For those of us who play the rewards game — collecting miles and points from airlines and card companies and others — our earned perks have real economic value. So much so that years ago, Yodlee, which provides the guts for many online banking and brokerage Web sites, started allowing people to update their frequent flier balances automatically right alongside their investment portfolios.
To protect these earnings, however, you need to keep up with the rules of your various programs. Here are four reasons why:
1) The rules may change.
Programs tweak the fine print almost every year, though the story of the old Chase 5 percent cash rebate card illustrates how big the changes can be. As we mentioned in a Bucks post not long ago, Chase took away the once rich rebate only to restore it later in an arguably more limited form.
2) Partners may be added (or taken away).
If you’re earning points in, say, American Express’s Membership Rewards program, where can you redeem them? Those of us banking the points who live near New York City rejoiced several years back when it became possible to redeem them for JetBlue points.
3) Your points may expire.
Airlines have become a lot more strict in this area in recent years. To be safe, just assume you need to earn some miles somehow each year in every account to keep the account active and keep miles from expiring.
4) Remember the orphans.
Are there small piles of points lingering in accounts that you don’t add to very often? Cash them in before they expire. You can trade frequent flier miles, for instance, for magazine subscriptions.
Свежие комментарии