Credit Card Rewards are a Complete Joke

I’ve often read about people taking advantage of these “rewards” that their credit cards offer and how wonderful they can be, but I’d never actually taken advantage of one.

Having charged over $2k on my Citi Rewards card — my only card with rewards — during vacation a few weeks ago, I see that my statement has been handsomely rewarded with a sizable number of “ThankYou” points.

So I went over to see what kind of rewards my “ThankYou” points could get me.

Turns out, not much.

Let’s see… A cash-back check for $50 would cost me 8000 ThankYou points…

Now I know that a few of my purchases earned double and sometimes even triple the ThankYou points, but technically, the big reward is a mere $50 for spending $8000 dollars.

Think about that.

What it really says is, “Spend $8k with us and we’ll give you $50 back!”

Frankly, I’m insulted.

But, wait, there’s more! Spend $16k and they’ll throw you a Benjamin! Wow, such a deal.

Really… that works out to just five-eighths of a percent back.

Not much to get excited about, huh?

So, since I’ve only spent a few thousand dollars (over $5k), the only thing I really qualify for is a subscription to an assortment of magazines that I don’t really want anyway. They’re also magazines that I could get for free countless other places too…

Gee, thanks… That’s an awesome reward.