How To Save On Lyft With SoFi (And Get Free Cash)

I’ve written about how the Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card has a new Lyft benefit, whereby cardmembers can earn 10x Ultimate Rewards points per dollar on Lyft rides, plus they can get a Lyft Pink membership, which otherwise costs ~$20 per month.

Well, for those without the Sapphire Reserve, there’s another great opportunity to save on Lyft. Heck, you can actually stack some of these benefits, so this could even be useful for those with the Sapphire Reserve.

What Is SoFi, And Why Should You Care?

SoFi is essentially an online bank with an excellent app, which I’ve had positive experiences with. On the most basic level, if you open a SoFi Money account you:

• Get a 1.60% APY
• There are no account fees
• ATM fees are reimbursed worldwide

That’s pretty compelling to begin with (especially the ATM fees being reimbursed on a no fee account for those who travel with any frequency).

On top of that, SoFi has an excellent referral program that offers $25 to the person opening a new SoFi Money account. So you can earn $25 when you open your account, and then start earning bonuses for referring your friends.

To get the $25 bonus you just need to fund the account with a minimum of $10.

You can read all about that process in this post, but it’s something that I’ve done, and it took just a few minutes, and it’s something I recommend others consider as well.

Tip: Get $100 With SoFi Invest Account

In addition to the standard SoFi Money account, there’s also SoFi Invest, which is their stock trading platform.

This also has an incredible referral bonus at the moment. With this program both the person being referred receives $25 worth of stock trades when funding a SoFi Invest account with at least $100. This is an excellent opportunity as well, and you can read all about that process in this post.

Save 20% On Lyft With SoFi

One of the other awesome benefits of SoFi is that you can save 20% on Lyft rides just for having a SoFi Money account.

There are just some basic things to be aware of:

• As of now this promotion is valid through February 18, 2020 (though I imagine there’s a chance it will be extended)
• You earn 20% cash back when you pay for the ride with your SoFi money account (so just add your debit card number to your Lyft account)
• You can save up to $1,000 with this promotion

As mentioned above, as of now this promotion is only valid for about another month, so the clock is ticking. But earning 20% cash back on Lyft rides is awesome.

Can You Combine SoFi & Sapphire Reserve Lyft Perks?

As a reminder, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card now offers the following Lyft benefits:

• 10x Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent on all Lyft rides
• A Lyft Pink membership for a year, offering perks like 15% off rides, and much more

You can indeed partly stack the SoFi and Sapphire Reserve perks. You can’t earn 10x Ultimate Rewards points for Lyft rides paid for with SoFi, since both the 10x points promotion and the 20% off promotion are dependent upon which card you’re paying with.

However, you can use the Sapphire Reserve to activate your Lyft Pink membership, so you can start earning 15% off all rides, and then you can get a further 20% off by paying with SoFi.

Assuming you value Ultimate Rewards points at less than two cents each, this is the best strategy. I’ve activated my Sapphire Reserve Lyft Pink membership, but now I have my SoFi account linked to my Lyft.

For spending $100 with Lyft I earn:

• $15 off thanks to my Lyft Pink membership (15%), bringing the cost down to $85
• $17 off thanks to my SoFi Money account (20% off), bringing the cost down to $68

So that’s 32% cash back on all Lyft rides for the time being, which is excellent.

Tip: Also Earn Delta Miles & Hilton Points

As I wrote about previously, if you really want to maximize value with Lyft, make sure you take advantage of the points earning opportunities as well:

• Hilton and Lyft have a partnership offering 3x Hilton Honors points per dollar spent on US Lyft private rides, and 2x Hilton Honors points per dollar spent on US Lyft shared rides, on up to $10,000 of spending per year
• Delta and Lyft have a partnership offering 2x Delta SkyMiles per dollar spent on US airport rides and 1x Delta SkyMiles per dollar spent on all other US Lyft rides

You can take advantage of both of those partnerships in addition to all of the above. So if you’re earning an extra 3x Hilton points and an extra 1x Delta miles, I’d value that at an incremental 2.5-3% return. That’s even better!

Bottom Line

SoFi Money has a great referral bonus for new members, but beyond that I’ve liked their app, and have started using my account in more ways than I was expecting.

The fact that you can save 20% on Lyft rides for the next several weeks is the icing on the cake. Personally I’m choosing to take advantage of the 15% off through the Lyft Pink membership that my Sapphire Reserve offers, and then I’m receiving 20% off that amount with my SoFi Money account.

Anyone else combining the offers of SoFi Money and the Sapphire Reserve to save 32% on Lyft rides?