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SoFi Unlimited 2% Credit Card Review

Written by Dayana Yochim
Edited by Carolyn Kimball
Fact-checked by Andrea Coombes

March 12, 2024

Why trust us? Investor.com has no financial relationship with any of the credit card providers whose products we analyze and review. Our opinions are based solely on data and our own extensive independent research — that means unbiased guidance for consumers. Rewards cards in our cashback credit card calculator are listed in descending order according to how much money they pay out annually based on the inputs.

The SoFi Unlimited 2% Credit Card offers exactly what the name promises: 2% cash back on all purchases when rewards are redeemed as a statement credit or deposit into a SoFi savings, checking, money market, investing or loan account.

For consumers who want an easy-to-manage cash back credit card for everyday expenses, the SoFi Unlimited 2% Credit Card ranks up there with the best 2% cash back cards offered by Wells Fargo, Citi, PayPal and Fidelity.

When SoFi relaunched this card with a new name and rewards structure in 2024, I was happy to see it that it retained some of the old standout features — e.g., allowing cash back to be redeemed directly into a customer's existing SoFi account (savings, investing, loans) — and that the rewards rate for statement credits was increased to 2% from 1%. The lack of a welcome bonus and 0% introductory APR on purchases and/or balance transfers is one of the few things that makes the glow-up fall short. (Currently the Wells Fargo Active Cash Card is the only pure play 2% card that offers new cardholder perks.)

Travelers take note: You won't pay a pesky 3% foreign transaction fee when using this card outside of the U.S. That's one reason to choose the SoFi Unlimited 2% Credit Card over the Wells Fargo Active Cash Card, Citi Double Cash Card and PayPal Cashback Mastercard. Cardholders can also earn an elevated 3% cash back rate on purchases booked through the SoFi Travel Portal run by Expedia.

The basics: Earn 2 reward points for every dollar spent on eligible purchases, and 3 points for every dollar spent on the SoFi Travel Portal. Points can be redeemed as a statement credit or into a cardholder's SoFi Checking or Savings account, SoFi Money account, SoFi Active Invest account, or SoFi Personal, Private Student, or Student Loan Refinance.

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Monthly Spend

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dining Dining

theater_comedy Entertainment

local_gas_station Gas

shopping_cart Groceries

monetization_on Other

local_pharmacy Pharmacy

card_travel Travel

local_shipping Amazon

storefront Costco

construction Home Improvement

shopping_bag Online Shopping

smart_display Streaming

local_taxi Transit

power Utilities

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Calculate Cash Back

SoFi Unlimited 2% Credit Card

Cashback Per Year

$...

Annual Fee

Welcome Bonus

N/A

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Want to compare more cards? Use our full calculator.

SoFi Unlimited 2% Credit Card pros and cons

thumb_up_off_alt Pros

2% unlimited cash back
3% cash back on SoFi Travel purchases
Charges no foreign transaction fees
Includes World Elite Mastercard perks

thumb_down_off_alt Cons

Offers no sign-up bonus
No intro APR on purchases/balance transfers
Limited redemption options
Requires excellent credit for approval

SoFi Unlimited 2% Credit Card cashback rewards spending categories

The following table shows the cashback rewards rate per $1 spent in the six most common spending categories. The “Bonus Rate” refers to the amount you can earn in excess of the card’s standard rewards rate.

Some cashback cards limit the spending amount eligible for the bonus rate (aka the “Spend Cap”). Once you hit that cap (e.g., $1,500 spending in a particular category during a defined time period), the rewards rate on future purchases in that category reverts to the lower “Default Rate.”

Category	Default Rate	Bonus Rate	Bonus Spend Cap	Bonus Spend Period (Months)
Gas	2.00%	-	-	-
Travel	2.00%	-	-	-
Dining	2.00%	-	-	-
Entertainment	2.00%	-	-	-
Pharmacy	2.00%	-	-	-
Groceries	2.00%	-	-	-
Other Purchases	2.00%	-	-	-

Note: The SoFI Unlimited 2% Credit Card also offers 3% cash back on purchases made with the card in the SoFi Travel Portal.

What we like

Unlimited 2% cash back? You betcha! No earnings caps, category restrictions or other funny business? Yes, yes, and yes, which is why I'm such a fan of 2% cash back credit cards, especially when paired with a 5% cash back card.

Earn 3% cash back on travel booked using your SoFi credit card through the SoFi Travel Portal, which is run in partnership with Expedia. Exclusive travel-related discounts are also available to SoFi customers.

If you’re a SoFi bank/loan or brokerage customer, the SoFi 2% Unlimited Credit Card makes it easy to pad your savings or pay down your loans. Rewards can be redeemed within the SoFi universe of loans (as extra payments toward a student loan refi or a personal loan), savings (SoFi Money) or investment accounts (SoFi Invest or SoFi Crypto).

Alt investors take note: You can redeem cash back for bitcoin and ethereum in your SoFi Crypto Account with a minimum balance of 500 points.

Extra rewards points can be had by signing up for direct deposit, activating a SoFi Money debit card, setting up bill pay, and other banking/investing account actions.

The SoFi Unlimited 2% Credit Card, issued through the Bank of Missouri, is a World Elite Mastercard, which comes with fancy-pants stuff like access to concierge services, profesh travel services, Priceless golf experiences, hotel and car rental upgrades, savings on private jets (oh hey, friend). Less show-offy but still useful: ID theft and zero liability protection, global emergency services and cell phone protection ($800 max per claim, two claims per year).

What we don't like

Requires excellent credit for approval. You'll need a squeaky clean credit history to qualify for the SoFi Unlimited 2% Credit Card. In SoFi's own words: "Factors considered in determining whether a customer has excellent credit include, but are not limited to, whether a customer has defaulted on a loan in the past 7 years, has had more than 5 years of on-time payments on their loans and credit cards, and has not been more than 30 days late on any payment in the last year. " Translation: Check your credit score for blemishes before you apply.

Lacks new cardholder incentives. No sign-up bonus? No 0% APR on new purchases or balance transfers? You’re really not giving us a whole lot to work with here, SoFi. Among 2% unlimited cash back cards, two that typically offer welcome bonuses are the Wells Fargo Active Cash Card and the Citi Double Cash Card.

Limited redemption options available. As mentioned above, cash back can be redeemed within a SoFi savings, checking or investment account or loan owned by the cardholder, or applied as a statement credit. Currently no other redemption options are available.

A sad farewell to a perk we liked: A previous version of the SoFi credit card knocked 1% off of your APR after 12 monthly on-time minimum payments. We found no mention of this APR reduction setup in the most recent card terms, which is a bummer.

The bottom line

Is the SoFi Unlimited 2% Credit Card the best rewards card for your wallet? The answer depends entirely on your spending patterns. Let the numbers speak for themselves: Use the investor.com Cashback Credit Card Calculator to see which credit card pays back the highest rewards based on how much you spend each month.

SoFi Unlimited 2% Credit Card fine print

See for yourself the SoFi member rewards program terms and SoFi Unlimited 2% Credit Card terms and conditions.

Does the SoFi Unlimited 2% Credit Card charge an annual fee?

No, there is no annual fee for the SoFi Unlimited 2% Credit Card.

tips_and_updates Trivia time!

How common are annual fees? Roughly 17% of the consumer cash back cards we review charge an annual fee. They range from $39 to $99, with an average annual fee of $67.

Does the SoFi Unlimited 2% Credit Card offer a welcome bonus?

No, the SoFi Unlimited 2% Credit Card card does not currently offer a welcome bonus.

tips_and_updates Fun fact

More than half (55%) of the consumer cash back credit cards we track in the investor.com database offer a welcome bonus, ranging from $30 up to $300. The average sign-up bonus for new cardholders is $197, with the median being $200.

How much cashback can I earn with the SoFi Unlimited 2% Credit Card?

The average American that spends $1000 per month will earn $240.00 in cash back per year using the SoFi Unlimited 2% Credit Card. For comparison, the average annual rewards payout from the cashback credit cards in the investor.com database is $191.26, and $180 is the median.

These calculations are based on average consumer spending data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the reward payout rates from the providers we track. Of course, you’re so much more than an average data point (aka “consumer unit,” in BLS parlance). The amount you can earn in cashback rewards using the SoFi Unlimited 2% Credit Card depends entirely on your unique spending habits.

Find out exactly how much you’ll rake in with the SoFi Unlimited 2% Credit Card by tailoring the spending inputs in the calculator above.

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Methodology

The results of the investor.com Credit Card Rewards Calculator are based on the monthly spending amounts you enter and the annual dollar value of the rewards each credit card program pays per $1 spent. Credit card companies often express this payout amount as a percentage (e.g., 1.5% of every dollar spent) or on a points basis (e.g. ,1.5 points for every dollar spent). We converted all of them to a dollar amount (“Cash Back Per Year”) to make comparing offers easier.

To calculate the amount of cash back you could earn per year, we factored in:

Spend category inputs: The default dollar values for each “Spend Category” in the Best Cashback Credit Cards tool — gas, groceries, travel, restaurant, entertainment, pharmacy, other — are based on average American spending data from the Consumer Expenditure Surveys from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. We also include additional spend categories (such as streaming services, online shopping, utilities, transit, Amazon and more) to help you see which rewards cards are most closely aligned with your actual spending patterns. We encourage you to customize the monthly spend inputs for the most accurate results.
Tiered rewards rates: If a rewards credit card pays higher cashback rates on certain spending categories (also called “Bonus Rewards”), that difference is reflected in the total “Cash Back Per Year” tally.
Rewards spending caps: Some cards impose category- or time-based limits (monthly, quarterly, annually) that affect the amount of rewards you can earn. For example, a card may pay 3% cash back on groceries on up to $1,000 of spending each quarter, then revert to the base/default rewards rate until the following quarter. We accounted for bonus spending caps and timeframe in the calculations.
Default rewards rates: Purchases that exceed a spending cap are usually subject to a lower default rewards rate (e.g., 1% or 1.5%). We mathed that out too.
Annual fees: If a rewards card charges an annual fee, we deducted that amount from the “Cash Back Per Year” total to provide a true accounting of a card’s annual rewards payout.

What’s not included in the “Cash Back Per Year” total is the cash value of any sign-up/introductory bonus. We highlight any Welcome Bonus separately. While sign-up bonuses can be the most lucrative part of getting a new cashback rewards credit card, not everyone will want or be able to do what it takes to earn the extra cash. (It usually requires spending a certain amount in a specified time period after the card is activated.)

About the Editorial Team

Dayana Yochim

Dayana Yochim has been writing (articles, books, podcasts, stirring speeches) about personal finance and investing for more than two decades, focusing on bringing clarity and the occasional comedic aside to what is often a murky, humorless topic. She’s written for NerdWallet, The Motley Fool, HerMoney.com, Woman’s Day, Forbes, Newsweek and others, and been a guest expert on "Today," "Good Morning America," CNN, NPR and wherever they’ll hand her a mic.

Carolyn Kimball

Carolyn Kimball is Managing Editor for Reink Media Group and the lead editor for content on investor.com. Carolyn has more than 20 years of writing and editing experience at major media outlets including NerdWallet, the Los Angeles Times and the San Jose Mercury News. She specializes in coverage of personal financial products and services, wielding her editing skills to clarify complex (some might say befuddling) topics to help consumers make informed decisions about their money.

Andrea Coombes

Andrea Coombes has 20+ years of experience helping people reach their financial goals. Her personal finance articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, MarketWatch, Forbes, and other publications, and she's shared her expertise on CBS, NPR, "Marketplace," and more. She's been a financial coach and certified consumer credit counselor, and is working on becoming a Certified Financial Planner. She knows that owning pets isn't necessarily the best financial decision; her dog and two cats would argue this point.