This morning I got an email from my credit card company reminding me that I had some reward points that were going to expire at the end of the month. A significantly amount of reward points. I hopped onto the rewards website on a whim to see how much of a discount the points could provide for the trip to Los Angeles that CootieBoy and I are taking in February 2015 for the Doctor Who convention.
Alas, the answer was "none" – the airfare price listed after it applied the points was the same price I’d pay for the ticket outright using Travelocity or Orbitz! Ridiculous.
But I didn’t give up hope – I went into the other rewards redemption categories offered and snapped up more than a few gift cards.
In the end, I got six gifts cards (three for each kid), totaling $200, and I didn’t even use all my points. Not bad!
I remember when I worked at the investment bank in NYC our IT guy would buy tons of equipment and charge his personal card, but not get rewards for the serious bucks he was spending (that was all reimbursed by the company). My co-worker, Mare-Bear, told him he was crazy not to use a rewards card. Well, he ended up switching and quickly racked up some serious rewards – if I recall correctly, I think within a year or two he and his wife were able to travel abroad first-class for free.
Do you use your reward points that you earn, or do you not even bother with them?
Absolutely! I use my American Express card to pay for everything, groceries, cable bill, gas, cell phone bill, car & homeowners insurance, you name it I auto pay it with my Amex. It gets paid off entirely every month and I get 1 point for every dollar spent. Not to mention the ease of just having every bill paid automatically every month and I pay 1 bill a month instead of numerous bills. At the end of the year I cash in all of my points for hundreds of dollars worth of gift cards. Love. It!
Jennifer – that’s great. I have a former co-worker who does the same thing. I just never thought about it. I don’t know that I’ll do the “pay for everything” trick, but the points certainly paid off this year!