Galileo Brings Co-Brand Debit Rewards to Hospitality Sector

Galileo Financial Technologies says it is launching a co-brand debit card program.

The new offering, announced by the SoFi-owned company Thursday (Feb. 20), is designed to let brands give debit users access to rewards normally reserved for credit card customers.

“Galileo is the first to bring this type of program offering to the U.S. hospitality sector,” the company said in a news release provided to PYMNTS. “While co-brand credit rewards programs are common, debit users have largely been left out — until now.”

The release notes that more than 90% of American adults have a debit card, with 45 million adults either lacking a credit history or have only minimal credit activity, keeping them from earning rewards when buying everyday items for when making big-ticket purchases like hospitality and travel.

And while launching a co-branded card can drag on for more than a year, Galileo says its program shrinks that timeline to just a few months.

Brands, including those in the hospitality and travel spaces, can use Galileo’s technology — including card issuing, processing, and Cyberbank Digital and program management — without having to use multiple disconnected systems getting to market faster to attract “debit-focused consumers,” the release added.

“In the US alone, people spend more than $4 trillion on their debit cards each year, but they aren’t getting rewarded for most of that spend,” said Galileo CEO Derek White. “That’s why we built a program that helps brands launch debit rewards quickly to capture this unmet demand.”

The company says its program will initially focus on the hospitality and travel sectors, letting airlines, hotels, and other brands boost spending and customer engagement by offering loyalty-driven debit cards.

In other debit card-related news, PYMNTS wrote recently about the rise in decline rates among debit card users, with transactions involving those cards now three times as likely to be declined as those involving credit cards.

“The increase in debit card declines and decrease in credit card rejections highlight the financial pressures facing consumers today,” that report said. “As debit cards remain a primary payment method for daily transactions, many people are experiencing payment failures due to insufficient funds, adding to the financial strain for those already struggling.”

Meanwhile, PYMNTS Intelligence teamed with Galileo last year on research into the opportunities embedded finance can provide to retail brands. That research found that 63% of American consumers ages 18 to 34 said they were open to receiving financial services from non-financial brands.