David Metz did not know what a CUSO was three and a half years ago. He had never heard the word “member” used the way credit unions use it. Now he runs one of the more interesting reward product companies in the space, and he has some thoughts on what is coming out of Washington.
David, founder and CEO of Prizeout, joined Sarah Snell Cooke of The Credit Union Connection live at GAC 2026 for a conversation that covers credit card rewards, the potential fallout from a 10% interest rate cap, and why the legislation being debated right now almost always ends up hurting the people it is supposed to protect.
Prizeout builds reward products that live inside online banking, not outside it. That distinction matters more than it sounds. Most credit card reward programs pull members out of the banking ecosystem entirely, which means lost engagement and lost opportunity. David’s pitch is that keeping rewards inside the platform keeps members closer, and when you also give credit unions control over their own reward data, something most do not currently have, you get something genuinely differentiated. A military credit union that rewards members for swiping at veteran-owned businesses. A business-focused credit union that offers bonus cash back when members spend at other businesses that bank with them. That’s a brand story.
Since we were in DC, we also talked the Durbin Amendment 2.0 and the administration’s proposed 10% cap on credit card interest rates, and David does not dance around it. They would eliminate rewards and restrict access to credit. The people who lose most are the ones the legislation claims to help. He is measured about it, but acknowledges the concern is real. He points out that Prizeout’s merchant-funded reward model would become even more valuable in a constrained environment.
Credit unions have historically been on the sidelines of the credit card market, and David thinks that is starting to change. They are not going to out-lounge American Express, and they should not try. But lower rates and mission-driven rewards are worth owning. The conversation is a good reminder that sometimes the best competitive advantage is just knowing exactly who you are.
NOTE: If transcription were this AI’s superpower, it would be a very disappointing superhero origin story.
Sarah Cooke
Hello. Welcome everybody to The Credit Union Connection. Live from GAC 2026 I am joined today by David Metz, welcome.
David Metz
Thank you for having me excited to be here.
And he’s the head of a company called Prizeout. Tell us a little bit more about yourself in the company.
David Metz
I’m from New York. Started Prizeout about six years ago. A little over three and a half years ago, we started talking to credit unions. That led to credit unions creating a key show. I did not know what a key show. Did not know what a member was at that time, but I’ve learned a lot since then. We basically create reward products for credit unions. We integrate both with online banking and the core we have everything from checking account rewards to action rewards, things like, If you enroll in E statements, you get a reward. If you set up direct deposit, get a reward. And in the last two months, we launched our credit card reward product, the two credit unions we went live with, first was visions and Redstone, and then we have a stacked pipeline of credit unions. We’re going live in 2026 Suncoast, coastal and a whole bunch of others.
Sarah Cooke
And how’s it going so far?
David Metz
Great. When we so our we work with our CUSO to build new products, and one of the products they asked us to build was credit card. When we started to do research, we found that a lot of the credit card reward products are not even behind online banking, so you have to leave the banking ecosystem to get rewards, which is a bad thing, right? Because the credit unions want them to stay in the ecosystem, because you can better engage. You can maybe sign up for a CD or loan or something like that, as long as you’re in the ecosystem. So because we integrate with online banking, the Lumens, the CUSOs, Alkamis, NCRs, etc, we were able to do that. The other thing is, a lot of the credit unions don’t control their credit card data, so what you get is a lot of stale rewards, right? So it’s the same things, 2% grocery, 1% fuel, 3% travel, right? But they don’t get to distinguish themselves by allowing them to control their data, they can distinguish themselves. And I’ll give you a couple examples. If you’re a military credit union, you can create rewards that say, Hey, if you swipe our credit card at a veteran owned business, we’ll give you 5% cash back, right? So really, really talking and representing your segment. Also, let’s say you’re a business credit union that has a lot of small businesses, if you swipe our credit union at a business that banks with us, we’ll give you 5% right. So you can then really distinguish yourselves, right, and make a compelling reason of why a member should join you and use your credit card as right. So those are really the three things that really allowing us to distinguish ourselves.
Sarah Cooke
That is so important to building a brand, too. And credit unions like you know, we have an issue as an industry. And so, yeah, things like that, though, helps to tell the story of your brand just by acting. Show. Don’t tell
Speaker 2
Exactly yes. Action speaks 1000 words, yes.
Sarah Cooke
And so we’re in DC right now. Yep, one of the things that grants have been defending themselves against is the Credit Card Competition Act. Yep, as well as President Trump’s proposed, I don’t even know what you call it, his statement, that we should cap credit card interest rates at 10% sure, a lot of people are thinking that’s going to affect rewards. Talk a little bit about that.
David Metz
I think history shows that it will, right? Durban, in 2010 essentially eliminated debit card rewards, right? So you can see when legislation can have a huge impact on rewards. Debit card was unfortunate, because a lot of debit card users tend to be the social, economically challenged, and for them to get rewards means, means a lot to them, right? So you essentially took that away from them, right? Opposite of his intent always is right, yes, yeah, never is as you intended with the proposed bill. You have a couple things, right? You have the 10% cap, right? You also have the interchange, right? I think interchange is really going to impact 100 billion and above. But the 10% cap would certainly impact rewards. One of the things that we do, which is unique, is we have a huge network of merchants that we work with, and our merchants sponsor certain categories, right? So that means the merchant will pay for the funded rewards, right? So things like. At will become even more valuable if the credit unions can’t afford to pay it themselves, right? So I think it’ll just make our product even more important. It already is important, but things like that, they’ll be searching for ways to be able to fund. But you know, when those issues arise, it’s an opportunity to distinguish yourself, right? Credit unions are always fighting against the big banks, so if something like lower interchange impacts only the 100 billion and above assets, it really presents an opportunity for credit unions to distinguish themselves, right? So whatever happens, we’ll be ready for it. But you know, I don’t see it as necessary or a negative thing. I see it as a way for credit unions to further distinguish themselves, an opportunity to win new membership.
Sarah Cooke
Absolutely, and you know they deserve, you know, a leg up or leveled playing field, if you will, 100% but yeah, all these pieces of legislation that are not taking into consideration the actual practical impact so that 10% rate cap is going to mean people with poor credit scores are not going to get credit cards, period.
David Metz
They’re going to go to places that are not going to be so friendly in order to get loans, right? And it’s going to be predatory people, right? Like again, there’s always unintended consequences. I hope that doesn’t happen, but you never know, right? Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst, right, exactly.
Sarah Cooke
And you know, instead of they could just regulate the people who charge three triple digits. But okay, instead, we’ll regulate the already regulated anyway. Sorry. Off my soapbox, and so we It’s okay. Shoot, I thought of something while you were talking, and then I started talking credit cards. Oh, yes. So I mean, historically, credit unions really haven’t been into credit cards much, and I feel like there’s been a pickup in the last couple of years. They feel like maybe they can finally compete in the credit card market with the capital ones of the world and whatnot.
David Metz
100% you just have to know your users, right? Obviously, the vast majority of spend on the credit union side is still predominantly debit card, right? It’s probably like 8020 but there is a huge opportunity like the credit unions are never going to compete against the AMEX is, they’re never going to have lounges or that world, right, understand your audience, right? So I think one of the things that they can do is a lot of the credit unions are giving lower rates, right? And a lot of them don’t view are not trying to make money off of their credit card program, right? They just don’t want to lose money, right? So that allows them to give more rewards, right? If you’re not penny pinching and you’re saying, Oh, our shareholders need to see this, so we need to do that. It allows you more flexibility to give more rich rewards, so it allows them to further differentiate. But, yeah, we’ve seen a huge uptick, right? You’re always going to have those that use debit cards, and they may use debit cards because they don’t qualify, or they don’t want to get in trouble, right? You know, credit cards can be a slippery slope, and they’re like, Listen, I don’t want to use that. We also see that they may use it only for big purchases, and they immediately pay it off, right? Because they don’t want to get in trouble, which they’re, they’re making the right decisions, and they’re using it wisely. We just want to make sure that they get rewarded for it as well, right? So, yeah, 100% I definitely see an uptick on more people using credit card. Hopefully that doesn’t get taken away with the cap.
Sarah Cooke
Yeah, for sure. So we are here at GAC. What would you advise credit unions to how do you think they could persuade lawmakers to not do this?
David Metz
Yeah, I think it’s Better the devil you know, which are the financial institutions, than the devil you don’t know. So if you take away access to credit, the need is not going away, right? They’re going to go somewhere else, right? So I would say the financial institutions existed for 100 plus years like let them do their job, don’t take away because it’s always the most vulnerable that ended up getting hurt. So I would say reconsider, especially credit unions. Credit Unions care deeply about their members, and if you’re going to trust any industry that’s industry to trust?
Sarah Cooke
Yeah, absolutely. So. Final thoughts, I always allow my guests the final thoughts. What would you like to leave the credit unions audience with today?
David Metz
I’ve worked with credit unions for four years now. It’s been a pleasure to work with them. I’ve we work in many different industries. I’ve never come across an industry that genuinely care about their members slash customers, as credit unions do. So it’s just been a privilege to work in the industry.
Sarah Cooke
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for your time. Appreciate it.
David Metz
Thank you for having me