Southwest Debit Card – Is it Worth It?

In fall 2025, Southwest unveiled a new debit card that allows you to earn Southwest Rapid Rewards and other benefits. We’ll walk through everything you need to know about the new card to help you decide if it makes sense for you to open one. 

Quick Hits:

• If you have $2,500 you can leave in the account, you can keep this account fee-free
• The 20% off coupon and Southwest flight credits (coupled with a modest sign up bonus) can make this worth having at least for a few months to a year when you’ll use those benefits 
• The 7,500 Companion Pass qualifying points can be stacked with the 10,000 qualifying points you get for holding a Southwest credit card.
• Optimal timing to open this card is early to mid December. This allows you to earn the 20% off coupon in January, and get your boost points in two different calendar years. You could then close the account in February with very little out of pocket cost. 

What Makes the Southwest Debit Card Interesting

The Southwest Rapid Rewards® Debit Card has some useful benefits that can make this card a good fit for many people. Even if you only keep this card open for a short time, you can potentially get a lot of benefits.

The card comes with a $35 statement credit for Southwest flight purchases per calendar year. That means you have the potential to use the credit twice, even if you only have the account open for a few months. You could open an account towards the end of the year, use the credit, then use it again at the start of the new year.

The 7,500 qualifying points for Companion Pass that you get by holding the card can be especially helpful for people who are close to meeting the 135,000 threshold to earn a Companion Pass. What makes it even better is these qualifying points do stack with the 10,000 Companion Pass qualifying points you get for being a Southwest credit cardholder.

Overview

Welcome Offer:

You can earn 2,500 Rapid Rewards Points after opening the card. To get the bonus, you must spend $100 on the card and have two direct deposits to the account within the first 90 days.

My Take: This is a bit cumbersome to earn a relatively small amount of points. I don’t think it’s necessary to go for this welcome offer unless moving a direct deposit is easy for you. 

Key Benefits:

• 20% off promotion code every January. You must have the account open on December 31 of the previous year to receive it. 
• Annual $35 statement credit for Southwest purchases
• 7,500 Companion Pass qualifying points
• All points earned with the card count towards a Companion Pass

Earning Rates:

• 1 point per $1 spent on Southwest purchases
• 1 point per $1 spent on dining and subscriptions (including utilities and streaming services)
• 1 point per $2 spent on any other qualifying purchase

Other Notable Features:

• No credit check required
• Doesn’t count towards 5/24
• Potential to earn anniversary bonus points
• No ATM fees at Cirrus network ATMs

Fees:

The card comes with an account fee of $6.99 per month. You can get this fee waived by maintaining a minimum average monthly balance of $2,500.

A Closer Look at the Benefits

20% promotion code

You get one 20% off promotional code every January just by holding the card. Eligible cardholders will receive their promotion code by January 31.

To earn this code, your account must be linked to your Rapid Rewards account and in good standing on December 31 of the previous year. That means if you open the card in January, you wouldn’t receive a code until the following January. This is why we recommend opening the Debit card account in December, to get this benefit!

These promotional codes are one-time use but can be used on one-way or round-trip tickets, for yourself, or for a whole family!

These types of codes from Southwest often give a higher discount than stated. Here’s an example of a round-trip flight from Chicago to Maui, Hawaii. This is the price for flights in the Basic fare class:

The flights are priced at 39,500 points from ORD-OGG, and 38,500 points for the return (OGG-ORD). When I added a 15% Southwest promotional coupon that I already had from a Southwest credit card, the price dropped down to 30,500 points for the ORD-OGG flight, and 30,000 points for the return (OGG-ORD). The price that is crossed out is higher because these coupon codes require you to book into Choice fare class. 

Without the discount code, the total price for these round-trip flights is 312,000 points for four people.

 

With the 15% promotional code applied, the price drops to 242,000 points. A discount of just over 22%! That’s well over the 15% that the coupon states it will give. You’ve also booked into a higher fare class (Choice) with more flexibility. 

Annual $35 Statement Credit for Southwest Purchases

This is a calendar year credit, which means if you open the card late in the year, you can use the $35 credit by the end of the year, and then use it again in the following year. 

Note: The credit applies to the calendar year when the purchase posts, not when the purchase is made. This is important when making a purchase near the end of the year. For example, if you make a purchase on December 30, 2025, but it doesn’t post until January 1, 2026, you would receive the statement credit for 2026 and miss out on the credit for 2025.

What qualifies for the credit?

So far, there isn’t a lot of information on what will trigger this credit. We’re collecting data points to see what qualifies. The terms state that upgraded boarding and in-flight purchases are excluded. We will add data points here once we have them! Please leave any data points in the comments. 

The terms also state that it can take up to 140 days after the purchase posts for the credit to appear on your account.

7,500 Companion Pass Qualifying Points

Companion Pass Qualifying Points help you earn Companion Pass faster. They aren’t points that you can use for flights, but they count towards the 135,000 total points you need to earn a Companion Pass. 

What makes this really exciting is that these qualifying points stack with the 10,000 qualifying points you get as a Southwest credit cardholder. If you hold the Southwest debit card AND a Southwest credit card, you would only need to earn an additional 117,500 points total to earn a Companion Pass.

This is especially helpful for those who are really close to earning a Companion Pass. Those 7,500 qualifying points can make a big difference!

No Credit Check Required and Doesn’t Count Towards 5/24

Since this is a debit card, no credit check is required. No hard inquiry will be added to your credit report, and the account won’t show up on your credit report.

That means it won’t add to your 5/24 count with Chase.

If you’re not familiar with this term, Chase can be somewhat restrictive when it comes to opening new credit cards. You will generally only get approved for their cards if you have fewer than five new credit cards opened in the past 24 months. This is known in the miles and points world as the Chase 5/24 rule.

All Points count towards Companion Pass

All of the points you earn with a Southwest debit card count towards the points needed to earn a Companion Pass. This includes the 2,500 sign-up bonus points as well as any points earned for qualified spending with the card.

Note that ATM withdrawals do not count as a purchase and don’t earn any points. Purchases that include cash back at the point of sale also don’t earn points.

Potential to Earn Anniversary Bonus Points

By keeping the Southwest debit card open, you have the potential to earn bonus points on your account anniversary. Here’s what you can earn:

If you spend $15,000 a year on this card, you will have earned 7500 points on the spending (1 point per $2) and a 7500 point anniversary bonus. 

When Will Points Post?

If you’re working towards earning a Companion Pass, you know that timing is very important!

For the Companion Pass Qualifying Points:

For new accounts, it could take up to 30 days for the points to appear. In practice, it doesn’t take quite that long for most people. It took 5 days for my points to post. 

Then when the new year rolls around, your Companion Pass tracker will reset. At this time, you’ll get the 7,500 qualifying points added to your Companion Pass tracker again. Specifically, the terms state that the 7,500 qualifying points will appear in your account by January 31. 

Katie opened the debit card on 11/21, and the qualifying points posted on 11/26.

For the 2,500 sign-up bonus points:

These points won’t be awarded until the 90-day welcome period has ended.

As long as you have met the condition to earn the bonus, the terms state that the points will be added to your account within 8 weeks after the 91st day of account opening.

For points earned from spending with the card:

All points earned from purchases made with the card are posted to your Rapid Rewards^® account once a month, after the monthly statement closes.

Is this Card Good for Earning Southwest Points?

The Southwest debit card does allow you to earn Rapid Rewards points on every purchase. 

Note that payments through peer-to-peer apps like Venmo don’t earn points.

That being said, the earning rates are low. You can earn a lot more points with a Southwest co-branded credit card or other cards that earn points that can be transferred to Southwest (like the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card®).

Overall, we only recommend it for where credit cards are not accepted, but debit cards are.

Is It Worth Keeping Open?

If you keep a minimum average balance of $2,500 monthly, there are no fees to keep the account open. Otherwise, you’ll have to pay $6.99 per month.

It’s probably not worth paying that fee long term, but if you are able to use the 20% coupon on a large purchase, you could end up saving well more than you spend on the fees. If you open the account in December, you could get almost all the perks on the card by February 1 and you could close the account at that point, having paid minimal fees. 

If you want to keep the account free, consider the opportunity cost of keeping $2,500 parked in the account. You could be earning interest if that money were in a high-yield savings account, so it may not be worth holding it in the Southwest debit account long-term.

A note about debit card fraud protection

Be aware that debit card fraud protection is not as robust as credit card fraud protection. One of our community members who works on a financial crime team at a bank encouraged me to share this specifically. The issuing bank does provide “fraud protection” but the difference is if a thief steals your debit card info, they are spending your money, not the bank’s.

So a thief could completely wipe out the account and you may have to wait weeks or even months to get a refund. Unfortunately people get scammed all the time into willingly providing card information to fraudsters. So if you willingly give someone access to your account, even if you were tricked, the bank can say you didn’t use “reasonable care.”

This is different with credit cards. A credit card uses the bank’s money. If you lose access to that credit temporarily, you still have your regular bank account.

It’s a good reminder for this or any debit card to keep those card numbers safe and secure and set up alerts to makes sure you’re notified if anyone else is using your account.

Closing the Account

Whenever you decide to close the account, make sure you withdraw any money! If you don’t, they will charge you $20 to send you a check.

Final Thoughts

While the Southwest Rapid Rewards Debit Card isn’t a powerhouse for everyday spending due to its low earning rates, it is a fascinating niche tool for the right traveler. It shines brightest as a strategic play—specifically for earning that 20% off coupon or bridging the gap to a Companion Pass without a hard credit pull.

If you are strategic about when you open the account (we love that December timing!) and are careful about avoiding the monthly fees, this card can offer a lot of value for very little effort.

Want to master the art of flying two-for-one? If this debit card caught your eye because of the qualifying points, you’ll want to read our Complete Guide to the Southwest Companion Pass. We break down exactly how to stack credit card bonuses—and now this debit card boost—to fly a friend for free for nearly two years!