Capital One's Decoupled Debit MasterCard Spotted in the Wild

Morriss Partee, CEO of EverythingCU.com, blogs on the Payment Industry Insider blog about an email he recently received from Capital One offering him "big rewards for his debit purchases - without changing banks." Partee writes: "No longer a regional effort tied to rewards at a supermarket chain, they now (presumably) have gone national, and have tied it to their own reward program. On top of that, they are charging the consumer $19.95 per year for the service."

You can read more about Capital One's Debit MasterCard at the Capital One web site. A comprehensive FAQ on the product is available. Rewards are only earned on signature-based (not PIN-based) purchases. Note that the new debit card is also "paperless" - a paper statement of account activity is only available upon request each month and has a $3.00 fee.