Money Mailbox is a new series here at Money Ning that talks about different money related mail that comes through my mailbox. As we get a ton of junk mail every day, this should spark some interesting posts so stay tuned!
Recently, I got a reward statement from a Visa card that I no longer use. It has 3,837 points left and it encouraged me to keep using my card because of the endless reward points. My first reaction was that I really needed to use the card because if I can get it up to 5,000 points, I can probably redeem a $50 gift card. But as I thought it through, I remember that the reason why I don’t use this Visa card and switched to my Citibank Premiere Mastercard is because of its more generous reward structure. (The details are pretty complicated but overall I end up getting about 2% back).
Another thing that it prompted me to do was to find how many of these reward point accounts I have, which are listed below.
Credit Cards
Thank You Network
Wells Fargo Rewards Program
Frequent Flyer
Air Canada Aeroplan
Delta Skymiles
United Mileage Plus
AA Advantage
China Airlines Dynasty Flyer
Hotel Chains and Car Rental Rewards
Marriot Reward Points
Hertz #1 Awards
Hilton HHonors
Priority Club
With all these rewards, I could literally retire right? Actually, it might’ve been possible if I consolidated the reward points because my points are so scattered at the moment. If you don’t want to be like me and have a ton of points everywhere (in reality nowhere), then check out some ways below to avoid this.
Points.com
With this website, you can actually store all your card information and transfer points between different programs. It is quite costly to transfer but at least now there is a way to do it if necessary. I use this website to at least keep track of all the account numbers that I have with the various programs.
Try To Stick to One Program
It is very easy to book a hotel in a different chain on every stay and a different airline each time you fly. It is even easier to use a different credit card for each purchase but none of these activities are beneficial since higher point redemptions give us better value per point.
In order to get the most out of the reward programs, try to stick to one hotel chain, one airline and one credit card for your purchases! I know this sounds restrictive, but it is actually not that hard. Hotel chains usually have many different hotel brands that use the same reward system. Airlines provide partner airlines where the same frequent flyer card can be used, and most merchants accept the 3 major (American Express, Mastercard and Visa) brands of credit cards.
While we are on the subject, here are a couple more thoughts on reward points
Accumulate and Use Points Regularly
I know so many people that just keep accumulating points but almost never use them. It is wise to take the offer when a good valued item can be redeemed because you might forget the points before they are expired.
Redeem for Value and Not What You Like
Most people redeem points for items that they like instead of what gives them the most value. For reward points, high value give cards usually give a pretty good value. Never should you redeem the products in reward networks because those are always one of the worst deals you can find within the rewards network. If you really want that iPod, get a best buy gift card and go buy it yourself!
This is quite a bit of work for a single mail and hopefully not every mail prompts me to do so many things! Let me know what you think of this series and article by leaving a comment below! I look forward to discussing with you.
Promote or Save This Article
If you like this article, please consider bookmarking or helping us promote it!
Print Post | Email Post | Del.icio.us | Stumble it! | Reddit |
Related Posts
- Best of Personal Finance with Money Ning in June 2008
- Look Me Up Under Loyalty Card Collectors
- What Helps Me Give Away Free Gas Gift Cards
- Credit vs Debit Transactions with Your ATM Card
- A New Credit Card in the Mail
Subscribe! (and Get a Mini-Course with Free Registration)
Follow me on twitter! In addition, subscribe to grab free amazing content or take advantage of the newsletter to have content delivered to you. For starters, a 7-part mini course to help you spend less and be happy will be delivered to you when you subscribe!(Don't worry about spam, because we hate it as much as you do!)
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m curious as to your opinion on this: We pay for almost everything on our debit card and use the credit card only for extreme emergencies, purchases for more than the debit card will allow, or purchases when we have any doubt that there might be some issue with the purchase (such as from an unknown Internet store).
I’ve had a couple of folks respond to me as if I’m the stupidest person on the planet for not paying for all of these things with some kind of rewards card, but we are totally free of credit card debt (after being told 9 years ago that I had no choice but to declare bankruptcy because of my level of CC debt, but I didn’t and paid it off instead) and I plan to keep it that way.
What’s your opinion? Are the points worth the risk of letting debt accumulate?
Leslie: Your situation is very common so no worries and I congratulate you to have the discipline to only use debit cards. What you have to consider is this.
By using credit cards, you are giving up about 1% of all purchases + interest incurred for as long as 1 month because you don’t have to pay for credit card bills until potentially one month later.
So to keep the math simple, it might be 1.5% that you are giving up by using debit cards only (this number is very rough as many factors would make this number different).
On the other hand, you’ve found a way to keep yourself debt free. I use credit cards, but I know I have the discipline to pay it off every single month. You need to see whether you can stop the temptations to spend more than you have and ultimately get yourself back into debt which is the MOST important part of all this. You don’t want to let a potential 1.5% gain make you lose 20% in credit card interests later.
If you want to try it though, may I suggest that you start with one day of the week where you use your credit card instead of debit cards? I would try one weekday of the week (maybe Monday) and start slowly easing in. If in a couple months, you aren’t spending more than you did, maybe add another day. However, you are ultimately responsible for your debt (or lack of) so remember that discipline is key!!
If you end up deciding that debit cards only is the way to go. That is GOOD. Don’t ever let your friends tell you otherwise because you will be the one smiling about your decision in retirement.
Good luck!
Leslie,
We also rarely use our credit cards for the same reason. We learned that we didn’t have the discipline. As David suggested, if you are going to try it, ease into it.
I would suggest that after you use the credit card go home immediately and make a payment for what you spent.
Top CD Rates: That’s also a great idea by immediately making the payment instead of waiting for the bill to come.
You mentioned that you didn’t have the discipline to use credit cards, so is immediately paying how you do it currently to get the best of both worlds?
Lucky me:) I got lots of credit card but i only use one because im thinking of getting the reward:)
I use the one credit card as I look forward to get my points and save money