CC Reward Points - Are they worth it?

MP2609

Hi All

Wanted to get some others opinion on this, basically do all my spending on my two reward CC's which are Barclaycard Freedom & AMEX.

My question is whether it is really worth it? Would I actually save more money by using my debit card for my regular spend as I don't know whether I am inadvertently spending more on the CC's because I am only thinking of the points?

I have done some research into this and this is some evidence to support this i.e Dave Ramsey

Look forward to your thoughts

phillw

Getting points for your regular spending is worth it, spending to gain points is not generally worth it.

You might be on a scheme with a tiered system where a small amount of spending could trigger a higher reward, but generally you're better off doing things like buying things for family/friends you trust and getting them to give you the money.

MP2609

Hi Phillw

Thanks for your message, I probably didn't word it correctly. What I meant to say is maybe I am spending extra because I am using the CC for things like petrol and groceries and buying a little extra each time because I know I am using a CC and not a debit card?

born_again

Well you could use the CC and match that payment from your bank acc into a savings acc (get a few pence) and then pay it off after statement arrives.

phillw

MP2609 wrote: »

What I meant to say is maybe I am spending extra because I am using the CC for things like petrol and groceries and buying a little extra each time because I know I am using a CC and not a debit card?

I understood, yes it's possible but try not to do it.

Spending on any kind of plastic is disconnected from physical money & you can end up spending more (contactless especially).

Walking round with bundles of cash has other drawbacks though, making yourself more responsible with credit card spending is much better.

Keeping a notebook that you write every purchase into is supposed to be a good way of retraining yourself if you are really struggling with getting carried away with spending.

I'd be surprised if switching to a debit card would solve any issue that you have.

18cc

Some banks to give you rewards for spending on your debit card but they are usually tied to the certain retailers and for a limited time only before they change retailer

if you do go to debit card where you may get more back but you would have to keep monitoring all the changes

MP2609

I think the best thing to do is to record down in the notebook like suggested as well transferring the money across each month to the current account where my DD's come from. I do have they all set the pay in full each month I just wanted to reign in my spending a bit so I can get onto the housing ladder in the near future

ozaz

MP2609 wrote: »

Would I actually save more money by using my debit card for my regular spend as I don't know whether I am inadvertently spending more on the CC's because I am only thinking of the points?

Entirely dependent on the individual I would say.

Some banks (e.g. Monzo/Starling) provide nice tools to give you better visibility/awareness of your debit card spending compared to other banks and credit cards. They could potentially help some people better stick to their budget.

But you could also get similar budgeting and tracking tools by connecting your credit cards to account aggregators (e.g. Emma/Yolt).

IvanDP

We looked into various reward cards to see if they would offer any benefits to us as we travel quite a lot.
After weighing up all the pros and cons, we decided that cashback cards would offer us better value.

If you are chasing points, there is always the danger of overspending, whereas for us at least, we just think of the cashback as a little bonus each month, or year (depending on the card)

Ben8282

The title of your post is 'CC Reward Points - Are they worth it'.

Obviously if you are spending for no other purpose other than to get the reward points that is very foolish.
Equally, if you are spending more because you have available credit on a credit card, then I would suggest that you should not be using a credit card at all, rewards or otherwise.

To address the question asked in the title of the thread, with some reservations I would say yes. You have to consider all the various factors involved here.