As someone who used to love but has since learned to (mostly) loathe Twitter, there are very few accounts that I have push notifications activated for. In fact, I can only think of two: @NWSSpringfield and @CashApp. Why the latter account? Exclusively for weeks such as this one.
One of the star features of Cash App’s free debit card, the Cash Card, is Boosts. These regularly-updated offers allow cardholders to instantly earn cashback at specific retailers, unlock even larger and more generic bonuses, or even score Bitcoin back in certain categories. Naturally, some of these Boosts are more lucrative and attractive than others.
Well, in partnership with Visa, this week Cash App ran a 99% off promotion. Starting this past Monday, the @CashApp account would tweet out an alert about a special Boost that allowed cardholders to get 99% off of their purchase for a limited time. As you can probably imagine, that “limited time” was quite limited, with offers typically expiring after a matter of minutes. Nevertheless, I did manage to take advantage of one of these special deals.
On Monday, my phone lit up, displaying a post from Cash App about a 99% Crocs offer. Now, I don’t have any use for the once-popular then unbelievable uncool and finally (ironically?) re-embraced plastic clogs, but I figured there might be something on the site I’d want. Sure enough, I found a seven-pack of socks that looked fun enough. At a pre-tax cost of $49.99, I’d be able to maximize the offer’s $50 benefit cap if all went well. Thankfully, the Crocs site supported Apple Pay, making it easy to select my Cash Card and place my order pronto. A moment later, I got the notification that my 99% off Boost had been applied, bringing my grand total to *drum roll*: $3.16. Not bad for a whole week’s worth of socks.
I will say that, although this deal worked out pretty great for me, it wasn’t without some hassle and risk. First, I had to go to the Cash App, find the Boost, add it to my card, visit the Crocs site, find something I wanted, and place my order — all before the five minutes span in which @CashApp shows the offer was available. So what would have happened if my Boost hadn’t worked? Well, considering I didn’t have $50 on my card at the time, I was banking on it getting declined if that were the case, but I’m not 100% sure. Therefore, I probably should have been more cautious and ensured that I’d be willing to pay full price for the item I selected instead of just trying this out on a whim.
Funny enough, while Apple Pay was extremely helpful and likely a big part of my success, it did cause one issue. For some reason, the address they had for me doesn’t include my apartment number. Whoops. I contacted Crocs to see if they could add it but they said that wasn’t possible. So, hopefully my complex figures out where to direct the package but, considering that it’s showing up in my UPS My Choice, I’m feeling slightly more confident on that front.
As for what other offers emerged from the 99% Boost week, Tuesday’s deal was for Ulta (up to $20 off), Wednesday was Crunchyroll (up to $30), Thursday was PacSun (also up to $30), and Friday’s ended up being The North Face (another $30 max). Personally, while I’m sure there were things I could have found for each, my newfound fear of accidentally buying something at full price prevented me from doing that — and my Apple Pay hack wasn’t available for all of them, which further complicated matters. Also of note, apparently, some users attempted to purchase gift cards to trigger the Boosts… only to learn that these coded differently and didn’t apply. D’oh!
You can watch my full Square Cash Card review below:
Ultimately, while not quite as good as past 99% off Cash Boosts that worked for anything, this week of retailer-specific mega Boosts were admittedly pretty fun and justified my having @CashApp alerts for all this time. Although the deals themselves are fairly hit or miss and come with a touch of risk, I still think they’re worth it if you happen to have the right timing. In any case, if you don’t already have a Cash Card, I’d recommend picking one up (they are free, after all), exploring the regular Boosts, and keeping an eye on Cash App’s Twitter so you’re ready for future promotions.