While We're on Irks - The New Tidal Wave of Worthless Rewards Programs

Since we're on irks about other related things (privacy, social networking promotional offers), I've noticed something else in the last year that has really picked up - worthless rewards programs on things I already have that weren't rewards program items to begin with - two that come to mind for me are verizon and BOA mastercard.

I have a real rewards credit card (paypal) that I can just go to the website and get real money for the points on it (about 1% of purchases).

Junky "rewards" program #1 - About 6 months ago, I started getting emails from BOA that my rewards were about to expire, which was odd, because it's not a rewards card. So I clicked on their link and went to the page, and the rewards are things like cash back of 10% on eating at PF changs, or 10% off some other overpriced brand name thing, or internet service or club. None of them were any rewards at all, they were minor discounts on high margin overpriced things or services that a practically made up entirely of margin, anyway. meaning, they are things I wouldn't buy in the first place and at 80%-90% of their original price, they still stink rotten.

Being used to the paypal card, silly me, I expected that some accumulation of points started and I could spend them on something worthwhile or get money. Instead, my "rewards" require me to spend more money just to get the reward. I've never registered to see if I have to accept terms to some garbage spamming service or anything.

Junky "rewards" program #2 - the last couple of months, I've been getting garbage emails from verizon that tell me I have some large accumulation of rewards points. Again, I didn't know there were any rewards attached to the cell phone, and assumed that maybe I'd just be able to get a free phone get cash back or something. yesterday, I got another email telling me that some of the rewards would expire, so I attempted to see what they actually were. The problem is that the description of what they may be is totally evasive, and in the fine print, to get the "rewards" I have to sign up for some service that gives me targeted ads. But verizon doesn't specify what the rewards are or what my points are worth, so why would I sign up? I googled to find information about their "rewards" program, and sure enough, the articles written about it say that you don't actually get credit toward bill reduction or anything for past bills paid, you get signed up to targeted advertising.

In both of these cases, the "rewards" don't appear to be anything similar to rewards, but rather a commission generating service where you buy something overpriced for still an overpriced amount, and the companies probably get some slice of it. So the only person being rewarded is them, and you get the benefit of being spammed.

Lastly, yesterday afternoon, I got an email spam from taunton, who I parted ways with long ago, saying that I'd been subscribed to a bunch of their "web offer" services. Taunton decided that though I'm not a customer, they could change my account so that I'd get all of the advertising offers they spam people with, third party, or whatever. And their unsubscribe doesn't allow you to just "unsubscribe", you have to go to their page and unselect individual things you didn't select in the first place, and on the last checkbox, I got some sort of server error from them, so I couldn't even get rid of all of it.

I'm getting sick of the spam from places where I am or have been an actual paying customer, especially when it either lies and says I signed up or is deceptive in its naming!

Yeah - I have to agree the promotions are real cloudy anymore.
Wading through all the chaff to get to the wheat is a full time job!

I have a real rewards credit card too. For me the definition of rewards is a cash payment.

Looks like in marketing now the term "rewards" is like the term "natural". It means nothing until you read the fine print or the ingredient list.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Andrew Joiner

I have a real rewards credit card too. For me the definition of rewards is a cash payment.

---

I have one credit card that gives 2% back on all transactions. The 2% can be redeemed for gift cards to 100+ different places. I can redeem for cash too, but you only get 50% of the value if you want cash back. I have no problem with gift cards as they have them for places I would spend money anyhow.

My Costco AMEX has two cash "rewards" (I prefer to think of them as "refunds"): one from Costco shopping and one for everything else. I get back $500-700/year from the two. Works.

I hope the genuine rewards cards stay as such. I only have the paypal card by chance, because of refusal to link a bank account to paypal.

I was reading some of the comments about the "rewards" from verizon articles earlier today and there are gobs of comments like "the price for rewards item after the reward is applied is still higher than the cost to get it through amazon!!" :confused: And "I work at verizon and we get a commission for signing people up for rewards"

It's pretty clear that most of the non-rewards types of places (verizon hasn't really ever given anything away, they're the most expensive so why would they buck their own trend) are looking for additional sources of revenue.

In another month or two, we'll no longer be a verizon customer, though, so that'll solve that problem.

One of the American Express cards gives 2% back on every single purchase with no restrictions. They give it back to you as a credit on your statement once a year. With a wife and 4 grown kids on the account, my credit usually runs around $2000 a year.

What irks me is similar to a rewards program and that is the proliferation on programs that require a card to get a sale price. The two around me are Randall's, a division of Safeway, and Walgreens. If you want the sale price for an item you have to have a card linked to personal info. Companies that want to develop customer loyalty should focus on two things, fast friendly service and reasonable prices and quit all the gimmicks.

Around here, the goofy ones are the # of cents off a gallon of gas if you shop at certain grocery stores. Generally, those grocery stores cost a lot to shop at compared to discount shopping or sams club, and the savings in the gas is a fraction of the amount that could be saved if groceries were just bought elsewhere. It's something like 2% of purchases here, but the grocery stores that have it are about 15% more expensive than shopping elsewhere.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Chris Padilla

My Costco AMEX has two cash "rewards" (I prefer to think of them as "refunds"): one from Costco shopping and one for everything else. I get back $500-700/year from the two. Works.

---

Same here. Wife is a penny pincher (OK with me) and got us AMEX cards. She gets back some pretty good sized checks in the mail.

I have a couple of "cash back" cards and they give me a statement credit once a year.

My pet peeve is the "reward cards" that are sometimes offered for certain things. For example, ATT gave me a $10 reward card on the anniversary of my service with them. The problem with those cards is that you can't use them at restaurants or at the gas pump. For the restaurants, the card company "authorizes" more money than the bill, on the expectation that you're going to leave a tip. So if you have a $10 card and try to use it for $10 of your restaurant bill, it won't clear. You have to find some company who will agree to charge $10 of your purchase to that card and the rest to another card. Pain in the tush. So "reward cards" don't motivate me very much.

Mike

[And BTW, if any of you are veterans, try the USAA card, especially the MasterCard (they also offer Visa). I have always found USAA to be extremely honest, and very customer service oriented. They also have pretty good security procedures.]