2010 Reward Points Cashed In?

[cytoglycerine]

Hello All - This is my first post on the Proboards (like anyone knew who I was on MSN anyway lol), and so far, I already like this layout better - especially the fact that there's a little box counting out how many characters I have left before I run out of space...Wasn't that so annoying when you'd post a long post and it'd randomly get cut off?


Anyway, just posting today to see how much everyone got back from their rewards program this year? Hubby and I together redeemed $120 worth of grocery store gift certificates from our Air Miles, and another $325 worth of free gift cards from our CC reward points, for a grand total of $445 for the year. Not too shabby! That's a couple days wages for most people What did you get back?


PS - For anyone who was wondering, or who remembers, no new developments on the cancer issue since my last post over at MSN. Just taking it day by day right now...

[Gardening Grandma]

Glad to hear the good news about the cancer.

We use the Chase Rewards card. We still get the $250 check for $200 in rewards and redeemed that three times this year. It financed our Christmas fund.

[Deleted]

I got $100 from one of my Chase cards and $50 from Discover. I am almost at that level with the Chase and Discover cards again. I also could (but won't) get a $25 gift certificate from my Chase Amazon card. I am holding out for cash.

The most interesting development for me is that Regions has started offering debit card rewards. You have to sign and not swipe, which doesn't bother me. (It does amaze me, though, how little difference there is. Most of the time I don't really have to sign.)

I know that the retailer is paying higher fees, and I guess it causes higher prices. But I am sure most people still use their PIN numbers so we aren't there yet. I can't even get my DH to choose credit over using his PIN.

Anyway, that means that I think a minute or two longer before putting it on my credit card. I hate high bills so most of the time at Walmart I just do credit. It is 1 point for ever $4, but that's fine. It is "free" money since I would have used the debit card anyway.

I have painlessly almost collected enough points for a $25 restaurant gift card. It helps that Regions does relationship points, too, each month.

[thyme4change]

Sadly, we seem to get a hundred dollars every six weeks. The month we went on vacation we got $100 twice - once at the beginning of the billing cycle and once at the end. Yikes! Our card has the option of what you want to do with your rewards, and I took the easiest way - have them credit my bill every time it equals $100. I would probably get more value if I took the gift cards or whatever else they offered, but cash seems to work best for me.

I just changed to a new credit card. I know it also gives cash rewards, but I don't know how to redeem them. I was going to wait until it got sizeable, and then I would feel like I was getting something substantial.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

We used our accrued American Airlines miles to pay for my ticket from California to Florida in November .... which saved us about $750!

We have a cash-back credit card and just put the cash back (accrued each month) right back into paying for the credit card balance ~ paid in full each month.

[dancinmama]

$550 from Chase
DH used some FF miles to purchase an I-Touch (all miles earned were company travel)
$50 from American Express

I paid no fees and no interest.

[cytoglycerine]

I took the easiest way - have them credit my bill every time it equals $100. I would probably get more value if I took the gift cards or whatever else they offered, but cash seems to work best for me.

We use the gift cards to give to friends & family at Christmastime, so it cuts down on our out-of-pocket expenses for presents. Although, if I had the option of getting a $100 credit to my bill, I'd probably choose that!

I paid no fees and no interest.

But of course! This IS YM


....I hope I did the quote thing right...interesting to see this place uses HTML tags...

[stillontheroad]

I think we redeemed $100 from one of my Chase cards and $100 from the other (though those points were accumulated starting in I think 2009, so not all were earned in 2010). I think that's all the CC rewards we redeemed, but I know we're getting close to redeeming some on our other cards. I couldn't say the total we earned in 2010, but I would guess it was around $250-300.

We also redeemed Marriott points that I got entirely through work travel for a free night as part of our honeymoon, so that saved us another $120 if you count the stated value of the room (we probably wouldn't have paid that much out of pocket, though, since it was just a stopover on the way to our main destination).

[TrixAre4Kids]

I redeemed FF miles for 1st class domestic airfare

[mrsgords]

We got one $500 check and $200 in gift cards, which we gave as Christmas presents. We paid no fees and no interest. We charge everything we can.

[Deleted]

$100 from FIA services added to our 529 for my DF's PhD program expenses and $100 in gift cards to CVS from discover to fund our grocery game both for last year.

[kansasflower]

Got $500 plus $150 in gift cards from Discover and $50 from Chase in December. I did not pay an fees or interest on either card, but it did take a couple of years to earn the Discover card rewards. This "free" money allowed us to get better than normal gifts for friends and family without having to spend one dollar out of our regular budget

[phil5185]

This "free" money allowed us to get better than normal gifts for friends and family without having to spend one dollar out of our regular budget

A perfect example of the difference between 'earned' money and 'found' money. LOL
And that is the reason why people should avoid getting income tax refunds.

[Deleted]

I'm not sure this is the same thing, but several people mentioned FF miles. My new DH moved here from Arizona, and whatever airline he had tons of miles with doesn't fly out of Bham. So he got us a cool hdtv for the basement. I'm not sure cash was an option. Anyway, it's the nicest of the (four) hdtv's in our house. The rest are all Vizios, which are fine and which were bought from Costco. This is a Toshiba.

I know . . . why does anyone need four hdtvs? Well, we need to be able to watch it in the living room (him and company), bedroom (me when I don't want to watch football), sunroom (when it's pretty), and basement (when it's not).

My daughter thinks this is too funny since I never owned more than one tv in my life when she was growing up.

[Deleted]

We're realy into rewards programs. Last year we redeemed most of the points in DH's AA account for a Business Class trip to Madrid this May. Since we paid for my ticket, I know that was worth $3,300. Good thing I rescued his miles from expiration earlier in the year by buying a $15 iTunes gift card.

[hawkeyes2001]

$425 in Discover cash back.

[hawkeyes2001]

$425 in Discover cash back.

[Deleted]

Oh, my Regions card (which I use once a year to keep open) just sent me an offer that if I would charge $250 by March, I would get a $50 statement credit. I decided to do it and spent $150 online with Costco on the garage flooring we needed to finish my DH's latest project.

Surely I can find SOMETHING to spend $100 on in the next six weeks . . .

[zibazinski]

$500 in Discover cash back.

[yhw]

Well we collect rewards for our Chase card for our business, with 5 people using the cards on a daily basis.. so quite a bit (maybe $2.5K). For just our personal stuff, we use Discover, and it's only around $200. Now I'm curious, and should look this up.. Good question.