Rappi's Brazilian bank cancelled customers' Visa Gold cards without warning

Rappi's digital bank in Brazil, issuing the RappiCard Visa credit card with no annual fee and cashback.

A delivery super-app could run a digital bank in Brazil by giving its own user base fee-free cards with aggressive cashback.

Rappi, the Latin American delivery super-app, launched Rappibank in 2021. The RappiCard stood out in Brazil by charging no annual fee and paying aggressive cashback, and gained popularity on exactly those terms.

By June 2023 the bank was 'reviewing its card offering'. Clients reported on social media that their RappiCard Visa Gold was cancelled with no prior notice; one customer posted the bank's WhatsApp reply that 'by internal decision we are reviewing the policy and at this moment it will not be possible to continue extending credit'. On Reclame Aqui, users described paid-off cards blocked, then cancelled.

Rappibank confirmed it cancelled RappiCard Visa Gold cards for some clients, citing the need to revise credit analysis and profiles, adjustments to its technology platforms and 'a new positioning of the company in the market' — while stating that all affected customers had been duly notified.

It shows the true cost of cashback-led growth: the retreat is not just a pricing change but a public breach-of-expectation event.

The mechanism matters: 'internal decision' letters and blocked-then-cancelled cards surfaced on complaint platforms before the bank explained itself.

The stated reasons — credit review, tech platform adjustments, new market positioning — read as a fintech scaling back loss-leader credit in one breath.

Addi's exit the same week marks the tide: foreign fintechs were ending their Brazilian experiments at the same moment.

Cashback buys users fast and teaches them to expect it forever: when the economics bite, the clawback is a public event, not a private adjustment.

As of 19 June 2023 Rappibank continued operating in Brazil with a narrower card offering, having cancelled Visa Gold cards for a portion of clients. Valor framed the move as part of a broader reassessment of Brazil fintech bets, with Addi's full exit announced the week before.