Cumberland Farms’ SmartPay Program Hits $75M in Savings

 Cumberland Farms is reporting a new milestone for their SmartPay rewards program. Since the inception of the program over 4 years ago, Cumberland Farms has returned $75 million dollars to their customers through their gas stations where they offer a $.10 discount per gallon of gas purchased on their payment card.

Cumberland Farms customers have saved a total of $75 million through its SmartPay program since it launched in January 2013, the company reported.

Available as both a payment card and a mobile payment app, SmartPay is free to join and use. SmartPay Check-Link users automatically save 10 cents on every gallon of gas when they fill up at any Cumberland Farms gas retail location in the Northeast or Florida.

What is important about this program, beyond the success of their rewards solution, is the fact that this is an example of a decoupled debit program. The payment is facilitated through ACH transactions on a Cumberland Farms store card or mobile app, circumventing the card networks entirely. I took a look at the still small but growing decoupled debit market in the U.S. earlier this year. A link to that report is here.

Overview by Sarah Grotta, Director, Debit Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group

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