The basis of any rewards programme is the conversion of the points and what they can be redeemed for. Chennai-based Navin Sequeira hasn’t found the redemption choices very interesting. “Gifts such as household items or pens and such are hardly enticing. A wider variety of items such as electronics, instead, would be far more interesting” says Navin.

Totalling up the points required is not a problem for him, since he swipes his card for most purchases.

Plus, though he uses four credit cards from different banks, the poor reward programmes of a couple of cards as well as bad experiences with the redemption process put him off trying out the others' programmes.

And that’s not all. He also thinks that card companies could be a lot more communicative. “For instance, it can get hard to remember when reward points will lapse. A notification of sorts before the lapse would go a long way,” he explains. “Banks are also not forthcoming with their charges on redemptions either,” he rues. The second factor is that conversion of points into rupees may not amount to much. That’s the biggest bugbear, especially with store-based loyalty programmes, says Yamini Vasudevan. “Points earned on store loyalty programmes also have several strings attached, such as a minimum bill amount before claims, a joining fee and a quicker expiry period than with credit cards,” laments Yamini.

Also read: Making use of loyalty programmes

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