Credit Card Rewards Are Rip-Offs

We've used Citi rewards without a problem for many years (used points to get an ipod, patio set, camera all with gift cards) and now get money deposited into our son's college fund through fidelity.

With all the offers out there, it seems like it should be easy to drop a card and find another that works better for you.

Of course, we don't shop rates at all as we try not to carry a balance. If we weren't in that scenario, then the rewards would come in second place to the rate.

From experience with these cards most of the rewards programs are most valuable if you save up points to a certain number and exchange them for cash.

Almost all of the gadgets or travel incentives cost less than the cash you can get from the card.

The only real 'deals' that I've seen are with getting 'bonus' points for purchasing certain items. In that case if you were already going to purchase something and it doesn't cost any extra you can get a minor discount by accumulating more points.

I use the citi rewards card as well and have never had a problem. It is not complicated at all. It sucks that it takes more points to earn $50 than it does to get a $50 gift card for somewhere but I usually order the cards and sell them. Ive also had a frequent flyer miles reward card and never had any issues.

I just pay my credit card off at the end of each month, so I never pay any interest anyway. I don't buy it if I can't pay cash. And my card gives me as much as 3% back on thing like gas or restaurants.

My statement clearly says when the rewards expire in a couple years. Don't see what the problem is on this.

I get Citi rewards too, and on another card I get LLBean $10 coupons -- never had a problem with either.

Sure, credit card rewards are rip-offs if they're bad rewards, but it's not that hard to avoid those.

If you pay your credit card off at the end of every month (you ARE paying it off every month, right?) then the interest rate doesn't matter. And with something like Discover it's trivial to check how many points you've accumulated and either cash out to a gift card or just cash on your statement.

Anyone who doesn't take advantage of rewards is missing out.

I dunno... Maybe the airlines miles are a pain to redeem, but I've had good luck with some other schemes. Back when I worked for General Motors and was expected to buy GM cars, I also had a GM card on which I accumulated over $3000 in cash towards the purchase of a car. It wasn't any trouble redeeming it and I had non-GM friends who did the same thing.

I've got a Discover card now that also gives (a small percentage) cash back. I pay the card off every month and never carry a balance, so it's a $100 or so every year back. No trouble redeeming that, either.

My family has only had good experiences with mileage cards. My parents travel internationally at least once a year and nearly always do so on flight miles (they rack up fast with my tuition, double-miles on gas and household items, and the miles we earn from the flights in the first place). We never carry balances on the card, so we're not paying any interest in order to get these benefits either.

Howdy,

I have a Cabela's VISA and I accumulate credits for purchases at Cabela's on all of my credit card charges. The credits accumulate automatically and are shown on-line when every time I go to Cabela's web site. They allow you to use your credits on ANY purchase and they allow the use of credits for all shipping and handling charges! This is a GREAT deal for me and could not be easier to use.

This is obviously not a universal truth. My boss has flown to literally every continent except Antarctica on miles from his credit card, and has never had a problem.

We had a Visa card through our credit union for years that had a really lame bonus program; we spent over $20,000 on the thing (over several years) before we were eligible for a gift, and all we got was a $300 camera. It was a no fee account that we paid off every month, so it was no big deal.

Late last year we opened a new Visa account through our mortgage lender (Countrywide) that gives us $50 towards our mortgage principal for every $2,500 we spend, with no fees. We've been putting most everything on that card and paying it off every month; we figure we can knock at least an extra payment off the principal every year. Not to mention the added bonus with paying less interest in the end.

Not for everyone, but it works well for us.

I use the citi card points. All my DVDs came from accumulated points, but I think I'll just get the cash next time I trade them in. Never had a problem so far.

Discover gives 1% cash back... what's complicated about that? I usually just apply it to my balance to save about $150 on one month's payoff (I never keep a balance month to month), though this year I did a cash-back * 1.25 reward to LL Bean. They sent me several 50 dollar gift cards, that were easy to enter into the website. I got 7 shirts and a cat blanket that's become my cat's favorite sleeping spot at night. AND LL Bean send me another $10 gift card for "spending" so much at their store.

Of course, if you're talking redeeming them for frequent flyer miles--it's the miles programs that are insanely complicated. Redeem them for something simple and you'll be happier.

We've had a Costco American Express card for several years now. I get a nice check for cash at the end of the year from American Express and a smaller one from Costco.
We pay the card off every month so we don't pay any interest charges. It's a good deal for us.
We also have an REI Visa card with reward points and have never had a problem using them.

I liked my Toys R Us card because the kickback is very clear cut. 1% in TRU store credit, in the form of $10 gift cards. (4% for spending within TRU itself.) This worked fine when I was buying lots of video game stuff but more recently the backlog of games has gotten so large it could be years before I get around to any new purchases.

So I'll shift to a card with similar terms sometime soon. The Ralphs supermarket chain has a card that might fit my requirements and it isn't as if I'm ever going to not need groceries.

I'm looking at getting a Wachovia checking account. Their ads say they deposit $1 for every transaction into a savings account. Seems like that could add up quick. Anyone know what the catch is on that? Minimum purchase amount?

the real rip off is that stores increases prices to pay for transaction costs on credit cards purchases so that people who don't use cards end up paying the cash back and other rewards for people who use the cards

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I bought 2 gift cards for my daughter and her husband for Christmas. They waited to use the cards because they wanted to add additional cash for a larger purchase. When they finally went to buy the item they were told the cards were no longer the amount shown on the face. They went to the website and found that after six months they were deducting two dollars and ninety five cents every month. Companies are using our money and charging us for that privilege. They should be paying us for using our money. I consider this a rip off. Needless to say from now on I am warning gift recipients use it within six months or watch it dwindle down to nothing.

Well, Wells Fargo just turned its Reward Program into a ripoff operation. Just got my June 2009 credit card statement and it announced that 2,843 points had expired last month and that 510 more would expire this month. But there was nothing on my last month's bill about points expiring. Now, I knew that I been repeatedly told that I had some points expiring December 2009, and planned to redeem those before then, but Wells Fargo saw an opportunity to steal back some promised benefits. Turns out they snuck some small print into the April bill about changing the expiration from 5 years to 60 months, and rather than wait until points would expire anyway decided to schedule it for mid-year. And the bank didn't think it necessary to point out that this meant points would be expiring sooner than it had previously said. Full page ads in the bill urging me to earn points, but nothing about the upcoming loss of six months worth of points until after they'd cancelled them. Thank you, Wells Fargo!