Being Rewarded

Posted by gtong on December 7th, 2009

financial

Who doesn’t like rewards? But when do the rewards end up as extra weight or, even worse, taking your money? There are some considerations you should take when you sign up for any reward program. So before you fill anything out for rewards, ask yourself:

What are you signing up for? You could be signing up for a lot of hassle when going into certain reward programs. Make sure there are no hidden fees. Some companies will use this information to load up your mailbox with junk mail or spam, which will take time and effort to sift through. You should also be careful your information will not be sold to a third party.

How often are you going to be using the program? If you don’t really come in the store often, the card is just going to become dead weight in your wallet. If there is an annual or monthly fee for the rewards program, you could be losing money without getting any of these rewards.

How do you get points? Are they automatic or is there a code to redeem on receipts? You might have to invest extra time into the rewards program just to get points. If the points are difficult to earn, the program may not be good for the average consumer.

Are the points easy to redeem? With programs like frequent flyer miles, you have blackout dates and other restrictions making it hard to get your free plane ticket. Some rewards are easy to get, as they will automatically be sent to you as soon as you reach a certain point value.

Are the rewards worth it? You should only sign up when the reward is something valuable to you. Some programs will allow you to choose from a catalog while others have preselected rewards for you. Be sure to consider any purchasing decisions that come with the reward. If you get a coupon for $20 off a $100 purchase, are you going to be coerced to spend $100 when regularly you would only spend $40?

You’ll see people that are reward fanatics and will have all their cards on a big loop or people that absolutely hate them and won’t have a single one. Reward programs will reward you as long as they make sense to you. Ask yourself these questions when you are about to sign up for a rewards program. If everything sounds good to you, you can get some good deals and good rewards!

What are good reward programs that you know of?