UPDATE for 11/15/2023: The card is shutting down. Rewards can be redeemed through 11/22/23 and balances must be paid by 12/19/23. According to a new message on their home page, “…the short answer is we’ve simply run out of money. We’re a venture backed startup and always anticipated raising more funding… but haven’t been successful there.”
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Initial review from April 2023:
The Ness Wellness Card (issued by The Bank of Missouri) is a health-focused charge card running on the Mastercard network. It’s a complex program with a lot going on here, so let’s take a deep dive to check out the potential of this card.
First, you need an iPhone or iPad to be eligible, running iOS 14 or greater. This unfortunately limits the pool of people who can apply for the card by about half. Ness notes that “We may not be able to award you points if we are unable to obtain your Health Information from Apple HealthKit.”
FEATURES AT A GLANCE
- $349 annual fee
- No foreign transaction fee
- 5x points on “health and wellness” which includes grocery stores, select restaurants, meal kits, vitamins, pharmacies, healthcare services, athletic apparel, and more.
- 2x points on everything else
- $200 annual health and wellness credit (applies to purchases earning 5x points)
- $200 annual “healthy activity” credit, awarded as “up to 56 points per day”
- 14 points for 30+ active minutes per day
- 14 points for 10+ “mindful” minutes per day
- 14 points for 7+ hours of sleep per day
- 14 points for 6,000+ steps per day (ideally you want to get 10,000 daily)
- Up to $360 in annual Sweetgreen credits: spend $75 in a month to get a $15 credit (can do this twice per month—Ness advertises this as “Every 5th & 10th Salad Free at sweetgreen each month“). The $75 can include the $10/month cost for Sweetpass+.
- Various other credits and discounts
SIGN UP BONUS
As of April 2023, you can earn 50,000 points ($250-500) after spending $6,000 in your first 90 days of opening the card. This is a small 8.3% RoS (Return on Spend) if the points are redeemed as a $500 value.
You can earn an extra 1,000 points per month (12,000 maximum) for an Instagram/TikTok post about Ness. See their terms and conditions for details. There’s also a referral program, offering 5,000 points per successful referral, up to 50,000 points per year.
OTHER BENEFITS OF THE NESS WELLNESS CARD
- Mastercard World which includes Mastercard ID Theft Protection and partner benefits (Doordash, Lyft, etc)
- 16g stainless steel metal card
- $25/quarter credit for Seed Sustainable Refill Program until 2/28/24 (normally $50/month?)
- $25/month or $300/year credit toward Parsley Health Membership until 3/6/25 (membership is $2200/year or $200/month at full price, and insurance only covers Parsley in-network in NY or CA)
- $100/year credit at HigherDOSE until 1/31/24
- If you just want freebies: there’s a $70 brush, a $90 blanket, a $70 cleaner, a $100 bag, a $40 electrolyte powder, and a couple of other things.
- $50/quarter credit at Exhale Spa until 12/31/23 (usually about $200-300 per spa appointment, or it’s $30/month for virtual classes)
- $100 credit every 6 months at Fyt Training “for in-person and virtual personal training sessions” until 12/31/23
- $15/month credit for Glamsquad Membership (normally about $100/month) until 1/31/24
- $10/month credit for Elo Health Membership (normally $99/month) until 12/31/23
- A variety of other credits at partners like Lifeforce, alleged value over $1000+ in total credits
Note that the card doesn’t include perks like Extended Warranty or Purchase Protection.
RESTRICTIONS AND CREDIT SCORE
Recommended credit score: 740+
Again, you need an iPhone or iPad to be eligible for this card, running iOS 14 or greater. An Apple Watch or other eligible smartwatch could also be helpful for tracking your fitness metrics.
Note that this is a charge card and not a credit card. You must pay each statement in full (this should be done with credit cards too—never carry a balance) and there isn’t any APR.
MAXIMIZING REWARDS WITH THE NESS WELLNESS CARD
Points can be redeemed at partners (including Sweetgreen, Chipotle, Thrive Market, Aesop) for $0.01 per point (1 cpp) or as a statement credit for $0.005 per point (0.5 cpp). This is somewhat limiting, since points are of such low value outside of partner redemptions, and the value of points depends entirely on individual preferences. At this time we don’t have a full list of Ness partners, so it’s hard to say how valuable their points are.
On the plus side, points don’t expire as long as your card is open. Though if you cancel your card in the first 12 months, any points redeemed may be clawed back.
Their legal terms include one more important disclaimer: “Ness may cancel your accumulated points, suspend your benefits, or terminate your account at any time with immediate effect and without written notice, for any reason and in Ness’s sole discretion.” This is aimed at people who may abuse the card, but it’s something to be aware of for anyone opening an account.
To get 5x points on “health and wellness,” eligible categories/merchants include:
- Grocery stores (Sprouts, Trader Joe’s, etc—not including retailers or wholesalers which happen to have groceries, like Costco, Walmart, and Target)
- Select Restaurants (Chipotle, Sweetgreen, etc—these usually have “healthy” or “nutrition” in the name or menu—McDonald’s for example shouldn’t be eligible). Note that if you don’t get points for a restaurant and you think you should, you can request that Ness add it to their list of eligible merchants.
- Kitchenware (KitchenAid, Oxo, etc—doesn’t count if purchased at a retail location like Macy’s or Sears)
- Nutrition Support (Lumen, MyFitnessPal, etc)
- Meal Kits (HelloFresh, Sunbasket, etc)
- Vitamins (Olly, CareOf, etc)
- Athletic Accessories (Asics, Nike, etc)
- Athletic Apparel (Athleta, Patagonia, etc)
- Equipment (Bowflex, Garmin, etc)
- Gyms (Equinox, Soulcycle, etc)
- Classes (Classpass, Beachbody, etc)
- Recreational Sports
- Healthcare (Warby Parker, Labcorp, CVS, GoodRX, Walgreens, One Medical, Paloma, Headway, etc) This also includes “copays for medical visits and procedures and labs.” The founder mentioned using a Ness Wellness card for the birth of a child, as one example.
- “Restore” (Camelbak, Therabody, Brooklinen, Casper, Chillhouse, Exhale, SpaFinder, etc)
ALTERNATIVES TO THE NESS WELLNESS
As a travel-based alternative, most high-fee metal cards will do well. It depends on what type of benefits you’re looking for. Chase Sapphire Reserve or Capital One Venture X are the closest in terms of value, with the American Express Platinum as another popular choice.
Good cards for groceries include the Citi Custom Cash and American Express Blue Cash Preferred.
The top no-fee dining card is probably the US Bank Altitude Go.
Health-based cards include the Chase Freedom Flex and Venmo Visa.
It all depends on what you’re looking for. There are a number of zero-fee cards which also earn 2% cash back on everything. There isn’t anything on the market that’s an exact 1:1 match to the Ness Wellness card.
CONCLUSION
The Ness Wellness card isn’t for everyone and is highly limited. For those who can use this, it seems like a decent all-in-one charge card.
The $349 annual fee is offset by $400+ in annual credits and perks, not including discounts and credits with their various health-based partners. Earning at least 2x points on everything is competitive, and earning 5x points on multiple categories is extremely rare. The main problem is that you can only redeem points with their partners. If you don’t, the value of the card drops significantly.
If you’re interested in fitness/health and have an iPhone, you probably want to check this out, especially if you live in a major metropolitan area.
We rate the Ness Wellness card 3 out of 5 stars. ⭐⭐⭐
Note: This review was last updated in November 2023. Details may have changed since then. Please do your own research where applicable, to ensure you’re getting the best deal. Or contact us directly to benefit from our personalized consulting services!