Juan Monroy

Mobile payment service LevelUp offers bonuses for every spending “milestone” your reach. After spending $8.71 at “Restaurant X,” they emailed me with this message:

I spent about $50 at a different place, let’s call it “Comedy Club Y,” putting me well over the $50 milestone. But instead of a $5 credit, it was only a $2 credit for using LevelUp at a place for the first time (“Comedy Club Y”). However, I received a new enticement:

…and after going back to “Comedy Club Y,” this…

How much do I have to spend to get a credit?

Thanks so much for reaching out! While you are definitely correct that are certain businesses you will earn $5 after spending $50, this set of constructs is not the same for every business you will visit on LevelUp. At some you will earn $20 after spending $200, earn $3 after spending $25, etc. It all depends! The onboarding incentive also changes, so while you may have $1 waiting for you at one business the first time you pay there, you could have $7 waiting for you elsewhere. Does that help?

Tiers are confusing! It’s why consumers can’t understand airfares and cable/satellite bills. Nuance is fine for the law and academic scholarship, but it’s not for a consumer product.