What Users Say About...

Update 11/11/2023

This year they announced that they will begin having a $99 annual fee for the card in 2024. The card and its app have been fine; I've used them. But they've been in beta for ages with no announcements about when the program will begin, and now there is an annual fee for a card that I don't feel is the best in the market, as there are some with a flat 2% back (instead of 1.5% back) and no annual fee. I'm concerned about sharing this now, and have found a program that offers better rewards to its card members. Have dropped this from 5 stars to 3.

Update 12/19/2022

I have a Vital credit card, but we're still in beta as they're testing the app and will slowly allow us to invite new members so they can make sure everything is working before a full launch.

Update 5/7/2022

The launch process is underway. They have closed their pre-launch phase and are working to get cards to initial members. You cannot join until wait-listed members are onboarded.

Update 3/13/2022

After raising more than $6 million from investors and getting the needed banking / MasterCard relationships in place, Vital is working on a launch. October through December 2021, they released up to 1000 cards for soft launch testing in a lead-up to their launch. They're now expecting a launch in May / June 2022. A long time coming, but it's still free to sign up and to sign up others right now, founding a team to grow from at no cost once they go live.

Update 12/8/2020

This company was originally expected to launch much sooner. It took them time, however, to prove the model and land a banking partner, which they now have. As of this update, they are selling stock on Start Engine to raise funding to launch in 2021. They have raised nearly a quarter million dollars already. This not only shows this is still in motion, but that they will be required to have transparency not seen in most MLM companies. (This is not strictly MLM, but the model is inspired by it. ) So I encourage you to read on and see that it only requires an email address to get involved, and you're only asking others for the same to build your potential team.

Written 7/7/18 - Updates to come as the program moves forward.

I love the concept of network marketing (MLM) but almost never like its execution. I also like affiliate marketing, but am disappointed that it misses out on the potential for leverage and residual income that network marketing offers.

Collectively, that's why I'm impressed with and excited about the Vital credit card opportunity. It combines the best of both systems and avoids every problem I have with both.

Vital offers a credit card with 1.5% cash back on ALL credit card spending, whether someone is involved in the referral business or not. (So that is the product you're promoting: a 1.5% cash back card with additional cash rewards for good credit behavior. )

But on top of that, its sharing program lets you earn by enrolling other card users. You can "kind of" earn 1% of ALL their spending, but actually there's more gamification built in, and you can ultimately earn more or less than that. I'll explain all that here.

But do imagine for a moment... Earning anywhere near 1% of ALL the spending done by people you know on credit cards. And then you'll know why it's worth reading the rest of this review.

As I said, Vital offers a sort of hybrid system that combines the best of network marketing and affiliate marketing, and here are the highlights worth knowing:

* Until they release the cards, it is in pre-launch and you ONLY submit your email address to join and start sharing. It is completely free to join. (Get 5 direct referrals in time... You can get a card that says "Founder" on it. ) Note that it is USA only for now.

* Once they launch, you will need to apply for a credit card with reasonable credit. There is NO COST to apply for a card. There is NO annual fee.

* There is NO cost to be in the business. As of 2024, there will be a $99 annual fee to the card. There are no other costs to being in the business. The ONLY cost to "staying active" is to actually use the credit card, spending at least $50/month on it. If you already do that with another card, you're just switching the card you use. Pay your utilities or insurance or groceries with this card and you're all set.

Too many MLMs charge you to be in the business, even though they want you promoting their products or services. I never liked this.

* There is nothing complex to explain. People know what credit cards are and they understand cash back perks. You're just sharing a new card with them that offers 1.5% cash back.

Too many MLMs offer unique products and services, which can be nice except this involves a lot more time and education to bring people on board.

* There is nothing overpriced about it. The card has no annual fee and competitive APRs and a strong perks program. I find that almost all MLMs overprice their products in order to pay their affiliate members. I never liked this. You MUST have a good value if you're going to be able to share something with the average person and not just other network marketers.

* The compensation plan is extremely simple. It's a 3-level affiliate program where you get 4 points for every direct, active referral; 2 points for their direct, active referrals; 1 point for the next level of active referrals. (Active card members just spend at least $1/month. ) The company takes 1% of ALL card member spending and puts it in a single pool, then divides this up according to each affiliate's point totals. That's the entire plan.

MLM plans are usually very complex, to the point that you don't know how to maximize what you earn or you don't know how to calculate what you should be paid. And often they siphon money to the top few members. I never liked this.

Now I mentioned you could make around 1% of your referral's spending. So in fact, they take 1% of ALL card member spending and divide it based on your referral points earned, as shown above. If all affiliates had the exact same number of referral points, then all of them would earn 1% of the AVERAGE spend of all members. Doesn't matter if your group spends more or less than the average. You have access to 1% of the average. And if you have more or less points than the average affiliate, you'll earn more or less than 1%. So there's no exact way to say what you'll earn each month, but you can see why it approximates 1% of people's spending. That is POWERFUL.

* It leverages your income. With a 3-level affiliate program, you're not just building income from your own efforts. This is the great thing about MLM, and one of the things missing from affiliate marketing, so I'm glad this is here.

Now Vital doesn't offer a 9-tiered program or anything, but those rarely benefit anyone. In fact, they probably hurt the income of most MLM members because so much of their POTENTIAL earnings are in the levels their team never reaches. So they're paid poorly on the direct work they've done, again benefiting just the top few people in the company. In Vital, you're paid strongly on your direct work, and still paid well on the next couple levels -- the extent to which you probably have any connection to the team anyway.

* It offers residual income. Again, a flaw of affiliate marketing: you usually get paid just one time on the sales you generate for a company. But here, you get paid for as long as your referred members keep spending.

This is another nice feature of MLM, but unfortunately with MLM products usually being overpriced, there tends to be a lot of attrition. With Vital, everyone spends money, and if they start spending with Vital, there's not much reason for them to stop. My hope is that Vital keeps rolling out new benefits to the card, keeping card members active with the card. The more they do, the more you'll have active users for years to come!

If I had one wish for this program, it's that they would offer free memberships for non-profit organizations, turning this into a fundraiser. This can already be done by someone like a director signing up personally, then assigning the earnings to the non-profit. But this is not as clean as it ought to be -- I'd be concerned about the individual later assigning the funds back to themselves. After all, they will be the affiliate member, not the non-profit. But I know the company wants to succeed, and perhaps they'll integrate this as a powerful option in time.