If you plan to fly on Southwest at least one time in 2026, I think the Southwest debit card is worth opening, but you'll have to do it before the end of December to get the most value.

The new Southwest debit card has surprised me with being more valuable than I initially thought it might be.

Today I want to talk about how to strategically use that Southwest debit card to make it easier to earn a companion pass, as well as how to use it to save on flights through the annual credits it gives you.

Welcome back to Points for Normal People.

I'm Katie and I'm here because I know that travel costs add up, especially for a family.

But I believe travel isn't just for the rich.

That's why on Points for Normal People I share the tips and tricks that my family has been using for over a decade to help you use your everyday expenses and credit card welcome offers to supercharge your travel points so you can pay for entire vacations every year.

I spend a lot of time talking about credit cards, but hardly any talking about debit cards.

And that's because there have been very few debit cards worth talking about.

This fall, Southwest unveiled its new Southwest debit card.

And today I want to explain when I think it makes sense to open this as well as the best way to get the max value out of it.

With credit cards, we talk a lot about welcome offers.

But for this debit card, I actually think that's one of the least interesting parts of this card.

So I'm going to save that for the end.

The debit card is provided through Sunrise Bank, which is a smaller bank, but you can't actually open this account through Sunrise Bank's website.

There's a specific landing page for it at southwestdebit.com.

Essentially, you're opening a Southwest branded checking account with a Southwest branded debit card.

Just like any checking account, you have to put money into the account, and then when you spend on the debit card, it deducts your purchase instantly from your account.

You can also withdraw money at an ATM.

It does have a monthly fee, and the monthly cost is$6.99 per month to have this account.

But the first thing to keep in mind is that you don't have to keep it open long term.

You can get almost all of the benefits of this card just by strategically opening it in December and holding it through February.

If you want to keep it open long term, you have to pay that$7 per month.

Or if you don't want to pay a fee, if you have an average balance of$2,500 in the account, that will waive the monthly fee.

The most time-sensitive benefit on this card is the annual 20% off coupon it gives you for Southwest flights.

The terms are very specific on when this is deposited to your account.

And they state that your account must be open and in good standing on December 31st in order to have that 20% off coupon deposited in your Southwest account in January of the following year.

That's a big reason why I recommend opening this account right now in December.

If you wait till January to open it, you'd have to keep the account open almost a full 12 months to get back around to be eligible for that 20% off coupon.

And if you're planning to fly Southwest even just one time in 2026, that 20% off coupon is going to save you money or points.

It can be used for cash fares or fares booked with points.

It won't cover taxes and fees, though.

This 20% off coupon is especially valuable because it can be used for a round trip and it is good for every person on your reservation.

So if you have a family and you're flying round trip, you're getting 20% off for all of you.

Even better is that in my experience, all of these coupons seem to give more than the stated discount.

I just did some testing using a 15% off coupon I have from my credit card.

And as an example, I pulled up a flight from Chicago to Maui, and it was coming up at a discount of 23% for round trip airfare.

Now the coupon does force you to book into choice instead of basic, but that 23% discount even reflects that I booked into a higher fare class and still saved versus the basic fares.

So when I looked at round trip and basic for four people, it was 312,000 points.

But when I looked using the 15% off coupon, it was 242,000.

Again, you need to open a Southwest Debit card before the end of December in order to get this coupon in January.

And once you have the coupon, it's good for a full year.

The next great perk is a 7,500 point boost towards earning a companion pass.

These aren't actual points you earn, but instead are just points added to your companion pass tracker.

Normally you need to earn 135,000 points in a calendar year in order to earn a companion pass.

Now there's a little bit of a learning curve with the companion pass, so if you need more resources, please check the show notes for our free guides.

I'm not going into all those details here.

This 7,500 point boost adds to your tracker, meaning you get to 135,000 points faster.

Now the credit cards have a similar benefit and give you 10,000 points a year as a boost towards the companion pass.

Just like the debit card, these aren't points you can use, these are just added to your tracker.

When I first saw this debit card, I assumed, wrongly, that it would not stack with the credit card benefit.

But I am so glad to be wrong.

I opened a Southwest debit card and tested it myself, as well as verified with a few other people.

We all confirmed that we had the 10,000 point boost from our credit card and still got the 7,500 point boost from the debit card.

You get that point boost every calendar year you have the debit card.

Right when you open the debit card, you get 7,500 points added to your tracker within 30 days.

For me, it took only five days to see them reflected on my companion pass tracker.

But they say it could take up to 30.

Then when January rolls around, your tracker gets reset to zero.

But they say that by January 31st, you'll get these 7,500 points added back to your tracker again.

And if you have the credit cards, you'll get the 10,000 points added then as well.

That means you'd already start off with 17,500 points on your tracker.

That 7,500 points might not seem like a huge amount, but it can really help make the difference to give you enough to kick you over to a companion pass.

Every year in the fall, we get a lot of messages from people who are just a few thousand points short of earning a companion pass.

And just opening the debit card and getting this boost is going to be enough for some people to earn that companion pass.

Similarly, some of the plans we share for earning the companion pass don't quite get you all the way to 135,000 points, depending on the credit card combination you're using and when you apply.

But this extra boost can add just enough to boost you over.

So if you've calculated how many points you'll have in January and you're realizing you're a little bit short, this is the easiest way to get a quick 7,500 points.

Now I got a lot of questions on this on a reel I made on this topic, so I want to say this one more time.

You get the 7,500 boost points when you open the card within 30 days.

And you'll also get them again in January.

So you still want to open this in December to make sure you're getting that 20% off coupon.

And yes, you'll still get the points again, the boost points in January.

Another perk of this card is$35 per calendar year for Southwest flights.

Now, this one, I'll be honest, I'm still trying to test and find loopholes and easy ways to use this credit.

The terms say it's only for Southwest flights, but I know from experience that a lot of times credits say they are only for flights, but there have other ways that you can use them and trigger them.

So remember that calendar year means that if you get this debit card in December, you'd get$35 of potential credit, and then that$35 benefit will reset in January.

So if you have the card for just a few months, you could actually get$70 of value here.

One thing I'm planning to test is whether a gift card would trigger this credit.

I also believe the taxes and fees on award tickets will trigger it, but I'm curious how strict are they going to be with cancellations?

Like what happens if I were to book an award flight and pay for my taxes and fees with the debit card, and then cancel my flight and get a refund for my fees.

If I've already received a statement credit, will they remove the statement credit?

These are the kind of things that I'll be testing.

If you have any data points of your own, I'd love to hear them on this.

I plan to compile everything I learn into our article on the debit card and keep that as up to date as possible.

Those three benefits, the 20% off coupon, the$7,500 boost points, and the$35 Southwest credits.

I think those are the biggest benefits for the average person.

And you can get all of these benefits and just pay the monthly fee for just a few months.

You can open the account in December in order to make sure you get that 20% off coupon.

And if we find easy ways to use the$35 credit in December, you could do that.

And you'll get your boosted points if you need them.

Then in January, you'll actually get your 20% off coupon deposited.

You'll get another$35 credit, and you'll get your$7,500 point boost again.

And then in February, you could just go ahead and transfer all your money out and close your account.

You'll probably have spent$14 or maybe$21 in fees, but you'll save way more than that just by using that 20% off coupon.

Now, there are some people who will find it worth it to keep this open long term, and I'll go into those details now.

This debit account does have a very modest welcome offer that you could earn if you jump through a few hoops.

It's not huge, it's just 2,500 points, which is worth about$35 of Southwest flights.

To get that, you need to establish and receive at least two direct deposits and make$100 in purchases within 90 days of opening the account.

The tricky thing is that it can be kind of a pain to move a direct deposit, and this requires you to have at least two of them that recur monthly.

So unless you have a direct deposit that's really easy to move, it's a bit cumbersome, in my opinion, to get about$35 of flights as a benefit.

You do earn one rapid reward point for every$2 you spend on the card.

So again, for some people, if you have significant expenses that you currently have to put on a debit card because you can't pay them with a credit card, this might be worth it for you.

It's not a huge amount of points earned, but it just depends on your spending.

For instance, you can pay an IRS bill with a debit card for just a flat$2.15 fee.

If you use a credit card, you pay a percentage, 1.75%.

Now that's still sometimes worth it for earning a credit card welcome offer, but this is an option as well where you'd still earn at least something for a very low fee.

You also earn an annual spend bonus for spending on the debit card, which gives you a few more points as well.

The max bonus you can earn is 7,500 points, and that's if you've spent$15,000 or more on this debit card.

So if you did spend$15,000, you'd earn$7,500 from the spending at one point per$2 and$7,500 from the bonus.

So you'd earn a total of$15,000 points for spending$15,000.

Again, this is not a huge amount of points, but if you have certain expenses that you can't pay with a credit card, you might prefer to put them on here and at least earn something on them.

Just to be clear about annual costs, if you keep the account open for a full year, it would cost$84 in fees.

If you keep$2,500 in the account for that year, your fees would be waived.

But you do lose out versus keeping that money in a high yield account where you'd earn some interest.

So you have to keep that in mind when you're calculating whether this is worth it long term for you or not.

I'll mention a few more things to be aware of and then we'll wrap up.

First is that this card does have foreign transaction fees, so you would not want to use this on an international trip.

Next, when you go to close the account, you'll want to be sure to transfer all of your money to other banks before closing.

If they have to mail you a check with funds left in your account, they will charge you$20 to do that.

The website and app have been glitchy for me lately, and I'm not sure what's going on, but sometimes even for a few hours, I can't log into my account.

Hopefully they're working to get that resolved.

Also, 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 information specifically.

The issuing bank does provide fraud protection, but the difference is if a thief steals your debit card info, they're 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 are tricked, the bank can say that you didn't use reasonable care.

This is different than how it works with credit cards.

A credit card uses the bank's money.

So 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 make sure you're notified if anyone else is using your account.

A few quick action steps here today.

First, if you want to sign up for a Southwest debit card account, make sure you do that by I'd say December 20th to make sure you get that 20% off coupon.

I don't have any affiliate link for the debit card at all.

You can just Google it or you can find a link to it in the show notes.

If you do that and don't plan to keep it long term, I'd suggest you make a few notes in your calendar to remind yourself to check that the 20% coupon has been deposited, the 7,500 point boost is deposited, and that you've used the$35 credit if you plan to.

Then you'd want to set a reminder to clear anything you have out of the account to another bank and close the account so that you can avoid paying additional monthly service fees.

I'm also going to give another plug for signing up for my weekly newsletter.

This is the best place to be updated by new articles.

We'll also put information in there as we get more data points about things like what the$35 credit works for.

And last, if you're learning about earning a companion pass, be sure to check out all of our free resources, which are in the show notes as well.

Thanks so much for spending time with me today, and I look forward to seeing you next time where we will continue to unlock these secrets of travel points together.