LivingSocial To Launch Their Own Credit Card

LivingSocial is soon to change the daily deal landscape. The second largest daily deal company will launch their very own credit card in the near future, according to Chief Financial Officer John Bax, in a move that’s meant to benefit both consumers and merchants.

Why a credit card?

The idea behind the LivingSocial credit card is to encourage consumers to return to local merchants for repeat purchases. In the past, the daily deal industry has been heavily criticized for pushing consumers to spend money on merchants only when big deals are available. Recently, both Groupon and LivingSocial have been at work creating programs and incentives to reward repeat buyers.

LivingSocial CFO John Bax says, "We will use this as a platform to encourage people to come back to merchants. Small and medium-sized local businesses will never be able to have their own credit card or loyalty program. We will be able to bring them the benefits of that."

Part of the new program by LivingSocial will give merchants short-term funding to offer and advertise daily deals.

The details

Few hard details about the new LivingSocial credit card have been made public, but we do know a few things:

✔  The card will have no annual fee.

✔  The credit card will be backed by Chase and Visa.

✔  The card will be available to U.S. subscribers only.

✔  Card holders will be rewarded for purchases.

According to what Bax told Reuters in a recent interview, card holders who make 10 purchases a month with their LivingSocial credit card will earn 10 credits. These credits will be called Deal Bucks. These Deal Bucks can then be used to pay for LivingSocial daily deals and any other offer the company runs, including discount travel packages.

The new LivingSocial credit card is due on the market in the coming months.