CommBank offered to convert my Awards points into cash, with a 10% bonus. It’s 96,000 points, normally worth $480, but with the bonus it’s $529. So it’s 181 points to the dollar (normally 200 points to the dollar).
In comparison, one of their Rewards is an Xbox 360 Kinect 4GB Console Bundle. This is 90,000 points, and according to a quick search of Lasoo, retails for around $399, so that’s 225 points to the dollar.
They also have gift cards for major chains, costing between 78,000 and 82,800 points for $500 (156 to 165 points per dollar).
So in fact the best option might be to do the gift card thing, and aim it at a purchase which is likely to be on sale.
Whatever I choose, I need to keep remembering that those 96,000 points were earnt by spending 96,000 dollars on my Mastercard. Aye carumba.
6 replies on “Converting points to cash”
Your card is probably roughly equal to some others.
With our ANZ Rewards card, roughly $200 spent gives you $1 cash-back. The card costs $70 per year. Just by paying the school fees on the Visa (no discount for paying cash), I get $200 cash back the next month, so it pays for itself.
BTW It is always better to try to get discount by paying cash, rather than using the card.
Yeah I just bought a coffee grinder for $39,200 I guess.
Do you pay for your card fee using points?
I don’t want to appear cynical but all the reward points / fly buys / loyalty cards are a ploy by business to gather information about, you spending habits, your demographic, where you buy, what you buy and with all the personal information you provide when applying for the card. It’s passed on or sold to whoever wants it (read the fine print on the application). I would prefer my privacy than a small return in exchange.
Retailers will say that all this information allows them to better tailor services that suit you, really it’s just about pushing up consumption of things you didn’t even know you wanted.
You could have withdrawn that $96,000 from a CBA ATM yesterday and really maximised your returns!
Yikes, what a stuff-up that was!
I always get the MasterCard prepaid gift card. I normally get a $200 every year. For me that seems the best value.