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Exclusively for Xbox Insiders initially.
Last time you got up from playing Xbox in your Xbox-branded onesie to grab yourself some food made with your Xbox-branded cookbook from your Xbox-branded mini-fridge, did you by any chance say to yourself, “Gee, I really wish I’d been able to buy all this Xbox tat with an Xbox-branded credit card”? Well, guess what? Anything is possible in this darkest of timelines.
The official Xbox credit card will soon be a thing, albeit only in the US for the time being, having been conjured into existence through a partnership between Microsoft and Mastercard. It’ll initially be available exclusively to Xbox Insiders (it’s expected to expand to all US-based Xbox players starting next year) and offers one of those reward-based scheme things, which – and I’m not sure there’s a nicer way of putting this – essentially incentivises people to increase their debt, so, you know, please use responsibly and all that.
Basically, everyday purchases made on the card will steadily accrue points that can be spent on games and add-ons via Xbox.com, but an initial purchase using the card will also reward cardholders with 5,000 points (equating to $50 USD), plus three months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Only new members are eligible for that three-month deal, incidentally, but it can be gifted to other people if you’re already a Game Pass subscriber yourself.
Additionally, all qualifying purchases made on the Microsoft Store using the card will net five times the usual amount of points, and there’s three times the usual points to be gained from purchases made with certain other partners, including DoorDash, Netflix, and Disney+.
APR rates on this thing starts at 20.99% and run to 31.99%, so you know, again, I’m flagging this for its novelty value, not because I think signing up is a great idea. But on the plus side, the credit card comes with a choice of five surprisingly tasteful designs, and you can even put your Gamertag on it. So now every shop assistant the world over will have the opportunity to giggle as you hand over a bit of plastic proclaiming yourself to be XxX-AlPhA-SlAyEr-16-XxX.
