Quarters co-founders Romir Joshi, left, and Jonathan Barbaro. The company awards points based on users’ spending activity that can go toward the purchase of a home.EDUARDO LIMA/The Globe and Mail
Rewards programs are generally geared toward travel benefits, retailers or cash back. But in 2024, Romir Joshi founded a reward program that can help you buy a house, and it doesn’t require a credit card to start using it.
Mr. Joshi’s Toronto-based company is called Quarters, and it awards points toward the purchase of a home based on the spending information found in bank accounts and credit statements.
For most consumers, shopping at partnered gas stations, grocery stores, restaurants and retail shops can generally earn between one and five cents back per dollar spent. Users grant access to their accounts through a third-party service.
For users in rural areas without major brands, Quarters automatically switches to a system that provides one cent back per dollar on almost all transactions, regardless of whether the retailer is partnered with Quarters.
Even paying your rent on time can earn you points that could take thousands of dollars off your closing costs.
Quarters is among a wave of new rewards programs that are giving points to consumers based on their spending data across all bank accounts and credit cards, rather than just one payment method. RBC’s Avion rewards and Blue Rewards (formerly known as Air Miles) have also made it possible to earn without a credit card by processing your spending data. The novel aspect to Quarters is that it banks those rewards toward a down payment or realtor commissions, potentially saving consumers thousands of dollars on what will likely be the biggest purchase of their life.
Members who aren’t planning to purchase a home can also use their points toward a damage deposit for their rental unit.
“Our goal is to make housing rewards the next version of loyalty,” Mr. Joshi said.
“If there’s points you can use to take a flight, there should be points you can use to rent or buy a home.”
Landlords can also pay Quarters to offer their tenants more points for every dollar they spend as a way to attract renters, or to reward tenants for paying rent on time and renewing a lease early.
Mr. Joshi says the system is financially feasible because it produces income from retail brands and property managers that want to drive loyalty, and realtors that want to generate referrals. In the case of realtors, Mr. Joshi said the vast majority make only one or zero transactions a year, and they’re willing to honour the rewards because Quarters hands them clients that are already confirmed as financially sound because of their spending data.
“Every other brokerage is fighting for the same user,” said Mr. Joshi, who said brokers are competing especially hard during the current housing downturn.
“So I thought there was an opportunity to use real estate commissions as a new form of reward currency.”
Nazeer Gaffoor, an early user who started collecting rewards 18 months ago, said he redeemed roughly $8,000 in rewards from the program when he bought a home this year. He said he earned many of his points from purchases on things such as Uber Eats, which he used often as a shift worker.
The savings allowed him to make a bigger down payment, and Mr. Gaffoor said he liked how the Quarters app allowed him to activate bonus rewards offers to max his earnings.
Nilima Pathak, a user for two years living in the Toronto-area, said she has accumulated roughly $1,000 in points on everyday purchases on groceries and other household items, and the program has made the idea of buying a home one day feel a little more realistic.
“It’s been extremely hard with the cost of living to put aside money to save for a house,” Ms. Pathak said.
“These were things I was going to buy anyway, so it feels nice to not think about it and get these rewards to eventually hopefully use on a home.”
Calgary-based rewards expert Patrick Sojka says the program is worth a try because it allows you to stack your rewards on top of existing credit-card rewards, and there’s no upfront cost. For example, a Quarters member could use their Aeroplan credit card to order food on Uber Eats to earn both Aeroplan points and Quarters rewards. And because Uber Eats is a partner with both rewards programs, you would get an enhanced return rate twice.
However, Mr. Sojka said consumers should watch to see if Quarters can continue offering good return rates. He said many new rewards programs start strong and offer great returns, but they often have to pare down their benefits as early investment capital dries out and profitability becomes a concern.
Mr. Sojka added that Canada’s lack of an open banking system (a system that allows financial institutions to securely share data with each other) means that some consumers may be unwilling to trust companies such as Quarters to access their banking data through third-party applications.
Quarters is in its early stages of growth. In September, Mr. Joshi said it had roughly 10,000 members with $100-million in transaction data, with another 10 to 15 users joining daily.
The program started by offering rewards at local businesses within the GTA, but is now expanding nationally and working with larger businesses including DoorDash, McDonalds and Booster Juice.
