temporarily reimbursed me CHF 30) and will transmit my request to the payment provider who has 45 days to accept or refuse, if I don’t receive a letter within this timeframe then it means that my chargeback went through, otherwise I will get a letter and the provisionally reimbursed amount will be debited (+ a CHF 80 penalty fee at the discretion of Swisscard if the chargeback isn’t accepted by Amex or if it’s “incomplete”). I will report back if I receive a letter.
American Express can also request more information at which point the process can be even lengthier and uncertain (and Swisscard may debit the provisionally-credited amount until the thing is resolved).
So all in all in in the best case it’s 2.5 months before I can rest my mind knowing that I won’t get debited overnight + possibly a CHF 80 fee that I won’t be able to do anything about other then bringing them to court.
PayPal is an entirely different experience. You can do everything online, it’s much faster, you see in real-time the status of your dispute, the burden of proof rests mostly on the merchant, and they don’t debit you CHF 80 at their discretion if you don’t win the claim. In many cases (as he merchant accepts your claim before PayPal intervenes when they know they will lose because it’s bad for their business. A totally different experience, it cannot be compared to the Swisscard/Amex story.
Revolut also has the whole process pretty much automated and 100% on their app. You can attach all your evidence to the dispute form. They say it takes up to 45 days for a dispute to be resolve but so far it took ~3 weeks in my cases. With other card providers (e.g. Cembra) you generally need to print the evidence and send them in a letter.
Thank you so much for sharing the details, Paul. This is very useful since I have never been through the process myself!
Reading your story, I agree that it’s indeed much easier to do the dispute through Paypal, rather than through Amex.
@Baptiste Note that I’m going through Swisscard rather than directly through Amex/Visa/MasterCard. While in the US people go to their credit card provider directly to challenge transactions, in Europe you can’t do that and you have to contact your bank who will or will not forward your case to Amex/Visa/MasterCard. This makes it way more bothersome unless your bank makes the process convenient (for example Revolut, although I’ve had a bad experience where they refused to chargeback a scam for debatable reasons).
Adding an extra layer in front of the credit card company probably makes it much less convenient. And I would really surprised if companies like Swisscard or Cembra made it easy indeed.
Hello, first of all, thank you for sharing all of your knowledge, i’ve learned a lot from you!
I would like to know your take on the “Poinz” Amex+Visa credit cards. Personnally I went with them, as they offer the same cashback as the “Cashback” CC and have a loyality point system which gives them an advantage.
Thanks again for all!
Hi,
I have no major issue with the poinz, but they are too “trendy” for me. I don’t like these loyalty programs with all the bells and whistle. I would not use it so I prefer having only a simple system.
They have nice offers from time to time such as 10% (!) cashback on Mediamarkt for something like 2-3 weeks. Right now there is 12% on Just Eat. There is also a permanent 3.5% discount on Apple Gift cards, which adds up to a significant discount considering the price of their products. There are many others, some good and others that offer worse conditions than Monerio.
Additionally, with poinz you can cash out at any time, provided that you have CHF 100 or more in cashback. There is no once-per-year cashout policy unlike e.g. Swisscard cashback.
So you can make sure to leave CHF 100 in your balance all the time, draw whenever you want what’s on top, and the day you want to leave you can just grab your whole money and close your account the next day.
Correction: you can’t partially withdraw money from your account so my claim that you could just always leave at least CHF 100 to be able to withdraw any time is correct. If you buy gift cards there is no minimum though, it can be a good option and you also get a discount on the gift cards.
Hello,
Do you know if we use paypal to pay invoices with QR code associated with a credit card, it still generates cashback?
Hi Luis,
Since I had no idea that we could use Paypal to pay invoices, I also have no idea whether that will generate any cashback.
Did you try? How did it turn out?
You seriously need to stop recommending this card! Swisscard charges 2.5% even if the charge is in CHF but from a legal entity outside of Switzerland. This is not only counterintuitive. You will quickly lose your cashback (which is capped at 100 CHF p.a. anyways) like this + it’s yet another account that you need to track, pay and archive the monthly invoice etc. And if you are not careful, something can go wrong with the eBill payment, resulting in additional fees and interest. I lost all my 100 CHF cashback this year due to these surprises and would have been much better off simply using my main neon card for everything – simpler, good CSV export, no weird fees and even better for the merchant sometimes since they pay less fees.
The Swisscard app is also so so and you can’t reach their customer service at all. IDK but if you ask me Swisscard has to go for the good of Swiss consumers. They are just like their parents at CS, greedy ****.
What you are describing is the way each credit card in Switzerland works. What matters is where the payment processor is. Even a CHF debit with a payment processor abroad will generate a charge. You cannot hold that against Swisscard, this is the system (confusing I agree) used in Switzerland.
OK, let me be more precise then: Stop recommending all Swiss credit cards exposing this behavior including Swisscard since you practically never need a credit card, especially when the main motive seems to save money through alleged net cashback. Or at least be more precise in that you are gonna spend more money that way and not save it. Even car rentals will accept a debit card. I think you can e.g. use the Yuh debit card for everything including car rental or the neon prepaid card for everything excluding car rental and neither will charge a fee for CHF transactions since their price list says they only charge for a currency conversion which is not happening in this case.
I do not agree with you. I use my Certo cards for all my purchases in Switzerland and many purchases online and I only got the foreign fee once by mistake online. It sure does not make a life-changing difference, but it’s still some nice cashback.