[INTERVIEW] CEO of Neo Financial explains the 15% Cash Back Offer

Today, we welcome back Andrew Chau, Co-founder & CEO at Neo Financial. He is here to share some exciting updates to their products. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to answer our questions Andrew. We also really appreciate you being able to celebrate our upcoming 10 year anniversary with us too!

1) Please tell us about yourself and your role with Neo Financial.

I grew up in a small town in the back of a family owned restaurant. Both those things framed how I think about our mission at Neo. I understand how many Canadians are undeserved with financial products today, and how digital solutions can make them accessible to everyone. It’s also always been clear to me how important small businesses are to Canadians. We built our cashback rewards network so that businesses of all sizes can interact and provide bonuses to their customers.

2) What is new with the Neo Financial credit card since we last interviewed?

We’ve added thousands of rewards partners and now have over 11,000. This includes major gas and grocery partners, allowing us to put more money back in the pockets of Canadians at a particularly difficult time. We also recently announced our Neo Secured Credit – a card that offers the ability to build credit history with guaranteed approval and all the same premium rewards as the Neo Card. For those who are looking for a debit-like experience with cashback, we also launched our Neo Money card – a card and account that gives you the same rewards as the Neo credit card but spending from the cash you have in your bank account.

3) Can you give a further breakdown on how the up to 5% cash back works. There is limited information on the website. The 15% seems to be a one-time purchase only? Is there a purchase limit?

The Neo Card offers instant unlimited cashback at over 11,000 partner locations. This equates to an average of 5% cashback at Neo partners and up to 15% on first time purchases across all of these locations. That means as a Neo cardholder,you have thousands of opportunities to access the first time purchase cashback. The exciting thing here is the variety of rewards and variety of merchants; some of our most attractive offers can reach over 10% on a regular basis. Neo also provides a guaranteed cashback on cards – for our standard, you earn a minimum of 0.5% on all of your spend, and that’s earned monthly, compared to peers where cashback is paid once per year.

4) What can we look forward to with Neo?

We are continuously bringing new partners on to the network and adding new product features. Some of the biggest brands in Canada will be joining us on the network this fall and we are excited to announce them when we can publicly share. You can expect to see features that help Canadians better manage their money, and ultimately help reach their financial goals every day right in the Neo app.

5) We are closing in on our ten-year anniversary. Do you have any thoughts for us as we embark on our next 10 years?

You provide a great service to Canadians, at a time when every additional dollar is critical to families. One thing we always encourage our partners to drive towards is comparing the true value of all rewards providers. A lot of our competitors have high offers with expirations, confusing point conversions, limited conversion options, or footnotes on qualifications. For example we see many first time offers only achievable if a customer is transferring $100,000 (which is unattainable by most Canadians). We try to greatly simplify our platform by showing people their cashback instantly, with the amount always accessible to pay their bills or add to their Neo Money account to earn interest on every dollar. Partners like yourselves have always done a great job surfacing offers. We look forward to being a part of your story and wish you all the best in the next 10 to come!