Thank You Points value has diminished further
September 29, 2006
Periodically I check the rewards offered by my various credit card companies to make sure that I’m not missing out on anything new. I haven’t visited thankyounetwork.com for a while, but I seem to remember that I never redeemed less than 5000 points at a time because you didn’t get a straight dollar-to-point value for denominations of 1500-3000 points. For those amounts you would get a $10 or $15 gift card.
To my chagrin, it appears that the TY network has taken it a step further: most $25 gift cards will cost you 3500 points, and for many $50 gift cards, you must redeem 6000 points! That’s ridiculous! As it is, you have to earn one point per dollar spent if you’re just accumulating points via regular credit card usage.
I hate it when nice juicy bonuses are reduced to a shadow of themselves. I remember my disappointment with Discover when they changed their rewards from doubled rewards to a palty 25% bonus, and I just about stopped using their card because of it. [The $20 Borders gift cards became $25, instead of $40.]
I suppose they make the points much more readily available now by offering a few hundred points per month for Citibank accounts and services holders. Still, I’m not about to sacrifice my Driver’s Edge dollars to convert to points, and I’m enjoying redeeming Chase Flexible Rewards points for cash checks too much to change back to a points-earning card.
I guess I’ll just have to hope that 10,000 points are still worth a $100 gift card when I FINALLY get that many points three years from now!
